Daily Bulletin

Celebrating Canada's birthday

The Canada Day celebrations, sponsored by UW and the Federation of Students, will get under way at 2 p.m. with face-painting, children's games and events, kite-flying demonstrations, and an arts and crafts fair. It's the 15th year for the annual party north of Columbia Street.

The music on stage will start with folk-rock at 3:00. At 4:00, the opening ceremonies officially launch the festivities with the national anthem and free birthday cake for everyone present. Live entertainment continues all day, ending with the event's official closing ceremonies at 10:00. Other groups performing on-stage include rock cover bands, a First Nations drum group, Celtic, jazz and island music groups.

Then at 10:15 p.m. the now traditional candlelight closing ceremony (candles will be sold for $2) and the fireworks, enhanced by music from radio station CHYM-FM, complete the celebrations.

"The feeling you get, singing "O Canada" surrounded by tens of thousands of your neighbours and friends, is really amazing. Add to that 20 minutes of fantastic fireworks, and you've got the perfect finale to a really memorable day," says student organizer Daryl Lee Winters.

Hamburgers, souvlaki and candy floss will be for sale on the north campus; yes, there are bathrooms available; the entertainment is all free, although donation boxes will be available. Watch for Columbia Street to be closed from Westmount to Phillip, but most of UW's main campus parking lots will be open and free for the day (enter by University Avenue).

Dean of arts finishes his term

Hendley now goes on leave, and will eventually return to UW's department of philosophy, where he's a specialist in the philosophy of education and particularly the theories of American thinker John Dewey. "One of my first little research trips will be to Harvard," says Yale graduate Hendley. He's discovered a little-known cache of Dewey letters in the business library at Harvard and thinks they'll be worth exploring.

And at St. Jerome's Doug Letson, president of St. Jerome's University since 1989, finishes his term today. He'll be succeeded July 1 by Michael Higgins, currently vice-president and academic dean. Letson, a professor of English, has been the first lay person to head St. Jerome's.

"I've also got half a dozen books on theories of higher education that I never got to read while doing this job," the soon-to-be-ex-dean says. First, though, he's planning to "veg out" for a good part of this summer and enjoy some family travels. His wife, Margaret Hendley, UW's assistant university librarian (information services), will take early retirement at the end of the summer. "We're trying to think of a way to get back to Italy," the dean adds.

Looking over his years as dean, Hendley says he shouldn't have been surprised to discover that keeping a university going is harder in practice than it is in theory, even Dewey's theory. "There's a fair amount of aggression, and there's territorial invasions and defending of one's turf," he says, describing the management of an arts faculty as something like "trying to keep a stable central government in Italy". With 15 academic departments, "it's awfully hard to have a collective will," says Hendley. But he gives the department chairs and other leaders of his faculty absolutely top marks for the way they handled UW's 1993-96 financial crisis and the other excitements of the past few years.

Colleagues, in turn, give Hendley rave reviews. "Brian Hendley has been a tremendous dean," one faculty member told me, "because his ability to see the big picture and the long term, and his logical analysis of what the problem is. He has led us with calmness, purpose and wisdom." Another faculty member called him "a person of the utmost integrity and fairness, and seemingly endless patience", not to mention "an apparently irrepressible sense of humour".

Major achievements in arts over the past eight years: the "community and world service" co-op program (which allows students to get work term credit for unpaid stints in volunteer organizations); the creation of chair in Jewish studies; development of the "arts and business" program, which this year drew 650 applications for 75 first-year places. On Hendley's agenda but not yet accomplished: exploring the first-year student experience, student retention and the possibility of a "common course" for all students. "There's stuff that is just bubbling up," the dean says, and he predicts a busy time for Kerton as he takes over.

Kids' programs start next week

Today and tomorrow The bookstore holds a "pre-Canada-Day barbecue" from 12 to 1 today at its premises in South Campus Hall. And there's a draw for several books by Canadian authors. Posting #1 in the "continuous phase" of co-op job placement will go up at 12 noon today. "Apply if you had no interviews or were not ranked," the co-op department advises. Students who did get ranked by employers will find out their job matches for the fall term on Monday. UW alumni in California's Silicon Valley have been invited to a get-together tomorrow -- the first outing for the Silicon Valley Branch of the alumni. "From what we hear," says Dave McDougall in the alumni affairs office, "many alumni have been looking forward to getting together at this event. It may be just to see other Waterloo types, but it could be a nationalistic thing, with the big American holiday being a couple of days later." The July 1 party runs from 7 to 9 on Thursday evening at the Blue Chalk Cafe in Palo Alto.

Mary Varcoe, director of Arts Computer Experience, says the first two-week session is "pretty much full", but there's still room in the sessions that begin July 19, August 3 and August 16. ACE is aimed at students aged 7 to 12.

"Instructors have been really hard at work on the curriculum," Varcoe said yesterday, mentioning "some exciting art projects" and a new program of web page design. ACE youngsters, this year clad in denim-blue T-shirts, get instruction in art, computers, drama and music, as well as outdoor games and that essential for a day camp, swimming. Parents can reach ACE at ext. 5939 for registration information.

Enthusiasm for Engineering Science Quest is "amazing" this year, says staff member Karen Kleihauer. ESQ is running 11 different one-week camps, for students from grade 1 through the end of high school, and the majority of them are fully booked, she said. Some spaces are available here and there, particularly for the older students' camps.

"We'll be the colours of the rainbow," Kleihauer said, as participants' T-shirts identify which camp they're in. A camp for students entering grades 1 and 2 is new this year, as is a session with a "women in science" emphasis. And ESQ is again offering "ExXtreme Camping" for senior students with an emphasis on computers and technology. (Some parents have longingly asked whether they can register for that session along with their kids, Kleihauer claims.)

"Enjoy the laughter and the ruckus," she says to people across campus who may hear the lively ESQ campers over the coming weeks. "Sorry for the inconvenience!" She says UW staff, faculty and students are encouraged to stop by when they see ESQ activities going on; many of them have already volunteered to help campers with one project or another. For more ESQ information, the number to phone is ext. 5239.

For younger children, two summer programs based at UW day care centres are also getting started next week -- a camp at the Hildegard Marsden Day Nursery (phone ext. 5437) and one at the Klemmer Farmhouse Nursery (phone 885-5181).

In late August, Conrad Grebel College will host the Ontario Mennonite Music Camp. Phone 885-0220 ext. 226 for information.

Sunrayce team finishes tenth

As the race finished yesterday, the first-place position went to a car from the University of Missouri at Rolla, with a total elapsed (cumulative) time of 56 hours, 16 minutes and 44 seconds and an average speed of 25.30 miles per hour.

Queen's University secured second spot, and Montréal's Ecole de Technologie Superieure finished in eighth place. In 10th place came UW's Midnight Sun V with a total elapsed time of 72:42:15 and an average speed of 19.58 mph.

Sunrayce 99 concluded its 10-day trip (including a day of rest) through the southeastern United States with a nonstop 82-mile route from Central Florida Community College in Ocala, Florida, to EPCOT at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista.

Sunrayce 99 is a biennial solar car race travelling this year from Washington, D.C., to EPCOT at Walt Disney World. The race featured 29 college and university teams from across North America that designed, built and drove cars powered solely by electricity from solar panels. Travelling through five eastern seaboard states, Sunrayce 99 is the fifth solar vehicle race staged by its three sponsors -- the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and EDS.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Yesterday's Bulletin
Copyright © 1999 University of Waterloo