Daily Bulletin

Chef Michael Khalil is usually out of sight in the kitchen, but he steps forward in today's Gazette, pictured to accompany an article about the University Club based on a release from UW's news bureau. The club is holding "A Taste of Canada", dinner and wine-tasting at $75 a head, this Friday night.

Ten years of a green university

The report was first presented to UW president David Johnston last winter, and an updated version will come to executive council (the committee of UW's deans and other top officials) this fall, says coordinator Patti Cook, to mark the 10th anniversary of the WatGreen initiative. It was ten years ago this month that a Task Force on Waste Management filed its report, leading to the creation of WatGreen. Under that umbrella, more than 150 student projects have studied everything from landscaping to energy consumption on campus.

The report is available on the waste management web site, and an edited version is published in this morning's Gazette.

As Cook indicates in the report, she's spent this decade working with not just student groups but departments across campus to reduce the impact -- and cost -- of solid and liquid waste, energy consumption, pollution and other byproducts of life and work on campus.

A few of the scores of achievements and efforts listed in the report:

• Reducing the use of disposable products in food outlets. Polystyrene cups have been reduced from 1,000,000 to 200,000 in the period 89-97, largely through the Lug-A-Mug programme.
• Reduced waste by 48% since 1987; recycled 950 tonnes/year; pay 30% less than we did 5 years ago; Polystyrene eliminated from student villages; standardized on post consumer recycled paper towels; commenced custodial participation in recycling of aluminum, glass, newsprint inside buildings; implemented Styrofoam packaging recycling program; Book Reuse Program; Daycare Reuse Centre; vermicomposting, windrow and backyard composting; recycling of cans, glass, newsprint, plastics (PET and Styrofoam packaging), cardboard, boxboard, metal, kitchen grease, motor oil, tires, wood, laser cartridges, and contact lens bottles.
• Cleaned up 12,000 litres of contaminated water in the 1997-98 fiscal year; recycled 4,000 litres of photographic wastes and 2,400 litres of oil.
• Instead of 350 acres being sprayed with chemicals at least twice a year and often four times, there has been a gradual reduction of pesticide spraying. For general turf areas, the target is 0% pesticide use (exceptions for infestations and hard surface maintenance). For sports turf, spot spraying is done only as required to maintain safe playing conditions. Also 10% of the campus is now naturalized landscape instead of grass.
• Replacement of incandescent lighting (pot and entrance) with compact fluorescent; standard fluorescent; high pressure sodium (gold colour); energy reduction; improved light levels; longer lamp life 20,000 vs. 1,000 hrs.; reduction in relamping labour; fewer burned out lights (dark areas); changes to lighting resulted in reduced air conditioning costs.
• Thermal storage using mass of the buildings; the mass of the building is pre-cooled early in the morning; energy is less expensive; free cooling with fresh air; building temperature ramps up during the day; temperature difference inside/outside more constant; healthier -- less temperature shock; building purged with fresh air; large reduction in air conditioner load; went from 100% capacity to 70%; provides additional capacity for 2+ buildings.

Line helps even confirmed smokers
-- by Barbara Hallett, abridged from today's Gazette

It's an idea that UW health studies and gerontology professor Paul McDonald has been advocating for years. Based on the success of a series of booklets he co-authored -- targeting the same mixed audience of smokers -- the Canadian Cancer Society asked McDonald and his colleagues Steve Brown at the Health Behaviour Research Group and Roy Cameron of the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation to develop the Smokers' Helpline.

The service is unique in offering information, advice, and referrals to smokers struggling to quit, as well as support for those who aren't.

The goals of the program are twofold: "We want to increase the number of smokers who try and succeed in quitting by using formal assistance, and secondly, we want to increase the number of smokers who become motivated to make a serious attempt to quit. It's designed for all smokers, driven by the needs of callers, not by the needs of funders." People are often ambivalent about smoking, he explains, enjoying the sensation, but feeling concerned about their health. "At the Helpline they can talk to someone about their feelings without receiving pressure. One common question from adamant smokers is 'How can I stop people from bugging me to quit?'"

