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Monday, November 13, 2000
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![[Magazine cover]](http://www.macleans.ca/covers/covertw20001120.jpg)
Like several other Ontario institutions, UW has fallen a little in the
tenth annual Maclean's magazine rankings of Canadian
universities,
published today. The magazine is putting UW in third
place among the country's "comprehensive" universities this year,
down from
a tie
for second place in the quality rankings last year.
Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, tied for second with UW last year, is now in first; Guelph is second, and British Columbia's University of Victoria is fourth.
Waterloo did maintain its standing as "highest quality", "most innovative", "leaders of tomorrow" and "best overall" in the "reputational" rankings among comprehensive universities -- which some experts, including UW president David Johnston, maintain are the best measure of how good a university really is.
Still awaited are the reputational rankings for Canadian universities overall. High positions in those are traditionally the source of this university's biggest pride. Maclean's always issues them a day or so later than the rest of its annual ranking exercise. (And a reliable source tells me that UW will still emerge as the best university in the country, according to the people surveyed for those opinions.)
But as for the numerical "quality" rankings, based on various measurements, "Ontario slipped. It's just extraordinary," Ann Dowsett Johnston, editor of the universities issue, says in a Record interview this morning. "I don't think it's any coincidence," Johnston added, blaming cuts in Ontario funding for post-secondary education. She did give credit to Wilfrid Laurier University -- "a very sturdy and well-managed institution" -- for staying in fifth place nationally among "primarily undergraduate" universities.
New Brunswick's Mount Allison held onto first place among the "primarily undergraduate" universities, and Toronto retained first place in the other grouping, "medical-doctoral" universities.
In her lead story for the universities issue, which should be on newsstands later this morning, Johnston describes the current pressure for student spaces in Canadian universities as "Tidal Wave II":
A heck of a lot more students heading to not a heck of a lot of empty chairs. Let's not forget: between 1993 and 1998, governments across Canada slashed more than $3 billion out of higher education. Translation? Overcrowded classrooms, outdated libraries, faculty reductions.
Says the report, on the SISP web site and scheduled for this week's Gazette:
You'll see dramatic changes and fundamental improvements in UW's student administration processes, including full internet access to your part of those processes. You can look forward to real-time registration, drop-and-add, access to marks and transcripts, a single financial account covering fees, scholarships, and residence, and the ability to interactively evaluate possible changes in academic career.The report notes that "The project team has been working hard for more than three years to bring our processes into the 21st century, and we'll be working to communicate our excitement about the new system to you over the next few months. At the same time, we'll also need your assistance and patience as we work through our transition planning. Watch for more information as it becomes available."How will this unfold? Roughly speaking, all business processes for Fall 2001 will be migrated to the new system as they occur. . . .
Undergraduate applications for Fall 2001 will begin to arrive from the Ontario University Application Centre (OUAC) during November 2000. They will be electronically loaded into the new system and acknowledgments will be generated. Direct applications for undergraduate studies (on-campus and distance education) and graduate studies will also be entered into the new system. . . .
Beginning in May, historical student record information will be loaded in preparation for the cutover to the new Student Records, Financial Aid and Student Financials systems in mid June. . . .
Coop students on-campus for Spring 2001 will be able to enroll in Winter 2002 classes over the web beginning in July 2001.
Additional planning is underway to determine the feasibility of broadening the access to include first year undergraduate student enrollments and the Fall 2001 drop-and-add activity. In early January 2002, the new academic advisement and progression system will be introduced with the processing of Fall 2001 marks.
A total 728 students -- about 17 per cent of UW's first-year class -- collected the scholarships. Queen's University was second highest at 10 per cent, or 361 awards.
Across the province, more than 4,000 of Ontario's top scholars going to college or university received the scholarships, which recognize both academic excellence and financial need. Overall, scholarship winners an average high school mark of 87.7 per cent, with some 1,500 earning an average of 90 per cent or higher. More than 20,000 students, representing more than 700 schools across the province, applied for the scholarship in its first year of operation. Winners can receive a tuition scholarship worth up to a maximum of $3,500 a year, depending upon their financial need and the amount of their tuition. Close to 1,400 students have received the maximum award this year.
At UW, 296 students received the $3,500 maximum. At the other extreme, 212 were awarded $100 because while they excelled academically, they did not present a financial need. The UW scholarship winners achieved an average mark of 90.6 per cent. Students who maintain an 80-per-cent average at university can continue to receive the award for up to four years of post-secondary education.
The Ontario government says its initial investment will total more than $8 million. When the program is fully implemented in 2003, the annual investment will be $35 million in scholarships for more than 10,000 students each year. Under the program, students with merit-based scholarships will be able to earn up to $3,500 in scholarships before their Ontario Student Assistance Program loan is affected, ensuring they receive the full benefit of their scholarships.
