Millennium Peace Day at the United Nations

Daily Bulletin

'Go high-tech, stay local' That's the slogan of a career fair being held today and tomorrow in Federation Hall (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Says an ad for the event: "Come out to meet with the technical professionals and human resources of 24 high tech companies in Canada. Companies participating are CacheFlow, CheckFree, ComDev, Cyberplex, Dalsa, Descartes, inscriber, intellitactics, Manulife Financial, Mitra, Navtech, NCR, Northern Digital Inc., OpenText, PeerGroup, Philips, PIXStream, PrinterOn, RIM, Sonic Foundry, Spicer, Sybase (iAnywhere Solutions), Vertical Sky (MKS), and Waterloo Maple. "Come find out what great opportunities exist right here in your own back yard! Our local companies offer international presence with challenging permanent, temporary, and co-op positions, competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for travel and adventure! "Positions are available in software development, computer engineering, sales and marketing, technical support, and electrical/electronic engineering. "Free mouse pads!" More information about high-tech careers and companies in the Waterloo area is available on the web site of Communitech.

No growth without 'appropriate funding'

That would mean expanding enrolment by about 2,600 "full-time equivalent" students, said the provost. "We are in fact about half way there as of the current year."

Registrar Ken Lavigne told the senate meeting that if the current figure of 14,300 full-time undergraduate students holds up until November 1, when the official counting is done, UW would have an enrolment increase of 3.8 per cent from last year. In fact, some of those people are likely to slip away before the count date. Part-time enrolment is showing a "significant" increase, about 14 per cent, but that also may not last until November 1, the registrar added.

And the dean of graduate studies, Jake Sivak, said grad enrolment is at just about last year's levels: a little less than 1,600 full-time, and 300 part-time.

The provost said all Ontario's universities had received a rush request from the government in mid-July, asking for "non-binding indications" of their enrolment plans for the next five years.

UW has already said that -- "with appropriate funding" -- it can grow by 15 per cent, and that was the background for the SuperBuild grants for new construction that were announced earlier this year. "The plan we submitted simply phased in that additional growth over five years. We've made it clear all along that we're not prepared to grow without proper funding from the government. That's still our position.

"We still don't even know the funding we have in the current fiscal year."

Senate members asked Kalbfleisch about UW's planning for the so-called "double cohort", the extra flood of first-year students expected in 2003 when two years' worth of high school students graduate at the same time. "Whether we can do anything" to expand enrolment temporarily "remains to be seen", said Kalbfleisch, again mentioning that there's no way to take more students unless the government is going to pay the costs.

Hiring extra faculty members to teach extra students is one big challenge, he said, but Waterloo would have other problems as well -- expanding the capacity in teaching labs, finding hundreds of extra co-op jobs, and housing those extra students in "a relatively small city".

Fitness skills 'for a lifetime'

The emphasis is on "lifetime skills courses", though other parts of the campus rec program include sports that are best played in leagues and by the young and vigorous.

For those who don't fancy skipping three times a week, or step classes every Tuesday and Thursday, or Ak-wa-fit ("a suspended total body workout") day after day, there's even something called the "sanity saver", in which participants try a different fitness activity each week through the fall term.

Courses are open to campus recreation members, which includes current students at no charge. Off-term co-op students can buy a membership for $26.75; staff, faculty and alumni for $75 (that's up from last year's figure); outside folks, for $125.

The first step in registration for instructional activities is to pick up a ticket today (between 8:15 and 11:30) from the "red north" corner of the Physical Activities Complex. Each ticket carries a registration time on Wednesday, and the ticket-holder should show up at that time at PAC room 2039 to register and pay the class fee.

Fees vary widely, and have been revised this year, campus rec says, to reflect the actual costs of each class and how often it meets. For example, participants will pay $35 for eight squash lessons, $60 for a Bronze Cross lifesaving course, $25 for a one-shot bicycle maintenance clinic, clinic, $39 for many of the three-days-a-week fitness classes or $26 for those that meet twice a week. Full information about registration is available on the web or in the maroon "Incredible Guidebook" that the campus rec folks have circulated on campus this term.

Back for its third year is the "Cross-Canada Challenge", but this year the simulated run is actually across Australia, "following the five Olympic rings". You can sign up for a token that will move along the big map in the PAC trophy case (Red North hallway) each week based on how many exercise activities you report doing that week.