There's method in McDonald's madness. Statistics show that 85 per cent of smokers don't want to quit, he says. "To have a population impact, you have to do something for that 85 per cent, to find out what people's needs are and give them that service. . . . By providing that 85 per cent with a service that meets their needs -- by building trust and loyalty -- they will come back to us when they're ready to quit," he hypothesizes. And when they do make that decision, "the odds of quitting are better for those who have formal assistance."

The Smokers' Helpline operates in French and English, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, toll-free, at 1-877-513-5333.

Using a computer database developed at UW, telephone advisors are able to customize their approach to each caller. "We don't want to just provide information, we want to create insight," says McDonald, "allowing the caller to make connections instead of putting pressure on the smoker."

When a person phones, the advisor works from a computer screen with recommended questions. With the click of a mouse, the advisor enters one of a range of responses received from the caller, and based on each response, further questions are suggested by the computer program.

Some 15,000 to 20,000 callers -- including not only smokers, but their families and friends -- are expected to use the service annually. UW will also be involved in compiling data and conducting confidential follow-up interviews with users to determine the success of the service and the satisfaction of the clients. Results will be compared with those of similar services in other jurisdictions, and already a request for information has been received from British Columbia which is considering implementing a system based on the Smokers' Helpline.

The talk of the campus

The Math Grad Committee has a party going today. "Why not come out for some food before you hit the books?" an invitation asks. "Everyone is welcome to our barbecue social . . . from 11:30 to 1 p.m. (unless we run out of food) in the pit area below the front steps of Math and Computer. We'll also have some music and games (volleyball, soccer, frisbee) for people to enjoy."

Melanie Hazelton, UW's first-year student life coordinator, is busy these days with plans for welcoming soon-to-be-first-year students at Student Life 101 on August 14, and she could use some help. She writes: "Both staff and student volunteers are welcome. We need people to help with meeting and greeting people in the parking lots, answering general questions about the day in Federation Hall, as well as to be stationed around campus to direct lost visitors. People interested in volunteering may contact me at mahazelt@uwaterloo.ca or by phone at ext. 6876. We need people for the morning, afternoon, or all day."

Christina (Tina) Pilkington, the Kitchener woman who was killed in a head-on collision on Highway 7 Monday morning, received her degree in chemical engineering from UW just last month. She was on her way to work at Owens-Corning in Guelph when her Volkswagen Fox collided head-on with a pickup truck. Pilkington is survived by her parents, Robert and Marg Pilkington, and four sisters. The death notice says friends will be received at Coutts & Son Funeral Home, 96 St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge, today from 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. Funeral services will be conducted in the funeral home chapel on Thursday at 11 a.m. Interment will be in Mount View Cemetery. Plans for a memorial service at UW are being made, a friend in the chem eng department said yesterday afternoon.

The stores of Retail Services are having a Customer Appreciation Day tomorrow, says marketing manager Jason MacIntyre: "To thank our students, faculty, and staff for their ongoing support, we are offering significant discounts and special pricing at all our locations." Details: at the UWShop, 25% off all regular-priced clothing and gifts; up to 40% off all Far West outerwear; at the bookstore, 25% off all regular-priced general books; at Techworx SCH, 15% off select architecture supplies and accessories; at the Computer Store and both Techworx locations, up to 25% off consumer electronics products from Sony and Samsung (most items receive a full 25%, but not all items as stated in the Gazette advertisement today). "Eligible Sony and Samsung products, if not in stock, will receive the discount if ordered on July 27. Textbooks, custom and special order items, computer hardware (Sony Vaio computers, Samsung monitors and printers), and items already reduced in price are not part of the sale."

The Graduate Student Association has scheduled its next legal aid clinic for tomorrow afternoon. Anyone who wants an appointment should get in touch with Bob Sproule (bsproule@ionline.net), the GSA says. "Please provide your graduate student ID number and a brief description of the nature of your concern."

Among current needs from the Volunteer Action Centre: "K-W Boccia Club needs volunteers to help with a one-day boccia tournament on Saturday, August 12, at Albert McCormick Arena in Waterloo. This tournament is for athletes with a disability, and it will be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Volunteers are needed to be linesmen, scorekeepers and timers. Several volunteers who are comfortable using a stopwatch wold be most helpful." For more information -- and more volunteer opportunities -- the VAC can be reached at 742-8610.

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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