Daily Bulletin

Information for future teachers

"The deadline for receipt of applications and amendments at the Application Centre is Tuesday, December 1, 1998," says Jayne Hayden in UW's career services, "although it's recommended that completed applications be submitted as soon as possible since some universities may require additional information."

The big question is, how easy will it be to get into a teaching degree program? Are opportunities bright for those who want to help the next generation of children reach their potential, or are people getting soured on the whole teaching profession because of strikes, curriculum disputes and too many anecdotes of unemployed teachers? Says Hayden: "I'm afraid I have no idea as to chances this year: I believe last year they said applications had been down the previous year, but that doesn't really give us an idea about this year. The presenters do address this in their presentations or in response to this question, which is often asked, so I guess students will have to come to the talks to find out!"

A major magnet for would-be teachers from Waterloo is Althouse College of Education at the University of Western Ontario, which is telling applicants that "Admission to all Faculty of Education programs is very competitive; the fulfilment of the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission.

"The minimum requirement for admission is an acceptable baccalaureate degree with an overall average of 70.0%. Where teaching subjects are required, a minimum of 70.0% in the courses supporting those subjects is also required. Preference is given to students who have the greatest strength in the subject area(s) they wish to teach. Graduates with four-year degrees, or equivalent, are usually given preference over students with three-year degrees.

"Selection of candidates is based primarily on academic standing, but the Faculty also takes experiential qualifications into consideration."

Institutions that will be represented on campus Tuesday, with talks given in Davis Centre room 1302, are Lakehead (9:30), Queen's (10:30), Toronto (11:30, with a separate talk about the Institute of Child Study at 2:30), and Brock (3:30). Wednesday it's Nipissing (9:30), Western (10:30), Windsor (11:30), York (2:30, and Ottawa (3:30). Thursday will see visits from D'Youville in New York, TEACH (representing Scotland, England and Australia), St. Bonaventure (New York), KOM Consultants, Maine at Presque Isle, Canisius (New York), the Waterloo Centre for Applied Linguistics, Medaille (New York), Northern College (Scotland), St. Andrew's (Scotland), and Calgary -- all from 1:00 to 3:30 and all in Davis Centre room 1301.

The policies book, and other news

The football Warriors ran into a little trouble on the way to the Vanier Cup; UW's undefeated team lost 44-20 to the similarly undefeated Western Mustangs, despite impressive numbers for the offence.

Things are busy at Conrad Grebel College. the latest issue of the college Bulletin makes clear. "Did you know that there are currently 67 out of 117 students in the residence building hooked up to the network? . . . Now available at the front desk is Stack Your Dishes, your favorite Grebel recipes gathered together in one volume. Makes a great stocking stuffer at only $4.00 each. . . . September 30 through October 14, the Peace Society will be holding a food drive. . . . For those of you residents who were looking for a comfier room and stole the cushions from the Alumni lounge, please return them so our lovely associates can have a comfy space too." And Saturday was Family Day, an opportunity for students' parents and siblings to see what Grebel is really all about.

I was commenting Friday on a UW connection to the new animated movie "Antz", and have learned that in fact there are two, at least. One is Shawn Neely, the lead software person at PDI, which created the movie; another is "our modeling R&D guy" on the project, Barry Fowler. Both have MMath degrees earned in UW's computer graphics lab.

The five-day World Conference on Higher Education, organized by Unesco, opens today in Paris. Some 2,700 delegates will discuss higher education and development, trends and innovations, and culture and society.

UW joins the Campbell's kids

"We would like to thank our community for responding to our survey," says Joanne Buchholzer, marketing manager for food services. "The results for the soup survey have been analyzed and summarized. As a result of the survey we have chosen Campbell's Soup as the preferred soup to offer our community."

The Village cafeterias will also still have "home-made" soups, she adds. "By offering both home-made soup and a prepared soup we are able to offer consistent quality, increased variety (30 flavours), and nutritional data."

The now familiar soup in its early days, circa 1897.

I visualized somebody opening scores of those little red-and-white cans and pouring them into soup vats at each food outlet. No, says Buchholzer. "The product we are using is Chef's Collection by Campbell's, which is a premium frozen condensed soup." She adds that each soup pot holds 48 eight-ounce bowls of the hot stuff.

Soup menu this week: broccoli and cheese today, chicken noodle tomorrow, cream of cauliflower on Wednesday, minestrone on Thursday, and clam chowder on Friday.

Events of today and the week

Career development seminars are under way for this term. Today at 10:30: "Resume Writing". Wednesday at 1:30: "Information Interviews: How to Speak to Someone Who Knows". Wednesday at 2:30: "Career Decision-Making". All these sessions are held in Needles Hall room 1020.

Neil Randall, of UW's department of English, will speak today in the noon-hour lecture series at Kitchener Public Library. His topic: "Assessing the Internet". (How big is the Internet anyway?)

The two candidates for the post of dean of arts will meet the public this week. Today's speaker is David John, of the Germanic and Slavic department, who will be centre stage at an open meeting in the Theatre of the Arts from 1:30 to 3:00. On Wednesday, Bob Kerton of the economics department will appear in the same location, from 12:30 to 2:00.

Tenure appeal case The report of the University Tenure Appeal Committee also describes one "difficult" case considered during the year, in which review committees and the president of the university had decided an individual (unidentified in the report) should not get tenure. Hearings were held in April "on its merits and on interpretation of policy. . . . On balance, the judgement of TAC was that the Appellant's overall record merited the granting of tenure." And so, under Policy 53, he or she does get tenure.

The executive committee of the UW senate will meet at 3:30 this afternoon (Needles Hall room 3004) to review the agenda for the senate's monthly meeting. Among the agenda items is the annual report from the University Tenure Appeals Committee, which advises that 19 people were awarded tenure at UW in 1997-98 and another 6 were appointed to faculty positions with tenure coming immediately.

An information session about Fulbright Awards, scholarships that could take graduate students or faculty members to study in the United States in style next year, will be held tomorrow morning. It starts at 10 a.m. in Needles Hall room 3001.

The student awards office will be closed on Wednesday, and also on the next two Wednesdays, October 14 and 21: "The priority in the Student Awards Office for the last several weeks has been activities which facilitate registration for the fall term," says a memo from the registrar. "There is a severe backlog in the workload which has accumulated. Our focus is now shifting to that backlog so that we can continue to deliver financial aid to students accurately and on time."

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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