The Jewish world celebrates Rosh Hashanah

Daily Bulletin

The lowering of the flag UW's flags will be lowered to half-staff soon in mourning for Pierre Elliott Trudeau, prime minister of Canada 1968-79 and 1980-84, who died yesterday. (Photo from the National Post.) The flag guidelines say that UW will lower its flag "for any Head of State or Province who dies while in office, or for any former Prime Minister of the Federal or Provincial Government who is being given a state funeral, during the lying-in-state period". Official arrangements for the Trudeau funeral have not yet been announced, but reports this morning say there will be a state funeral, likely in the prime minister's home city of Montréal. Trudeau, who is best known for his role in "patriating" Canada's constitution and fighting for the unity of a bilingual country, was "the most unconventional of men but the most conventional of prime ministers", the Globe and Mail says today, citing his fondness for committees and policy reviews. "He was the bachelor who married the flower child; the civil libertarian who invoked the War Measures Act; the political independent who joined the Liberal Party; the strong centralist who made sweeping offers for greater decentralization in 1979; the politician who remained a loner. He was not a man to be crossed."

Wanted: more graduate students -- from the fall issue of the UW Magazine

But that's just one reason why Waterloo plans to increase graduate enrollment. The proportion of graduate to undergraduate students is an important measure of the strength of a university's research programs. "Waterloo's been called the MIT of the north," says Jake Sivak (left), dean of graduate studies. "At MIT, half the students are in graduate studies." A recent Canadian Association for Graduate Studies report shows graduate students make up about 20 per cent of total enrollment at most major Canadian universities, but only about 10 per cent at Waterloo. "We should aim for 50 per cent more graduate students by 2005," says Sivak. "I believe that's achievable if we all make a commitment."

Other universities are offering substantial scholarships to top students, even waiving fees. Some have targeted grad studies in their fundraising. Sivak would like to see similar moves at Waterloo. Plans are under way to encourage more of our own undergraduates to stay on at Waterloo for graduate studies and to step up efforts to attract more international students.

Sivak is pleased to see students proposing to set up their own endowment fund to support graduate studies. That's the level of commitment he hopes will build throughout the university.

But grads turn down proposed endowment

Of a total of 355 eligible votes cast by grad students, 217 or 61 per cent voted yes, with 138 or 39 per cent on the no side.

"The results indicate that a majority of graduate students feel there is a need for additional funding for graduate studies and research at the University of Waterloo," said GSA president Bill Bishop, following the final count. "It is also clear that many graduate students would be willing to contribute to the cause provided that they were confident the funds would be spent accordingly.

"The GSA does not have any plans to pursue this matter further at this time," he added, thanking those students who voted. "A petition signed by over 138 graduate students would be required to hold a second referendum on this issue this year. Without such a petition, another referendum on this issue could not be held until May of 2001. I do not anticipate another referendum to be held on this or any other issue in the foreseeable future."

Under the proposal, graduate students would have been asked to voluntarily contribute $25 per term towards the fund. The voluntary student contribution would appear on their fee statements each term and a receipt for tax purposes be issued annually. Refunds would be handled in a manner similar to the current GSA Graduate House fee refund process.

According to the plan, the fund would have provided some $100,000 in contributions from students annually, 50 per cent of which would be paid out in benefits to grad students each year in the form of scholarships or bursaries.

More about the move to Kitchener

"We are aware that the distance from campus will be a factor," says a memo to distance education instructors from Don Kasta, the department's director. He estimates that it's 4.5 kilometres from campus to 335 Gage Avenue, near the corner of Westmount Road and Glasgow Street, where distance ed will be within a few weeks.

"The inter office mail service to Gage Avenue will be the same as the service we now receive at 156 Columbia Street," says Kasta's memo.

"For meetings of our staff with instructors to discuss developing courses, we have arranged with TRACE to have access to an office in TRACE (4th floor, MC) where we can meet with you.

"For on-campus students who access us each term, we have secured space in NH for occasional use during the drop/add period each term. . . .

"If things go as planned, we will be in the new facility at the end of October (exact date to be announced) and we expect there will be about a one-half day disruption in service. . . . We anticipate being at the Gage Avenue facility for a period of 3 1/2 to 4 years, by which time the new buildings on campus should be completed and space freed up for us."

What's happening on this campus

The "Tourism, Environment & Community" lecture series continues: this morning at 9:30, David Weaver of Griffith University, Australia, speaks on "The Queensland Ecotourism Market", in Environmental Studies I room 350.

