International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Daily Bulletin

UW mourns vice-president Lithgow

President David Johnston announced the news -- which was already spreading across campus -- as the meeting began. He told senators that the funeral would be held Thursday morning.

Lithgow, who had been vice-president (university relations) since 1997, died at his home, where he had been receiving palliative care for the past several weeks. He had been away from the campus since early this year, being treated for lung and bone cancer.

He came to Waterloo after twelve years as vice-president (external relations) at York University. Previously he was vice-president (public affairs) at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. He graduated from Carleton University in 1970.

"If there's one thing I enjoy, it's picking pockets," Lithgow said with a twinkle at the time he arrived at UW three years ago. He was looking forward to leading UW in its biggest-ever fund-raising campaign, which is still expected to start in a year or two.

The vice-president (university relations) is responsible for alumni affairs and the office of information and public affairs, as well as for development (fund-raising). He was given "responsibility for strategic development and coordination of initiatives to generate external support", UW president James Downey said when he was appointed.

Visitation is scheduled for tomorrow, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m., at the Edward M. Good Funeral Home on King Street South. The funeral will be held Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Waterloo.

Ian Lithgow is survived by his wife, Cathy, and their two daughters. The family has requested that memorial donations be made to the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre.

Some things he said when he arrived -- from the UW Gazette, May 7, 1997

Later in an interview he said there were several reasons he was keen on moving to Waterloo. Some are personal -- the desire to bring his young family to a smaller city than Toronto -- and others have to do with what it will be like promoting UW to the public and to potential donors.

York University, best known for undergraduate programs that serve greater Toronto, is so different from UW that it's "almost not a competitor", he said. "One of the things that appealed to me was the opportunity to make a very different case."

He was asked how easily he -- a Carleton University graduate whose degree is in English literature -- can talk about Waterloo's high-tech activities. "It's not my job necessarily," he replied, "to make the technical case. . . . I've got to have a good understanding, not of the technology itself, but of the importance of the technology."

He said he'll be working to "open doors" so that deans, department chairs and researchers have the opportunity to talk about achievements and opportunities to the people who need to hear that.

"I also want to be the person who helps at the closing," he said, harking back to his enthusiasm for getting people to haul out their chequebooks. "That's one thing I don't fear doing."

Lithgow also noted that not all of UW's fund-raising and public awareness efforts will be about high technology; arts and other fields on the "human" side of the university are of concern too. "Given where I come from," he said, that won't be a tough study for him.

Co-op building goes near Arts Lecture

The building and properties committee will ask the board to approve that site when it approves the appointment of MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller, a Toronto architectural firm, to design the building.

The choice of MJM was announced in July but still needs formal board approval. When the name was made known in July, UW architect Dan Parent said the firm's work would begin with work on "siting and schematic design". There had been some discontent over earlier suggestions that the co-op building would sit between the Graduate House and the Physics building, on a popular area of trees and grass.

The co-op building is part of a construction package approved earlier this year under the Ontario government's SuperBuild program. A building for co-op would give it a new home after 28 years in the increasingly crowded first floor of Needles Hall. The new building is expected to provide about 43,000 square feet of space -- about as much as in the present Engineering Lecture Hall. Its price is about $8.7 million.

Two other parts of the SuperBuild package are also moving along, as the building and properties committee is asking the board of governors to approve the design for expansion of the Engineering Lecture Hall (to the tune of $4.5 million) and Engineering III ($8.2 million).

Other recommendations that are coming from the building and properties committee:

• Appointment of The Walter Fedy Partnership as "consultants and project managers" for the renovations to the central complex in Ron Eydt Village.
• A contract with Nith Valley Construction to do $4.9 million worth of renovations to Wellesley Court at UW Place, formerly known as the "north court" of the UW Apartments. The total project in that part of UW Place, turning the existing apartments into a 343-bed residence, is budgeted at $7.0 million.

A week for gays and lesbians

He said the GLOW booth in the SLC great hall will be staffed from 10:00 to 2:00 each day. "The booth will have information about GLOW and other queer-related services and activities in the Kitchener-Waterloo community."

GLOW has a number of events happening this week, as it does every week. Tonight, for example, is "GLOW Night" at the Graduate House, starting at 8 p.m. "The evening will be very informal," says Pigeau, "and everyone is welcome to attend."

