Daily Bulletin

Yellow T-shirts greet newcomers

It's the fourth annual Student Life 101 -- an orientation program "designed by students for students" to help with the transition to university life before the first few fast-paced weeks of classes. Melanie Hazelton, UW's first-year student life coordinator, said at least 4,500 students and other visitors are expected at the event, which offers activities from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Among them will be about 1,600 of the 4,000 students admitted to start at UW next month.

The "host" is Becky Faist (left), a second-year recreation and leisure studies student, who is director of SL101.

The idea of a summer orientation event came from a suggestion by a student who found that he and many other newcomers were overwhelmed with all that is going on in September. SL101 helps to "relieve student and parent anxiety and reassure them that UW is a warm and friendly place," says Catharine Scott, UW's associate provost (human resources and student services). "We want to let them know that there are a lot of people and services here to help them and to make their years here fun."

A key presentation is called "Student Life at UW" and will be held from 11 a.m. to noon in the Physical Activities Complex, where incoming students will learn about the university. They'll also get a chance to meet some interesting people on campus including UW president David Johnston and Chris Farley, president of the Federation of Students.

Also on the agenda is "Up Close and Personal" as students begin their campus tour at Federation Hall, traditionally described as the largest on-campus pub in North America. There they can visit booths and views displays telling them about student services including athletics and recreational services, co-operative education and career services, counselling services, distance and continuing education, food services, graphics, housing and residences, information systems and technology, the library, office for persons with disabilities, police and parking services, retail services (bookstore, computer store and UW shop), St. Jerome's University, and student awards.

Afterwards, they can check out the Student Life Centre, "the living room of the university," visiting information booths and learning about the Federation, academic rights advisers and off-campus dons, as well as clubs and student associations.

Campus tours are offered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and food services will be cooking up a barbecue in parking lot R from noon to 2 p.m. "It won't rain," Hazelton said firmly as she summed up the plans for the day.

Other presentations will include "Take the Bridge to Health" to answer student health concerns and give tours of health services; "Adaptive Technology" at the Dana Porter Library's accessibility centre to showcase services available to assist students with disabilities; and tips on helping to plan the future at the career resource centre.

As well, there will be presentations on "Getting Off on the Right Foot", how to combine academics and extracurricular activities; "Making the Transition", how to ease the move from home to campus life; Co-operative Education; and playing the "Who Wants to be an Off-Campus Student" game with information on finding accommodation away from the university.

Co-op employment is up slightly

"It would appear that our efforts to maintain and increase the number of co-op jobs are successful. However, we are at the front edge of the enrolment increase and it will be up to all of us to maintain our leadership position in the co-op employment field."

His report includes figures as of July 25: 3,245 students have jobs for the September-to-December term, while 248 students were still looking (96 in math, 79 in engineering, and a sprinkling of others). That adds up to an employment rate of 92.9 per cent.

A year earlier, at the beginning of August 1999, 2,902 students had fall term jobs and 264 were still looking for work (an employment rate of 91.7 per cent).

Almost half the co-op students who are scheduled for work this fall are in engineering: 1,583 of them. Math is second, with 1,106. Figures in other faculties and programs: applied health sciences, 172; arts, 241; accounting, 2; architecture, 10; environmental studies, 86; science, 12; teaching, 1.

Says Lumsden: "There are many factors that can influence co-op employment figures. One of these factors is our marketing program." He points out a new brochure for employers, titled Waterloo Co-op Works, which is "the first of our efforts to upgrade our suite of print and electronic publications". It was designed by the co-op department's new marketing officer, Michael Hunt.

Between terms Food services outlets open August 14 through September 1 include the Bookends Café in the bookstore in South Campus Hall; Brubakers in the Student Life Centre; Pastry Plus in Needles Hall; Tim Horton's in the Davis Centre; and Bon Appetit, also in Davis ("BBQ only", and only over the noon hour). Food outlets are open Monday to Friday. The Right Angle Café, operated by the Math Society on the third floor of the Math and Computer building, will be open Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries will be open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the University Map and Design library will be open Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 4:30. Until after Labour Day, the libraries will be closed Saturday and Sundays. Waterloo-based veterans of the Shad Valley program will hold their second ShadPub of the season tonight at 7:00 at Johnny Fiasco's in University Plaza II east of campus.

Helping banks assess start-ups -- from the annual report of the faculty of engineering

Thomas Åstebro (right) says there is a better way. Holder of the UW Associate Chair in Management of Technological Change, he is also a founding member of the Institute for Innovation Research (IIR), an interdisciplinary group formed to carry out research on venture investment decision-making for new technology-based companies. One of Åstebro's key interests is how to estimate the business worthiness of new ventures.

Successful new companies bring fresh energy as well as new ideas, products, and jobs to the economy. But banks find it hard to assess which enterprises are likely to succeed and often rely on assessing the personal credit of the entrepreneur -- which may be nil. That leaves a large pool of promising business potential untapped.

The solution, Åstebro says, is to include key entrepreneurial success factors in any risk assessment. As a special employee of the U.S. Bureau of the Census during 1995-1999, he studied a group of nearly 4,700 American entrepreneur/owners and concluded that formal education levels and previous business experience were among the factors most critical to business survival during the first four years of operation.

When he created a credit-scoring model that used those key factors to predict business survival, a group of firms chosen by his model but refused a loan by commercial banks had a survival rate of 87 per cent. The rate for new firms granted commercial loans was less than 73 per cent, while the average start-up had a survival rate of 70 per cent. Banks using this method of assessing credit risk can reduce their chances of loss and give new entrepreneurs a better chance of success.

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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