Daily Bulletin

Awards planned for top researchers

The Awards for Excellence in Research, approved by the senate late in 1999, are much like the existing Distinguished Teacher Awards, with recognition of the winners coming at convocation each year and including a cheque for $1,500.

The awards "are established to recognize distinguished research achievements of UW faculty members", the guidelines say. Each year two recipients are to come from engineering, mathematics and science, and two from arts, environmental studies, applied health sciences and the church colleges.

From the guidelines: "The nominators, normally unit heads such as Department Chairs, will be expected to provide all relevant information needed for adjudication. . . . Documentation should be written so that someone outside the nominee's area of expertise can evaluate the submission. . . .

"In assessing excellence, the term 'research' must be interpreted in its broadest sense, referring to any original, productive scholarship in any of the disciplines of investigation and learning in the university.

"The committee will give cognizance to differences among disciplines in terms of funding levels, time to publish, and nature of the publications or other scholarly works as examples.

"In general, the nominees will have achieved a high level of widely recognized research production in their disciplines. This will commonly be a major part of the evidence supporting a nominee's case. . .

"Recipients will receive their awards annually at an appropriate public forum and at which each will make a brief public presentation."

The committee that will choose the award winners will be chaired by the vice-president (university research), with the other members named by the senate research council. "Eventually it is anticipated that some Committee members will be previous award recipients," the guidelines say.

St. Jerome's honours a graduate

After the presentation, Kenyon will speak about her work as a psychologist and the role of individual narrative in changing lives. A reception will follow the presentation and lecture. All are welcome.

After graduating from St. Jerome's in 1987 with an honours BA in psychology, Kenyon went on to master's studies in applied psychology at Guelph and a doctorate in clinical psychology at Concordia University. She completed a one-year post-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at K-W Hospital before becoming a psychological consultant with the Wellington County Board of Education.

While working with the local school board, she says, she began to appreciate how difficult it was for families of children with learning, behavioural, or other problems to obtain psychological services at a time when community resources were shrinking. In 1997, Kenyon approached the University of Guelph with a proposal to establish a centre on campus that would offer the community high-quality psychological services at a reasonable cost and without long waiting lists. The centre would give graduate students in Guelph's applied developmental psych program the opportunity for excellent experience, working under the supervision of Kenyon and other clinical faculty.

As an adjunct faculty member, Kenyon developed a popular distance education course on death and dying through Guelph's Office of Open Learning. The course became the basis for a television documentary, "Death: A Personal Understanding", that is still being shown across Canada and the United States. Kenyon was closely involved in the production of the documentary and appears in one of the segments.

The St. Jerome's Graduates' Association began awarding the Choate Award in 1986 to alumni who have made outstanding contributions to their church, community, or field of endeavour.

Campus in a winter wind

Last time I checked, about 8 a.m., it was still just "overcast" in London, but Windsor was reporting "light snow, drifting snow", and from the American midwest through southern Ontario the forecasts are heavy with warning. Anyway, with roads dry this morning, UW opened for the day as usual. And under the storm closing procedure, once the university is open, it will close during the day "only in extreme circumstances".

It's hard to plan ahead for snow clearing, says UW grounds supervisor Les Van Dongen -- who admits he was up in the small hours of the morning checking the skies. "We just wait and see," he said, remembering past occasions when big contingency plans turned out to be worthless because the weather changed unexpectedly. "If anything does develop," he said, "we'll be working overtime this weekend!" During the winter, the grounds crew is split into two shifts, some staff working Monday to Friday from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., some from 7:30 in the morning until 4 p.m.

Maybe it's just as well that the larger part of the university is in tapering-off mode, ready for the study break that will cancel classes in four of the six faculties all next week. Students in AHS, environmental studies, science and arts can leave after today, struggling back to class on Monday, February 28, with tales of the beach, the slopes, their home towns, or, of course, the reading, essay-writing and programming they've completed during the break. Faculty members, too, look forward to a break, either for holiday or for research work.

The faculties of mathematics and engineering have classes as usual Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and will pause only for Thursday and Friday.

Note from the co-op department: "Although this is study week, employer interviews for graduating and co-op students continue at full throttle."

Memorial service is announced A memorial service will be held February 29 for David Wright, chair of UW's history department, who died February 11 as the result of a brain hemorrhage caused by bursting of an aneurysm. The history department and family members are inviting students, colleagues and friends to attend a celebration of Wright's life and career, to be held in the Fireside Lounge at Sweeney Hall, St. Jerome's University, on Tuesday, February 29, starting at 11:30 a.m. ("Please plan to arrive by 11:15 a.m.," those attending are told.) After the commemoration there will be a reception in the Fireside Lounge. Those planning to attend are asked to send RSVPs to Irene Majer in the department of history, phone ext. 2297, e-mail imajer@watarts, by February 23.

Events and notes, today and soon

Something called "The Moral Support Group" says it will be at the University Avenue entrance to campus at 1 p.m. today demonstrating disapproval of one of UW's faculty members. Outspoken Cambridge resident Erika Kubassek says in a news release that the group wants computer science professor Jeffrey Shallit to "stop his immoral agenda or be removed from his post". Shallit has frequently spoken against censorship on the Internet -- or, as Kubassek puts it, "fought for the right that all manner of despicable pornography, including bondage and bestiality, be shown on the Internet. We strongly protest the decision to show these outrageous immoral sexual acts."

An exhibition of work by faculty members in the fine arts department, which has been in the UW gallery in the Modern Languages building since mid-January, is coming to its end. Sunday is the final day for the ten-artist show.

I'm not quite sure how a snowstorm would affect the planned staff association ski trip to Blue Mountain Resort at Collingwood. It's an evening outing tomorrow, with the bus scheduled to leave East Campus Hall at 2 p.m.

Today may provide the last opportunity in quite some time to use the elevator in Biology I. It will be shut down as of 7 a.m. on Monday for "major repairs". The plant operations department says the shutdown is scheduled to end March 10.

The weekend brings several major events for Warrior teams:

• Hockey against Western, tonight at 7:30 at the Columbia Icefield.
• "Fantastic Alumni and Staff Day" with two basketball games on Saturday in the Physical Activities Complex -- women at 12 noon and men at 2 p.m., both against Guelph. (What's "fantastic" is the free tickets for staff members and UW alumni; call ext. 5694.)
• Game two of the divisional championship series in men's volleyball, UW against Western, Saturday at 7 p.m. in the PAC. (Because it's a league event, not a regular UW home game, there's an admission charge, even for students; students pay $5, others $8.) Game one was played last night in London, and Western prevailed over the Warriors 3 sets to 0.

The Federation of Students environment commission has announced "an environmental award for UW staff, students, or faculty who have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the environment (on or off campus). You can nominate someone by writing a brief paragraph about his or her accomplishments." Nominations are due by March 3, either in writing at the Federation office (Student Life Centre room 1102) or by e-mail to Bruce Davison, the environmental commissioner, bjdaviso@engmail.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
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