Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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

Monday, March 24, 1997

UW 8th in Putnam math contest

Waterloo placed 8th in the 1996 William Lowell Putnam math competition, it was announced Friday. That's up from 12th place in 1995.

Says Chris Small of the statistics and actuarial science department, who coached the UW team:

This year's team consisted of Jason Bell, Kevin Purbhoo and Soroosh Yazdani. With its 8th place showing, Waterloo obtained an Honorable Mention (given to teams ranked 6th-10th). . . .
Waterloo had 14 students in the top 205 places of the competition. (A total of 2,407 students wrote the Putnam across Canada and the United States.) Individual honorable mentions went to Jason Bell (ranked 29th), Donny Cheung and Ondrej Lhotak (tied for 42.5th place).
Placing in the top 100 of the competition were Richard Hoshino, Derek Kisman, Alex Lee, Kevin Purbhoo and Ian VanderBurgh. In the top 200 were Kevin Hare, Alyssa Ker, Frederic Latour (who narrowly missed being in the top 100), Tamon Stephen, Yee Whye Teh and Soroosh Yazdani.

Duke University was the overall winner of the Putnam, followed by Princeton, Harvard, Washington University of St. Louis, and California Institute of Technology. Other Honorable Mentions were given to the University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Queen's University.

The Federation's annual meeting

The Federation of Students holds its first general meeting of the year tonight, at 7:30 in the Student Life Centre.

Says Mario Bellabarba, president of the Feds: "Like the Annual General Meeting in October, the General Meeting is an opportunity for all undergraduates to become involved in decisions concerning the Federation's By-Laws, as well as receiving reports from the Executive on what they've been doing for the members. Unique to the upcoming General Meeting will be the election of the Federation's Board of Directors, including the ratification of the 1997/98 Executive, as well as a vote on the annual Federation of Students' fee increase."

All undergraduate students are welcome to come, participate and vote. An agenda for the meeting appeared in the March 14 Imprint, and is also available from the Federation of Students office.

Six tons of phone books

That's the load that UW recycled this time last year, says waste management coordinator Patti Cook. "This year we are having to pay for disposal of the phone books!" she adds. "Telephone Services made a great effort to reduce the number of phone books required by phoning every department on campus. . . . Departments can call Telephone Services to reduce the number of phone books received." The new book is a mere 1,784 pages long, and a trifle heavier than last year's volume.

If you have 1996 books to recycle, now that the 1997 books are on campus, it would be good to do it today or tomorrow, Cook says. "Central Stores is doing their last big pickup of the phone books from loading docks on Wednesday."

About sick leave and disability

The pension and benefits committee is meeting this afternoon (1:00, Needles Hall room 3004), and among the agenda items is a continuing discussion of UW's sick leave and long-term disability plans for staff and faculty. Lorraine Beattie of the library office is heading a subcommittee of the P&B committee that's working on those issues.

From the minutes of the committee's February 17 meeting:

Beattie led the Committee in an in-depth review and discussion of the report; she spoke to UW's current sick leave plan, including its background and associated inequities, and explained the subcommittee's rationale for the various recommendations and options presented.
In discussion, the Committee touched upon: the reasons for/against having one plan; ways to minimize abuse; the "ghetto mentality"; grandfathering; the generous nature of 120 days of sick leave credits; attendance management; appointment duration as a basis for benefit eligibility; UW's obligation to short-term employees; "early return to work" philosophy; modified jobs; utilization differences between employee groups; partial LTD. It was understood that discussion would continue at the next meeting.

As Oscar night approaches

"What to Expect in Germany" is the topic of a session to be held at noontime tomorrow for students who might be interested in heading for that country. "Topics covered," says a bulletin from the co-op education and career services department, "will include culture shock, German university life, do's and taboos of everyday life, nightlife, political and social issues and more. All welcome. Bring your lunch!" The session starts at 12 noon Tuesday in Needles Hall room 1020.

Steve Cook of the purchasing department, one of the organizers of the Hagey Bonspiel, reports that Saturday's event was a big success. "We had a great time, and short of many sore muscles, all will live to tell the tale." The winning rink was led by Hugh Morrison of the physics department, with Dianna Desormeau, John Irving and Aline Brunet as the other members.

The faculty strike at York University is continuing, but negotiations have resumed. The York faculty association is advising its members today that "You will receive your March pay cheque as normal, but strike pay will be available at a later date for those who have participated in picketing and other support activities. YUFA has arranged to maintain the premiums for our benefits while the strike continues. The CAUT has already guaranteed an interest-free loan to cover these costs."

The support staff strike at the University of Windsor also continues, with negotiations scheduled to resume tomorrow. On Friday, university management went to court and got an injunction that bars Canadian Union of Public Employees local 1001 from "besetting, picketing or attempting to picket at or adjacent to property owned or leased by the Plaintiff in the City of Windsor in excess of four (4) picketers at any location", except for rallies at the main Chrysler Hall Tower, and "hindering, interfering with or obstructing ingress to and egress from the Plaintiff's premises, with respect to persons on foot or in vehicles." In effect, the injunction makes U of Windsor parking lots more accessible for student, faculty and staff use.

The week before Easter

Here's a reminder, in case it's needed, that this Friday, March 28, is Good Friday and a holiday. UW offices and most services will be closed, and classes will not be held. (Thursday's Daily Bulletin will have as much information as possible about what's open and closed Friday and over the weekend; if you have information of that kind that should be passed along to the campus, please let me have it by Wednesday morning.)

Special services over the next few days, in Christian churches around the world, mark Holy Week, which began with Palm Sunday yesterday. In readings, prayers and rituals, Christians remember the final days of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Today, for example:

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." (Mark 11:15-17)

The week reaches a solemn depth on Good Friday and then a peak of joy on Easter Sunday, considered the greatest festival of the Christian year.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
March 23, 1991: Two UW students attending a hockey game at Toronto's Varsity Arena are photographed holding up a sign that makes fun of the current campaign against date rape. Disciplinary measures quickly follow.

March 24, 1993: A department heads' meeting about staff training is evacuated when a small fire breaks out in the Needles Hall parking garage. One small car is destroyed.

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
Comments to the editor | About the Bulletin | Friday's Bulletin
Copyright © 1997 University of Waterloo