Daily Bulletin

Engineers hone debating skills

• UW should stop carrying newsgroups that have pornographic content.
• Mercy killing should be legalized.
• Possession and use of marijuana should be decriminalized.

Debating these or other hot topics today will be the chemical engineering team of Wendy Alexander and Joy Cheng and the systems design engineering team of Arthur Law and Stuart Doherty.

The event is the Summer 2000 Sandford Fleming Debate finals, held at 11:30 a.m. in the POETS pub, Carl Pollock Hall.

Organized to encourage the art of debate among engineering undergraduates, the competition is held each term with awards of $100 each to members of the winning team, and $50 each to members of the second-place team.

Each department within the faculty of engineering held its own debates in June, with top contenders going into the finals.

A Technical Speaker Competition -- designed to draw attention to the importance of effective oral presentation of technical material -- was also held in June, with Babdad Afra, electrical engineering, Avery Pennarun, computer engineering and Jason Tham, systems design engineering receiving $100 each for taking part. Simone Lalande, mechanical engineering, took home the first-place prize of $300.

Why Albertans don't go to university

Award winning photo -- UW photographer Chris Hughes took top honours last month at the 39th Annual Technical Symposium conducted by the University Photographers' Association of America. Hughes' photo placed first in the environment and landscape category.

The report, titled Degrees of Opportunity, touches on issues from the anxieties felt by small-town students to ineffective marketing of scholarships and bursaries. "Clearly, a number of barriers to post-secondary education remain, including socio-economic background, motivation, costs and the capacity of the system," says the report.

A U of A news release by Cynthia Carels says the task force found geographical and cultural barriers are obstacles for academically capable students from rural and northern Alberta. "Not only are rural students obliged to absorb the higher costs of living away from home, but they must also leave behind the support of family and friends. The more remote the community of origin is, the more drastic the 'culture shock' will likely be," says the report.

In particular, aboriginal students "often feel the post-secondary education system generally does not work for them, and they tend to approach the university with a sense of foreboding."

But according to Leslie Church, president of the U of A students' union, "tuition is the main issue for students with regard to access to post-secondary education. It is the one element of cost that is controlled by the government."

A March 2000 survey of nearly 1,500 students found more than 30 per cent do not have access to enough money to cover the cost of their education and associated expenses.

The report recommends the government increase core funding to post-secondary institutions, increase funding for grants, scholarships and bursaries, revise student-loan remission programs and effectively market financial support options to maximize opportunities for all academically capable Albertans.

World statistics on education
-- from news releases of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

The latest OECD education indicators, published in Education at a Glance 2000, show that young people in OECD countries spend an average of 16 years studying in educational institutions, with four out of five reaching upper secondary level and nearly one in four obtaining a university degree. At the start of the 20th century, only a small minority of children advanced beyond secondary-level education, with most getting just a few years of primary schooling. . . .

The number of students enrolled in tertiary programmes grew by more than 20 per cent between 1990 and 1997 in all but five OECD countries, and in eight countries by more than 50 per cent. Today, an average of four out of ten young people are likely, during the course of their lives, to enter tertiary programmes which lead to the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree or above. In some countries, this proportion is as high as one young person in two. On average across OECD countries, a 17-year-old can expect to receive 2.3 years of tertiary education. . . .

Workers with higher levels of educational attainment are also the most likely to participate in job-related education and training. Three times as many hours of training are invested in employees with a tertiary qualification as in those with less than an upper-secondary qualification. . . .

Young people are experiencing growing difficulties in gaining a firm foothold in the world of work. The transition, even for successful graduates, tends to take place later than it used to, and it is often fragile and uncertain. . . .

In 16 out of 18 countries, public expenditure on education grew faster than GDP, with average educational spending as a percentage of GDP rising from 5.2 per cent in 1990 to 5.8 per cent in 1997.

Baby boom, and other weekend notes

The co-op department reminds students that anyone still needing employment for the fall 2000 term must hand in 15 copies of their resume along with a completed continuous phase registration form to the co-op reception area by the end of the day.

The Volunteer Action Centre is looking for anyone with time to donate. In particular this week, they're seeking:

• a coach for the K-W and District special olympics swim team
• volunteers for the K-W Seniors Day program
• volunteer sales help at Re-Runs, a craft and consignment clothing store

And with any luck this beautiful weather will hold for the Federation of Students who will host Patiofest at the Bombshelter Pub tomorrow. The fun starts at 3 p.m. and goes until the wee hours with live music and prizes.

Avvey Peters
alpeters@uwaterloo.ca

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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