Daily Bulletin

Skills to manage conflict

"All energy requires conflict. All productivity requires harmony. Conflict, and the management of it, is essential to productivity. We must learn to understand it and respect its significance."

The new program will offer brief courses, two to six days long, on such topics as "Alternative Dispute Resolution", "Managing Generational Transitions in Business Environments", and "Enhanced Mediation Skills". It's being marketed to such people as supervisors, civic leaders, human resources managers, lawyers, union officials, social workers, insurance claims adjusters and "others who work in situations of conflict". Three courses will lead to a Certificate in Conflict Management from Grebel.

The college "has the longest standing Peace and Conflict Studies program in Canada", says Lowell Ewert, the program director. "It is both timely and appropriate that we respond by introducing a new Certificate Program . . . a skill based training for those who seek to act as arbitrators and mediators in the home, community and the workplace."

Today's launch event runs from 4 to 6 p.m. in the alumni lounge at Grebel. At 5:15 Rick Russell, a partner in Agree Dispute Resolution, will give a special presentation.

Friends honour creators today

There's an exhibition of the books and other works that came from UW people during 1998, and there's lunch; and the headline event is a talk by one of the creators, Leonard Enns of Conrad Grebel College, the chair of UW's music department.

Leonard Enns -- photo by Ron Hewson

He'll be speaking (at 12 noon) on "Dressing Old Words New: Exploring a Composer's Wardrobe". Admission is free.

Each year since 1993, the Friends of the Library have sponsored an event of this kind in early May, giving the campus a chance to see what people have been creating, and to hear the considered thoughts of one such creator. The first lecturer was James Downey, president of the university; those who followed have been authors; and now music takes the listeners' attention.

Books and other works in the display today are from such fields as architecture (Between Lines: from Doodles to Composition, by Anupam Banerji and Michael Elmitt), literature (Images of Goethe through Schiller's 'Egmont', by David John), and mathematics (Graph Theory as I Have Known It, by William Tutte).

New officials in the library

Says Shepherd's memo:

A first step in the change was to redefine the roles of the two department heads responsible for Reference and Collections Management. Effective May 1, Margaret Hendley, formerly Department Head of Porter Reference and Collections, became Assistant University Librarian, Information Services; and Joan Macdonald, formerly Head, Davis Reference and Collections, became Assistant University Librarian, Information Resources Management.

Information Services includes . . . reference services, instructional programmes and materials, consultation services, and access to, organisation and delivery of electronic information resources and services.

Information Resource Management includes . . . the development and management of information resources policies and practices to ensure the effective support of learning; the co-ordination of such activities as relegation to the TUG Annex, de-accessioning, serials title review and cancellation. Joan, as Assistant University Librarian, Information Resources Management, is accountable for . . . the design, development and expenditure of the Library's Acquisitions Budget, and presenting and defending the budget to various bodies of the university.

Today, tomorrow and forever

Club Days are under way in the Student Life Centre, and one club is making the most of the opportunity. There's an Ontario election going on, after all. So the New Democratic Party Club is bringing Ted Martin, the NDP candidate in Kitchener-Waterloo riding, to the SLC today. He'll be at the NDP table to hand out information, and will speak on education issues at 2 p.m.

Carousel Dance, the school based in what's left of UW's dance program in East Campus Hall, presents its spring concert in the Humanities Theatre tonight and tomorrow night at 7:00.

Hot water, building heat and steam will be turned off in the Doug Wright Engineering Building, a.k.a. Engineering I, tomorrow from 12:30 to 3:00. The shutoff will allow a crew to repair a high-pressure steam leak in a service tunnel, the plant operations department says.

Visitors continue to stream through the Ron Eydt Village conference centre. Arriving today and staying until Friday: some 65 participants in "Camp Enterprise", sponsored by the Rotary Club.

The Bike Centre is now open: Monday 12:30 to 6:30 and Tuesday from 12:30 to 4:30. Says volunteer Ted Harms: "Our reduced hours are due to a lack of volunteers. If you'd like to volunteer and can spare two hours/week, come out to meeting that will be held Wednesday from 1:00 to 2:30. You won't need to be there the whole time -- just leave us your schedule and we can answer any questions you might have. We'll contact you in a few days about training and scheduling. The meeting takes place in the Bike Centre, which is located in the Student Life Centre, room 101A, phone us at ext. 5174 or e-mail tmharms@uwaterloo."

The Computer Help and Information Place will be opening late this Friday morning -- not until 10 a.m. -- so staff can attend a department meeting.

The staff association is in search of a staff representative on the dean of mathematics nominating committee. (Those in the know will remember that Alan George is serving a two-year term as "interim dean", after the previous search for a dean ran into difficulties; it's now time to try again.) For membership on the nominating committee, "While staff members from across campus are encouraged to apply, preference will be given to individuals who work in the Faculty of Mathematics," a staff association note says. Anyone interested should be in touch with Karen LeDrew (ext. 4019, e-mail ledrewbk@nh1adm) by May 20.

Finally . . . people have been asking what's with the earth-moving machinery high above Columbia Street on the southern edge of the north campus. The work is enlarging the playing field area, says David Churchill, technical director in the plant operations department. He also mentions a fairly spectacular piece of work done a few days ago: a huge air handling unit, with its mechanical room built right in, was hoisted to the roof of Environmental Studies II by a mighty crane. The area was evacuated while the unit was airborne, just as a precaution, he notes. It's the second phase of a project to improve ventilation in the architecture studios on the second floor of ES2; the first phase, involving new vents and ducts, was done last year.

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