University of Waterloo

Daily Bulletin

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Monday, January 8, 1996

340 still seeking jobs

The placement rate for co-op students this term stands at 90 per cent, says Bruce Lumsden, director of co-operative education and career services. That means there are 3,200 students with co-op jobs right now -- and 340 without. "Half of these are junior students entering the work force for the first time," Lumsden points out.

He says the 90 per cent placement "is a similar rate to last winter but with fewer students (170) eligible for employment." He calls it "excellent considering the overall job market and economy", but that's a big "considering". Says Lumsden: "We are starting to see the effects of public sector cutbacks at both the provincial and federal levels. We estimate that 400 coop jobs have disappeared over the last three years. At the same time, however, we have been able to maintain the coop job base to support the coop enrolments each year in spite of a fluctuating economy.

"The next while will be a challenge for post-secondary education in Ontario and in Canada."

Plans? "We will continue to search out job leads while at the same time liaise with the co-op students on their work term. Anyone having information as to job opportunities are asked to contact myself or a manager or one of our coordinators who are located in Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary."

The decision on bus passes: No

Students' council had a lively meeting yesterday and eventually voted not to go ahead right now with a proposal to turn the WatCard into a Kitchener Transit bus pass. The motion that was defeated would have called a student referendum next month on imposing a transit fee to allow the card to provide unlimited rides on local buses.

It became clear that the proposal on hand from Kitchener Transit wasn't worked out in enough detail. "Council asked some very important and testing questions," Trish Mumby comments this morning from the Federation of Students office. "They didn't feel that students would have enough information . . . council was also very concerned that KT hadn't consulted the university administration, such as the WatCard people. . . . One councillor from engineering wondered if KT had done an environmental assessment of the area and how increased bus use would affect it."

Mumby notes that students' council did vote "to continue work" between Kitchener Transit and a student committee. "Council indicated they were open to the concept and would not be surprised to see it go to referendum next year."

Notes from the parking office

"We are back at it," says parking manager Elaine Koolstra, meaning the conversion of UW's parking lots to a new card and record system. "We will be handing out notices at parking lots N and R" -- those are the ones by the Columbia Street entrance to campus. Registration will begin this Thursday, January 11, and run through the 18th. Users of lots N and R should fill out the form they'll be handed (you can get one at the parking office if you somehow miss the handout) and bring it, along with the existing parking card, to the parking office in the General Services Complex, which is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Friday.

"We still have some student parking available," Koolstra also says, "in lots A and W, at $74.40 for the winter term. There are also spots available at the Villages and Columbia Lake Townhouses, if you are a resident there, for $56 a term."

What's happening today

Special note to gopher users

This morning's Daily Bulletin is the last one that will be posted to the UWinfo gopher, which is within days of being terminated altogether. If you've been reading the Bulletin through the gopher, you should start finding it through UWinfo Web space as of tomorrow.

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

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