Also starting this week are many of the campus rec leagues -- some competitive, some "co-recreational" -- in sports such as broomball, basketball and innertube waterpolo. Tournaments are being scheduled in slow-pitch softball, volleyball, golf, and squash. And clubs dedicated to badminton, table tennis, kendo and other sports are also starting their fall activities.

Talk launches Jewish studies chair

Diamond's topic is a reflection on the festival of Sukkot, a traditional celebration during harvest season for Jews and humanity's relationship with God. Sukkot this year falls on October 14.

This speech also marks the official launch of the chair, and during the evening major donors will also be recognized. (Diamond is now being described as the "Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies".) "I don't have all the money in the endowment yet, but I have about a million and a half dollars, enough to launch the program," says Paul Socken, head of the Jewish studies committee as well as chair of UW's department of French studies.

Diamond is a lawyer who more recently turned his attention to religious studies and earned a PhD last year from the University of Toronto, writing his thesis on the work of Moses Maimonides, one of Judaism's seminal thinkers.

At UW this fall, Diamond is teaching JS 120A ("A Thematic Introduction to the Hebrew Bible") and JS 210 ("Mediaeval Jewish Thought: The Challenge of Reason").

His public lecture will be given tonight at 7:30 in Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University. Admission is free.

Software for students The information systems and technology department "is attempting to arrange licensing to make software available to students at student-affordable prices", says Carol Vogt of IST. The current list of software available in the Computing Help and Information Place (CHIP), Math and Computer room 1052, includes the following: UW Home Use CD for Mac and PC, $15, includes a licensed copy of the latest release( version 7) of Norton Anti-virus, as well as web browsers, email programs, plug-ins, etc. Math@Home CD for PC, $15, includes MathCad, MathSuite (a Matlab clone) and Borland JBuilder Borland JBuilder for PC, $5 (note: Norton JBuilder is also included on the Math@Home CD) XWin32 for PC, $20, an X Windows program for communicating with Unix systems on campus SPSS Statistical Package for PC, $23 WordPerfect Office 2000 for PC, $21, includes WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and WordPerfect Presentations

The Bulletin's bulletin board

Notes for co-op students: the "master copy" of your co-op record is available today (after 10:00) and should be picked up from the paging desk in Needles Hall. And work reports from the spring term are due at 4 p.m. today ("some faculties differ -- check with your undergrad office").

The career development workshop series is beginning for this term. Today at 1:30, "Letter Writing", and at 2:30, "Resume Writing", both sessions to be held in Needles Hall room 1020. (There are advance sign-up sheets beside the elevator on the first floor of NH, for these and many subsequent career workshops.)

Senate undergraduate council meets at 1:00 this afternoon in Needles Hall room 3001 -- that's the committee that reviews course and curriculum changes before they're submitted to the university senate for approval. Today's agenda includes a revision of how the first-year engineering curriculum is set out, now that UW is about to offer a Bachelor of Software Engineering program as well as the longstanding Bachelor of Applied Science.

The mathematics faculty council will meet at 3:30 in Math and Computer room 5158, with a reception for new faculty members and visitors following the meeting.

An information meeting about graduate scholarships for students in arts and applied health sciences will be held at 3:30 this afternoon in Needles Hall room 3001. Current grads, and undergrads who might be looking ahead to graduate study, are invited to attend, says Elaine Garner of the graduate studies office.

Auditions will be held today for the drama department's second production of the season, "The Merchant of Venice", which hits the stage November 22-25. Auditions start at 4:00 in the Theatre of the Arts, and the drama department says ambitious actors should pick up an audition package in advance at Modern Languages room 125. The first production of the drama season is "Grimm Tales", to be presented October 25-28, and it has already been cast.

"Come meet your fellow varsity athletes," says Steve Drew of the athletics and recreational services department, inviting all Warriors to a barbecue tonight, sponsored by the Varsity Council. The event -- "food, fun and new friends" -- will start at 7:00 on the north campus.

Tomorrow afternoon, the faculty association sponsors a special "discussion for all members of the University" about the Canada Research Chairs program. There will be two speakers: UW president David Johnston, and James L. Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which has expressed some strong reservations about the Chairs program. "Following introductory comments of approximately 15 minutes each," a notice says, "the floor will be open for discussion of the Canada Research Chairs Program in general and its potential impact on the University of Waterloo." Tomorrow's event will start at 2 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302.

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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