Daily Bulletin

'Building a talent trust for Canada'

It comes from James Downey, acting vice-president (university relations), whose nine-page document describes the opportunities for a UW campaign and its possible theme, but doesn't cite a dollar goal or list specific projects the campaign will try to support.

"The fundraising campaign described in this document," Downey writes, "is motivated by the wish to enhance not just our reputation but the substance on which it rests. That substance is talent: the talent of our students, faculty, staff, and, in its most diverse and applied form, our graduates. Waterloo has been successful principally because it has attracted and graduated talented and motivated students. Our alumni have enriched every salient area of life in Canada and beyond."

He comments that UW, like other Ontario universities, needs to press for better public support for education -- "but that is another campaign, of a different kind." In this document he's talking about "an invitation to our alumni and friends, corporate and individual, to join us in both a dream and a cause".

It lists Waterloo's strengths ("impressive campus, well-maintained and with significant room to grow") and weaknesses ("small total endowment and under-developed private support platform"), as well as the opportunities and threats that face it.

And it proposes "talent" as the campaign theme, under four categories:

• Making room for talent: new buildings, including those already being planned plus "expansion of research space in Applied Health Sciences, Environmental Studies, and Arts".
• Expanding, attracting and rewarding talent: more scholarships, bursaries, fellowships and chairs ("numerous endowed chairs and Faculty Fellowships").
• Empowering talent: multimedia classrooms and laboratories, and "renewal of our substantial corpus of distance education material".
• Creating a culture where talent will flourish: social and athletic space, and "improved library and residence services".

UW Place office in new location

Formerly in the base of the West Tower (soon to be renamed Eby Hall) at UW Place, the offices will reopen tomorrow on the ground floor of 106 Seagram Drive, the South Court (soon to be Waterloo Court) of the apartment complex.

"By combining the administration office and the maintenance office into one location, it is our desire to better serve our residents," says assistant manager Barb Robbins. "Two new exterior entrances have been installed for direct access from the parking lot. One entrance is for maintenance staff and the main entrance is for administration."

The phone number stays as it is (888-4040, or UW ext. 3391), but the mailing address is changing:

UW Place Administration and Maintenance Office
106 Seagram Drive
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3B8

Grads flock to learn about e-theses

The course, offered by the information systems and technology department, was filled to capacity when it was offered last fall, and another session, scheduled for this afternoon, is full (40 students) and has a waiting list. The course is to be offered by IST again on April 5.

Meanwhile, a memo from Audrey Sloboda of the graduate studies office mentions a few issues, big and little, that students need to consider if they're going to submit a thesis electronically. The IST course touches on ways of addressing most of them.

• In order to submit electronically, your thesis must be printable as if it were a single file. that means that you can't manually paste diagrams, images or maps into your thesis.
• Some people switch from portrait mode to landscape mode for a wide table, and type a page number on the page in portrait format. If you are submitting electronically, you can't to that. How do you get a portrait format page number on a landscape page?
• Your thesis must be converted to a PostScript file, and sent to the Graduate Studies Office, where it will be converted to an Adobe Acrobat file. This means that care must be taken with the fonts you use, because certain fonts do not convert well to Acrobat Format. This is mainly a problem with LaTex.
• Do you know how to create the PostScript file you must submit?
• Do you know how to submit it?
• Electronic submission of your thesis will only take care of the university library's copy of your thesis. The department still wants a bound paper copy. You should also check with your supervisor to see if he/she wants a bound copy. It is up to you if you get bound copies for yourself and your family.

And a little of this and that

Pure mathematics professor Vladimir Platonov pleaded guilty last week to aggravated assault and is awaiting sentencing in Kitchener Superior Court. Platonov was originally charged with attempted murder following an attack on his wife in November 1999, and has been on leave from the university while the case was pending.

The federal government has announced the membership of a study group, dubbed the "broadband task force", that will report on ways of making broadband Internet service available to all Canadians. The industry minister announced last fall that the task force would be set up, and named UW president David Johnston to chair it. "Canada must ensure it has a high-speed, high-growth economy and an improved quality of life. Access to high speed broadband networks will translate into strong investments across Canada and opportunities for all Canadians," said industry minister John Manley.

Happening today:

• An information meeting about the Weight Watchers at Work program, at 12 noon in Math and Computer room 5158A.
• Kinesiology professor Rich Hughson speaks on "Human Adaptation to Life on the International Space Station", at 12 noon at the Kitchener Public Library main branch.
• A wine and cheese party at 6 p.m. celebrating the opening of the Albert and Temmy Latner Jewish Students' Centre, 148 Albert Street. (More news soon about this initiative by the Jewish Students' Association.)
• "The Embassy", a weekly Christian gathering, at 7:30 in the Humanities Theatre. Theme tonight: "The Road Less Traveled".

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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