Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Thursday, March 7, 1996

Alternate version: no background colour

What's with the weird colours?

You'll see the blue-grey background and white type only if you're viewing this Bulletin with certain versions of Netscape. So why? Just thought I'd have some fun making the Web page look as much as possible like the cover of the 1996 campus phone book, distributed this week.

Patti Cook, coordinator of waste management, wants everybody to know that the old phone books are easy to recycle. Just put them, covers and all, in the "coloured paper" recycling box.

Math colleagues honour Dunkley

A reception is set for this afternoon in honour of Ron Dunkley, associate dean of mathematics and chief organizers of the Canadian Mathematics Competition, one of the activities that make UW famous. Dunkley was honoured by his country a few weeks ago, admitted as a Member of the Order of Canada for his long-term contributions in stimulating interest in math among teachers and students.

Dunkley will be retiring this summer after 29 years at UW -- and taking on a new role as director of the new Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing.

Everyone is welcome to today's reception, which runs from 4:30 to 6:00 in the Festival Room of South Campus Hall. Last-minute information: ext. 3030.

Day of the Iron Ring

In a private ceremony this afternoon -- actually three private ceremonies, to keep the size down -- some 675 fourth-year students will experience the Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer, otherwise known as the Iron Ring ceremony. Details are mostly kept secret, but all the world knows that Canadian engineers wear Iron Rings, "on the little finger of the working hand", to represent the professional responsibilities they have promised to uphold. Tradition says that the rings are made from the rubble of the Quebec Bridge which collapsed in 1907 with tragic loss of life.

The ceremony is conducted by the "wardens" of the local "Camp" of professional engineers, which here are headed by John Westlake of the co-op education department. The ritual is said to have been written by poet Rudyard Kipling, who was fascinated by the image of iron as symbolizing strength. One other detail: the ceremony is followed by the famous Iron Ring Stag at Bingeman Park.

Also today, briefly

International Women's Week continues. Among the events sponsored by the Federation of Students women's centre: a "whitewash workshop" about "environmental concern, health and self-esteem" issues surrounding conventional sanitary supplies. Also, a slumber party at the women's centre (Student Life Centre room 2102) overnight. Information about all such events: ext. 3457.
The women in mathematics committee presents Maria Klawe of the University of British Columbia, speaking today on "edutainment" -- mathematics teaching software and techniques that are supposed to be fun as well as instructive. Does it work? She'll talk at 2:30 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302.
Economics department students, faculty and staff are invited to a wine and cheese party from 5 to 8 tonight in Humanities room 378.
Francois Pare of the University of Guelph speaks on "Quebec Literature Now: A Portrait in Three Dimensions", this morning at 11:30 in Humanities room 334.
"Sandbox" plays tonight at the Bombshelter pub in the Student Life Centre.

Monitoring the situation

Some sites on the Web that might be useful these days:

The federal budget at http://www.fin.gc.ca
The Ontario civil service strike at http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~credmond/onstrike.html
Draft of a 1996 University Computing Directions statement at http://www.dcs.uwaterloo.ca/~pdirksen/UCC/Working.Docs/UCC96doc.html
The Crisis of Purpose, articles about university education that appeared last month in the Ottawa Citizen, at http://aix1.uottawa.ca:80/~gbloom/augustine/articles.html
Lawsuit over the "Telecommunications Decency" law in the United States, at http://www.clari.net/suitpage.html

The wrong phone number

The folks at the UW Shop are a little embarrassed: their ad in yesterday's Gazette had the wrong phone number in it. Information about the Kids Club activities during March break next week is available at ext. 3914, not 3194.

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

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