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Wednesday, October 18, 2000
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![[In chair at laptop]](/images/2000/1018engineers.gif)
Engineers Without Borders is profiled on the front page of today's Gazette. The organization, started at UW by George Roter, above, and mechanical engineering classmate Parker Mitchell, allows engineers to use their skills to address technical problems in the developing world. Founded a year ago, it now has chapters on five campuses. |
"It is important that we strive to project a consistent image," says UW president David Johnston in a memo asking UW departments to refer to the new document when they're preparing publicity for audiences outside the university. "Many universities are finding that it takes a co-ordinated effort to compete effectively in today's marketplace. To this end, we have developed a tool to guide the production of University of Waterloo materials."
The 900-word document is titled "Projecting a Consistent Image".
"Positioning statement" is the usual marketing term for a brief text that sums up what an organization is like and how it's different from others. In UW's case that would start with efforts to recruit new students, and in fact the new statement has some of its origins in the undergraduate recruitment program. But the university has an outside face in many other ways as well. "I encourage all of you to use this tool," the president writes, "to evaluate how effectively materials you are producing express Waterloo's unique personality and particular strengths."
The statement itself says it was "intended for internal use only, to be used to focus evaluations of materials on how effectively they express Waterloo's personality and strengths, rather than on how well they satisfy personal tastes."
Linda Kenyon, manager of UW's publications office, traces the origins of "Projecting a Consistent Image" back to the "fifth decade" planning report for the university in the fall of 1997. Its very first recommendation was for "a comprehensive and co-ordinated student recruitment strategy", and later recommendations called for improved external communications.
Early in 1998, a group based in the registrar's office was working on the design of student recruitment materials for the following year, says Tina Roberts, director of undergraduate student recruitment. "We decided that it would be difficult to move forward on the development of a new design without a positioning statement. We brainstormed what Waterloo stood for." The result was a positioning statement specifically for the recruitment program, and it has been the basis of materials aimed at 18-year-olds over the past three years.
When other departments showed interest, a committee began work. It started meeting early in 1999 and presented a draft to Johnston and provost Jim Kalbfleisch last winter. Revised statements were shown to the executive council, and approval was given in April. It's now being made public through the president's memo.
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Major historical strengths
From the beginning, Waterloo has been an outward-looking institution with strong links to the external community. . . . Waterloo was also a pioneer in computing -- the first university in North America to make computers accessible to undergraduate students -- and a leader in distance education. . . . Waterloo has always been a research-intensive university. |
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Current position
In just over 40 years, Waterloo has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities, offering undergraduate and graduate programs in applied health sciences, arts, engineering, environmental studies, mathematics, and science. Our six faculties and four colleges-- Conrad Grebel, Renison, St. Jerome's, and St. Paul's United -- are equal partners in fulfilling Waterloo's mission, operating with considerable autonomy in their specific areas of strength. . . . Waterloo boasts the largest and most comprehensive co-op program in the world -- co-op programs are offered in every faculty and almost every program -- as well as a strong program of regular studies. . . . We are a leader in technology transfer and well known for fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in our students. |
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Distinguishing traits
We're connected to the world. Like many other universities, the University of Waterloo's mission is to advance learning and knowledge through teaching, research, and scholarship, nationally and internationally, in an environment of free inquiry and expression. What makes us distinctive is the approach we take to achieving our mission. Co-operative education, distance education, technology transfer, and research partnerships at the local, national, and international levels provide us with external connections that orient us to the opportunities and challenges that face our society, our nation, and the world. We're future oriented. Waterloo is committed to teaching that prepares students to meet today's needs and to anticipate and embrace the opportunities of the future. We are also engaged in research which discovers new knowledge and finds ways to use that knowledge for the benefit of society. Advanced technology is an integral component of teaching, research, and student life at Waterloo. We're innovative. At Waterloo, we do things differently. Innovation has always been encouraged and rewarded, not just in research centres across campus, but in the classroom and the studio, on the stage and the playing field, and in the workplace. We are not a traditional university. We don't ask "why?" -- we ask "why not?" We're high quality. Over the years, we have chosen what we do carefully, and what we have chosen to concentrate on, we do very well. In national surveys, opinion leaders across the country use words like "high quality," "most innovative," and "best source of leaders of tomorrow" to describe the University of Waterloo. |
"The group will be assessing certain criteria, such as lighting, visibility, signage, isolation, possible assault sites, etc., using the Metro Action Committee on Public Violence against Women and Children guidelines," says Kevin Stewart, UW's director of safety.
