Daily Bulletin

Anita Lebold, a temporary staff member in the community relations office, shows off Canada Day souvenir T-shirts.

One week to the fireworks

"It will look a lot more festive this year -- more balloons, more streamers, more red," says Nancy Elash of UW's community relations office, which is coordinating the arrangements for the party. Her office is packed almost solid this week with T-shirts, posters, volunteer kits (Canada Day needs hundreds of volunteers), and 2,000 red-and-white maple leaf balloons.

Canada Day celebrants of all ages will enjoy a wide variety of activities -- and best of all, it's free. The fun begins at 2 p.m. with face-painting, children's games and events, kite-flying demonstrations, an arts and crafts fair, UW museums, and more.

Ceremonies take place at 4 p.m. when local dignitaries bring their regards, the national anthem is sung by a local student, the UW Briefcase Drill Team performs, and birthday cake is served. After the ceremonies, local bands take the stage. Grand River Ceili Band (4:30 p.m.), Traces Steel Drum Band (5:15 p.m.), Finnigan's Tongue (6:15 p.m.), the Kitchener Musical Society Band (7:15 p.m.), Fletcher Valve Drummers (8:15 p.m.) and Steady Eddy (9:15 p.m.) are scheduled. At 8 p.m. the children's games end, but the fun continues with a "campfire" sing-along.

At 10:15 p.m. the now traditional candlelight closing ceremony and the spectacular fireworks, enhanced by CHYM-FM's musical mastery, complete the celebrations.

The party is sponsored by the University of Waterloo -- it's the university's biggest community event of the year -- and the Federation of Students with help from the Engineering Society, the Math Society, the Student Ambassador Association and many sponsors and volunteers. "We're still looking for volunteers," says Elash. "There are positions in children's games, concessions, security, and field operations. People can volunteer for four-hour shifts or longer. All volunteers get a Canada Day T-shirt,a free meal and an opportunity to win lots of neat prizes." Anyone interested can call Daryl Lee at 725-5682 or e-mail smwillis@artsmail.

Athletic scholarships rejected

Finding the money "would be a big task", especially with current funding constraints, said UW athletics director Judy McCrae. "It's poor timing."

The move was initiated by universities in western Canada with the support of some Atlantic schools, and a vote came at the CIAU meeting last week in Collingwood. Ontario schools generally opposed the motion.

While schools in other parts of the country may have 16 varsity teams, "the model in Ontario is different," McCrae says. "We (at UW) have a huge, broad-based program with 32 varsity teams." Without adequate resources to fund scholarships, only some of those team members would benefit, creating have and have-not sports. "It would be discriminatory to give scholarships to some, and not to others," said McCrae.

At UW, "we don't present scholarships," she added. Financial aid bursaries are available to students, and three senior student financial awards are presented annually, based not only on athletic performance, but on academic marks and community service. The one Canadian institution that regularly offers athletic scholarships -- and isn't a member of the CIAU -- is Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Money and titles (dateline Ottawa)

"These measures, coupled with major new NSERC investment in university research and university partnership with industry, will help make science and engineering careers more attractive for young Canadians," says NSERC president Tom Brzustowski. After years of cuts, the agency's allocation from the federal government went up from a previously projected $422 million to $493 million. The budget will rise to $495 million next year, and $501 million the year after.

Almost 3,600 NSERC scholars and fellows will see immediate increases to their stipends, an announcement said. "Undergraduates will also be eligible for some of the new NSERC money: $7.2 million has been set aside for 2,000 new awards next year under the Undergraduate Student Research Awards program. In addition, NSERC will award 700 new postgraduate scholarships and fellowships, some of which will be offered immediately to excellent applicants whom NSERC had been unable to fund in its last competition."

The agency said that "Within the next two weeks, NSERC will also announce the results of a major review to redistribute basic research funding. A further $10 million of the new funds will be used to supplement the $20 million originally reserved for this exercise, allowing NSERC to support more of the excellent proposals brought forward by the Canadian research community."

Other news from Ottawa-based agencies:

• Jean-Louis Roux, well known for a long acting and directing career, and briefly lieutenant-governor of Québec in 1996, is the new chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.
• Jean Monty, president of BEC Inc. (the parent of Bell Canada), has been named to chair the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation.
• The Canada Council has given its $50,000 Killam Prizes, "in recognition of outstanding achievements" in science, health sciences and engineering, to three Canadians: Fernand Labrie, director of the hospital research centre at Université Laval; Martha Salcudean, professor in computational fluid dynamics at the University of British Columbia; Juan (Tito) Scaiano, University of Ottawa chemistry professor.
• James L. Turk, most recently an official for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, is the new executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

As the days grow shorter

A teaching and learning workshop on "Helping Students Think More Creatively" will run from 1:30 to 3:30 this afternoon in Math and Computer room 2034. The facilitator is Richard Holmes of the philosophy department.

Electrical power and ventilation will be shut off in Carl Pollock Hall and part of the Doug Wright Building (Engineering I) from 6:00 to 10:00 tonight for maintenance on the electrical substation, the plant operations department warns -- advising people in those areas to shut down their computers "in an orderly fashion" before the power goes off.

There's just one job listed in the Positions Available list from the human resources department this week: parking records clerk in the parking services office, grade USG 4.

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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