Daily Bulletin

What's in the public interest?

It's a new endeavour for WPIRG, and emphasis is placed on defining the phrase "Public Interest" and examining some examples of public interest issues, a news release explains:

For the first hour, a panel will discuss the definition of Public Interest. For the second hour, three topics will be explored concurrently: ethical concerns of biotechnology, impact of information technology on the public, and intellectual property rights. Each of the above three topics will be discussed by a panel. The third hour will be a plenary discussion.

Public Interest issue does not belong to any single area. As such, a multi-disciplinary approach has been taken in forming the panel members for this forum. . . .

There are three goals that we hope to achieve with this forum. First, we want to provide the academic community with a forum in which to explore and discuss the public interest aspects of their discipline. Second, we want to form partnerships with the academics to consider a current public interest issue in their field. And third, we want to create opportunities for discussion and reflection on public interest issues identified by members of the academic community as of current concern in a given field.

So what does "Public Interest" mean to you? What issues are you concerned with? Do you think that UW community has the public interest at heart? What about other universities? What kind of impact does the growing field of information technology have on our society on the general public? What about biotechnology? What kind of ethical concerns do we have and how do we address it? Is it a matter of education or should research be limited? Let's talk about intellectual property rights. What kind of rights does the public have on intellectual property developed on campus? How does the increasing corporatization of universities across Canada affect the public rights? Do you have questions? Come to the UW & the Public Interest Forum.

"No sign up is necessary," says WPIRG. "You can just show up."

German club gives UW its history

Oh, Kay, wrong fellow In Wednesday's Bulletin, announcing the "Green Talks" symposium, I said that Paul Kay was going to be one of the speakers. In fact the speaker was James Kay; both are in UW's faculty of environmental studies, but they aren't the same person by any means. "James has played a very major role in establishing WatGreen on this campus and in creating and directing the ERS 285 'Greening the Campus' course," Paul tells me -- and then compounds the confusion by admitting that he, Paul, also did teach 285 last year. "It was due to James's efforts and generosity," he says, "that I, or any of my colleagues, could easily slip into the instructor's role for it."

Founded in 1873 as the Concordia Male Choir, the club is the largest and oldest of the five German clubs in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. In recognition of the club's long and important role in the history of the area, members presented its archives and papers collection of photographs, documents, minutes and ephemera to UW's Doris Lewis Rare Book Room. Although much of the club's earliest records were destroyed by fire, the records donated will be an important resource for students studying the unique German culture and traditions as they have been maintained in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

The archives have been used extensively in preparing a book to be launched this month documenting the club's history. The club also presented the library with a cheque for $6,000 to assist in the processing and preservation of the papers. Special collections librarian Susan Saunders Bellingham said these records are very welcome, and complement other local archives including the papers of the Motz and Breithaupt families as well as the records of K-W Oktoberfest Inc.

The club has also given its support to the study of German language, culture and traditions with the gift of a $1,000 scholarship to the department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures. David John, department chair, said the annual scholarship "is a sign of the Concordia Club's continuing commitment to the study of German at the University of Waterloo and will help ensure continued expertise in German among the next generation." A similar scholarship was awarded to Wilfrid Laurier University's language department.

On behalf of UW, Geoffrey Hayes of the history department presented a copy of his recently published Waterloo County: An Illustrated History. Hayes said that from its founding in 1873, the Concordia Club's membership nurtured Berlin/Kitchener's reputation as a major economic and German-Canadian cultural centre.

A busy Friday the 13th

An open house about the draft Computing Directions statement will be held at 11:30 today in Davis Centre room 1304.

Thomas Barstow of Kansas State University, who's visiting the kinesiology department, will speak at 1:30 today on "Oxygen Uptake Kinetics During Heavy Exercise" (Matthews Hall room 1621).

A reception to honour students who have made the Dean's List in the faculty of arts will be held from 4 to 6 this afternoon in the Festival Room, South Campus Hall, with the dean as host.

The Kiwanis Travelogue series returns to the Humanities Theatre tonight, with slides and words about the state o'Maine.

The Vietnamese Student Association has "a post-midterm bash" tonight -- Dde^m Da. Vu~ Karaoke -- at the Pho Nam Restaurant in Kitchener.

The Pat Skinner Trio makes music tonight at the Graduate House.

The weekend and next week

The UW badminton club holds its once-a-term tournament this weekend, with players expected from several neighbouring universities as well as from this campus. The play starts at 6:30 tonight (singles) and 12:30 tomorrow afternoon (doubles) at the Columbia Recreation Complex.

The drama department's production of "The Taming of the Shrew" continues in the Theatre of the Arts, tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 -- "comic twists, battles of wit, and conflicts between the senses", and all in iambic pentameter.

The University of Guelph holds its annual College Royal open house this weekend, with animals at the Ontario Veterinary College, food at the dairy, the musical "Fame" at War Memorial Hall and, if previous years are anything to go by, free cookies with bugs in them in the entomology department. Open hours are 9 to 5 Saturday, 10 to 4 Sunday.

The OUA volleyball all-star games are being played at UW this year: tomorrow night in the Physical Activities Complex (women at 6:30 p.m., men at 8:00). Tickets are $5.

St. Jerome's College plays host to "The Musical Legends, Las Vegas Style" on Saturday night at 8, a show sponsored by the local Knights of Columbus. Tickets are $8.

The Math Grad Ball takes place Saturday night at the beautiful Bingeman ballroom in Kitchener. "Divide and Conquer" is the theme, I see from the curiously wrought display on the third floor of the Math and Computer building. Organizers are effusive: "Come by yourself or bring a date along -- nobody really cares -- we just want everyone graduating to be there." (And after the ball was over, I suppose, the studying begins, to make sure you do graduate.)

The career development seminar series continues next week. On Monday: "Interview Skills, Selling Your Skills" at 10:30 in Math and Computer room 5158; "Gain the Competitive Edge, Know the Employer" at 2:30 in Needles Hall room 1020.

Next week brings March break for students in local elementary and high schools -- lots of kids looking for things to do, and some parents taking some time off to be with them. (That may just be why the UW staff association office will be closed all next week.) The big thing for high schoolers to do, at least at Waterloo, comes on Tuesday with the annual Campus Day open house, one of UW's biggest events of the year.

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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