Waste Reduction Week is under way in Ontario

Daily Bulletin

Getting on the voters' list Mark Schaan, vice-president (education) of UW's Federation of Students and president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, sends a reminder: "Elections Canada will be continuing re-enumeration all day today in the Student Life Centre for the upcoming federal election. Students will be required to provide their WatCard and a piece of identification (such as a letter) with their Waterloo address on it. This is a really important initiative to ensure students take advantage of their democratic rights."

Food services staff member dies

She had been off work, being treated for cancer, since early October. Over a 25-year career with UW's food services department, she had previously worked in both Village I and Ron Eydt Village, "where she had a tremendous impact on many students and staff", says food services director Mark Murdoch.

LeBlanc is survived by her husband, George, a son and a daughter, and other family members.

Visitation at the Edward R. Good Funeral Home in Waterloo will be today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. The funeral service will be held Wednesday at 1 p.m. at All Saints Anglican Church in Waterloo.

(So that food services staff can attend the funeral, Bon Appetit and the three Tim Horton's outlets on campus will be closed tomorrow from noon to 4 p.m.)

Provost nominating committee There's a change to the results of the nominating process for the vice-president (academic) and provost nominating committee, the university secretariat reports. "Since Jake Sivak has withdrawn his nomination, Terrance McMahon has now been acclaimed to the Science seat. Therefore, now there will be just two elections, one for the Arts seat and the other for the two regular staff seats." That's an update to the results that were reported in yesterday's Bulletin.

Teachers' college applications due

Last year 15,589 students applied for places in Ontario faculties of education (teachers' colleges), up from 11,151 the previous year. And interest is high again, says Issy Mackay of UW's mature student services office, who writes about the application process in the November issue of her newsletter.

"With serious teacher shortage predictions for Ontario schools and frequent media focus on attractive early retirement packages for teachers," Mackay says, "small wonder overflow crowds were the order of the day at this fall's teacher education talks.

"Representatives from each of the Ontario Faculties of Education played to large audiences on campus [in October] as they brought prospective applicants up-to-date on program and admission requirements at their individual institutions. More days spent practice teaching in school classrooms, a longer academic year for some, a greater mix of required courses for primary/junior program admission, and increasingly competitive grade averages were just some of the topics touched on throughout the series.

"Clearly, if you are considering teaching as a career when you graduate, you cannot afford to wait until the last minute to plan your undergraduate program. You must keep abreast of the admission requirements for your choice of Faculty of Education at the level you want to teach -- primary/junior, junior/intermediate, or intermediate/senior -- and tailor your program and courses accordingly."

She notes that UW's career resource centre has videotapes of the recent sessions by representatives of teachers' colleges at Brock, Lakehead, Nipissing, Windsor, Queen's, Toronto, Western, and York, which can be viewed at the CRC in Needles Hall or borrowed overnight.

CRC supervisor Jayne Hayden notes that Needles Hall doesn't have actual application forms for teachers' colleges available. "Students must go to the TEAS web site to obtain an application as well as any individual schools' information," she says. The deadline for completed applications to be received at the TEAS office in Guelph is December 1.

Americans vote: education an issue

Republican candidate George W. Bush with his wife, Laura (photo from the official campaign web site)

Gore is the incumbent vice-president of the United States, having served two terms with Democratic president Bill Clinton. Bush, the Republican candidate, is governor of Texas, one of about ten states with a large number of electoral votes where today's election will be decided. Under the American two-party system, the Democrats (sometimes equated to Canada's Liberal Party) and Republicans (traditionally compared to the Conservatives) have alternated their control of the presidency since 1853.

Education is a responsibility of the 50 separate states, but the federal government does play a role, largely through providing funds, and so education is an issue in this year's election. Mostly that means that Bush and Gore are offering competing plans for improving public schools through a national "trust fund" or "charter school homestead fund", and new programs to push teacher testing and literacy.

Democratic candidate Al Gore (photo from the official campaign web site)

When it comes to higher education, the issue is federal support for families trying to pay young people's tuition fees. Gore has called for a National Tuition Savings Program; Bush seeks to increase the "Pell Grants" that are currently the main federal scholarship program.

"Which presidential candidate offers the most help to strapped parents and students?" CNN asked last week. "Well, it depends on their circumstances. Surprisingly, families above the median income would get more help from the Democrat, while the Republican would extend more financial aid to the poor."

In an interesting development just before voting day, some 750 prominent scientists and engineers in the United States, including 57 Nobel Prize winners, issued a letter Friday endorsing Gore -- who is well known for his passionate interest in science and information technology. Gore's platform "makes it clear that federal research will remain a top priority", the letter says. But the Chronicle of Higher Education notes that "both Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush have promised to double the $17.8-billion annual budget of the National Institutes of Health, the largest single federal source of money for university-based research."

'Journeys' is an exhibition of work by architecture professors Anu Banerji, left, and Mike Elmitt, which opened last week in the Modern Languages building gallery and continues through December 6. It's open Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 6.

Happening today and this week

The "Bridging the Gap" lecture series for engineering students presents Chris Erickson of 724 Solutions, at 11:30 a.m. in Carl Pollock Hall room 3385.

People from EMJ Data Systems will be on hand at noon today (Davis Centre room 1304) as the UW Computer Store's fall lunch series ("free lunch and great technology") continues.

Holocaust Memorial and Education Night is scheduled in Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University. The speaker, under the title "From Generation to Generation", will be Holocaust survivor George Scott; the evening begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.

Here's a note from the parking office: "Parking Services will be closing early on Wednesday, November 8, for staff development. Anyone requiring a temporary permit may see the UW Police department in our absence. Anyone wishing to purchase permits for winter will need to return our next business day, November 9, opening at 7:30. The closing will include kiosks H and B1 -- they will be set to accept coin $2 entry at 2:30. Parking lot D will be covered as usual until 7 p.m. by part time staff."

The faculty of applied health sciences will host an information session tomorrow about the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, its program and admission requirements. The session is scheduled for 5:00 Wednesday evening in Matthews Hall room 1035.

On Wednesday night, the student-run "2020: Building the Future" lecture series presents author Thomas Homer-Dixon, director of the peace and conflict studies program at the University of Toronto. His topic: "The Ingenuity Gap: How Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?" The free lecture starts at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre, and will be followed by a question period and a chance to get copies of Homer-Dixon's book by the same title signed.

Coming on Thursday: a talk about the controversial proposal to ship Toronto garbage to Adams Mine in northern Ontario. The speaker is community organizer Brennain Lloyd, who's brought to UW by the department of environment and resource studies; she'll speak at 3:30 Thursday afternoon in Arts Lecture room 124.

Also Thursday, the Waterloo County Holocaust Education Committee presents a talk by Edward Carter-Edwards, an air force veteran of World War II who was interned at the Buchenwald death camp. He'll speak at 7:30 in Davis Centre room 1351.

And journalist Robert Fulford will speak in the Humanities Theatre (8 p.m.) to launch the new Imprint Lecture Series.

Friday night brings the presentation of the Father Norm Choate Distinguished Graduate Award at St. Jerome's University, the winner this year being Rob Donelson of Kitchener's St. Mary's Hospital. Guest speaker for the evening is none other than Rev. Norm Choate, former president of St. Jerome's. The evening starts at 7:30 at the college (RSVP to 884-8111 ext. 255).

And Saturday brings a day-long event on "The Human Price of Mining", sponsored by the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Davis Centre room 1302).

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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