Daily Bulletin

No news yet on building funds

Colleges of applied arts and technology were "the big winners", said the Globe and Mail, getting funds for several major projects. Four of the 14 grants are for joint college-university facilities, including a "centre for advanced education and training" to be built jointly by Humber College and the University of Guelph.

Rejoicing at U of T, Ryerson, Seneca College

Word is expected soon on grants for projects outside Toronto. UW has asked for $39 million from Superbuild for two projects: the long-awaited Centre for Environmental and Information Technologies (including renovations to Engineering III and the Engineering Lecture Hall) and a "learning centre" at St. Jerome's University and Renison College.

The government pointed out that the grants it's making available this year represent "the largest capital investment in Ontario's colleges and universities in more than 30 years" and that the money is being matched by private-sector funds. Altogether there will be $1.4 billion worth of construction, said provincial treasurer Ernie Eves, "the equivalent of seven new post-secondary institutions".

The new buildings will create spaces in colleges and universities for 57,000 more students, the government says.

UW provost Jim Kalbfleisch told the university's board of governors in November that the $660 million Superbuild budget for colleges and universities "sounds like a big number", but "if you actually figure out what it means, it's small." UW's proportional share would be somewhat less than officials had hoped to receive for the CEIT building under previous funding programs, he said.

In other news from Queen's Park, Ontario premier Mike Harris said he expects public-sector employers -- including universities -- to keep pay increases under 2 per cent this year. "Transfers to all of our partners will not exceed settlements we make with our own employees," Harris said at a conference of municipal politicians.

Other notes today Renovations begin today in the Doris Lewis Rare Books Room in the Dana Porter Library, with the installation of new flooring and mobile shelving in the environmentally controlled storage area. "While this work is expected to be transparent to most of our patrons," an announcement says, "it may not be possible to provide access to all collections. Please check with the rare books room staff at ext. 3122 or 2445 about your specific needs for material from the collections. The work is scheduled to be completed by March 31." The Potato People come to the Humanities Theatre today (and Thursday and Friday) with the children's show "Spud Trek". Performances are scheduled at 10 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Watch for school buses on the ring road. Water will be shut off in the Math and Computer building from 7:30 to 8:30 tomorrow morning, the plant operations department warns. Graphics copy centres will be closed tomorrow morning from 8:50 to 9:40 because of a staff meeting.

Environment and business program -- condensed from today's Gazette

While more ES students still find jobs in the public sector than in the private, "the downsizing of public institutions and their associated employment creates pressure to train students with more private sector skills," says a report presented last week to the senate undergraduate council.

ES dean Geoff McBoyle initiated the program based on his observations of the success of other "and business" programs at UW and of alumni employment trends. The new program could take research in ES in some new directions, he predicts, and has the potential to attract funding, although that is not the primary intent of the program.

Andrew Smith, recruitment and promotion coordinator for ES, notes that while fewer graduates of the environment and resource studies department are employed in the private sector, the percentage of geography and planning graduates working in business is steadily increasing. ERS students are more attracted to jobs in the public interest sector and with non-governmental organizations, he added. "ERS students tend to be very motivated, concerned about environmental interests, more activists."

There are basically two ways of approaching environmental issues, said Smith, working outside the system or within the system. He expects the proposed environment and business program to be more appealing to those who choose the latter.

According to the program proposal, "To date, no undergraduate university program in Ontario, or elsewhere in Canada, meets this emerging need."

Students from business programs in other faculties at UW are in demand by co-op employers, the report continues. "Co-op Education is planning to market the various business programs as a package for employers to choose the Science, Applied Studies, or other specialist they want from that package. Environmental Studies will want to offer a program to fill an environmental niche in that package."

The proposed program promises to "complement the University's traditional strengths in interdisciplinary environmental studies with core courses in business. In so doing, the degree would produce graduates with solid grounding in environment and its role in business, as well as business and its role in environment."

And business in the middle ages -- Barbara Elve has more on new UW programs

"Why medieval studies?" asks classical studies professor Lucinda Neuru, rhetorically. "Why not, since the medieval period was a vibrant, formative period for both the arts and for business, spanning approximately 1,000 years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of modern European nation states and the discovery of the new world during the Renaissance.

"Medieval studies appeals to those who have the spirit of academic, artistic and entrepreneurial adventure," she adds.

The degree has already prepared Waterloo students for diverse careers in business and the professions such as publishing, administration, book-selling, farming, curatorial work in museums and art galleries, and teaching, says Neuru.

Beyond Waterloo, a background in medieval studies has launched some stellar careers including that of Dave Thomas, president of Wendy's.

Engineers take their obligation

The web site for the independent agency that manages the Iron Ring tradition gives this background about it:

The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer has a history dating back to 1922, when seven past-presidents of the Engineering Institute of Canada attended a meeting in Montreal with other engineers. One of the speakers was civil engineer Professor Haultain of the University of Toronto. He felt that an organization was needed to bind all members of the engineering profession in Canada more closely together. He also felt that an obligation or statement of ethics to which a young graduate in engineering could subscribe should be developed. . . .

Haultain wrote to Rudyard Kipling, who had made reference to the work of engineers in some of his poems and writings. He asked Kipling for his assistance in developing a suitably dignified obligation and ceremony for its undertaking. Kipling was very enthusiastic in his response and shortly produced both an obligation and a ceremony formally entitled "The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer." . . .

The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer has been instituted with the simple end of directing the newly qualified engineer toward a consciousness of the profession and its social significance and indicating to the more experienced engineer their responsibilities in welcoming and supporting the newer engineers when they are ready to enter the profession. . . .

The Iron Ring has been registered and may be worn on the little finger of the working hand by any engineer who has been obligated at an authorized ceremony of the Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer. The ring symbolizes the pride which engineers have in their profession, while simultaneously reminding them of their humility. The ring serves as a reminder to the engineer and others of the engineer's obligation to live by a high standard of professional conduct. It is not a symbol of qualification as an engineer -- this is determined by the provincial and territorial licensing bodies.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them
a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them
to drop their job when they dam'-well choose.

Today's event will be followed by the (also traditional, but considerably less solemn) Iron Ring Stag at Federation Hall. The Iron Warrior recently explained that "One tradition of the IRS is for everybody to find the nuttiest, goofiest, ugliest clothes they can find." It's just as well that students in engineering start their two-day reading break tomorrow (and so do students in the faculty of mathematics).

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 © 2000 University of Waterloo