Daily Bulletin

Waving the flag on work term
-- by Kara Penner for the department of co-operative education and career services

The American view of Canada? Brendan Fraser as Dudley Do-Right in the new movie.

Answer: Send him one, along with a signed letter indicating that it was actually flown at the Canadian Consulate.

As Cultural Affairs Officer at the Consulate, second year UW co-op student Danielle Bieber had the opportunity to answer that and other inquiries, including "What is Boxing Day?" Danielle, an Arts Applied Studies student majoring in Spanish and International Trade, responded to 10 to 15 requests per week from American students for information about Canada.

Besides her duties assisting a busy officer, Danielle took on major projects of her own designed to promote Canadian culture. She states, "One of the main focuses of my job was Canadian cultural development and helping to increase the presence of Canadian culture in the Consulate's territory.

A project that occupied most of Danielle's time was the first "World in a Weekend: Toronto" exhibition, an event featuring performances by Canadian cultural individuals, organized in collaboration with the City of Chicago's Cultural Affairs Department. Her major focus for the event was the "City in a Suitcase" program -- a presentation about Toronto given to students from various elementary schools in Chicago. Commenting on her role in the event, she explains, "I gathered hundreds of materials for the students and assisted in the decoration of the display area at the Chicago Cultural Center. . . .I created posters and organized numerous brochures for the visitors to all the weekend events."

Another initiative Danielle helped create was a "Canada Book Day" promotion in a downtown Barnes & Noble bookstore. To advertise Canadian authors on April 23, she set up a display of Canadian books, as well as tourism brochures from Canada, and created bookmarks and flyers that were distributed by the bookstore. To publicize other Canadian talent presented in Chicago, Danielle helped develop and reformat a brochure entitled Canada On Stage. As a result of her efforts, the circulation of this publication increased from 25 to over 300 recipients.

As for her accomplishments, Danielle admits that the events were a huge success. "Not only did events such as the 'World in a Weekend: Toronto' and 'Canada Book Day' run smoothly with no catastrophes, but they generated a large amount of interest in Canada and Canadians. The Chicago public appeared to be delighted with the opportunity to interact on a personal level with Canadians -- especially the RCMP Officer who appeared in full 'red serge' uniform. There is certainly no greater sense of pride in being Canadian than when you are personally representing a part of Canadian culture abroad."

On-line: John Manley, the federal minister of industry, announced in mid-August that "Canada has become the first nation in the world to connect its public schools and libraries to the Internet. As of March 30, 1999, every Canadian public school, First Nations School and public library wanting to be connected by Industry Canada's SchoolNet partnership was brought on-line," he said. "This landmark achievement is a giant step forward for the Connecting Canadians strategy, which aims to make Canada the world's most connected nation." Manley made the announcement during a visit to a summer technology camp at Carleton University.

Diversity, e-mail, Irish and thou

Many of the more than 40 courses being offered this fall have been available before -- including "Homicide: From Crime Scene to Trial", taught by local crown attorney David Russell, and "Backyard Astronomy", taught by Scott Brooks of the physics department's Gus Bakos Observatory. Several courses in business writing, languages, and software (including PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and web page design) are also perennials.

New courses this term include "Understanding Personal and Relationship Stress", to be taught by consultant Gerry Call; "Exploring Diversity: Understanding Our Differences to Improve Performance", also taught by Call; and "Shakespeare and Thou", from Todd Pettigrew, whose PhD is from UW's English department.

"Introduction to the Irish Language, Part II" is also new this fall, along with "Business Communications Using E-mail". Previously offered children's courses in web page creation, astronomy and "create your own storybook" are being joined by "Fossils, Folklore and Fact for Ages 7-12".

The face-to-face courses last anywhere from one Saturday morning to ten Wednesday evenings, and involve fees that run from $35 to $495. With "some exceptions", UW staff members get a 50 per cent discount by arrangement with the staff training and development program. Faculty and students get a 25 per cent discount.

Also offered through continuing education again this fall is a series of on-line courses in computing skills, operated by the American firm "Education to Go". They include "Intro to the Internet", "Creating Web Graphics", and "Java Programming for the Web". (There are no discounts on the $95 fee for each of those six-week courses.)

A full listing of non-credit courses appears in the distance education calendar (phone ext. 4002 for a copy) and on the continuing education web site.

New in office today

Sivak, well-known for his imagination-grabbing research into penguin eyes, has been on the faculty in optometry since 1972, and became a full professor in 1980. He recently finished his fourth term as director of the school.

Said James Downey, UW's president when the choice of Sivak as the new dean was announced late last year: "The very fine reputation which the School enjoys, n North America and beyond, is due in no small measure to his efforts." Sivak also had much to do with introducing a graduate and research program to the optometry school, which was entirely a training school for practising optometrists when it came to UW from Toronto in 1967.

"He is a highly successful scholar and teacher," Downey wrote, "and has an impressive variety of research grant funding and contracts.

"Jake Sivak is a seasoned and successful administrator. He has a deep and abiding interest in graduate studies and research, a background that spans both fundamental and applied scholarship, and a good sense of the challenges UW faces."

At St. Paul's United College, there's a new principal today: Graham Brown takes on that position, though it will be a few days before he actually arrives in Waterloo.

Brown has been director of residences at Queen's University for the past nine years. He holds degrees from Toronto, Yale and Oxford, and has taught courses in religious ethics and the philosophy of religion in Canada and the United Kingdom. Recently, he edited a publication on theological education in Canada with contributions by an ecumenically diverse group of theologians from across the country.

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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