The last campus-wide safety audit was done in 1995, says Stewart. Tonight, teams of about four people will visit specific areas, including the neighbourhood of Ron Eydt Village, Village I and the Columbia Lake Townhouses, UW Place, the Minota Hagey Residence, and the Brubacher House on the north campus.
"Previous audits have resulted in improvements to lighting and sightlines and the addition of Helplines," says Stewart, noting that the safety audits are backed by the Personal Safety Advisory Committee and the Federation of Students.
"Individuals will be in groups of about four with a team leader, who will complete an audit form," says Stewart. The information collected will be used by the safety office, the UW police and the plant operations department, as well as the advisory committee.
"I talked about safety during the election last February," comments Federation president Chris Farley, "and I want to make sure that everything that could be done is being done. We could still use volunteers, so if anyone wants to come out, just show up at the multi-purpose room in the Student Life Centre around 6 p.m."
The audits are expected to take an hour or two following "a light supper", and "the group will get together after the audit to review areas of concern," Stewart said.
"Glimpses of God: Faith and Computer Science" is the title of his talks in the series of "Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University".
Knuth is a professor emeritus of "the Art of Computer Programming" at Stanford University. While at UW, Knuth will give the two formal lectures and several seminars, will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at fall convocation on Saturday, and will even give an organ recital.
Here's the schedule:
Knuth established his reputation with The Art of Computer Programming, published in 1968. He developed the open software TeX (taken from the Greek term for art), now used extensively for typesetting mathematical and scientific texts. One user observes that "For mathematical notation, it remains the standard by which all others are judged." Knuth also developed Metafont, a design tool intended to replace the ugly computer typefaces common at the time. More recently, he published Literate Programming, among dozens of other books and articles on computing.
The Pascal Lecture series was established to create a forum for Christian issues in an academic environment by inviting "outstanding individuals who have distinguished themselves in both an area of scholarly endeavour and of Christian thought or life". It is financed by donations and the royalties from published lectures. The series is named after Blaise Pascal (1632-1662), a French academic and Christian best remembered as a forerunner of Newton in the establishment of calculus. Pascal was also the author of a Christian meditation, Les Pensées.
A drop-in display in the Student Life Centre today offers "tips on cooking when you're too tired to think", which must be fairly often for many of us. The event is sponsored by the health services department and will be open from 11:00 to 2:00. "Drop by," says the invitation, "and talk to Linda Barton and a nutrition nurse and get great tips on quick, easy, nutritious meals. Enter a draw to win the new Looneyspoons cookbook, Crazy Plates."
It's apparently international day in food services, where
the
menu at various outlets includes Mexican lunch, Swedish
meatballs, Swiss bagel melt, and pork chop with Gypsy sauce -- not to
mention tortellini, "oriental seitan", and potato cheddar perogies.
No extra intercultural points for Hamburger.
The series of intellectual property lunchtime forums continues with a talk today on "Sponsor Demands for Up-front Licenses", by Jerry Gray of the technology transfer and licensing office. The session starts at 12:00 in Needles Hall room 3001.
Conrad Grebel College is getting adventurous with its Wednesday noon-hour concerts. Last week it was guitar-picking, and today it's the Toronto Percussion Ensemble: "from Reich to ragtime". Admission is free; the music starts at 12:30 in Grebel's chapel.
Those who sign up for "The Work Finding Package" can spend pretty much the whole afternoon at UW's career resource centre. The workshop runs for two hours starting at 1:30, and covers everything from job searches to networking and employer research, and it's followed by an "hour tour", which curiously is scheduled to last just 30 minutes, of the CRC itself. More information: phone ext. 4047.
Canadian poet Sue Wheeler visits St. Jerome's University today to read from her work. Wheeler grew up in Texas and now lives on a seaside farm on Lasqueti Island, British Columbia. Her first book, Solstice on the Anacortes Ferry, won the Kalamalka New Writers Prize and was shortlisted for both the Pat Lowther and the Gerald Lampert memorial awards. Her second collection, Slow-Moving Target (Brick Books), "has been gathering accolades since its publication this past spring", says a memo from St. Jerome's, offering an excerpt from "Aldredge Place":
The reading starts at 4:00 in St. Jerome's room 325.Hear the rustle all down the block as people unwrap the box of the Fifties. Life will be a clock, a pet, it will wag its tail and lie down. Food will glisten in mounds on the breakfast tables and skirts will go taffeta-taffeta.
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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