Daily Bulletin

Almost ready for Student Life 101

Academic hot dates July 30 -- spring term classes end July 31 -- deadline for "Intent to Graduate" forms August 3 -- Civic Holiday August 4 -- Student Life 101 August 4-15 -- spring term exams September 4 -- deadline for fall term registration without late fees September 7 -- Labour Day September 14 -- fall term classes begin October 24 -- fall convocation

"Anyone -- students, faculty or staff -- who has a smile and a couple of hours, or even the day to spare is needed," she says. A volunteer meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Needles Hall room 3001, and anyone interested in helping is invited to attend.

While organizers plan to build on the success of last year's Student Life 101 -- designed to make new students and their families feel at home on campus before they actually arrive in September -- there will be some new activities this year. To reduce line-ups on August. 4, students attending the day-long orientation will be able to register on-line or by mail. To get acquainted with their advisors and professors, a new "hitting the books" session allows time for faculty visits. Learning diversity is the topic of a panel discussion by seasoned students, and the accessibility centre will demonstrate adaptive technology, including voice recognition and output systems, at the Dana Porter Library.

Looking back to Canada Day

Canada Day celebrations have been held on the north campus since 1985. The flag-on-the-face effect was part of last year's event.

"It's been suggested by a couple of sources, including a local radio station, that the UW celebration may be one of the biggest Canada Day events in the country, maybe even number 2 behind the one on Ottawa's Parliament Hill," says Martin Van Nierop, director of information and public affairs. (And Ottawa got rain on July 1 this year, which cut down on the crowds there, so maybe Waterloo even surpassed that one, somebody said.)

"It's certainly the biggest one-day community event put on annually by any university in Canada," Van Nierop says with confidence.

A crowd estimated at 55,000 showed up for the afternoon and evening of activities, capped by a fireworks display at 10:15 p.m. over the lake. Because of the huge crowd, traffic became a big problem as people tried to leave the university area at the end of the day. There's hope of working out some improvements for next year, Van Nierop said.

He says in a statement put out Friday that "Many people and groups deserve special thanks for making the day a success." He extended thanks to community relations coordinator Nancy Heide, head student volunteer Alyson Woloshyn, the 25-member steering committee and the more than 250 volunteers (mainly students) who came out and helped make the day happen. "Thanks also to the Engineering Society, Math Society and the Student Ambassador Association who organized and sponsored the children's events, plus Central Stores, Food Services, Plant Operations, the Safety Office and UW Police; also to Butch Shantz (of stores) and Chico Silvestri (of plant ops) for their tireless assistance," he added.

UW web site of the day

"MOO is a religion for people who don't believe in religion," this page says. And then, "If you think this religion is a joke, you have NO sense of humour. . . .

Still no Trellis The Trellis computer system operated by the libraries at UW and two neighbouring universities is still out of operation this morning. It was taken down Wednesday for what was to have been "approximately two days", but trouble followed. Software experts from Chicago, where Endeavor, the system's creator, has its headquarters, are working on the problem, the library says. "Circulation services will continue to be provided through manual or offline charge processes in each library," a memo says. And users can search the UW library's catalogue through the old WatCat system.

"Not only does it irreverently (and sometimes irrelevantly) sample innumerable other religious traditions, it uses recontextualization and paradoxical framing techniques to prevent minds from settling into orthodoxy. Paradox and radical self-contradiction are, in the postmodern context, the most reasonable way to approach the Absolute." Got that?

Another page on the site -- maintained by math student Jeff Morton -- hints that MOO can be equally well identified as "some sort of game, a religion or even a particularly obscure postmodern artform". It apparently doesn't ("yet") have anything to do with the kind of artificial computer universe known as MUD, Object-Oriented.

Morton says he gets asked, "Do we mean this stuff for real, or is it simply some kind of elaborate put-on?" and he says that's the wrong question.

What about the web site itself? "The MOO page is a resource center for MOOists, and people interested in subjects relating to MOOism, such as new religions, conceptual art, social games, and mind control," he says. "It gets a reasonable response -- twenty or thirty hits a day, and between one and three people per week mail me about it in one way or another."

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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