Waterloo A had a slow start, says coach Gordon Cormack, but gained steadily to lead the standings at the 4-hour mark, when the scoreboard was frozen. During the last hour Waterloo answered one question to finish with 6 correct. Toronto's team 1 answered two, to finish with 6 correct as well, edging out Waterloo by 8 penalty points, 970 to 978.
Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Carnegie Mellon University and Toronto A, both with five questions answered; Case Western B in fifth place and Waterloo B in sixth, both with four questions answered; another Carnegie Mellon team, Ohio State, and two Michigan teams, each with three questions.
Members of UW's A team are Graeme Kemkes and Jeff Shute, both computer science students, and Donny Cheung, combinatorics and optimization.
Science and applied health sciences -- 4:30 p.m., Biology I room 271Meanwhile, architecture students are a little behind the curve; job ranking forms for them will be available at 11:00 today and are due back at 4 p.m.
Arts and environmental studies -- 4:30, Arts Lecture room 208
Mathematics -- 4:30, Arts Lecture room 113
Engineering 1B -- 5:30, Arts Lecture room 116
Engineering, upper-year -- 6:30, Arts Lecture room 116
South Campus Hall will be a busy place all this week, with a "fall bazaar" being held in the concourse. Says retail services marketing manager Jason MacIntyre: "We're offering a wide variety of sale-priced merchandise this week. Techworx is having its "Stock-Up" sale, featuring pens, pencils, binders, and the like, discounted from 15-50%; crested coil notebooks are drastically discounted to $1.29! The Bookstore is offering a wide selection of books, priced at 40% off, and the UWShop will be offering discounts on clothing and 15% off graduation rings. Campus Discs, our used CD vendor, will also be buying and selling used CD's all week. This sale is a great opportunity to pick up some early stocking stuffers and holiday gifts, or stock up on supplies for next term."
At 3:30, Raymond Laflamme of Los Alamos National Laboratory speaks in a special seminar uniting three series: physics, algorithms and complexity, and cryptography. His talk (in Davis Centre room 1302) is on "Quantum Computation". Says his abstract: "Computers obeying the laws of quantum mechanics (instead of the usual classical ones) can be much more powerful than their classical counterparts. I will describe some problems where it is possible to take advantage of the quantum laws. . . . Finally I will discuss recent experiments attempting to build prototypes for such quantum computers such as liquid state NMR. I will explain how these experiments are done and what we have learned from them."
A "Ski and Snowboard Club" will hold its first meeting today at 5 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre.
The Women in Engineering group will hold a wine and cheese party plus a panel discussion on "Careers in Engineering" from 6 to 9 p.m. today in the Davis Centre "fishbowl". Panelists include Marni McVicar of Wescam, Vivienne Ojala of SS Technologies, and Paula Sawicki of Waterloo Region, all UW engineering graduates. All are welcome.
On Wednesday at 12 noon, the teaching resources and continuing education office (TRACE) will hold a workshop -- aimed at teaching assistants and others who feel the pressure of facing classes -- on time management. Details are on the web, and registrations are being accepted at ext. 3132.
Also Wednesday, the InfraNet Project presents a talk by John McLennan, chief executive of AT&T Canada, under the provocative title "Will Exploding Bandwidth Satisfy Customers or Blow Up Communications Companies?" He'll speak at 2:30 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302.
Toronto-based Tamil novelist Shyam Selvadurai will speak Wednesday at 4 p.m. at St. Jerome's University.
The Pure Math, Applied Math, and Combinatorics and Optimization Club has announced a 24-hour "conference" with talks by undergraduate students, starting at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday and running straight through to Thursday afternoon. "This is an ambitious plan," says club representative Joel Kamnitzer, "since we require many people to give talks, many of these at strange hours of the night." He's looking for volunteers, and can be reached at jkamnitz@uwaterloo.ca.
Thursday brings this fall's offering in the "Arts Talks Back" lecture series -- a talk by Delbert Russell of the department of French studies, discussing Francis of Assisi under the title "Who Is This Man Francis?" He'll speak at 3:30 p.m. in Humanities room 334; all are welcome.
. . . And I did really know that the Warrior Classic tournament on the weekend was a volleyball event, not basketball. I bet most sports fans did too, in spite of the mistake I made in Friday's Bulletin. Results from that tournament: the Warriors won two games in regular play (beating Montréal 3-2 and New Brunswick 3-1) and lost two (falling to Penn State 3-0 and Toronto 3-0) and faced Toronto again in the gold medal game yesterday, where they fell by a 3-2 score.
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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