U of Western Ontario plans 3 per cent budget cut

Daily Bulletin

Student designs silver coin

Says a news release from the Mint: "Hui's coin design pays tribute to Canadian art in three millenniums and applauds our rich legacy of artistic expression, past and future. In the left part of the coin, the strong spirit of our native Canadians is portrayed on the faces of an Inuit sculpture. In the upper part, a tree is drawn in the style of the Group of Seven, reinforcing the importance of self-identity in artistic expression. In the right part, the continuation of the image is rendered in wire-frames to reflect Canada's leading role in computer technology as the art form of the new millennium."

"Eric's design is a celebration of our nation's artistic talent, taking us on a journey through thousands of years of creative thought," said Danielle Wetherup, president of the Mint. "Eric captures this country's strong spirit by drawing from artistic techniques and images of the past and by highlighting our leading role in computer and design technology."

"Creativity" is the tenth coin to be unveiled in this year's series of silver quarters, featuring new designs each month. Since January, the Royal Canadian Mint has produced more than a quarter of a billion 25-cent coins featuring the "Create a Centsation" winning designs.

An independent panel, composed of post-secondary art and design students, selected from among 33,000 entries, all 12 winning designs for the 2000 coins. "The artwork chosen for this series reflects the visions of Canadians from all walks of life," says the Mint. The contest invited Canadians of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate the millennium by "Drawing on our past and designing the future" to reflect Canada through the eyes of Canadians. "The enormously popular 1999 series of 25-cent coins reflected past Canadian achievements, while the 2000 coins focus on the future," the news release says.

The coin design, it says, "depicts Canadian art in three millenniums. Looking to the past, and with an eye to the future, the artist's design incorporates a montage of images, which capture both ancestral and contemporary forms of artistic expression. In the left part of the coin, the strong spirit of our native Canadians is portrayed on the faces of an Inuit sculpture. In the upper part, a tree is drawn in the style of the Group of Seven, reinforcing the importance of self-identity in artistic expression. In the right, the image is continued by incorporating computer rendering in wire-frames, to reflect Canada's leading role in computer technology as the art medium of the new millennium."

Hui was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada with his family in 1990. Early on, his parents noticed his keen interest for the arts and enrolled him in several classes including pencil drawing, Chinese brush drawings and watercolour. While in school in Canada, he learned about the Inuit and their sculptures, the Group of Seven and computer 3-D rendering after joining an architecture firm for a Grade 12 co-op program. He combined his passion for these mediums to create the October 2000 Creativity coin.

Says the Mint: "In his spare time, Eric enjoys drawing, sculpting, and designing computer graphics. He also enjoys working on his website and designing and creating simple computer software. When not in school, Eric lives in Toronto with his parents and older brother, Stanley."

Shads show off safe backpack

It's one of ten projects created by teams of teens taking part in Shad Valley programs at campuses across Canada (and one in Scotland). Among the other creations: alarms that prevent missing children, smart speed bumps that rise for the occasion, and bikes that can lock themselves.

Judges have been looking at the prototypes and their accompanying business plans, and will award medals to the winners in an event today at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.

Shad Valley links high-achieving senior high school students, top universities and corporate partners in what's described as "an intense, rewarding summer experience that develops leadership and learning skills, particularly as they relate to science, technology and entrepreneurship". In 2000, 536 top students were chosen to enter Shad Valley based on academic merit, creativity, interpersonal skills and community contributions.

UW has regularly played host to a group of Shads, and this year the cream of the products developed here was the Packwards backpack.

Says a summary issued by Shad: "The Packwards backpack is geared to all backpack users, to prevent theft while being worn without diminishing ease of use. With the utility of a regular backpack, it also has reversed zippers to slow entry, heavy-nylon construction to minimize slashing effects and a backward flap to prevent opening while worn."

Ed Jernigan, chair of UW's systems design engineering department and program director of Shad Valley Waterloo, says typically about one-quarter of each year's entering class in SDE, considered one of the most competitive programs to get into in the country, are Shads.

