Daily Bulletin

Meetings tonight name the president

Closed meetings of the UW senate and board of governors have been called for this evening to hear a report from the presidential nominating committee. An announcement is expected first thing tomorrow morning. Under UW's Policy 50, presidents are appointed by the senate and board on the advice of a nominating committee chaired by the chancellor of the university -- currently Val O'Donovan, head of the high-tech firm Com Dev Ltd. Faculty, student, staff, alumni and board of governors representatives are elected and appointed to the committee, which has been doing its work with the help of a consulting firm, Landmark Consulting Group.

In a "profile" made public during the summer, the committee said it was looking for a president who could "provide outstanding academic leadership within a vibrant and complex culture, maintain the intellectual independence and integrity of the University, and anticipate and invoke a visionary approach in all matters both internal and external". Details included "excellence", "linkages", "financial health" (and "a major fund-raising campaign"), "positive relations", "open communication and accessibility", "achievements and vision".

Perhaps no one could live up to all those expectations, and no one would presume to try except Simon the Troll, who has been watching UW's presidents for some 41 years now. (His informal history of UW, Water Under the Bridge, is due for publication later this fall.) Simon issued a brief statement today saying that he is still available for the job, if the nominating committee has a last-minute change of heart.

Like the rest of us, Simon will be wondering what kind of president the committee has found to lead UW into the next century. A businessman with a vision, like founding president Gerry Hagey? A consolidator and administrator with an incredible memory for names and faces, like Burt Matthews? A dizzyingly energetic high-flyer and networker, like Doug Wright?

Or perhaps an eloquent English professor who came speaking of the president's "pastoral" role, like James Downey? He arrived in the spring of 1993 knowing that he had big shoes to fill. He said then: "If I can, in the tradition of Hagey and Matthews and Wright, maintain the spirit of adventure, find the new frontiers that have to be explored and developed, then I will take my leave with a great deal of satisfaction."

Downey's term is scheduled to finish June 30, 1999. We're all wondering what to expect from his successor.

Catholic activist speaks this week

"The Pascal Lectures bring to the University of Waterloo outstanding individuals of international repute who have distinguished themselves in both an area of scholarly endeavour and an area of Christian thought or life," the lecture brochure explains. They're privately funded, and have brought to UW everybody from Malcolm Muggeridge in 1978 to Madeleine L'Engle in 1985.

Leddy's academic field is the philosophy of religion, "with an emphasis on Holocaust studies"; her areas of Christian thought and life include peace and social justice, as reflected in hundreds of articles and four books, most recently At the Border Called Hope. She was a founding editor of the independent newspaper Catholic New Times. She is currently director of the Romero House Community for Refugees in Toronto. Leddy has an honorary degree from UW and is a member of the Order of Canada.

She comes to Waterloo this week to speak on "Redeeming Power". These are the four scheduled events: Tuesday, a seminar on "Dynamics of Power in the Canadian Context", 3 p.m., St. Jerome's University room 221; the first public lecture, "Power and Powerlessness", 8 p.m., Theatre of the Arts. Wednesday, a seminar on "The Spirit of Power", 4 p.m., Conrad Grebel College chapel; the second public lecture, "Power with a Difference", 8 p.m., Theatre of the Arts. Admission to all the events is free.

Long-time German professor mourned

He was active on campus, through the faculty association as well as in his academic work, and equally active in the Kitchener-Waterloo community, as a soccer referee, a Liberal Party activist, and a frequent columnist in the K-W Record. For a time he hosted a German-language program on local cable television. He was also a chess master, an amateur farmer, and "a softie", says his son, who tried to present himself as "the cantankerous, eccentric professor".

Born in Winnipeg and educated at the University of Manitoba, Jakobsh studied in Köln for a time but came to Waterloo to complete his PhD in 1971, just as he was starting his career in the Germanic and Slavic department. His specialty was German culture, and he wrote extensively about such topics as German unity and the close link between romanticism and racism.

Jakobsh is survived by his wife, Irmgard, and a son and a daughter. The funeral will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at Waterloo North Presbyterian Church.

The rest of the story

"We are trying to work on building a new image for the women's centre," writes volunteer Christine Cheng, "on making it as accessible and as welcoming as we possibly can." And help is wanted:

The Women's Centre is looking for volunteers to help out with events like the Montreal Massacre Memorial, International Women's Week, Voices (our art and literary journal), movie nights, coffee houses, setting up a social and political discussion group, bringing in different speakers -- and keeping office hours in the resource centre. It's also a great chance to meet other women who have similar interests. Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 7, from 11:30 to 1 p.m. in the Women's Centre in the SLC. We are also planning a coffee house for Thursday, October 15, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

The periodic Imaginus poster sale is running this week in the Student Life Centre, with Van Gogh, Leonard DiCaprio, Miles Davis, Picasso, Spiderman and Sarah McLaughlin posters among the hundreds for sale. Poster hours are 9 a.m to 8 p.m. today thorough Thursday, 9 to 5 on Friday.

The heritage resources series continues with a 7:30 p.m. talk on heritage planning, given by Gordon Nelson of UW's heritage resources centre and Leon Bensason of the city of Kitchener. The talk begins at 7:30 in Davis Centre room 1304.

The monthly sale of surplus UW equipment -- which could be anything from obsolete computers to old chairs -- is scheduled for tomorrow, from 11:30 to 1:30, at central stores, East Campus Hall (off Phillip Street).

And this news from the United States: any day now, president Bill (all about impeachment) Clinton is expected to sign a five-year renewal of the Higher Education Act, the law that provides federal loans and "Pell Grants" to support hundreds of thousands of students. As approved by Congress, the new version of the Act increases the limit on grants, denies federal student aid to people convicted of drug offences until they complete a rehabilitation program, and lets colleges offer new incentives to tenured faculty members to take early retirement.

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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