Daily Bulletin, Wednesday, June 1, 1994

PARTY INDOORS:  The Community Campaign picnic, set for noon today, will be
held indoors, at Federation Hall.  It's not actually raining at the moment,
but that's a chilly ominous wind blowing across the outdoor site, the
Davis Centre quadrangle.  Pauline Cornelius of the development office 
reported the decision before 8 a.m. today, and is up at Fed Hall right now
getting things ready for the party.

Look for cake, hot dogs (for a token charge), music, a few morale-building
words about Campaign Waterloo, and a chance to rub shoulders with staff,
faculty and retirees who are celebrating the $2.6 million already raised
in their segment of the UW fund-raising campaign.  The picnic runs from
12 noon to 1:30.

POWER DOWN:  The power failure that hit Kitchener-Waterloo about 2 p.m.
yesterday lasted only a few seconds, but the effects are still being felt.
"It screwed up our whole energy management system," says Bill Taylor,
foreman of the controls shop in plant operations.  "We still have a few
things down."  The "system" in question is a network of more than 100
computerized boxes that control heating, cooling, fans and other equipment
in UW's buildings.  Taylor said his crew worked overtime until about 10
last night, getting things restarted and reconnected, and are hard at it
again today.  "That's why I'm losing my hair," he chuckled, although some
colleagues question how much hair he has left to lose.

Doug Payne of computing services reports that there was "little,
if any, physical damage to computer equipment, that I know of, and most
of the machines for which I'm responsible were back up quite quickly.
As with all such failures, there will be some longer-lasting effects,
but nothing serious.  But it *does* seem to bring all the DCS systems
people together at the same time, out in the Red Room, making sure
everything comes back up.  One thing to note -- we are protecting more
and more of our equipment with battery-backup UPSes (Uninterruptible
Power Supplies), which can provide power during short failures like the
one today.  They proved their worth today, keeping some important Unix
machines and most networking equipment running without a hitch."

PAY FOR GRAD STUDENTS:  Rates paid to graduate students as teaching
assistants will be frozen at 1993-94 levels for the coming year, the provost
has announced.  He makes the announcement in a budget letter sent to the
board of governors in preparation for its meeting next week.

"There will be an increase of $136,000 in the Graduate Scholarship Fund,"
says the letter from provost Jim Kalbfleisch, "of which approximately
$20,000 will be used for hardship cases arising from significant increases
in tuition fees and the elimination of OHIP coverage for visa students."

The freeze and the scholarship fund increase were both recommended to the
provost by the Graduate Student Support Advisory Committee, made up of
three grad students and three faculty members, and chaired by the associate
provost (academic affairs).  The committee's report notes that the graduate 
student members "wish to indicate an ongoing concern that graduate support 
budgets in the Faculties not be singled out for more than their proportionate 
share of budget cuts".

VIDEO TODAY:  "Birth of the Computer" is the title of a video to be shown
at 11:30 today in Davis Centre room 1302.  It's the first of five videos
in the series "The Computer Revolution", to be shown on Wednesdays with joint
sponsorship from the Institute for Computer Research and the Centre for
Society, Technology and Values.

CANADA'S BIRTHDAY:  A month from today is Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day,
not just a national holiday but the occasion for the biggest on-campus
party of the year.  It brings some 50,000 people to the north campus for
music and activities in the afternoon and fireworks in the evening, all
sponsored by the Kitchener-Waterloo Canada Day Council, which has UW and
the Federation of Students behind it.  Watch for information as the day
grows closer.  

Curtis Desjardins of the Federation, co-chair of the organizing council,
is looking for some 250 volunteers on July 1 (and perhaps forty volunteers
on the day before and the day after) to help with everything from concessions
to the parade.  Free T-shirts and good times are promised.  He can be
reached at ext. 6329; also eager to hear from volunteers is Kate Maude at
747-2542, or interested folks can drop by the Federation office in Campus
Centre room 235.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
888-4567 ext. 3004      credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca