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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Wednesday, August 28, 1996

Washing under the cold tap

There's no hot water in most campus buildings today -- also no building heat, but that might not be too noticeable since it's August. The entire central steam heating plant was shut down in the early hours for annual maintenance, and will be back in operation Friday night.

The shutdown allows for repair work on "the odd valve that's leaking" and anything else that needs to be done on hundreds of pipes and devices, says David Churchill, director of technical services in the plant operations department. In a day or so ("it takes a while to cool things down"), a steeplejack will even be going to work up inside the big smokestack at the central plant.

Not every hot tap will be running cold -- some washrooms in the Davis Centre, for example, have their own water heaters, as does the University Club. And buildings outside the ring road, including Optometry, East Campus Hall, Health Services and Married Students, aren't served by the central plant.

Churchill gave a quick rundown yesterday on other major works being done by plant operations as the summer comes to an end:

Renovation of parking lot A (just about ready) and lot H (he admitted to "serious doubts" that it will be done when the fall term begins, though crews are doing their best).
Roof repairs at Modern Languages ("it seems to be watertight with all this rain") and Psychology (a little behind schedule).
Regrouting of the Physical Activities swimming pool.
Brickwork on South Campus Hall, nearly finished.

Meanwhile, a memo is on hand from the food services department announcing that "Our plans to redevelop the Modern Languages Coffee Shop have hit a number of snags. We will only be able to complete a limited portion of the total redevelopment this summer. Before any further work can be completed a larger doorway must be built so that the equipment that is currently inside can be removed. . . . To facilitate the wider doorway, the passage to the faculty common room will be closed in. When renovations are completed in the summer of 1997 a pass through window will be put in the wall between the Coffee Shop and the common room."

On-line source for cheaters

Everybody's heard of the fly-by-night "essay banks" that will sell students ready-made essays to hand in. Everybody's also heard of doing research on line. Kenneth Sahr has combined the two, and the result is a Web site that's controversial, to say the least. He calls it "School Sucks"; it's on line at http://www.schoolsucks.com/.

The site is a collection of essays that students can download -- free -- and, presumably, hand in to their professors. "Download your workload!" the home page urges. Of course there's a disclaimer:

School Sucks is a library of papers handed in by college students. If used properly -- and ethically -- it can be a wonderful resource for the college student facing a challenge. Use School Sucks to look at other papers and see how others attacked a problem. Use School Sucks as a method of comparing your analysis with that of others. Don't use School Sucks to plagiarize! You may get a good grade (and then again, you might not -- we don't rate the papers), but you will be wasting your time and only cheating yourself the knowledge that universities and colleges provide.

And Sahr told the Chronicle of Higher Education that his site, along with commercial essay services, put the onus on professors to assign papers that are closely connected to a course's content and match student interests, rather than general topics that could be tackled by anybody. Students who are interested in their work "will find plagiarism utterly irrelevant", he says.

There's no guarantee that the "School Sucks" essays will rate A's, and perhaps that's just as well. An excerpt from one of them:

Housman is considered a minor poet, primarily because of his use of rhyme and meter, and frequent and effective use of imagery and symbolism. (It is generally accepted that major twentieth-century poetry must inevitably go beyond the strictures of late-nineteenth century styles, so any poet using such styles can only be classed as minor.) Nonetheless, I like him.

This week's positions available

It being Wednesday, the human resources department has a new list of staff positions for which applications are being accepted. Jobs on today's list:

Secretary-receptionist, physics department, grade USG 3.
Electronics and electrical technician, chemical engineering, grade USG 7.
Storesperson, engineering machine shop, grade USG 4.
Computing consultant, applied health sciences, grade USG 8.

Further information: ext. 2524.

And these other notes

Wanted this week by the Volunteer Action Centre:

A board secretary for "the Volunteer Association of a local chronic care hospital", to attend monthly meetings.
A driver for a wheelchair-accessible van, to spend two or three hours a week taking disabled young men shopping.

More information: the VAC is at 742-8610.

A UW professor, Gordon Nelson of the geography department, is an organizer of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop being held this week in Krakow, Poland, for discussion on the effects of land use and development pressures on national parks and protected areas.

CAR

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