Daily Bulletin

Classes are over; holiday weekend

Meanwhile, we come to the Civic Holiday long weekend. Monday, August 3, is a holiday, and UW offices and most services will be closed. The Computing Help and Information Place will be closed all weekend, from tonight at 5 until Tuesday morning at 8. Over the weekend, says a memo from information systems and technology,

If you notice an outage of the campus computer network or any major IST-maintained computing facility during this period, you can report it by telephoning the IST HelpDesk at 888-4357. If the outage has a severe impact on the University computing environment and the appropriate facility-support personnel can be contacted, the problem will be addressed; otherwise, it will be pursued Tuesday morning.

Some key services continue as always:

• UW police: on duty 24 hours as always, 888-4911.
• Student Life Centre: open 24 hours, turnkey desk 888-4434.
• Maintenance emergencies: phone ext. 3793, 24 hours a day.

Looking ahead to Tuesday

With some 3,500 first year students and their parents and siblings arriving for the "getting to know you" event -- which starts at 9 a.m. -- traffic around the Ring Road could be very congested between 8 and 9, parking manager Elaine Koolstra warns. Carpooling or other alternatives to reduce traffic can help prevent gridlock. Traffic and security staff will be posted at both north and south entrances to direct visitors to parking lots M, N, and R, and to Village lots if necessary.

"We have a pretty good handle on things," she predicted, noting that people with permits won't be displaced from their usual parking areas.

"Throughout the day, students and families will be touring their new campus, buying books, registering, getting their WatCards and just generally getting acquainted with UW. This is where you come in," says a note from the Student Life 101 steering committee. "They will have lots of questions and we hope you will make them feel welcome."

Although a team of staff, student and faculty volunteers -- resplendent in vivid yellow shirts -- has been recruited for the occasion, Student Life 101 organizers are handing out bright yellow "Ask Me!" buttons to identify UW employees who will point people pondering a campus map in the right direction. Buttons are available from the student services office on the third floor of Needles Hall.

The event will "relieve student and parent anxiety", says Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services). It'll also "alleviate some of the huge lineups the first week of school" because students can get their WatCards and do much of their other paperwork before September rolls around. Federation Hall is the headquarters for SL 101 activities.

Non-credit courses hit the web -- reported by Barbara Elve

Touted as "the first Canadian partnership to offer you online courses in computing skills", the arrangement provides ten six-week courses with lessons e-mailed to participants each week. According to the calendar description, "Each class has its own website, and most lessons have an interactive, web-based assignment or demonstration. Students will also have access to a web-based electronic bulletin board that allows interaction with one another."

Under the agreement Education to Go provides the course contents and materials and delivers the course. As for UW's role: "We bring the students to them," says continuing education manager Maureen Jones. From the fees collected by UW, Education to Go is paid a flat rate per student.

Jones said the department was unable to find a Canadian company that offered a comparable service. Staff from UW information systems and technology -- which also teaches continuing education computer courses -- vetted Education to Go's curriculum and course materials to ensure they were of high quality, she added.

The courses meet a need for some people who find it difficult to attend classes on campus, and can be taken at the pace convenient for each person, said Jones. "They allow us to increase both the number and variety of courses." Since the courses are offered through institutions in the U.S., as well, UW can provide the course for even one student, if necessary, while on-campus classes need a minimum enrolment to be viable.

More on pigeons David Churchill, technical director of plant operations, writes to say that the pigeon situation, as described in comments over the past couple of days, "isn't completely hopeless. Mr. Testart's comment about pigeons under the link between E2 (C2?) and ESC is, I hope, out of date. The Building Section of Plant Operations recently made an attractive alteration that has discouraged them. Of course they just moved to MC. The handouts he refers to are the main reason pigeons, seagulls and squirrels are a problem."

Although software requirements depend on course content, in general, participants are required to have Internet access, e-mail, and a web browser. Some courses are PC-based, some are Mac-based, and some use either platform.

Also new from continuing education this term are a number of on-campus courses, including screenwriting, online resume preparation, advanced mediation, two Microsoft ACCESS courses, Microsoft Project '98, and for kids, astronomy and creating a storybook.

While some people scramble to keep up with technology, others are just trying to get a grip on a rapidly changing world. "We've tried to create a family calendar, with something in it for everybody," said Jones. In addition to courses allowing people to brush up on their computer skills, personal development courses and classes for children are popular. Enrolment in last year's continuing education courses jumped 25 per cent from the previous year.

A course in great demand last year, "Reality Isn't What It Used to Be", has been revived this year as "Reality Still Isn't What It Used to Be: The Journey Continues", providing a lecture/discussion format with academics, and religious and community leaders. Among the topics of discussion: values, economics, the environment, culture, suicide, and religion.

Registration for continuing education courses can be carried out by mail, phone, fax, in person, or on the website. Although the official deadline is one week prior to the start of the class, some courses fill up quickly, Jones advised, so "register early and avoid disappointment."

Other notes and announcements

UW fine arts students who spent May drawing England are presenting their work in the exhibition "1998 England Drawing" from July 19 to August 23 at the Fine Arts Gallery in East Campus Hall. Some 31 students in both drawing and art history courses visited England from May 6 to 22. The trip was a first for the fine arts department, which has taken classes to several other European countries over the years.

The swimming pool in the Physical Activities Complex will close for the summer as of 6:00 tonight.

The Arriscraft Lecture Series in the school of architecture winds up tonight with a reception at 5:00, followed with a 7:00 talk by Alberto Perez-Gomez of Montréal. His topic: "Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge". Location: the "green room" in Environmental Studies II. Meanwhile, thesis work by fifth-year architecture students is on display (through August 10) in the ES II foyer and nearby studios.

People from a dozen universities, mostly in Ontario, will be at UW over the weekend for the "Summer Bible Conference" of the University Bible Fellowship. Sessions are being held in the Humanities Theatre and at St. Jerome's University.

Robin Jones has issued a challenge to closet UW folkies: "Come out and perform." As a member of The Men of the Pit -- a local folk music phenomenon, not to be confused with The Men of the Deeps -- Jones is helping to host the open stage at the Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music in Cambridge (Galt) on Saturday at 6 p.m. Depending on how many musicians turn up, each performer will get to do two songs, or fifteen minutes of music. "It will be fun," promises Jones, a machinist technician in the school of optometry. The annual free festival gets underway Friday night, and the music starts again at 1 p.m. Saturday.

UW web site of the day

"Your senator" in this case is Shannon Bernstein, the undergraduate representative on the UW senate from environmental studies and independent studies. "My job is to represent your views to the University Administration," he writes on this page. "To do that, I need to hear from YOU!"

Bernstein explains: "There is, I have found, a general lack of awareness among students that they are represented by one of their peers at the level of the Senate. The purpose of the page is twofold. It is there to provide general information about how the University is run and what issues are currently being faced. It is also there to provide an avenue for communication between the students and myself, ensuring that the views I take to Senate are in fact the views of the students I represent.

"The page is the first of its kind, as far as I can tell, and also contains a complete list of senators and committee members. It's a bit early to comment on the effectiveness of the page, but I plan to introduce it to students through the Faculty's listserv when the Senate gets back underway in September."

Besides links to senate agendas, membership lists and "frequently asked questions", the page has a section headed "I need your views". The current issue being aired there: can one senator really represent students in both ES and IS, and if not, what might be done to change the rules? Bernstein has a proposal.

CAR

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