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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Thursday, February 22, 1996

Engineering applications boom

There are 1,512 high school students who have listed engineering programs at UW as their first choice for study next fall -- more than twice as many as Waterloo will have room for. The figure is up by 13.5 per cent from the comparable figure in mid-February a year ago.

Engineering thus leads the surge of applications to UW this year. Overall, applications from high school students for September 1996 admission to this university are up by 4.6 per cent, with applied health sciences, architecture, arts and mathematics showing particularly strong increases. Applications to science and the rest of environmental studies are below last year's levels. Overall, there are 5,483 first-choice applicants to UW from secondary schools, up from last year's 5,242.

Applications from "non-secondary" students (those in other provinces, in community colleges or in the work force) are up even more strongly, from 761 last year to 834 this year.

The numbers were circulated yesterday by Ken Lavigne, associate registrar (admissions). UW isn't supposed to release application statistics for other universities in the province, but it's common knowledge that there has been an Ontario-wide drop this year, with Carleton, Laurentian and Nipissing the hardest-hit institutions.

Respectful words from MPP

"I know the importance" of higher education, said Terrence Young, parliamentary assistant to the minister of education, when he visited UW yesterday. Young told a delegation of student leaders that he's now visited more than 20 Ontario campuses, and while he can't foretell the future or promise there will never be any more cuts, he "values" what he's seeing.

Young also met with UW's provost and president and with leaders of the staff association and faculty association. The faculty association encounter wound up in a hallway shouting match, as Young was berated for not taking a strong stand against the province's cuts to university grants.

Mark Walker, president of the staff association, says Young had high praise for the "impressive" student delegation he had met earlier in the day, and also found the staff association's written brief helpful. "You may not agree with everything," Young said about the way the government has treated higher education so far, "but let's go forward."

An error in the Gazette

Yesterday's Gazette, right on the front page, says that the Canadian Association of Physicists Lecture is being given today at UW. That listing appears a week early; in fact the event is next Thursday, February 29. Here's the full listing, for the 29th, as it appears in UWevents:

Physics Department C.A.P. Lecture
sponsored by Canadian Association of Physicists, with Dr. Gary W. Slater, Physics department, University of Ottawa. Topic: "Genetics, Physics, and the Human Genome Project", 10:30 a.m. PHY 150; physics colloquium with Dr. Slater at 3:30 p.m., entitled, "Hydrodynamic Theory of DNA Electrophoresis in Dilute Polymer Solutions", PHY 145. Details: Barb Weber, ext. 2216.

Retirees plan lecture series

Details are on hand for the All University Brown Bag Lecture Series, to be offered over the next few weeks by members of the UW Retirees' Association. The talks will be at noontime on Mondays -- 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Arts Lecture room 105 -- and the first one comes this Monday, February 26. Speaker will be Gordon Nelson, former dean of environmental studies and geography professor. His topic: "Environmental Research in Canada, Indonesia, and Poland".

Subsequent speakers are Keith Thomas of English (March 4), Nancy-Lou Patterson of fine arts (March 11), George Soulis of management sciences (March 18), and George Atkinson of chemistry (March 25).

The Retirees' Association has just come out with the first issue of its new and revised newsletter, with a combination of UW news, word on retiree life, and useful information, including a front-page piece on presbyopia -- deteriorating vision that comes with age. I note that the new WatTimes is printed in big clear type, somewhere around 14 point, as compared with the 9-point type that's standard in the Gazette.

There's no bus strike

Yes, the management and union at Kitchener Transit reached an agreement in the early hours of this morning, and a rumoured strike of the city bus service didn't take place.

Also today and tomorrow:

February 22 is observed by members of the Scout and Guide movement worldwide as the birthday of Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell, who founded Scouting. Best regards to such scouters on campus as Paul Henderson of computing services.
The Fine Arts Film Society continues its showings of Chinese films with "Imperial Concubine Yang", tonight at 7 in East Campus Hall. (Information: ext. 2442.)
Hot water and soft water will be turned off in the Math and Computer building tomorrow morning from 7:30 to 11:30, the plant operations department advises. There will still be cold water. Plumbers are replacing valves.

In the world of sports

The hard-driving hockey Warriors enter the playoffs tonight, hosting Windsor in the first game of a best-of-three series. The game starts at 7:30 at the Columbia Icefield.

The basketball Warriors lost to McMaster last night, 102-83, but are still on their way to post-season play next week, after a final league game at Guelph this Saturday.

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

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