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Thursday, July 27, 1995

The open-air pub is today

I announced the Bombshelter's big event a day early in yesterday's Bulletin. The end-of-term open-air pub is actually taking place today, starting at noon. So, to repeat most of what I said yesterday:
"The day is going to be a huge amount of fun," says Trish Mumby, publicity pinwheel for the Federation of Students. "They are licensing the entire yard area (around the volleyball courts), having tons of great prizes, and of course Mike Something!" Now I don't know who Mike Something is, but I do understand the concepts of "$500 volleyball tourney" and "great corn roast and barbecue".
If only I could understand the concept of "July 27" on the first try!

Not beating a path to our door

Hey, great headline on the Toronto Star's front page this morning: "Thousands of students shun universities." The fine print: applications for first-year places in Ontario universities are down by 5.1 per cent this year. "We don't know why," a University of Toronto official is quoted as saying. Possible explanations: higher tuition fees, shortage of summer jobs.

The 5.1 per cent drop is not exactly news; the UW Gazette reported it on March 8. It's also not exactly a disaster, at least for Waterloo, where there were far more applicants than the university could accept.

Music store comes to the SLC

Dr. Disc, a compact disc and tape retailer with six stores in southern Ontario (including one on King Street), is coming to the Student Life Centre. Daniel Shipp, the SLC's interim manager, says an official decision was made Monday to accept the company's tender for the 344-square-foot space across from the bank location on the SLC ground floor. The store is tentatively slated to open September 1. Other music stores and some photographic studios also expressed interest in the space, Shipp said. Meanwhile, the SLC continues to fill up; the Bell Canada Phonecentre is supposed to be opening next week.

California moves on affirmative action

The biggest university in the United States, the nine-campus University of California, last week took a decision "to end the use of ethnicity and gender in student admissions and to use criteria related to economic and social need". On July 20, the UC board of regents voted 14-10 for the change. President Jack W. Peltason said he had hoped for a different outcome, but said UC's goals have not changed. "The only thing that has changed is the means we can take to achieve our goal. Obviously, our outreach programs now have more significance than ever." The regents also decided to eliminate the use of ethnicity and gender in UC's hiring and business practices.

It's a conspicuous move in a trend away from "affirmative action" programs in education, the American equivalent of what Canada calls "employment equity". The decision came a few weeks after California governor Pete Wilson ended more than 100 state affirmative action programs, calling them "fundamentally unfair", and wrote to the UC regents asking them to follow suit.

What's happening on a Thursday

First of all, what's not happening: health services won't be able to give allergy shots between 12 noon and 1 p.m. today. And if you didn't know they gave allergy shots at all, perhaps you need to check out just what other services the on-campus clinic provides.

Events of the day:

Finally -- who is this guy?

One or two people have asked why the newsgroup version of this Daily Bulletin has been coming, in recent days, from the userid hmolivei@nh3adm, when it's still written and signed by me. Answer: Horacio Oliveira is a colleague here in information and public affairs, who's taking a share in getting the Bulletin written and posted; you'll see more of him while I am on vacation later this summer.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

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