Daily Bulletin

When temperature turns to spring You read it here first: 12 noon Thursday, March 23. That's when the birds will be singing, the sun will be shining, and the temperature at the UW weather station on the north campus will reach 20 degrees Celsius for the first time this spring. My prediction matters only because I intend to be the winner of a contest that the weather station is holding to mark its second anniversary. Come closest in guessing the moment when the temperature goes past 20 (68 Fahrenheit) for the first time, and you take the prize -- a weather book or a thermometer. Entries can be submitted on the weather station's web page.

Universities await federal budget

Martin's budget will set out his view of how the economy is doing, any tax changes he's proposing to introduce, and a broad view of any spending plans prime minister Jean Chrétien and his cabinet colleagues may have talked him into. He'll speak in the House of Commons starting at 4:00 this afternoon, and through late afternoon and most of the evening the comments will come from opposing politicians, ordinary Canadians, and representatives of groups who were affected by the budget (or weren't and wish they had been).

Ready with his comments on behalf of universities will be Robert Giroux, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. A statement from AUCC last week listed four things that universities will be listening for when Martin's budget is made public:

• The Canada Health and Social Transfer, the program by which Ottawa transfers money to provincial governments to help fund the core operations of Canadian universities and colleges (as well as health care and welfare). Says Giroux: "Universities are facing at least a 20 percent enrolment increase, a hiring crunch of 32,000 professors and pressing requirements to renew and improve campus infrastructure over the next decade. 'We have certainly been encouraged that in his letter of February 11 responding to the premiers and territorial leaders' request for increased transfers, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien emphasized that the CHST supports not only health care, but also other important priorities for Canadians, particularly the needs of postsecondary education in a global knowledge economy. AUCC is calling the federal government to substantially increase transfers for postsecondary education to help meet these challenges.'"
• University Research and two existing federal programs to support it: the 21st Century Chairs for Research Excellence and the Canada Foundation for Innovation: "In its Speech from the Throne, the federal government indicated that it would improve Canada's knowledge infrastructure. We are urging the federal government to continue helping universities build an internationally competitive research environment. This requires increased investments in the full costs of university research, new knowledge and technology transfer and research infrastructure."
• An infrastructure program: "We will be watching to see if there is an announcement of a new infrastructure program. At a time when universities must urgently renovate and upgrade their facilities, they will be very anxious to participate in a new program."
• Taxes on scholarship income: "AUCC has called on the federal government to increase significantly the amount of scholarship income a student can receive without having to pay tax on it. The current limit of $500 has not changed in almost 30 years."

More about the building for co-op

The co-op building and two building expansion projects -- in Engineering III and the Engineering Lecture Hall -- came as a package deal along with the big Centre for Environmental and Information Technologies, to be built on parking lot B1.

A building for co-op would give it a new home after 28 years in the increasingly crowded first floor of Needles Hall. The new building is expected to provide about 43,000 square feet of space -- about as much as in the present Engineering Lecture Hall. Its price is about $8.7 million.

Dennis Huber, associate provost (general services and finance), said on Friday that details are still being worked out, but a possible site is somewhere between the Dana Porter Library, the Physics building and the Graduate House.

"The announcement of funds for a new co-op facility underscores the premier's and the government's confidence in this distinctive form of modern-day education," said a statement from UW president David Johnston after the SuperBuild funding was announced on Thursday afternoon.

UW is getting $31.2 million from the province toward the total cost of the four construction projects, estimated at $61 million. Some funds already spent, already on hand, or coming from other government programs will go towards the total price, but there's still some fund-raising ahead. Construction on the CEIT is expected to start this fall; the co-op building hasn't been designed yet.

Senate considers architecture program

Here's some background, from material provided in the senate agenda:

The School of Architecture proposes to convert its existing undergraduate program (BES) from three years to four, making it an Honours Pre-professional degree. The current two-year Bachelor of Architecture will be eliminated and replaced with a nominal one-year Master of Architecture. . . .

