Daily Bulletin

The world visits UW tomorrow

"We hope that their experience on campus will increase their interest in attending Waterloo," says Paulette O'Grady of the undergraduate recruitment and publications staff in the registrar's office. "Our main objectives are to provide information for our visitors and answer their questions, as well as to acquaint them with some of the people involved with our programs and services."

Most Campus Day activities begin around 8:30 a.m. and some continue until 4 p.m., involving professors, staff and students from departments and service areas across the campus.

Although most visitors will be students in the last year or two of high school, scouting Waterloo as a possibility for their futures, it's also a day for parents. There will be an information session for them, covering such topics as academic admission, residence admission, co-operative education and regular systems of study, student support services and financing a university education.

The Visitors Centre and concourse at South Campus Hall will will be the focal point for the day's events. Walking tours will start there and there will be information and displays.

UW's six faculties will hold special activities and tours, centred in Matthews Hall (applied health sciences), Humanities (arts), Carl Pollock Hall (engineering), Environmental Studies II (architecture), ES I (the rest of environmental studies), Math and Computer (mathematics), PAS (independent studies), Biology I (science), and Optometry (optometry, obviously).

The church colleges -- Conrad Grebel, Renison, St. Paul's United, and St. Jerome's -- are also involved, offering tours and special events. The residences are offering tours, as are the people in information systems and technology (at the CHIP, Math and Computer room 1078), the co-op education and career services department, and health services.

Crowds are expected on University Avenue tomorrow morning, and staff, students and faculty who need to drive onto the main campus are being advised to use the Columbia Street entrance instead. There's every reason to expect crowds at the cafeterias tomorrow too.

For younger students, the faculty of engineering and the Engineering Society will be offering Explorations tonight. "It is a time," says Leah Nacua of 3B chemical engineering, "for the community's elementary school children and their parents to learn about engineering and its applications. Displays and demonstrations will be put on by all departments of engineering. These are the same displays that are shown during Campus Day. We are expecting over 1,100 parents and children to attend." In previous years, Explorations was held on a Saturday; the shift to the Monday evening before Campus Day (from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.) is something new.

Architecture puts best foot forward

"Waterloo was the first Canadian school to be accredited," says Eric Haldenby, director of the school. He gives some background:

The accreditation process in architecture is extremely demanding since it is not a simple check of curriculum content and credit hours, but rather involves a demonstration by the School that each graduate is capable of meeting 54 performance criteria. Evidence must be provided in the form of actual student work. Each course, each assignment, each examination and each project in the entire curriculum must be documented and samples of the results provided illustrating high pass, medium pass and low pass work.

To make it possible for the Visiting Team to check the student work, a major exhibition of design and other work done has been mounted in the Environmental Studies buildings. These displays are, for the most part, visible to the public and all members of the University community are cordially invited to tout the School of Architecture during the accreditation visit, March 15-18, 1998. Work from all five years will be on display, including work from the off-campus programmes in Rome and Helsinki.

There are other criteria which must be met in the areas of staffing, administrative arrangements, programme structure, support facilities and ethical responsibilities. In demonstrating the quality of the teaching staff, both Full-time and Adjunct, the School has mounted an exhibition of design and scholarly work by faculty members which will also be visible during the course of the visit.

Invitations have gone out for a reception at 4:30 this afternoon to mark the opening of the exhibition and the CACB team's visit.

The senate meets tonight

Later on the agenda will be matters that range from a joint honours program in science and anthropology to the usual list of faculty appointments and changes. This year's winners of the Distinguished Teacher Awards are expected to be announced, and the senate will be asked to approve a resolution saying that it "applauds the federal government" for the Canada Opportunities Strategy announced in the recent budget, "and the support for students and families which it will provide".

The senate will also take a look at the admission requirements that UW will announce for students arriving here in 1999. The information "has been modified", says a memo from registrar Ken Lavigne, "to address the fact that although six OACs, the OSSD and a minimum admission average of 70.0% continue to be required for final admission, other factors such as Grades 11 and 12 marks may be used in some programs to make earlier conditional offers." Various minor changes are also being made.

Endowments; career seminars; bridge

The career development seminar series continues. Tomorrow: "Self-Assessment, The Key to Success" at 1:30 in Needles Hall room 1030; "Consider Your Options, Occupational Research" at 2:30 in NH room 1115; "Information Interviews, How to Speak to Someone Who Knows", at 3:30 in NH room 1020.

A UW team came second in the fourth annual Canadian university bridge championships, held over the weekend at the University of Toronto. Seven teams from four universities took part. Waterloo sent two teams to attempt to capture its first national championship. The UW "black" squad of Colin Lee, David Halasi (actually a ringer from Laurier), Danny Miles and Kevin Purbhoo, with non-playing captain Drew Gillen, was the heavy favourite, and cruised through Saturday's round-robin, finishing on top and easily qualifying for Sunday's final. In that event, UW took an early lead over a Toronto team, but a tough second half saw U of T reel in Waterloo Black and end up winning the national title, 72-58.5. Meanwhile, the Waterloo Gold team of Michael Brown, Jehran Chua, Edmund Fok, Richard Gallant and Gaston Tsang was close to making it to the final but came up just short.

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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