Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Yesterday's Bulletin | Previous days | UWevents | UWinfo home page

Tuesday, February 13, 1996

At least the lights are on

The posters have disappeared from walls, as the Federation of Students election is under way. Today's a birthday for Arthur Hills of the math faculty computing facility. And it's a day when people are reading a yellow flyer from the staff association announcing a vacancy on its executive.

It'll probably be a duller day than yesterday for students in 1B civil engineering, who lost two classes for unexplained reasons ("neither one of our first two professors showed up to class today -- we don't know why, they just didn't") and then had a third, calculus, abandoned when the power went out, and a fourth cancelled when it didn't come back on.

So, what about that blackout?

The blackout that hit the campus -- and much of the rest of Waterloo -- for about an hour yesterday morning was the result of a failure at Waterloo North Hydro's "Scheifele" power station in the north part of the city. Horst Beyerle of the UW plant operations department says Hydro rushed to switch UW's power to another substation, the "Eby Rush" station on Fischer-Hallman Road.

He said most people were just inconvenienced by the loss of light and computer power, but there were people stuck in elevators in at least two buildings, Optometry and the Davis Centre. Among other embarrassing incidents: a male student (name withheld) found himself in the women's washroom in the Engineering Lecture Hall.

At least one midterm was postponed for two days ("thank you, Ontario Hydro," writes a science student). But at least one wasn't postponed, as the professor "told us to stay calm and continue writing our exam with the aid of 20 watts of emergency lighting. Is this legal? The exam was difficult enough without having to put up with eye strain too."

The libraries continued to check out books with an old-fashioned pencil-powered system. And John Sellens of the data processing department says he kept working but just about froze: "I can usually rely on the combined power output of a big X terminal, a big PC, a terminal, a Sun Sparcserver with two CPUs and 10 disks, and a refrigerator to keep my office toasty warm, but not today."

Tax certificates ready tomorrow

The financial services office says tuition fee receipts and "education credit certificates" (that would be form T2202A for you Revenue Canada junkies) will be ready for students to pick up tomorrow. Full-time undergraduates can get them at the registrar's office in Needles Hall, starting at 10 a.m., except students at St. Jerome's and Renison Colleges, who can get them at their colleges. Full-time graduate students will get their certificates through their academic department offices. "Everybody else," including part-time students, distance education students, and co-op students now on work term, will get their documents in the mail.

Are you worried about change?

Well, yes; who isn't? The green flyer with that heading also asks, "Are you under stress?" and we all know what the answer is to that one, too. Its suggested answer: some workshops from the staff training and development program, of which one is titled "Personal Strategies for Navigating Change". It's scheduled for next Tuesday.

Murray Shepherd, the university librarian, is the facilitator for that session, which is being given for the first time, and says it's going to be great:

All the facilitators are enthusiastic about the Zenger-Miller approach to building teams, solving problems with and getting things done through people. Nevertheless, this one really impressed me, perhaps because it is so timely. Also because it delivers. It is what it says it is. It is personal; the program helps me to develop my strategies. There is a lot of content packed into three and a half hours, and it will be hard work.
When it's over we should all have an organized process for navigating change. It will provide tips and skills that will help us emerge from the change experience with new skills, knowledge and abilities. Specifically we will learn to deal with feelings about change, work toward understanding the reasons for change, work effectively with those who resist change, and take positive action and get others involved in making the change successful.

Tuesday's session is full, but the program may be offered again. Information about that and other staff training and development programs is available from Marg Letter in the human resources department, phone ext. 6645.

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

URL of this Daily Bulletin:
Mail comments to the editor | About the Bulletin