GLOW describes itself as a support and social organization for all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered (GLBT) and GLBT-supportive members of the local community. "You don't have to be gay to get involved with GLOW!" Among its services are weekly discussion groups, a community centre and lounge, a lending library, a "peer support and general information line" (884-GLOW), web information, social events, a housing registry, and a speakers' bureau. "GLOW also maintains active links with other community organizations, clubs and businesses to keep its membership informed of local events."

Nigel Flear, also of GLOW, wrote about "coming out" at some length in Friday's Imprint:

Coming Out is the process whereby gays and lesbians gradually acknowledge and accept their sexual orientation. Although our culture assumes it happens in a day, more realistically it takes years. . . .

If a person's religion or society denounces homosexuality, it can hinder or halt the process. Many people fear the reaction and treatment their family would place on them. Personal fears of being gay (internalized homophobia) can also slow down the coming out process. With so many hindrances, it's easy to see why coming out takes so long.

Policy change deferred UW's senate wasn't, after all, asked to vote on a proposed change to Policy 69, as described in yesterday's Bulletin. At last night's meeting, the senate did discuss the change -- involving conflicts of interest when faculty or staff members teach outside the university. But provost Jim Kalbfleisch said he's been told that the faculty relations committee wants to discuss the proposal again before it comes for a senate vote.

Events and notes as the leaves turn

Because of "a severe backlog in the workload", the student awards office in Needles Hall will be closed all day tomorrow.

The physics department presents a talk this morning by Lee Smolin of Pennsylvania State University and Imperial College, who will speak on "Quantum Gravity: What Have We Learned and What Remains to Be Done?" (Davis Centre room 1304, 10 a.m.).

At 11:30, Don Cowan and Colin Mayfield -- of the computer science department and biology department, respectively -- will give a presentation on "Electronic Commerce in a Community Network". Says their abstract:

The concept of a smart community has been discussed for about a a decade, but what is a smart community, how can it be implemented and how does it relate to e-commerce? We describe the smart community concepts being developed at the University of Waterloo and the associated smart community infrastructure or portal being constructed and operated in Canada's Technology Triangle (Cambridge, Guelph, Kitchener, and Waterloo). Part of the infrastructure is based on maps and directories and unique connections between them. We indicate how this infrastructure can be expanded to encompass many community-based functions including various aspects of e-commerce. Finally we discuss how this infrastructure and its many related applications may be deployed to other communities and how these smart community infrastructures may be integrated.

The Computer Store kicks off its "Fall Lunch Series" events today with an IBM-sponsored lunch. Says Jason MacIntyre of retail services: "We've invited several of our key vendors to come on campus to demonstrate their newest products to UW faculty and staff. Those who attend can expect to be treated to a free lunch, in-depth presentations about some of the best new technology products on the market, and an opportunity to speak directly with technology industry representatives. IBM's talk will be held in the Davis Centre room 1304, from 12 noon to 1 p.m."

The LT3 Centre will hold an "idea workshop" at noontime (12:15, Dana Porter Libarry room 407) on "The Social Life of Documents".

The co-op and career services department presents a workshop today under the title "Are You Prepared to Work Outside Canada?" It starts at 1:30 in Needles Hall room 1020.

At 2:30, the department of statistics and actuarial science presents a talk by Rekha Agrawal of GE Corporation (a PhD graduate from UW, 1998), under the title "'Real Life' and What You Learn in Graduate School" (Math and Computer room 5136).

Chartered accountancy students, who finished their job interviews early and submitted rankings a few days ago, will get the big news at 3:00 this afternoon, when winter term job matches are posted on the co-op bulletin boards in Needles Hall.

The basketball Warriors will be seen in action tonight for the first time this season: an exhibition game against Warrior alumni will start at 6:30 in the Physical Activities Complex main gym.

Tomorrow brings the start of the Pascal Lectures for this year, given by distinguished computer scientist Donald Knuth. Wednesday events include a seminar ("The Art of Computer Programming: All Questions Answered") at 3:30 in the Humanities Theatre, and the first of the two formal lectures ("Randomization and Religion") at 8 p.m., also in Humanities. Seminars continue Thursday at 3:30 and Friday at 2:30; the second lecture is Thursday evening; and on Saturday, Knuth will receive an honorary degree from UW at fall convocation, and give an organ recital in the evening at Benton Street Baptist Church. More details tomorrow.

Also happening tomorrow: a noon-hour concert at Conrad Grebel College of ragtime by the Toronto Percussion Quartet; a 4 p.m. reading at St. Jerome's University by author Sue Wheeler.

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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