Daily Bulletin

Fee deadline is extended The deadline for winter term fees has been postponed to tomorrow because of yesterday's snow closing, says Jane Manson, director of finance. Residence fees were to be due yesterday, and tuition fees today. Cheques may be postdated to January 3, 2001. Fee payment information and fee schedules are available on the web. Food services changes The Village cafeterias did a roaring business yesterday, says food services director Mark Murdoch, because residence students had nowhere else to eat, and in some cases nothing else to do except nibble. Today he's busy rejigging plans for service over the next ten days. At a minimum, the residence cafeterias will stay open a day longer than was scheduled -- they generally close when exams finish. And it may be necessary to keep some other food outlets open next week that were scheduled to be closed, Murdoch said.

Open again after a snowy day

The 22nd, Friday of next week, was the day "reserved for examinations postponed by weather or general emergency", and yesterday brought weather, all right. Streets were just about impassable in the early morning, and with the snow still falling, the local school board announced that schools would be closed for the day. According to policy, that means UW is closed as well.

"Before Christmas it usually doesn't happen like this," says Jerry Hutten, foreperson of UW's grounds crew, who called in the daytime shift of shovellers and snowplow operators at 4 a.m. yesterday instead of the usual 7:30. "The last of them left at six or seven last night," he added.

Hutten said it's much easier to get roads, walkways and parking lots cleared when the university is closed and there aren't many people or vehicles around. "That was the best news, when I heard that!" It's the first time since 1994 that UW has been closed for a day by bad weather -- and the first time the "postponed exams" day has been used since the system was invented in the 1970s.

One casualty of yesterday's snow closing was today's Gazette, which won't appear on campus until tomorrow.

Ironically, the weather was clear and bright, though cold, by mid-morning yesterday, a perfect day for romping in the snow. But many students would have preferred to be writing exams, rather than altering their arrangements so they can be here as late as next Friday, three days before Christmas.

"I have to be on a plane to the United Arab Emirates on the 21st!" one student lamented by e-mail.

Registrar Ken Lavigne noted that students can ask faculty members to make alternative arrangements -- but later stressed that it's up to the instructor how to respond. Said Lavigne this morning:

My statement on yesterday's Daily Bulletin may have led some students to believe that instructors are required to make alternate arrangements in addition to or other than the scheduled alternate time on December 22. The official alternate for exams that were cancelled on Tuesday, December 12, is Friday, December 22 at the same time and location. While some instructors may decide to make alternate scheduling arrangements, they are not obligated to any alternative other than December 22.

Exhibit features the Canadian game

Bernie Range, museum technician and graduate student in recreation and leisure studies, tries out one of the crokinole boards

The exhibit, which will run until May in the museum's first-floor gallery in Matthews Hall, reflects a donation received last summer: a unique hoard of 56 crokinole boards collected by the late Wayne Kelly, author of a book about the traditional indoor game. They range in date of manufacture from 1880 to 1987, with 21 of the boards dating from 1910 or earlier, an announcement from the museum says. "Highlights or rare boards include an 1880 M.B. Ross Crokinole board, the first commercially made in the USA; a circa 1889 P.C. Allan (Toronto) Crokinole board, the oldest Canadian commercial board known; an Eaton's (Toronto) Crokinole board circa 1893; an Edgar O. Clark Co. (New York) circa 1914 Crokinole board-lithograph on cardboard with wood frame; and a Milton Bradley Co. Massachusetts, circa 1915 Crokinole board-lithograph on cardboard with wood frame.

"The collection also contains miscellaneous discs, playing pieces, rules, manuscripts, books, and the like.

"For the last ten years the collection was in the hands of an owner near Watford, Ontario. This past spring, in an effort to prevent the collection from slipping into American hands, this wonderful collection of Canadiana was purchased by an anonymous philanthropist from Toronto, and subsequently donated to our Museum."

The goal now, it says, is to develop a touring exhibit for the future that would travel to other museums in Ontario, or perhaps further abroad. Meanwhile, the exhibit in Matthews Hall is open (there's no admission charge) on Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:00 to 3:00, and Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 to 6:00.

