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Daily Bulletin

Tuesday, January 13, 1998

University of Waterloo • Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Cancer centre moves to UW

A major cancer research centre has moved from Toronto to Waterloo, largely because of "the quality of the institution . . . the faculty who have skills we can draw on that wouldn't be available in Toronto", says its director.

[CBRPE] He is Roy Cameron, already a Waterloo faculty member in health studies and gerontology and in psychology, who has been director of the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation since 1995 and says the move has been inevitable from the time he took on the job.

With funding from the Canadian Cancer Society and its research partner, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the CBRPE officially opens today in its new home in the west wing of Matthews Hall. Ceremonies begin at 4 p.m.; Elizabeth Witmer, Ontario minister of health and MPP for Waterloo, is among the guests expected, along with Dorothy Lamont, chief executive of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Cameron noted Waterloo's "strong group of applied psychologists and top people in the field of program evaluation, good access to biostatistical consultants, computing facilities, and a strong library in the area of health behaviour. We have people with sophisticated knowledge of how to develop and evaluate programs to influence behaviour."

He foresees major benefits for UW students and faculty from the centre, which has an annual budget of about $1.1 million. Research opportunities will provide employment for students, and faculty will have an opportunity to participate in research "that will have a direct impact on programs and policies, both provincially and nationally".

In addition to providing a home to the CBRPE, UW will continue to play host to one of eight associated satellite research centres, directed by Steve Brown, statistics, and including faculty co-investigators from UW, Guelph, Toronto and McMaster.

Among the studies funded by the CBRPE since it was established in 1993:

The centre will have four full-time staff, including Cameron, manager Robin Futcher, who has relocated from Toronto, and an associate director, yet to be hired, as well as four to eight research assistants. The AHS faculty will hire a replacement for Cameron, who will teach a reduced load. UW is providing in-kind support, he said, as well as links to infrastructure that will benefit the centre. The university's direct costs will be recovered through overhead payments from the centre.

Finding jobs all over again

Co-op students who will be taking part in interviews this term, with an eye to spring term jobs, should pick up the Master Copy of their Co-op Record today; the documents will be available starting at 10:00 in Needles Hall. Most work reports from the fall work term are due at 4:30 today. ("If the faculty is marking your report, check with the undergrad office for the correct deadline date.")

The co-op department said yesterday that 3,574 students are in co-op jobs this term, up from 3,372 in the same term a year ago. There are 394 students still unemployed for the winter, which is also up from last year's figure, 333. The placement rate as of the first week of January was 90 per cent, down from last year's 91 per cent.

Almost half the unemployed students are in first year, 171; another 152 are in second year. Science has the lowest placement rate, 68 per cent, with 244 students in jobs and 114 without them. The largest group of co-op students is in engineering, which has 1,335 students employed and 86 still looking.

"The overall percentage of students employed is similar to last year although there are approximately 200 more students in the system," says co-op director Bruce Lumsden. "The Canadian economy appears to be fairly robust, but employees are still cautious about committing to long-term hiring given the volatility of the economy over the past three years. Co-op offers an excellent option for employers regardless of size of the company or the nature of the work.

"We will continue to work with the students who are still unemployed."

They call my country Winter

Weather-in-a-word: revolting. One result of the rain, ice, wind and snow overnight is that the Canadian flag is frozen to a spot halfway up the flagpole at the University Avenue entrance. A ladder team is en route to rescue the Maple Leaf, I'm told.

But the weather, of course, is much worse east of here, where the cold snap is adding misery on top of the layer of ice that has paralyzed eastern Ontario and southern Québec. Classes won't resume at Queen's University in Kingston until Thursday. In hard-hit Montréal, the Ecole Polytechnique is hoping to reopen tomorrow; all of centre-ville now has electricity, but Hydro-Québec is asking big institutions and businesses to stay closed for another couple of days.

Exams for UW's distance education students were held on schedule Saturday across most of the country, but were deferred for some 300 students who were due to write at exam centres in Belleville, Brockville, Cornwall, Kingston, Montréal, Ottawa, Pembroke, Renfrew and Smiths Falls. "We hope to run the centres this coming Saturday," says Avril McVicar in distance ed, but that's not certain yet, especially for the cities that were hardest hit by the storm. "Students whose main priorities have become staying warm and trying to feed themselves and their families have not had time to prepare," she notes. "Studying in the cold by lamp or candlelight is not ideal!"

The talk of the campus

Grade reports from fall term courses are going to be ready a little earlier than expected. The new date is January 21, a week from tomorrow; grades will be available for pickup in Needles Hall at 10:00 that day, associate registrar Karen LeDrew says.

There was no trouble at Federation Hall on Saturday evening, at the first "dance night" since the end-of-term party a few weeks ago that led to violence as the crowds left Fed Hall in the early morning hours. Attendance was sharply down too, and the organizers said they'll lose money on the event, according to yesterday's Kitchener-Waterloo Record. They said at least a partial reason for the drop in attendance, from about 1,000 in the past to 650 this time, was the news that one of the recent cases of meningitis might have been contracted at Fed Hall -- even though health officials said the problem was individual "sharing activities" and nothing to do with the hall itself.

Meningitis vaccinations for students 23 and 24 are available at the Student Life Centre this afternoon from 3 to 7 p.m. What to bring along: health card (OHIP or UHIP), WatCard, identification with proof of age. The shots are free for students who are covered by the health plan, $20 for others.

Occasional international meals continue at Brubakers in the Student Life Centre; today at lunchtime, the food is from Vijays Indian restaurant.

A display of "digital imaging products" from Treck Hall, Kodak, Polaroid, and UW's own graphics photo-imaging service runs today and tomorrow from 9:00 to 4:30 in Davis Centre room 1301. "Products featured will include digital cameras, scanners, inkjet and dye sublimation printers, calibrated monitors and colour management systems," says Chris Hughes, supervisor of graphics photo-imaging. "This showcase will provide information and advice for those considering upgrading their current digital capabilities, as well as outlining options for accessing the services of digital imaging products."

Registration for campus recreation programs starts with ticket pickup this morning (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.) at the "red north" corner of the Physical Activities Complex.

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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