Daily
Bulletin

Wednesday, August 22, 2001 Today, with not a whole lot happening on campus, the Daily Bulletin looks back 33 years. This retrospective on an exciting time in the university's life is the fifth in this summer's series of historical Daily Bulletins. An open meeting for graduate students, with information about the new Quest on-line student system, starts at 9:00 this morning. It's been moved from the previously announced location to Davis Centre room 1351. Electrical power in South Campus Hall will be turned off tomorrow morning from 6:00 to 7:00, the plant operations department says. "Computer equipment should be shut down in an orderly fashion." The shutdown, rescheduled from a few days ago, will allow a crew to install the hydro hookup for the new co-op and career services building nearby. Tomorrow will bring an "iWeb" session in the LT3 learning technology centre: Colin Mayfield of UW's biology department will speak on the innovative use of XML in teaching. The session tomorrow will start at 1 p.m. in the "flex lab", Dana Porter Library room 329. This week's Positions Available list from the human resources department includes three permanent staff jobs and four temporary positions. Full information is available on the human resources web site.

Hagey confirms that he will leave

It was a touching and historic moment -- and all the more touching because Hagey, who has been undergoing treatment for throat cancer, was unable to read his own resignation statement to the board meeting. Instead, Jack Brown, secretary of the board of governors, read it aloud for him.

Said Hagey: "I am finding that my inability to use my voice to the extent I believe it is required of a university president leads me to ask the board to take steps to find a replacement for me as expeditiously as possible. In the meantime I am prepared to carry on as long as it is necessary to find a suitable candidate to become the next president."

After accepting the resignation, the board authorized a committee to write a procedure for finding "not less than two and not more than four" candidates for president, to be presented to the university senate and the board of governors for a final choice.

The procedure has now been made public. A nominating committee will be chaired by the chancellor and will include board members, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and one outsider "who shall be a resident of Ontario and whose reputation as a scholar and whose knowledge of Ontario universities is well established".

Says a note at the end of the procedure: "Appointment of each person to the nominating committee as defined above shall be conditional on his agreement to serve 'under an oath of silence' regarding deliberations of the committee."

VP proposes 'environmental studies'

The three-member committee will ask for comments on a "draft outline for a Division of Environmental Studies", which Petch is also distributing today, and report to him quickly -- by the end of November. "While the committee members are doing their best to contact all those known to have an interest in the area," says a memo from the vice-president, "it is inevitable that some may be overlooked in the short time span available." So anyone on campus is invited to offer comments to the committee.

Petch's draft outline begins with the statement that "Some of society's most pressing problems are concerned with the environment (e.g., urban blight, air and water pollution, pedestrian and vehicular transportation, resource utilization, etc.). These problems create needs for specialists trained in relevant disciplines and for research oriented towards a better understanding of and solutions for these problems. These needs both fall within the range of responsibilities of the universities."

It goes on to note that people working in such areas are scattered through various parts of the university. "Without pulling them up by the roots, a mechanism needs to be found where by they can co-operate and co-ordinate their activities."

At the same time, says Petch, "a substantial number" of students seem to "want to learn more about man in relation to his environment and how to cope with it".

He's suggesting a "division" of UW composed of "semi-autonomous professional schools, individuals from existing departments who feel an interest in and a need for joint appointments, and some departments". A specific example: the present department of design, if it "were to develop into a Department of Environmental Systems Design", might be attached to the new division as well as to the faculty of engineering, "with the possibility of having a stream of students in both".

The committee on environmental studies that Petch has appointed consists of Tore Bjornstad (director of the architecture program), Jack Ellis (electrical engineering), and Len Gertler (director of the urban and regional planning program in the department of geography and planning).

New management for Campus Centre

One result of the agreement is that Paul Gerster, who has been manager of the CC, will return to his permanent job as assistant to the provost. That change was one of the goals of protesters who invaded Gerster's office overnight just before Thanksgiving weekend, removing all his furniture and carrying everything to the middle of the CC's pink-and-grey great hall.

The Federation of Students will carry out day-to-day "operational and program administration" of the CC, the new agreement says. "For the interim period it was requested that Mr. Gerster's secretary remain in the building to assist in this work."

The agreement notes that "legal title to the property of the Campus Centre is vested in the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo". The building, completed last year, was funded by the university with provincial government support, although students did pay about $30,000 of the $2 million total budget.

"It is recognized," the agreement goes on, "that the group primarily interested in the use and functions of the Campus Centre is the student community."

The existing Provost's Advisory Committee for the Campus Centre will remain in existence, but will now "serve as an autonomous committee in establishing policies and procedures relative to the non-commercial areas of the building". Eventually a new management committee will be created according to the current committee's recommendations.

The talk of the campus

Approved by the board yesterday were residence fees for the 1969-70 academic year. Single rooms in Village I or the new Village II, which is expected to be ready by next September, will cost $515 for one term, including the compulsory meal plan.

The biology and earth sciences museum has announced "a generous donation of stuffed specimens, mostly North American birds", from the estate of Alex G. Frew of Waterford, Ontario. The collection includes a goshawk, hooded merganser, bronzed grackle, eastern meadowlark, marsh hawk, pileated woodpecker, and others.

"We are getting a good response," says Jean Salter, a staff member in the earth sciences department, who is asking for expressions of interest in an on-campus nursery school. The project comes from the UW Women's Club. "We have posted notices about the campus," Salter says. "I would urge that those who have not yet sent in a slip and who intend to do so should please hurry."

Mime Tony Montanaro performs tonight at 8:30 in the Theatre of the Arts; tickets are $2.50 (students $1.50).

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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