New institute bridges biology and chemistry -- by Barbara Elve

While the two departments have managed to run a shared undergraduate biochemistry program, the new institute will provide an administrative bridging structure for that program, as well as for coordinating recruiting of biochemistry graduate students for both departments, and reviving the biochemistry seminar series.

Although programs like the seminar series "used to be run on an ad hoc basis," says institute director Bruce Greenberg, biology, "that's harder now. The university has grown, people have less time. Undergraduate enrolment is up, classes are larger, and faculty are picking up more administrative duties.

"In fact, we teach some of the largest classes on campus in biology and chemistry."

When the work load grew, programs without formal administrative backup sometimes fell through the cracks. "We didn't always know who was carrying the ball," Greenberg admits.

And while some universities have established a department of biochemistry, "we don't have the resources to mount another department," he said, noting, as well, that "no one is interested in leaving their department."

A year ago the dean of science struck a committee to "examine the needs of biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology in science." Greenberg chaired the committee -- Liz Meiering and John Honek (chemistry), Trish Schulte and Bernie Glick (biology) -- which proposed an institute structure as a way of raising the research profile and "making things run smoother".

With an institute in place, a half-time administrative assistant will be hired to handle scheduling of seminars, maintenance of the Web page used for grad student recruiting, maintenance of undergraduate files, internal and external communication, and other office duties.

Approved this fall, the institute has already undertaken a review of the curriculum for the undergraduate biochemistry program, a process needed to "ensure that the program meets the current and future accreditation requirements and remains pedagogically relevant."

Greenberg sees the institute as having "a complementary relationship" with the Biotechnology Research Centre, which focuses primarily on research and consulting. Membership in the institute will be open to all regular faculty at UW with an interest in biochemistry or molecular biology. In addition to more than 30 members from the biology and chemistry departments, faculty in other departments such as health studies, kinesiology, chemical engineering and computer science have expressed interest in being involved in the institute.

Open house in LT3, and other notes

Also today, at 12 noon: part II of "Fighting Fat After 30", a presentation by UW nutritionist Linda Barton, sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program (Davis Centre room 1302).

David Dietrich of the human resources department sends this advisory about maternity leave provisions at UW: "Policy 14 is under review due to legislative changes effective January 1, 2001, in federal Employment Insurance and in provincial Employment Standards. Any required changes in Policy 14 and union contract language will be made when the actual wording of the new legislation is available." In the meantime, anyone with questions can direct them to Glenda Rutledge in the HR department, phone ext. 6120.

If you clicked on "Policy 14" in the preceding paragraph, your web browser gave you not an HTML page but a PDF document, an elegant piece of work that requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to interpret it. "It became necessary to convert the policy files from HTML to PDF," says a memo from Trenny Canning in the university secretariat. "So, any direct links to the policies will be broken." She promises that "changing the names of policies is not something we intend to do on a frequent basis," and notes that a list of the policies is available as an HTML document as always.

And from elsewhere in HR: "The new Skills for the Electronic Workplace (SEW) brochure for January and February has been mailed out. Those interested in taking a course can send their registration form to Carolyn Vincent in HR or call ext. 2078 if they need more information. A list of the SEW courses being offered is available on the IST website."

Ontario Ballet Theatre performances of "The Nutcracker" are scheduled for 1:00 and 7:30 today in the Humanities Theatre. It's the second day of a two-day run; yesterday afternoon's school matinee was cancelled, but I understand that the evening performance did take place.

Several graphics outlets will close at 3:00 this afternoon and reopen tomorrow morning at 10: Photo Imaging, main graphics, the arts and math copy centres, Graphics Express, and the Courseware outlet. Staying open for their regular hours: the Davis Centre copy centre, Pixel Pub in the Student Life Centre, and the engineering copy centre.

Health services will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday), says a note from supervisor Carole Hea. "Allergy injections will not be given between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m."

Advance reminder: the annual carol-sing in the Modern Languages building lobby is scheduled for tomorrow at 12:15.

And the mature students' luncheon will be held at noon tomorrow in the Festival Room. Last-minute information: the mature student services office, phone ext. 2429.

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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