Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Wednesday, September 3, 1997

September morn, clear skies

While everybody else is just getting here for the fall term, the students in Geography 391 are leaving already. They're heading off this morning, duffel bags in hand, for their field trip to the Bruce Peninsula. Why? "To look at rocks and trees and stuff," one participant summed it up for me. (Well, it was early.)

Back on campus, upper-year students are flooding back now, and first-year students are well into the activities of orientation week -- "Registration & Stuff", as the schedule says for this morning. Highlights of the day include a pizza lunch, chariot racing (around Porter Library) and a Scunt (scavenger hunt) for black-shirted first-year engineers; a student panel discussion, a campus tour and "AWOL Pub Night" for mathies; a "mystery party tour" for those in arts; and a science "carnival" this afternoon.

Ah, the sights and sounds of early September! The phalanxes of T-shirts, the mysterious pink footprints on the paths, the music from the science coffee-and-doughnut shop, the roar of the bullhorn! Wonder why it's called a bullhorn, anyway.

I like the advice the Engineering Society is issuing its newbies:

Be nice to fellow frosh on campus (it's not nice to pick on others!)
Always talk to your Big Brothers or Big Sisters (Orientation Leaders) about any problems you have. They are here for you!
Campus Cops number is 888-4911 (or just 4911 on campus). Call them if you need to find a towed car, need a walk home at night, or any other police stuff.
Memorize your student ID number, the Education Committee might ask for it.
Watch out for hard-hat theft!
Wear OLD CLOTHES!!!!! Especially on Tuesday!!!!

Single and sexy -- and safe

It's not all parties, obviously. "Single and Sexy" is serious stuff as well as entertaining. That would be the "collective play about sexual attitudes in the nineties", which originated at UW eight years ago and has been adapted for use at half a dozen other Canadian institutions (not to mention interest shown from as far away as Australia and New Zealand).

S&S this year stars Geoff Evans, Heather Arsenault, Danya Hagan, Christina Heydorn, Brad Goddard, Jason Godfrey, and Jason Risley. The director is Darlene Spencer of the drama department, and the producer is Denise Angove of health services, who long ago saw that theatre was a more effective way than lecturing of bringing out some ideas about safe and healthy sexual behaviour. A brochure for this year's play calls S&S "a high energy, entertaining, nonjudgmental, powerful presentation of scenarios and attitudes frosh are likely to witness or experience".

Admission to all performances is free, and you can see the show (in the Theatre of the Arts) today at 10:30 and 1:30, Thursday at 11:00 and 1:30.

Now about the "safe" part -- well, it could apply to sex too, I suppose, but I was really thinking about WHMIS, the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, which is the basic safety training that nearly everybody around here needs. Official word from the registrar's office:

Canadian legislation imposes training obligation on the University: all students enrolled in a science-based lab (e.g., Science, Engineering, AHS students) must pass WHMIS training. Students are given video-based instruction, followed by a brief test. Upon successful completion of the test, students are issued a WHMIS sticker. Students attach the sticker to their WatCard, allowing them admittance to the labs requiring WHMIS certification.

First-year science students are being scheduled into one of several training sessions today. There are sessions Friday for math students who need WHMIS training (9 a.m.) and AHS students (10:30), in Biology 1 room 271. Next week, sessions open to all students are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 5:30, same room.

A few other administrative things

Registration continues for undergraduates in the Physical Activities Complex, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For graduate students, the transaction takes place in Needles Hall (just hand over the money and no one will get hurt).
The English Language Proficiency Exam is scheduled for Friday in the PAC.
WatCard manager John Cunningham sends a reminder that cards are being issued all this week at South Campus Hall (the Festival Room, upstairs from the bookstore), 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Or you can, as always, get your card from the WatCard office in the General Services Complex, where the hours are 8:30 to 4:30. The card has some new uses this fall; graphic services is now accepting it at all copy centres except, temporarily, the one in Porter Library. And flyers are on hand from food services announcing a couple of hot deals: "any coffee or tea with any pastry", $1.40, and "40-cent fountain beverage with your food purchase", as long as the purchase is made with a WatCard.

And in other matters . . .

Central stores is holding its monthly sale of surplus UW property today, from 11:30 to 1:30 at East Campus Hall.

The local Volunteer Action Centre is looking for people to help operate "Walk for a Cure", an October 5 fund-raiser in Waterloo Park to help support juvenile diabetes research. "Volunteers are needed to help with set-up, parking, registration, and as walk marshals." Interested? Call 742-8610.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY September 3, 1969: President pro tem Howard Petch issues a statement responding to charges by Robin Mathews, of Carleton University, about the "Americanization" of UW and other Canadian universities.

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