University of Waterloo

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Thursday, May 25, 1995

Pomp and circumstance continue

Today's convocation ceremony, at 2 p.m. in the Physical Activities Complex, is for graduates from the faculty of arts. Tickets have been issued for admission, because there are so many graduating students (1,030) and such a large crowd is expected. If there are seats left at the last minute, though, it may be possible to get in without a ticket.

Receiving honorary degrees today are Seagram executive and philanthropist Charles Bronfman, who will give the address, and Theresa Lau Po, a 1977 sociology graduate of UW who's now a business leader in Hong Kong.

Two retired faculty members will become "distinguished professor emeritus": Warren Ober of English, and Melvin Lerner of psychology. And Richard Holmes of the philosophy department will receive one of this year's Distinguished Teacher Awards.

The alumni association gold medal will go to Jay Wade Green; the Governor-General's silver medal "for highest standing in the bachelor's program" to Krista Koch. Winners of departmental awards "for distinguished academic achievement" are Todd Mooney, accountancy; Suzan Sabir, anthropology and classical studies; Catherine Perehinec, drama; Brent Almond, economics; Cher Carter, English; Heather Hoffman, French; Derrick Clements, history; Laura Napran, medieval studies; Oliver Thompson, music; Bryan Smyth, philosophy; Michael Dale, political science; Pamela Sadler, psychology; Marcia Kraemer, social development studies; Janine Hodgins, sociology; Stacey Collins, Spanish.

After convocation, about 4:15 p.m. if the event doesn't run as painfully long as last year's arts convocation did, there will be a tree-planting ceremony at Alumni Lane, near the Red North corner of the Physical Activities complex. Representatives of the class of 1995 will add their tree to the growing avenue.

St. Jerome's figure is mourned

The funeral is being held this morning for Rev. J. R. Finn, former president of St. Jerome's College, who died on Monday at the age of 76. After several years as a high school teacher, Finn joined the St. Jerome's faculty in 1959 as a professor of French, at a time when the college was still at "Kingsdale" in south Kitchener, and just switching its allegiance from the University of Ottawa to the brand-new University of Waterloo.

He became dean of St. Jerome's in 1961, and served as president from 1965 to 1972. He taught French until his retirement in 1986. "No one has elicited as many endearing and heartfelt recollections by our graduates as Father Finn," says the current president of the college, Doug Letson. The men's residence at St. Jerome's was named in Finn's honour in 1993.

Today's funeral Mass is at 10:30 a.m. at St. Louis Church in Waterloo.

Planning in the math faculty

The mathematics faculty planning committee has issued an interim report, and is inviting comments from all interested faculty, students and staff. The report is available on UWinfo or through the newsgroup uw.math.faculty.planning, or from the dean of mathematics office.

Japanese spring festival blossoms

The festival officially opens with a ceremony (by invitation only) at 6:00. Then at 8 p.m. there's a concert in the Theatre of the Arts: the K-W Symphony, with its conductor Chosei Komatsu, and the Japan Spring Festival Orchestra will perform along with soprano Christine Walters. Tickets are $8, students $5, from the Humanities box office.

Tomorrow comes the big event of the festival, a day-long business seminar on "Creating and Maintaining Canada-Japan Business Connections", at Renison College. Japanese ambassador Noboru Nakahira is the keynote speaker, at noon. Last-minute information comes from the college at 884-4400.

Federation Hall reopens today

The "largest student-owned pub in Canada" has been closed for about a week, while some redecorating happens and new manager Steve Leddy gets ready to go. "The attitude is, we've got to get back to the basics, we've got to please the customer," says Julie Primeau, who's in charge of Fed Hall promotions this term and says the place is going to be great. "We've done some really neat things with the decor," she said yesterday. "It's hard to explain -- you'd have to come and have a look."

There are new games, she said, and the music tonight and tomorrow will be "all-request", which should deal with some of the recent complaints that "nobody" likes what's been being played in Fed Hall. Best of all: there will be a free barbecue tonight, and again Friday night, from 7 to 9 p.m. At this time of year, Fed Hall won't be open in the daytime, but regular hours will be 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Also today, briefly

The Canadian Quilters Association opens its 1995 "juried exhibition" and general meeting in Village 2 today; about 200 delegates will be on hand, today through Saturday.

The local branch of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute presents the video "Stephen Hawking: The Universe Within" at 11:30 this morning in Davis Centre 1304.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. (Keffer Memorial Chapel, Waterloo Lutheran Seminary) for William Villaume, the first president of Waterloo Lutheran University -- now Wilfrid Laurier University -- after UW separated from "Waterloo College" and WLU took its new identity. He served as president from 1961 to 1967.

The power didn't go off

I said in yesterday's Bulletin that there would be an overnight electricity shutoff in Chemistry 2. Sorry. The blackout has been rescheduled for June 6, but the revision notice didn't catch up with the original notice in time for yesterday's Bulletin.

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

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