Daily Bulletin

Lunatics hit the stage The drama department's production of "totally durang-ed", five one-act plays by Christopher Durang, opens tonight. The show runs through Saturday, and again February 14-17, in Studio 180, the studio theatre in the Humanities building. Showtime is 8 p.m. (not 8 a.m., as at least one ad apparently says). So what's it all about? "Lunatics from the nightmare world of Tennessee Williams come into contact with Greek divas of Medea proportion. The Hardy Boys soar over and into a cuckoo's nest wherein Nurse Ratchet presides. And Sam Shepard macho-mania threatens to cannibalize mid-80's psychobabble in the shape of a chain-smoking madwoman. All of this comes to staggering life and endless laughter. . . ." After all, Durang is described as "America's wildest satirist". Lloy Coutts, currently with the Stratford Conservatory Programme, is the director. Tickets are $10, students $8, at the Humanities box office.

Students 'clamouring to get in'

"Particularly in this double-cohort era, students will certainly be clamouring to get in," said provost Alan George, referring to the demand that can be expected in 2003, when students from the old five-year high school program and the new four-year program graduate at the same time and show up at the doors of the province's universities.

Quite apart from that one-time crush, the number of graduates from Ontario high schools is expected to grow by something like 40 per cent within a decade, George reminded the board.

The current plan for UW is to increase enrolment by 15 per cent from 1998-99 to 2004-05 -- and about half of that growth has already taken place.

By contrast, York University and the University of Toronto "are developing aggressive expansion policies", registrar Ken Lavigne said. And institutions outside Ontario, most notably the University of New Brunswick and the University of Alberta, have made it clear that they're going to welcome Ontario students in 2003 -- and before and after that too. Remember, Lavigne added, the double cohort will pass, and then competition will be even fiercer.

"The focus in the next few years will not be on quantity but on quality," he said, reminding the board that UW, like other universities, wants the best students. UW president David Johnston added that "We're very anxious that we continue to enhance the quality of our intake."

He noted that according to surveys of students who considered Waterloo but ended up at other universities, the two big issues are the shortage of residence rooms and the lack of good-sized scholarships here. The residence issue has been dealt with, he said, but scholarship funds are still a big problem.

Aerial photo from the Downtown Cambridge web site shows the Grand River as it runs through historic Galt -- the sort of neighbourhood UW's school of architecture loves to study. The proposed new site for the school is at lower left.

Architecture: a matter of space

"The school of architecture is in dire need of improvement in its physical space," provost Alan George explained. And that's what the city of Cambridge, a business lobby group and an anonymous donor are offering: land and building funds on a site by the Grand River.

Rick Haldenby, director of the architecture school, also described the problem, noting that the school's long-awaited Master of Architecture program went into operation January 1 and will have more than a hundred students by next winter. "I don't have one square centimetre to locate these students!" he said.

Haldenby said the Cambridge promoters are offering "a world-class facility, albeit in a remote location", and he noted that architecture faculty have voted unanimously in favour of the move. Students are interested, and are being surveyed now, he added.

"This is still very much a work in progress," George told the board. "We must be assured that the funding required has a high level of certainty. We are acutely aware that there will be additional operating costs. Operating a small, remote campus is not something that you take on lightly."

Several board members expressed concern about how the school of architecture could be part of university life if it were so far away, in spite of everything that shuttle buses could do. Issues include helping first-year students adjust, providing library services, finding student housing, and allowing architecture students to take courses in other departments or vice versa.

Only about 2 per cent of course registrations in architecture are from students outside the school, Haldenby said, and about 4 per cent of the courses taken by architecture students are offered by other departments -- mostly in the evening.

The provost noted that there might be "value" for UW in having "physical presence and visibility" in Cambridge. The building could be a site for evening classes offered to the community, for example, he said.

Cambridge isn't the only part of Waterloo Region that would like to see more of UW, said Kitchener mayor Carl Zehr, one of three municipal leaders who are members of the UW board. "The city of Kitchener is anxious to have more involvement with the university," he assured the meeting.

