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University of Waterloo | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Friday, September 1, 2000

Seasons change; there's no time left
In new administrative positions
Grads begin voting on $25 fee

[Orange juice with a smile]
Browsers -- the new coffee shop on the main floor of the Dana Porter Library -- opened for business yesterday. Food services assistant Joan Kenyon makes a sale to Pamela Helmes-Hayes, secretary to UW's president.

Seasons change; there's no time left (the Guess Who)

The first day of September falls on the last day before the beginning of the fall term -- the last day of summer, to everybody except astronomers. On Monday, which is the Labour Day holiday, parents will be delivering thousands of new students (and their stereos, laptops and teddy bears) to UW residences. A new life begins.

A high priority for many new arrivals will be parking permits. The parking services office will be open Saturday and Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for permit sales, but closed Sunday.

Orientation events are based in the residences on Monday afternoon and evening. Conrad Grebel College has a "Dairy Queen walk" on the program, Renison College an "Island Luau", while Villagers and students living off campus are invited to see mentalist Mike Mandel perform in the Physical Activities Complex.

Tuesday through Saturday, the focus of orientation alternates between residences and academic groups. Says the orientation web site:

This week, planned and implemented by over 800 upper year students, is an opportunity for you to experience a balanced introduction to the social, residential and academic aspects of university life. Whether you want to groove to live music, cheer, play cards, play games, meet your Dean, find where your classes are, meet new people or just hang out, UW Orientation Week has something for you. You will have a chance to meet the people you will learn with while participating in your faculty orientation week. There is also a chance for you to meet the people you will be living with whether in the Colleges, Villages or Off Campus during your residence faculty week. Each program has exciting events to welcome you to UW. Make sure to check out your faculty and residence activities on this site for more details.
Again, Congratulations! The University of Waterloo is an exciting and wonderful place to be.

About that football team

"Nobody thinks Waterloo has much of a football team this year," says coach Chris Triantafilou, quoted by Christine Rivet in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record a couple of days ago. The Warriors are "minus three big names", Rivet notes, including star quarterback Ryan Wilkinson. "I'm not going to worry about filling Wilky's shoes," the coach said. "We'll wear a different pair of shoes this year." There are 93 players in training camp for the Warriors this week, almost half of them brand-new, Rivet reported.

Tuesday evening sees (or rather hears) the band Moist play at the Physical Activities Complex, in a show open to first-year students only. After that, the biggest events of orientation week are Monte Carlo Night on Thursday and the pep rally that precedes Saturday afternoon's football game, in which the Warriors will host McMaster's Marauders.

But first there's the holiday weekend -- a quiet time before the shouting starts. UW libraries will be closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, as will most other things on campus that aren't directly related to the moving-in process. Of course some key services continue as always:

UW police: on duty 24 hours, 888-4911.
Student Life Centre: open 24 hours, turnkey desk 888-4434.
Maintenance emergencies: phone ext. 3793, 24 hours a day.

And thanks to direct in-dialing (remember what things were like when every call to UW had to be handled by an operator?) it's possible to reach anybody who happens to be at work, at any hour. The switchboard number is 888-4567.

In new administrative positions

September 1 brings the beginning of several new appointments in positions of power and glory. Among the newly great:

Emanuel Carvalho becomes associate dean (special programs) in the faculty of arts. An economics professor, he takes over from Peter Woolstencroft.
Paul Kay becomes associate dean (undergraduate studies and educational liaison) in the faculty of environmental studies. He is an environment and resource studies professor, and takes over from Ellsworth LeDrew.
Hector Budman of the chemical engineering department becomes associate dean (computing) in the faculty of engineering, succeeding Beth Jewkes.
Bill Lennox of civil engineering becomes director of first-year general engineering, succeeding Gordon Stubley.

Grads begin voting on $25 fee

Graduate students have until September 18 to cast their ballots in a referendum that would introduce a new voluntary fee of $25 per term to fund an endowment for grad students.

Ballots were mailed on July 31 to some 1,753 grad students across campus, and to date, just over 200 votes have been returned.

"This figure is well short of our quorum requirement," says Graduate Student Association president Bill Bishop. A 15 per cent response rate is need for the results to be considered valid. To pass, the referendum requires a two-thirds majority.

"Over the next three weeks, the GSA will make every effort to encourage graduate students to vote," says Bishop. "It is very important that all graduate students vote since it is quite possible that a few votes may determine the success or failure of this referendum."

The endowment fund is being proposed by the GSA "based on the perceived need for improved funding for graduate studies and graduate research," according to a statement posted on the GSA web site. "It is hoped that this fund, if established, would enable graduate students to play a more significant role in the administration and allocation of research funding at this institution. Graduate students would be asked to voluntarily contribute $25 per term towards the fund. This voluntary student contribution would appear on their fee statements each term and a receipt for tax purposes would be issued annually. Refunds would be handled in a manner similar to the current GSA Graduate House Fee refund process."

If the fund is approved, the GSA projects some $100,000 in contributions from students annually, 50 per cent of which will be paid out in benefits to grad students each year in the form of scholarships or bursaries.

The text of the proposed endowment fund constitution is posted on the GSA web site, along with a discussion paper addressing many of the issues. Anyone with questions is invited to contact Bishop at wdbishop@ece or at ext. 3634.

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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