Daily Bulletin

St. Jerome's gets a president

Michael Higgins

Higgins will succeed Doug Letson, president of the college since 1989. Letson is the first lay person to be president of the college -- his predecessors were all priests in the Congregation of the Resurrection, which founded St. Jerome's in 1865.

Higgins was the unanimous choice of the presidential search committee, and has been approved by the college board of governors, the leadership of the Resurrectionists, and the Bishop of Hamilton, says an announcement from Brian Eby, chair of the St. Jerome's board.

A professor of religious studies and English, Higgins has been at St. Jerome's since 1982. His writings include books about the mystic Thomas Merton and about George Emmett Carter, former cardinal archbishop of Toronto, and he is frequently seen on television and heard on radio talking about anything from mystery novels to the election of Popes.

Two managers are announced

• Stan (Butch) Shantz becomes manager of central stores.
• Steve Cook becomes manager of purchasing services, formerly called just "purchasing".

"The two departments," says Huber, "operate under the umbrella of the Material Resources Group, designed to bring together the many and varied activities that impact the flow of goods and services across the campus. Included in those activities are moving services, receiving and distribution, storage, purchasing, traffic management/shipping, expediting, surplus/asset disposal, customs, and postal services."

Physics contest winners are named
-- from the UW news bureau

John Vanderkooy, a UW physics professor who runs the exam, says the results are close to the expected average. Last year, two students solved all 14 problems. Success in the contest requires a good grasp of high school physics and a concise, analytical mind, he adds.

Mikaela Enachescu of Dawson College in Montreal, the second-place finisher, solved 12 of the problems while four students -- Stephen Drew of Nepean High School, Wojciech Golab of Denis O'Connor High School in Ajax, Ont., Ashish Khisti of Woburn Collegiate Institute and Shu Liang of Earl Haig Secondary School, both in Toronto -- tied for third by solving 11 problems.

The contest is computer-scored, but the top 240 papers were hand-marked to select winners of scholarships and 148 book prizes. Five to 10 of the top students are expected to accept Sir Isaac Newton scholarships to study honors physics at UW, in either the regular or co-operative (work-study) program.

Physics questions the students faced involved various fictional and real characters, politicians and scientists. Among those featured were Romeo and Juliet, Québec Premier Lucien Bouchard, Québec Liberal leader Jean Charest, Reform leader Preston Manning, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, cartoon characters Odie and Garfield, and Star Trek's Dr. Spock and the Enterprise.

Announcements for a hot week

Water and utilities will be shut off in a number of rooms in Chemistry II all day tomorrow to allow renovations in the room 262 laboratory, the plant operations department says.

The career development seminar series continues. Tomorrow at 10:30: "Interview Skills -- Selling Your Skills", in Needles Hall room 1020.

The city of Waterloo will celebrate its 50th anniversary of full cityhood with "a family picnic in the spirit of 1948" this Thursday. The event will run from 4:30 to 9 p.m. in Waterloo Park, and promises "free food and beverages at 4:30 while it lasts", plus music and sports for adults and kids. (More details in the Bulletin later this week.)

The library is planning an upgrade to the Trellis computer system some time next week, which will mean a day or two of down time. "Information about alternatives for access and circulation services during this time will be publicized as soon as possible," an announcement says.

The local Volunteer Action Centre has plenty of organizations that would welcome help. For example, neighbourhood associations in Kitchener want volunteers to work on an August carnival and a "Healthy Community Project"' a seniors; home would like a visitor who can speak Portuguese, to spend some time (and play some euchre) with an elderly man; the Food Bank wants warehouse assistants to help collect food from drop-off points, weigh it and do similar duties. More information about any of these opportunities: 742-8610.

UW web site of the day

The Electronic Library classifies this page under "disciplines", somewhere between maps and women's studies, but it includes much more than purely academic information about personal disabilities -- such as a sizeable list of companies that make adaptive equipment, especially for computer users with disabilities.

Also included is a list of Web sites about specific kinds of disabilities -- auditory, cognitive, medical, oral, physical, psychological, visual, "other". (One of them is the "Cornucopia of Disability Information"; there's also the "Sibling Support Project".)

"People with disabilities as well as counsellors, teachers, and librarians who help people with disabilities have made use of this site and make suggestions on additional sites," says Jane Forgay, the librarian who's responsible for the page. She also heads the Accessibility Centre in the Dana Porter Library, which helps people with disabilities make use of UW library resources. (There's a similar centre in the Davis Centre library.)

Among other parts of her site is an "Alternative Formats" page which, she explains, "provides links to, for example, catalogues of talking books, enlarged print or Brailled text collections". There are also lists of electronic discussion groups and electronic publications in the field.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Friday's Bulletin
Copyright © 1998 University of Waterloo