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Distance education gets more distant

That will put the DCE offices about 4.5 kilometres (three miles) from the main campus, he said. "We're putting a little distance back into distance education!" The move is scheduled for late October.

DCE has to leave 156 Columbia because the building was sold earlier this year and UW's lease expired. UW looked for new space in the Phillip Street high-tech belt, but nothing was available, Kasta said, and Gage Avenue was the nearest site that seemed suitable.

"It's a brand-new building going up," he said. "We have approximately half of it." The building also includes a sound equipment assembly plant and, oddly, a luxury apartment.

"It's wonderful space," Kasta went on. "We had a chance to design it ourselves." UW will occupy about 15,000 square feet for the distance education warehouse and offices for about 30 staff members.

"It's intended to be temporary," he said, noting that "in about three and a half years", if current plans continue, the university will have major new space on campus. That will make the "BFG" building at 195 Columbia Street -- currently home to part of the earth sciences department -- available for DCE's permanent home.

Meanwhile, a few things could be awkward, such as visits to the DCE offices by on-campus students signing up for continuing education courses. "Perhaps we'll set up temporary shop in Needles Hall," Kasta suggested. There will also be delays in marking distance education assignments, because it'll take longer to get them from the office to faculty members and back again to be returned to students.

The annual open house for distance education students is scheduled for this Saturday in the Davis Centre.

But access to the Gage Avenue offices should be easy for distance students themselves, as the building is just off a major artery, Westmount Road, and has free parking at the door, as 156 Columbia had.

There are other challenges, said Kasta -- "it's going to be a bit of a trick to connect us to the campus network" -- but staff from such departments as plant operations, central stores, and information systems and technology are working hard to make the move a success, he said.

Online love connections for UW students -- by Avvey Peters

For those who may be shy, or are having difficulty meeting that special someone, there's a free service offered by two UW students to help jumpstart their social lives: SingleAntidote.com.

SingleAntidote offers matchmaking services to students from UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and U of Guelph. Users register as members and then review profiles of those seeking friendships or romantic relationships. If someone catches their eye, they can leave a private message for that other member.

The two founders of the site are fourth-year students who say they noticed a need for something that would bring people with similar interests together. They wish to remain anonymous -- anonymity is one of the most important features of SingleAntidote, as it allows members to be more comfortable expressing themselves. One of the site founders says "The beauty of SingleAntidote is that you don't have to reveal to the general public who you really are until you are ready -- or if you even want to at all."

Since its June 2000 launch, more than 500 people have registered as members with SingleAntidote. Of the 319 who have declared themselves to be "on the market", only 20 per cent are women. The founders aren't too concerned about any gender imbalances, however, saying the addition of Guelph students to the site this semester might be the "equaliser."

The founders urge people who are curious about the site to log in as a "guest" user with the "guest" password. That way, they can look around without actually having to sign up. Further, they recommend that users return frequently to the site to see profiles of new members, and to see if anyone has left them a message. "You increase your chances of meeting someone you really hit it off with when you meet more people. It's like a lottery with better odds and free tickets."

Staff and faculty plan retirement

It's aimed at people who are ten to fifteen years away from retirement, says Katrina Di Gravio of the human resources department, and is sponsored by the staff training and development committee, although the full program will cost individual participants $90 apiece.

Says an overview sheet:

The Program consists of home based exercises which prepare participants for an interactive workshop session. PREP is designed to provide participants with a framework for making decisions about the life they want. These lifestyle goals are then modelled by the participants so they can see and understand the financial consequences of their decisions and then take appropriate action. This modeling is accomplished using The Retirement Education Centre Inc.'s specialized lifestyle modeling software.

The PREP folks aren't selling insurance or investments. "They don't promote a particular product," Di Gravio stresses. "They just talk about some of the things you need to do when you're doing your retirement planning."

At UW, the program begins with a free session on November 15 at which the process is explained. Those who sign up then get the workbooks and financial planning software to take home and do their individual "modelling" before a three-hour seminar a couple of weeks later. Participants get to keep the workbook and software: "The self-study material can be used again when the need arises."

"Until you have a clear vision of what you want your life to look like in the future," organizers say, "it is difficult to prepare for it financially." Faculty and staff who would like to sign up for the PREP program at UW should call Carolyn Vincent in the HR department, phone ext. 2078.

As the sun shines on Waterloo

Continuing today: return-to-campus interviews in the co-op department, and beginning-of-term tours of the libraries.

It's the first pizza day of the term for the Math Grad Committee -- pizza and pop will be for sale from 11:00 to 1:00 on the third floor of the Math and Computer building.

People interested in becoming volunteer programmers at CKMS are invited to drop by the station between 2 and 4 p.m. today. "See our facilities and talk to our Volunteer Coordinator," an invitation says, adding, "Volunteers are still needed for our jazz, classical and lesbian programs!" CKMS is UW's student-run radio station, a.k.a. Radio Waterloo, and its studios are in the Bauer Warehouse on the east side of the north campus. The annual general meeting of Radio Waterloo Inc. will be held at 7:30 tonight in Math and Computer building room 4040.

Math for 1,000 years Frank Berkshire of Imperial College, London, who's visiting the faculty of mathematics this fall, will speak this afternoon on "A Mathematical Millennium". Says Berkshire: "The last Millennium was one of considerable triumphs in our understanding of the natural world and of our place within it. Mathematics -- the 'Science of Patterns' -- has been central to this understanding and will continue to be so, as we look forward with much less than perfect vision to the coming Millennium. Our experience leads us to believe that the majority of future development, both exciting and more routine, is not what we can anticipate in advance, but that Mathematics will be crucial! . . . "Mathematics can also be great fun and things done originally for their own sake have an amazing knack of proving just what is required to analyse applications in totally different fields. In this lecture there will be practical demonstrations of the power of Mathematics in its own right and in analysing applications which are deceptively easy or hard." He'll speak at 4 p.m. in Math and Computer room 1085.

Welcome-back events for graduate students are continuing. Tonight, starting at 8:00: a barbecue and party at the Graduate House ("lots of free food and prizes to be won").

A party tonight at The Loo, in central Waterloo, will celebrate publication of the Phoenix, an annual arts publication from the Federation of Students. The launch event begins at 8 p.m. and will showcase local musician Matt Osborne and a variety of spoken word and visual artists. Copies of Phoenix 2000 will be available for two dollars. Proceeds will go to The Literacy Group.

The water will be turned off in three houses of Ron Eydt Village -- North C, D and E -- tomorrow from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., the plant operations department says. "Washrooms will be out of service for this period of time."

Here's a reminder that people from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council will be on campus tomorrow to provide information about NSERC's postgraduate scholarship and postdoctoral fellowship programs. Graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty and staff are all invited to attend an information session at 10 a.m. Thursday in Needles Hall room 3001, says Elaine Garner of the graduate studies office.

And tomorrow afternoon, the faculty of mathematics will hold a scholarship information meeting at 3:30 in Davis Centre room 1302, with the skinny about awards available from both NSERC and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program. "Fourth-year and graduate students who are considering applying for these scholarships for graduate study are urged to attend. Refreshments available."

Chandrika Anjaria of IST -- a former Oktoberfest Woman of the Year -- sends a reminder that Friday, September 15, is the deadline for this year's Oktoberfest Women of the Year nominations. Nominations are being accepted in ten categories: the arts, business/entrepreneur, community volunteer, employee, homemaker, humanitarian, professional, senior, sports/fitness, and young adult. For nomination forms, phone the Oktoberfest office at 570-4267.

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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