Noontime brings the first of two sessions on "Thwarting the Worry Process", with Christine Purdon of the psychology department as speaker. She's sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program, and will appear in Davis Centre 1302 starting at 12:00. The second session is at the same hour and same place next Friday, October 6. "The purpose of my two talks," says Purdon, "is to help people understand the worry process and learn to thwart worrying bouts before they become uncontrollable. . . . I will discuss what worry is, what provokes it and why it persists."

A reception will be held in the bookstore, from 2 to 4 p.m., to say goodbye to Gail Ruetz, who's leaving UW after some twenty years as manager of the Visitor Centre.

On the border between philosophy and mathematics is logic, and that's where we'll find Stan Burris of UW's department of pure math. He'll give a talk in the department of philosophy this afternoon (3:30 p.m., Humanities room 334) under the title "The Laws of Boole's Thought". George Boole -- who gives his name to the Boolean searching that's a commonplace of electronic databases -- wrote in the middle of the 19th century in terms that are "mystical", "abstruse" and "puzzling", says Burris. "In this talk the secret of the dark and symbolic processes of Boole's work is revealed."

The Friday afternoon "Visions in Sound" program on CKMS radio today offers the music of "Star Trek", under the title "To Boldly Go, Part II". "Thanks for tuning in," says Rob Daniels, mentioning the time (3:15 to 5:00 today) and the frequency (100.3 FM).

CTRL-A, the Club That Really Likes Anime, presents a show of Japanese animation today at 4:30 and Saturday at noon in Arts Lecture room 116. Titles shown will include the romantic comedy "His and Her Circumstances", the science-fiction adventure "M.S. Gundam 08th Team", the auto-racing action series "Initial D", and more. CTRL-A term memberships will be available at the door for $8. "In the spirit of Thanksgiving," says Karl Zaryski of CTRL-A, "we ask that everyone bring a non-perishable food donation for the Food Bank."

James Cunningham of Yuk Yuk's will perform after dinner tonight at the University Club. Tickets for the evening are $29.95 (phone 888-4088).

The second UW ACM programming contest of the season is scheduled for this Saturday, starting at 10:30 in Math and Computer room 3006. Coach and organizer Gordon Cormack says Trilogy Inc. of Austin, Texas, will be supplying pizza and prizes -- a $50 HMV (music store) Gift Certificate for each of the top five competitors. Says Cormack: "All students are welcome to participate in these contests, whether or not they wish to be considered to represent Waterloo in inter-university competition. Based on the results of the Waterloo competitions, two teams of three students will be selected to represent Waterloo at the East Central Regional Competition at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on November 11."

The career development workshop series will pack about eight sessions into a single day tomorrow under the title "The Whole Kit 'n' Kaboodle". It covers everything from networking to "selling your skills" in an interview. As a special feature, "McKinsey & Company will provide an employer perspective of the interview process (including the dreaded case interview) in the morning." Advance registration is at the career resource centre, phone ext. 4047.

A training session for BUDS, the UW-based program that provides tutoring and encouragement to high school students, will run from 1 to 5 p.m. tomorrow in Humanities room 373. Advance information: 747-8113.

Renison College alumni had hoped to be chugging up to St. Jacobs for lunch and shopping tomorrow, in an outing on the Waterloo-St. Jacobs Railway, but the railway is out of operation this year and the event has been cancelled.

The Waterloo Public Interest Research Group has a couple of special events this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, a group will be heading for the Shades Mills Conservation Area to work on trail maintenance. On Sunday at 6 p.m., a workshop titled "Leadership, Power and Peace" will be held in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. ("Two experienced facilitators will lead an exploration of how individually and collectively we can challenge our inherited privileges in order to build more inclusive and trustworthy communities." WPIRG at 888-4882 can provide more information.

The Downey Tennisfest will bring staff, faculty, retirees and friends out to the Waterloo Tennis Club on Sunday, with play running from noon to 6 p.m. Dinner follows.

Off campus, the CIBC Run for the Cure in support of breast cancer research will start at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Conestoga College campus in the Doon area of Kitchener. Martha Foulds in UW's development office (phone ext. 3470) is handling publicity for the event and can provide more information.

Please let me remind you that my department, information and public affairs, will hold a used book sale in support of the United Way campaign on Monday from 9:00 to 4:00. It'll be in Needles Hall room 3043, near our office, and book prices start at 25 cents.

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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