Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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

Wednesday, January 31, 1996

Not with a bang, but . . .

The UWinfo gopher was an amazing thing when it was introduced in September 1992. Suddenly there were texts of documents on-line, and there was a directory of staff and faculty (UWdir didn't have students yet), and there was the possibility of linking to electronic information all over the world -- even before most people had heard of the World Wide Web.

Here's what the original UWinfo gopher menu looked like:

      ------------------------------------------------
      1. About UWinfo/
      2. About the University of Waterloo/
      3. Official University Documents/
      4. Facilities & Services/
      5. Departments, Faculties, Associations, Student Groups/
      6. Courses and Timetables (future)/
      7. UWDIR ... Directory of Staff and Faculty (phone, email)
      8. Events, News and Weather/
      9. Other Servers (FTP, Archie, CWIS, Databases, etc.)/
      10. "Index of Document Contents, this server only"
      11. "Index of Menu Items, all UWinfo servers"
      12. "Table of Contents".
      -------------------------------------------------

And here's what the gopher menu looks like today:

      ------------------------
      1.  *** UWinfo GOPHER terminates 1996-Jan-31; use UWinfo WEB instead
      2.  usage statistics/
      3.  Bookstore, UW Shop & UW Sports Shop/
      ------------------------

That's right: today is the last day for the UWinfo gopher. The department of computing services and the UWinfo operations committee will pull the plug on the gopher in a few hours. From now on, it's the UWinfo Web space all the way.

A reminder about health benefits

A note is on hand from Sandie Hurlburt of the human resources department, about the switch from Liberty Mutual to Prudential Insurance as the carrier for the staff and faculty extended health plan:

"Effective April 1st, 1996, claims for reimbursement should be sent directly to Prudential. There are self-addressed envelopes being distributed on campus for this purpose. Since claims for prescription drugs are now being settled electronically through the pharmacies, a courier service to the carrier is no longer being used. Employees can send their claims via the Human Resources Department until March 31st and claims will be forwarded by regular mail. (If you have outstanding claims for 1995, please submit them on a Liberty Health claim form via Human Resources before February 29th, 1996.)

"Also, effective April 1, 1996, dental claims are to be sent directly to ManuLife Financial. Self-addressed envelopes will be provided. If your dentist has Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) capabilities, your dental claim can be transmitted directly to ManuLife."

All that noise in Engineering 3

Some people, walking through the halls of Engineering 3 the last few days, have been jolted by the pounding of jackhammers. Don't worry, all is in order, says Art Key, manager of the engineering machine shop in E3. The noise is coming from work crews busily converting an old machine shop office into a project room for students working on the "Midnight Sun" solar-powered cars. Key explains that retirements (past and upcoming) made the office available for the alternative use.

Some walls are being knocked out to make room for new, wider doors that will accommodate the large cars. Renovations should be completed by late next week. Kay thanks all those affected for their patience.

Note from the staff association

Hope springs eternal, and the UW staff association is still looking for staff representatives on two committees: the Employee Assistance Program committee, and the nominating committee for dean of environmental studies. There's full information on page 2 of this morning's Gazette.

Headaches, stories, balls and pucks

Happening on campus today:

Health services has a noon-hour information session on "Understanding and Coping with Migraines". Last-minute information: ext. 2424.
Novelist Jane Urquhart reads at 3:30 p.m. in the St. Jerome's College series of Canadian writers. She can be heard in room 221 at the college.
The basketball Athenas host Brock University at 6 tonight in the Physical Activities Complex; at 8:00, it's the Mike Moser Memorial Game, with the Warriors also hosting their Brock counterparts.
The hockey Warriors host Wilfrid Laurier's Golden Hawks at 7:30 tonight in the Columbia Icefield.

And I see in my handy work of reference that it's a good day for ball players: Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks and Nolan Ryan were all born on this date.

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

The URL of this Daily Bulletin is
Mail comments to the editor

Getting information into the Daily Bulletin