Daily Bulletin

Students honour police officer -- by Barbara Elve

As yesterday's Gazette reported, a special presentation was made to Constable J.D. Marchand of the UW police, "not because he is a student, but because he is a leader for students and an example for us all," said Feds vice-president Keanin Loomis in making the award. "I had heard a lot of stories about J.D. and his generosity," said Loomis of the man he described as an "imposing figure with the heart of gold". Marchand's support and encouragement is cited as the reason some students have stayed in school.

But it was Marchand's part in an event in the Student Life Centre on Campus Day that especially captured attention. Marchand, who hails from a Native reserve near Ottawa, took a break from his duties that day to participate in a First Nations drum ceremony in the Great Hall. The fact that a man in a UW police uniform was "singing just as loud and banging just as hard on that drum as the young men who so evidently admired . . . him" was "heartwarming," said Loomis.

For Marchand, the award comes as "a bit of a shock. I'm honoured, flattered, but what have I done? I've found it's easier to do my job if I'm approachable," and as for the drumming, "I went out and did something I enjoyed doing. Drumming is part of my culture."

Although Marchand minimizes his achievements, for the cop who arrived on campus in 1996 after working in corrections for six years, adapting to university life has been no mean feat. "It was quite the transition in terms of my attitude," he admits. "I had to ease up. Students aren't inmates, and I had that standoffishness about me. In corrections, I got to see the worst society has to offer. Here, everyone has a goal to better themselves. My job is to help them along the way."

Marchand has become a member of the steering committee for the Native Students Association to help provide a sense of direction for the group. "I know what it's like to leave home," he says. "I'm from a very small community and had a hard time in college. I often wanted to go back home," he says simply. "I seek common ground with people. It's good for Native students to have a Native police officer, and I like to think I've educated my peers here in terms of Native culture and stereotypes," he adds. He tells the tale of a student who came bursting into the parking office complaining that "some big Hawaiian guy" had given him a ticket.

"Although I'm not a student, I've learned so much since I've been here," says Marchand, who is moving back to the Ottawa area with his wife this spring to be closer to his family. "I'm not looking forward to the day I'm gone."

Non-credit courses are listed

Among the new spring on-line offerings are Marketing for Small Business, Motivation, Conflict Resolution and Problem Solving, Interpersonal Skills for Managers, and Business Communications Using Email.

On-line computer and "basic supervision" courses are offered by Education to Go, a U.S. firm, in partnership with Waterloo. Each course runs for six weeks, has its own website, and provides interactive, web-based assignments or demonstrations. A web-based electronic bulletin board allows students to interact.

Being introduced this spring are Tracing Your Irish Ancestors II, Irish Folk Customs and Beliefs, and Irish Language. All three are taught by Tom Power, who received his PhD in history from the University of Dublin. He has taught in the Celtic studies program at the University of Toronto, where he currently is librarian at Wycliffe College.

Also offered for the first time are Introduction to Mathcad 8 Professional, and two additions to the professional development section: People Skills in the Knowledge Era, and Getting More Life out of Your Time.

As well, courses are offered in the areas of personal development, languages, business writing and communications, computing skills, and "just for kids", featuring astronomy and computer classes for young people.

With contributions from UW's staff training and development fund, staff are offered a 50 per cent discount on most continuing education courses.

Students can register by mail, phone, fax, in person, or on the website. Courses start throughout April, May and June. "You can enrol at least one week prior to the start of the course, but if you wait until the last minute to register for a course, it may be too late," the continuing education office advises. "Register early and avoid disappointment."

Arts awards for UW people

The honour recognizes Patterson's creative work in painting, sculpture, textiles, design, drawing, illustration and literature which appear across Canada and internationally. Her latest achievement is the children's book The Tramp Room, which is set in Kitchener's Joseph Schneider Haus.

Other UW people were also honoured at the presentations for excellence in literature, visual arts, performing arts and music in Kitchener-Waterloo. St. Jerome's English professor and internationally recognized author Eric McCormack was given the Literary Award, and UW alumna Cheryl Ewing received the Open Award for her work as an actor, director and stage manager for local theatre groups, and as an arts administrator.

Of nominations and colloquia

Nominations are invited for three vacant seats on the university senate -- one to represent full-time mathematics faculty, one to represent full-time faculty at large, and one to represent full-time and part-time graduate students. In all cases the term runs through April 30, 2000. Nominations should be sent to the chief returning officer, university secretariat, Needles Hall, no later than 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 22. (Nomination forms are available from the secretariat, phone ext. 6125.) By-elections will follow if necessary.

Nominations of another kind: tomorrow's the deadline for nominations to executive positions in the staff association for the coming year. Forms were sent out some weeks ago; the association is in search of a president-elect, a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer and two directors. Last-minute details are available from the staff association office, Davis Centre room 3603.

Academic events today:

• A presentation from the tourism program, by Barbara McNicol of the University of Calgary, "Industrial Tourism Resort Development in Canmore, Alberta", at 2:00 in Environmental Studies I room 221.
• A chemical engineering seminar by Stefan Idziak of the UW physics department, "Seeing the Squeeze: Complex Fluids Under Flow and Confinement", 3:30 p.m. Doug Wright Building (that's Engineering I) room 2517.
• A physics colloquium by Jacqueline Krim of North Carolina State, "The Atomic Scale Origins of Friction", 3:30, Physics room 308.

There's news from the Federation of Students used book store: a shipment of some 8,000 books has arrived, leftovers from the Canadian Federation of University Women book sale last weekend. They're for sale at a quarter apiece outside the store, as an alternative to being shipped to a landfill site.

One of UW's earliest faculty members, Norman Meikle of what was then the department of electrical engineering, died on Monday. Meikle taught at UW from 1958 until retirement in 1986. It was military service, as an electrical artificer in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, that turned Meikle's interest toward engineering: "I got to know a group of officers there who were engineers," he said. After World War II he earned an engineering degree at Toronto and worked in industry before coming to Waterloo when the institution was barely one year old. A memorial service for Meikle is to be held at 2 p.m. today at the K-W Naval Association, 315 Weber Street North.

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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