Daily Bulletin

Loading dock is for the birds

Imagine yourself as one of the many visitors to the Math and Computer building. Most often you will arrive at our esteemed building by taxi or limousine. Therefore, you will not enter the building through the impressive front entrance with its sculptured wall. You will, instead, enter by the Math loading dock area. As you attempt to enter the building you should (but in this case will not) see a signpost up ahead. You are about to enter the "Pigeon Zone". Watch your step, please.

It's not that we in the Math building don't care about how disgusting the loading dock area entrance to our building is -- all this mess caused by pigeon droppings. We really do notice. We are also aware of the dangers on the outside landings, but no "Slippery When Wet" signs are available to put in place after a rain.

I guess the inhabitants of Math and Computer just keep waiting for someone to do something. We have been waiting for years, in fact. Well, no time like the present, I say.

Since pigeon control programs in urban areas have been attempted but for the most part are unsuccessful, a way to eliminate the perching area around (and above) the loading dock needs to be found.

What other readers are saying

"Secondly, and more a matter of opinion than fact: it's my belief that the reconstruction of the corner of Westmount and University Avenues (mentioned in today's DB) is some distance from completion. The course of the new curb from northbound Westmount around to the right onto eastbound University is not matched by an adjacent traffic lane; perhaps the next step is the removal or reduction of the triangular island so that a right turn does not have to make the abrupt 90-degree angle we currently see, but the more gentle sweep described by the curb."

On education: Windsor Viney, graduate student in philosophy, responds to a recent Bulletin's report about a survey that found much admiration for college diplomas as the employment credential of the future. I had written, "It looks as though the survey emphasized job creation, rather than making an attempt to find out what, if anything, Ontarians think about post-secondary education as a way of preparing for life, or even for life-long careers." Says Viney: "Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying that -- it's a very bad sign when Ontario, which continues to fancy itself the most important part of the country, begins to ape Alberta's education-is-merely-job-training policies. (And I'm from Alberta!)"

On geography: Raymond Legge of chemical engineering "got a chuckle when I read today's Bulletin to learn that UW would do some research on how we might solve the problem of 'distance' in attracting new students. It reminded me of a quote from Mark Twain, which suggests that the solution may be to move UW to the Mississippi: 'In the space of 176 years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself 242 miles. This is on average a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person who is not blind or idiotic, can see that 742 years from now, the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns on conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.'"

Positions available, and more

• Computer operator, information systems and technology, grade USG 5.
• Hardware maintenance specialist, information systems and technology, grade USG 6.
• IBIS assistant, library (industrial and business information service), 15 hours a week, grade USG 4.
• Scheduling coordinator, registrar's office, grade USG 8.
• Food services assistant, food services.

Martin Van Nierop, director of information and public affairs, sends a note: "The thank-yous extended to Canada Day volunteers and workers for their splendid contributions (Daily Bulletin, July 27) inadvertently omitted a special thanks to the Federation of Students, especially the Feds' event coordinator, Heather Fawcett. Sorry for the omission."

Edward Murphy, a technician in the chemical engineering department from 1969 until his retirement in 1988, died on July 26. A memorial service is to be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Navy Club on Weber Street in Waterloo.

As spring term classes come to an end, the last session of Environmental Engineering 322 today is open to visitors. The course is "Engineering Economics", and today's class features a talk by Joe LaFleur, investment analyst for TD Evergreen, speaking on "Making the Most of Engineering Economics": interpreting the global economy, financial planning strategies, career opportunities in financial services. The class starts at 11:30 in Carl Pollock Hall room 3385.

The statistics and actuarial science department, and in particular the Institute of Insurance and Pension Research, sponsors a talk today by John Shepherd, a visitor from Australia's Macquarie University. He will speak at 3:30 (Math and Computer room 5158) on "The Actuarial Control Cycle".

A public report comes tomorrow on the survey of first-year students done at Ron Eydt Village last fall and winter. Questions were asked about students' problems, feelings, drinking, homesickness, sources of help, and so on. Kelly Foley, who's been working as first-year experience coordinator for the student affairs office, will present some of her findings tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Needles Hall room 3001.

The copy centre in the Dana Porter Library will be closed mornings for the rest of this week -- open only from 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. Regular hours resume next week.

The blood donor clinic in the Student Life Centre continues today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

UW web site of the day

"While this is a personal view," says Ken Davidson of the pure math department at the beginning of this essay, "I have found that most other calculus instructors are on this same wavelength." Among his comments:

Many faculty insult our students' intelligence by insisting that theoretical aspects of calculus are beyond their ken, and therefore should even not be broached in the freshman year. This is wrong! Mathematics is about understanding, not about memorizing formulae. The basics of real analysis on which calculus is based are subtle, but the key ideas were worked out hundreds of years ago, and by now there is plenty of experience in explaining it. As with many things, students can be expected to listen to material at a higher level than they can be expected to explain it on an examination.

"Originally it was intended for the math faculty here, but it has a more universal role as well. It was made available to the whole math faculty. I have had a quite positive response from expected sources. I suspect that most people who disagreed with it didn't bother to say much. I have had a few unexpected positive comments from people I know outside of UW."

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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