Events that make a Thursday

Briefly listed on a busy day:

• The senate graduate council will meet at 2 p.m. in Needles Hall room 3001.
• "Create Your Own Future" is a career development workshop scheduled for 2:30 this afternoon -- the career resource centre in Needles Hall is taking preregistrations.
• A workshop on "Teaching Dossiers, Part 1", intended mostly for graduate students, begins at 3:30 today in Math and Computer room 4058, sponsored by the teaching resource office. The same workshop will be repeated Monday, October 16, at 3:30 in Carl Pollock Hall room 3386.
• Physics professor Jeff Chen will speak on "Frustrated Polymers" at 3:30 this afternoon in Physics room 145.
• Also at 3:30, the department of statistics and actuarial science presents a talk by David Stanford of the University of Western Ontario, on "Bilingual Server Call Centers" (Math and Computer room 5158).
• A math test associated with the public service post-secondary recruitment campaign will be given at 7:00 tonight; the career resource centre should have more information.

It's a very big day at the University of Toronto, and indeed for Canadian higher education in general, as U of T installs its 14th president, Robert Birgeneau, a Toronto physics graduate and formerly dean of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Installation ceremonies start at 3:00 in Convocation Hall, and will be carried live on the web. Representing UW at the Toronto ceremony will be Mary Thompson, chair of the department of statistics and actuarial science, who was a contemporary of Birgeneau as a U of T undergraduate.

And among tomorrow's events:

• The tourism lecture series continues with a talk by Paul Wilkinson of York University on "Caribbean Cruises" (9:30 a.m., Environmental Studies I room 350).
• UW engineering students present family entertainment in the Student Life Centre starting at noon, under the label of CircusEng. Watch for more about the show in tomorrow's Bulletin.
• Bluegrass gospel music will echo in Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University, as Five on the Floor perform at 7:30 tomorrow night. Admission is free.

The talk of the campus

Oktoberfest celebrations will be on the calendar for many students this weekend, of course. One opportunity: Circle K, described as "UW's only service organization", will be selling tickets to Saturday night's Karlsberghaus Oktoberfest (at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex) today from 10:30 to 4:30 in the Student Life Centre. Ticket price is $8.

As Oktoberfesting gets into high gear, it's good to hear that there is an academic side to things. Susan Saunders Bellingham, UW's rare books librarian, has in her care the archives of K-W Oktoberfest, and yes, they do get used at this time of year. "Four students in the Public History program," she says, "will be doing research on various aspects of Oktoberfest this term and next. The initial stage of their research will probably be interesting as I understand that they have been issued complimentary passes to local festhalls! Quite a contrast to the traditional 'literature search'." She notes that "Another of our archive collections -- the Louis J. Breithaupt papers -- contains a diary description and photograph from 1871 of what is perhaps the earliest of the German festivals in the Waterloo area. It was a celebration of the end of the Franco-Prussian War, and Breithaupt's diary recounts the arrival of 10,000 guests arriving on the train, decorating the streets, a parade, singing, eating etc. The photograph, which is understandably not perfect, seems to be of a military band."

Roof repairs on the University Avenue overpass will start Monday, and the overpass will be shut down for about a month. As the work begins, lanes on University Avenue will be closed between Seagram Drive (the campus entrance) and University Shops Plaza from 9 a.m. to about 6 p.m. Plans are to close the eastbound lanes (heading away from campus) on Monday and Tuesday (October 16-17), and the westbound lanes (toward campus) on Wednesday and Thursday, the plant operations department says. Cars will have to detour by Albert or Lester Street and Seagram Drive.

A note from UW safety director Kevin Stewart: "A evening of personal safety audits will take place on Wednesday, October 18, from about 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Faculty, staff and students are invited to come out to be part of the teams of volunteers. The personal safety audit teams will each have an area of the campus to review the physical environment and personal safety services. A light dinner is included. The personal safety audits are supported by the Federation of Students and UW's Personal Safety Advisory Committee. Previous audits have resulted in improvements to lighting, sightlines and the addition of Help Lines. To participate or for information contact Chris Farley (Federation of Students) at ext. 2478, e-mail fedpres@feds, or Kevin Stewart (safety office) at ext. 5814, kastewar@uwaterloo.ca."

And . . . word has arrived that the recent St. Jerome's University charity run raised nearly $8,000 for L'Arche Stratford, with $5,000 coming from one anonymous donor.

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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