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Wednesday, August 5, 1998
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World basketball tournament
Other notes todayExams continue. . . . Heavy equipment is tearing up the pavement behind the Modern Languages building. . . . Working in a light rain, a plant operations crew is taking down the banners that were hung for Student Life 101 yesterday. . . . Hey, this rain wasn't in the forecast, was it? . . . And I wonder what the markets are going to do next.I wasn't kidding when I wrote yesterday, reporting on the size of the first-year class in September, that "preregistrations are still coming in, and all the faculties are expecting to meet their targets." For instance, I quoted a figure of 739 preregistered students for the engineering faculty, which has a fall target of 750. By mid-morning, the registrar's office had raised the score to 754; and before the day was over, Ed Jernigan, associate dean (undergraduate) in engineering, said his office has now heard from 770 students who will definitely be here. The chemical engineering department presents a seminar today by Patrick Chuang, a PhD student at the California Institute of Technology. He'll speak at 3:30 (room 2517 of the Doug Wright Building, i.e. Engineering I) on "Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate: A Bright Future?" |
And thanks to a narrower typeface, it makes room for an important new feature: the uwuserid. Not everybody, I gather, knows how to use that brief string of letters and numbers, so I'll quote from the relevant web page:
It is possible to address mail to anyone by their UWUSERID value, in the form To: UWUSERID@uwaterloo.ca. Such mail will be delivered to the address recorded in the EMAIL value of the UWdir entry with that UWUSERID value.So, for instance, the book will tell you that my uwuserid is credmond, and that means you can e-mail me at "credmond@uwaterloo.ca", without having to know that my mail gets delivered on the computer called watserv1. (It doesn't mean that you can use just "credmond" as the address, unless you also are on watserv1.)
Of course a few people in the book don't use e-mail, or don't have uwuserids for other reasons.
Another feature of the new phone book is full instructions on the Meridian Mail voice-mail system. Like previous editions, it also provides addresses of other Canadian universities and a long list of UW fax numbers.
"The ability of Canadians to pursue post-secondary studies across Canada is an important value that results in greater understanding amongst Canadians and contributes to a shared sense of national identity.
"But British Columbia cannot protect this value alone. That is why we have called upon the federal government to show leadership, beginning with a commitment to restore core funding cut from post-secondary education. In return, provinces should agree to a national tuition freeze while we work with the federal government to develop a national strategy for post-secondary education.
"The alternative is to continue down the road to an increasingly stratified and balkanized post-secondary system, in which income determines opportunity and education policies divide rather than unite Canadians.
"At the end of the last century, access to basic education remained the exclusive right of a privileged few. By pushing open the doors to education, Canada has shaped itself over the past one hundred years a more egalitarian, prosperous and cohesive society.
"Every British Columbian knows that education is essential to our children's ability to lead successful and rewarding lives. We also know that education is key to our economic well-being and to our ability to compete in the global marketplace.
"Now is not the time to allow the doors to education to once again close. Now is the time for governments to help swing those doors open wider. As we approach the dawn of a new century, our children and our future depend on us."
On NSERC grants: "As always," writes John Hepburn, "a correction from chemistry. The biggest grant in this year's NSERC was announced late, as it took a while to finalize. I'm the principal applicant, with Peter Bernath, Terry McMahon, and Jim Sloan as co-applicants, and the grant is a major installation grant for a new laser spectroscopy facility, which will be built in Chem 2. The amount is $615,684, which sounds like a ton of money until you translate it into the US$ that we have to buy equipment in (the budget was drawn up back when the loonie was worth $0.71). NSERC giveth and Wall Street taketh away."
On Canada Day: There's no way the July 1 crowd at Columbia Lake was bigger than the one on Parliament Hill, says Ottawa-based reader Colin Leech: "It rained in the morning and early afternoon, but dried up during the afternoon. The evening festivities, which are the heart and soul of the event, were still very well attended, as in past years. Clearly wishful thinking by somebody who didn't watch the national TV telecast of the evening show. As for traffic jams, UW should take a lesson from Ottawa and close off the roads in the immediate area. Provide shuttle bus service from outlying park&ride lots (such as parking lots A and C on campus, and other nearby locations like shopping malls)."
On messy doorways: It isn't all pigeons, says Emily Smith of information systems and technology, it's humans too, the ones who smoke around building entrances. "I have no axe to grind with smokers even though I have bronchitis. I usually cover my mouth when entering buildings as there is a high smoke level. I just wish they wouldn't throw their butts on the ground. Even in buildings where containers exist, there are butts everywhere. Maybe containers aren't always provided as UW hopes to discourage smoking at building entrances. . . . I go to Needles Hall on a regular basis and the entrance there is simply disgusting. Staff and students have to share the blame for it as I've seen both types out there tossing their butts on the steps. I often wonder what our employers think as they enter that building."
National parks, heritage rivers and historic sites; provincial parks across Canada; conservation areas; wildlife refuges in the United States; protected areas as far afield as Poland and Australia -- this page, created in UW's department of recreation and leisure studies, has links to web information about them all.
"The page was designed by and for students in the parks option at UW," explains recreation professor Paul Eagles, "to give ready access to useful web pages on parks. The primary focus is on Canada, but some international pages are mentioned. At the bottom of the list are Canadian Heritage Sites. The site is maintained and updated by students each year."
He notes that the "links" page is really just one feature of a larger web site for the parks option. "This option is available to undergraduate students in four departments: recreation and leisure studies, planning, environment and resource studies,and geography. Occasionally students in biology and history take the courses as well, but the option is not approved by senate as a degree element for those departments. Interestingly, this page has attracted interest from many potential students who are looking for programs in Canada of this type. After seeing this page they have a better idea of this specialty, which is strong here on campus, but is given low profile by the university in its public presence."
CAR
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information
and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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