Dean will consider Platonov case

As provided by the Memorandum of Agreement between the University of Waterloo and the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo, Dr. Mary Thompson, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, is now looking into the matter of Professor Vladimir Platonov. . . . Her inquiry will be as broad as she judges necessary to enable a determination of whether action is required under the Memorandum of Agreement, and will be completed as quickly as circumstances allow.

Since November 1999 when Professor Platonov was charged with a number of serious criminal offences, he has been on an extended research term at the University of Waterloo.

Last month Platonov pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was given a two-year conditional sentence. He is an internationally famous mathematician specializing in algebra, algebraic geometry and number theory, who worked in his homeland of Belarus (part of the Soviet Union until 1991) and came to UW in 1993.

The judge said as he imposed the sentence that it's clear Platonov, who is 61, poses no danger to anyone. "You are entitled to considerable credit for your previous lifestyle," he added, noting that both religious leaders and scientists had sent letters of support for Platonov or appeared as character witnesses.

Arts celebration today, and more

Central stores holds its twice-a-month surplus sale at East Campus Hall, off Phillip Street, from 11:30 to 1:30 today.

Bob Phillips, executive director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, will be on campus today to give a seminar on "Challenges and Opportunities for Cancer Control Research in the Next Decade". His talk, sponsored by the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation, starts at 3:30 in the Clarica Auditorium, Lyle Hallman Institute.

Here's word (from English professor Gary Draper) about today's literary reading at St. Jerome's University:

Hot on the heels of an outstanding poetry reading, comes some splendid fiction! Catherine Bush swept onto the fields of Canlit with a smart, funny, and powerful first novel, Minus Time. Her recently-published second book, The Rules of Engagement, has already gathered bucketsful of praise: "thrilling and unusually sophisticated" . . . "nervy, compelling" . . . "a beautifully written work, precise and sensual". And this from Quill & Quire: "Part of the pleasure of reading Bush's second novel-at once a fast-paced literary thriller and meditation on weighty issues-lies in the frisson of seeing a writer rise splendidly to the occasion anticipated by her first novel."

And just one more. The acclaimed author of Lost Girls, Andrew Pyper, who is the next writer in the St Jerome's writers series, calls The Rules of Engagement "a giddy alchemy of late Atwood and early Hitchcock."

Catherine Bush will be reading at 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 7, in the Fireplace Lounge, Sweeney Hall, St Jerome's University (note change of place from our usual reading spot).

The growing field of ethical investing is the topic of a talk tonight by environmental scientist -- and founding partner of the Sustainable Investment Group -- Blair Feltmate. He's brought to campus by the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, which asks: "Why are sophisticated investors and managers of the Dow Jones indices placing a premium on green companies, and why are they earning more profits as a result?" His answer will come at 7 p.m. in Math and Computer room 4020.

The two Warrior basketball teams will host Guelph's Gryphons tonight in the Physical Activities Complex -- the women's game at 6 p.m., the men's at 8 p.m. The volleyball teams play tonight at McMaster.

In the first event of a Mennonite Authors Reading Series, Conrad Grebel College presents Sandra Birdsell (left) at 7 p.m. tonight in the chapel. Author of The Two-Headed Calf, The Chrome Suite and other novels and books of stories, Birdsell has twice been short-listed for a Governor General's Award.

And . . . UW's National Alumni Council will be meeting today in Toronto.

Insurance seminar all day tomorrow

The day after tomorrow brings "One God, Many Stories", a talk at St. Jerome's University by Sister Eva Solomon, "a recognized leader in the Anishinabe spiritual tradition as a Sacred Pipe Carrier and Conductor of the Sweat Lodge". She'll speak at 7:30 on Friday evening. Friday: Sister Eva

Finally: check out the front page of today's Gazette for much about "Iced in Black", a festival of "Canadian Black Experiences on Film", running this weekend in the Davis Centre.

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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