Daily Bulletin, Monday, May 9, 1994

ECLIPSE TOMORROW:  If the drizzle lets up in the next 24 hours, tomorrow
will bring a strange sight to the heavens above southern Ontario: a rare
annular eclipse of the sun, with the sun partly covered by the moon's 
shadow from 11:39 a.m. to 3:05 p.m., and a spectacular ring of fire around
the shadow for a little more than two minutes starting at 1:20 p.m.
It'll be beautiful, but there's danger, as a memo from UW safety director
Kevin Stewart notes:

"Staring directly at the sun may scar the retina and/or burn the optic nerve,
which can result in permanent and irreversible blindness.  There is no pain
associated with the burning of the optic nerve; therefore people, especially
children who may be tempted to look direclty at the eclipse, can be completely 
unaware of the damage they are causing themselves.  Parents and caregivers
in particular should be aware of the danger so they can better protect
children.  Canadians are advised to watch the eclipse on television
and to teach their children never to look directly at the sun."

CBC Newsworld television coverage of the eclipse will be piped into Davis
Centre room 1351, for anyone who wants to watch.  The "colour commentator"
on Newsworld will be Ralph Chou of UW's school of optometry, a long-time
amateur astronomer and self-styled "eclipse chaser".

Graduate students in UW's physics department will be using the Physics
building telescope, and images from the University of Guelph telescope will
be piped into the "link" classroom, Chemistry 2 room 079.  Physics
professor Pim Fitzgerald will be an expert commentator on Rogers Cable
(channel 20) coverage of the eclipse, starting at about 12:30 p.m.

THE WRITING LIFE:  Michael Higgins of St. Jerome's College speaks at noon
today (Theatre of the Arts) about "Monks, Monsters and Manuscripts:
Reflections on the Writing Life".  He's sponsored by the Friends of the
Library organization, which promises "an entertaining 30-40 minutes
reflecting on his experiences as an author and scriptwriter, including
his adventures and misadventures in libraries.  UW president James Downey,
the featured speaker at last year's Friends lecture, will provide the 
introductory remarks.  All faculty, staff, students and community members
are welcome to attend."  The lecture highlights a display of books by
UW writers, seen in both Davis and Dana Porter Libraries this month.

ALSO TODAY:  A "Coming Out Discussion Group" sponsored by the Gay and
Lesbian Liberation of Waterloo will hold an organizational meeting this
evening -- Modern Languages room 104, 7:30 p.m.  "People who are just 'coming
out' are particularly encouraged to attend," organizers say.  The phone
number for information about GLLOW is 884-4569.

BUILDING ADDITIONS:  Modest additions to the Optometry building and Burt
Matthews Hall are being proposed under the federal-provincial 
"infrastructure" job-creation program.  The provost, Jim Kalbfleisch,
reminded last week's meeting of department heads that the governments will
provide about $3 million for UW if the university kicks in $1.5 million,
presumably from private sector fund raising.  He said officials have 
decided that they'd like to spend about $600,000 of the total on bringing
the Village residences up to modern fire safety standards, with the rest
being divided about equally between building new space for the optometry
school and giving applied health sciences additional space in BMH.

Dennis Huber, director of business services in the plant operations
department, is busy this week getting proposals ready to send to the
federal-provincial committee that has to give its okay before the projects
are definite.  He said it could be six to eight weeks before the committee
gives its answer.

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