Architecture has traditionally been a five-year professional program offered at the undergraduate level in universities in Europe and the Americas. This pattern was adopted world wide in the post-war period. In the 1960's a landmark study from Princeton University proposed a change in this pattern. Pointing to the breadth, length and intensity of the traditional five-year architecture curriculum the report sought a means to preserve the broad humanistic perspective and the pedagogy based on learning by doing in the Design Studio while at the same time including new areas of knowledge related to technology, society and environment. The Princeton study proposed that Schools move from the five-year Bachelor of Architecture to a four-year undergraduate degree followed by a two-year professional Master's of Architecture. About one third of the more than 100 schools of architecture in the United States made this change. The University of Waterloo program in Architecture, founded shortly after the publication of the Princeton Report, followed its model of a split degree.

When the School of Architecture was founded in 1967 it was assumed by those involved that the double undergraduate degree (BES/BArch) would very soon be replaced by a BES/MArch. Why the MArch was not adopted is not clear, but it probably would not have been supported by the profession since there were then no professional Master's programs in the country. In 1972 the report of the provincial government commission studying architectural education in Ontario made precisely this recommendation. The School has been specifically considering the change to a graduate professional degree for more than a decade. . . .

Since 1995, the entire picture of architectural education across the country changed. First UBC converted their BArch to an MArch, followed by U of T, Carleton, McGill and Montreal. Laval has already signed an agreement with the other Quebec schools to convert its professional degree. Manitoba, Calgary and DalTech have been awarding the MArch as the professional degree since the 1970's. This leaves Waterloo as the only Canadian school of architecture offering a BArch and the only one without a graduate program.

The new undergraduate program will give students "a high level of competence in architectural design" and, because students will have five co-op work terms, "a broad exposure to architectural and related design practice". The graduate program "will develop the skills and intellectual curiosity required for a leadership role in the profession and in society (our major emphasis), and for entry into doctoral studies".

Tonight's senate meeting begins at 4:30 in Needles Hall room 3001. Besides architecture, items on the agenda include UW's enrolment and future growth; a report from the university librarian; plans for an "exit survey" of graduate students as they finish their work at UW; and a report on what's happening at the Council of Ontario Universities.

Student tutors are needed Here's a note from Christine Cheng, president of the Federation of Students: "The Federation of Students is offering a series of free computer skills workshops for people in the K-W community who want to learn about e-mail, the Internet, the Web and word processing. The seminars will be conducted with student volunteers. "Unfortunately (or fortunately), community demand for these seminars has exceeded our expectations and we now need 10 more student volunteers to help teach. If you are interested in volunteering, please let me know at ccheng@feds.uwaterloo.ca." The sessions will be held on Wednesday evenings, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.: "Basic Computer Skills" on March 1, "Word Processing for Beginners" on March 8, "Navigating the Web" on March 15, and "E-mail and Webpage Design" on March 22.

Back to class: what's happening

The noon-hour lecture series at Kitchener Public Library continues. Today at 12:00, at KPL's downtown branch, Lynne Taylor of UW's department of history will speak on "Kosovo: Echoes of the Past?"

Here's a reminder: 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.

Co-op students will be very aware of it already, but tomorrow's the big day: job ranking forms for spring term jobs will be available starting at 10:00, and must be returned by 4:00 p.m. (Today, and tomorrow until the ranking forms come out, students can get a preview of employer's rankings, through the Student Access computer system.)

A "commemoration service" will be held tomorrow for David Wright, chair of the UW department of history, who died February 10. The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Fireside Lounge in Sweeney Hall, St. Jerome's University. Those attending this "celebration of his life and career" are asked to get in touch with Irene Majer in the history department in advance (phone ext. 2297).

Tomorrow afternoon brings a major lecture by Jeffrey Luvall, this year's Canada Trust Walter Bean visiting professor in the environment. He'll speak at 4 p.m. Tuesday, in the Humanities Theatre, on "Hot Cities or Cool Places: The Effect of Urbanization on Our Environment".

And tomorrow, the University Club will unveil its new logo. A wine and cheese reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Club lounge will celebrate the occasion.

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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