Daily Bulletin

Big and little square brochures

we do things differently.

Linda Kenyon, manager of the publications office in information and public affairs, says work started about a year ago to revise UW's old "Facts and Highlights" brochure. (A version of "Facts and Highlights" is still available on the web.)

Says Kenyon: "We began by inviting people from the units that use this brochure -- such as the conference centre, the visitors centre, co-op, the office of research, distance ed, development and alumni affairs, grad studies, undergraduate recruitment -- to provide us with information on how they use the publication and with feedback on the brochure's strengths and weaknesses.

"The brochure, we discovered, is distributed to a wide range of people, from casual visitors to campus to prospective co-op employers, research partners, faculty members. Although sometimes the brochures are mailed separately, most are included in packages of materials or distributed by hand. Most people found the brochure too dense for their purposes. Yet others felt that their audience wanted more detail, more context. Both groups agreed that we should identify our key messages and make sure that they were communicated clearly.

"We decided to produce not one but two publications: a pared-down facts and highlights brochure and a more comprehensive first-contact brochure. We also decided to incorporate the annual Maclean's brochure in this suite of publications."

Months later, there are 10,000 of the little brochures and 5,000 of the bigger ones waiting to be distributed, and more will be printed as they're needed. The Maclean's brochure, boasting about UW's perennial "best overall" ranking among Canadian universities, will be along within a few weeks, Kenyon said.

The content of all the publications is based on UW's positioning statement, approved last summer. Key phrases: "We do things differently. . . . Waterloo grads are in demand. . . . We're serious about teaching. . . . Openness to new ideas. . . . A contribution to the local community."

UW departments can get copies of the brochures from the community relations office, phone ext. 3276.

Lending a hand and a heart -- by Tiffany Murray, abridged from the UW Recruiter newsletter for co-op employers

The Buddy Program recruits people from the Society's membership pool, colleges and universities, and the general public. Once trained, they can assist the HIV victims through the legal process to obtain a health allowance. The system is designed to empower the applicant, and shorten the waiting time that had been approximately two years prior to implementing the Buddy Program. As more buddies are trained, more and more people can be helped. The more buddies there are, the faster they can help the applicants through the lengthy red tape, while at the same time increasing the demand on the provincial government to change the legal process.

Presently a single individual with HIV in BC receives $826.42 per month in disability allowance for food, shelter, and medicine. This amount is far too little to purchase the essential items that combat the negative effects of HIV. Under the BC Benefits program, a health allowance is provided for persons in life threatening situations. People living with AIDS qualify for this money; however, they must complete a legal application process that is demanding in both time and resources. At the moment there are only two community groups that help the applicants, one being the Advocacy Department of BCPWA. Combined with the year-long legal application process, it can take up to four years for an applicant to receive any money. Approximately fifty-five people have died while waiting for this support.

The people waiting to see the advocates are angry, grieving, and frustrated. Hearing their stories, and seeing their living conditions was quite difficult for Felicia. She saw the need for the program, and witnessed some of its victories. So far, applicants have been successful in the legal procedure. The allowance that they are then granted goes towards the purchase of some of the much-needed health care goods. Every person who is helped is another accomplishment for Felicia and the Buddy Program.

Supervisor Tarel Quandt attests to Felicia's involvement. "We could not have done it without her setting a strategy for the summer: recruiting, interviewing volunteers, and providing the support to get the training manual and the training schedule completed. Without Felicia, we would not have had the ability or resources to develop the program." Her willingness to work in a not-for-profit environment, which is under resourced and often very demanding, set her apart. Her enthusiasm, good instincts, and dedicated nature added to her feats as the co-ordinator of the Buddy Program.

What was the best part of the co-op job? Felicia says, "Every day I learned something new that took me out of my own world. I felt like I was actually doing something. I could see what I was doing and the potential for what it could become."

Boys and boyz, girls and grrls "Boys and Boyz and Girls and Grrls" Night tonight at the Bombshelter pub in the Student Life Centre will, be, according to Gays and Lesbians of Waterloo, "the first publicly advertised LGBT Pub Night held on the UW Campus since the 1970s". The event, starting at 9 tonight, is a takeoff on the hugely popular "Boys and Girls Night" matchmaking every week at Federation Hall. Says GLOW: "Even though this event is being organized for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) Community, any 'queer-friendly' faculty, staff, students and members of the local community are invited to attend. We hope to make these nights a regular event, so we hope to have a great turnout!" The event is co-sponsored by "many other supportive businesses in the K-W and Toronto areas". There will be door prizes. Admission is free for those who can produce a WatCard; there's a $2 cover charge for others.

Five in the hall of fame; weekend sports

The night will also honour last season's Athletes of the Year: Val Walker (swimming), Heather Moyse (rugby and track and field), Ryan Wilkinson (football), and Jason Tibbits (football).

In current sports, the big event is a pair of basketball games against Brock tomorrow -- the women Warriors will play at 12 noon and the men at 2 p.m. It's the annual Rogers Television Basketball Autograph Day Game, described as one of the biggest varsity special events of the year. Both teams will be signing free autographs for children immediately after their respective games. All kids 12 and under will receive free autograph sheets to get their favourite Warriors' signatures, courtesy of Rogers Television. Before each game, kids will also receive free Warrior megaphones compliments of Rogers and Domino's Pizza. There will be draws for prizes throughout both games.

Both games will be televised by Rogers on a delay basis -- cable channel 20, starting at 9:00 Saturday night.

The hockey Warriors play at Brock tonight and are home Sunday afternoon to host the Ryerson Rams (2 p.m., Columbia Icefield). Other Warrior teams are away from home for the weekend: male and female volleyballers at Wilfrid Laurier tonight; swimmers at Western tonight; curlers in a Toronto crossover tournament; Nordic skiers in a "designated race" at North Bay; track and field athletes at the Toronto Classic on Saturday afternoon; the indoor hockey team Saturday and Sunday at a Toronto tournament.

Poet launches chapbook Don McKay, two-time winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry, will read from his work today at St. Jerome's University (4 p.m.). At a reception after the reading, Trout Lily Press, based partly at St. Jerome's, will launch a new chapbook by McKay, Aria: A Suite for Voice, and the author will be available to sign copies.

The talk of the campus

Also happening today:

• It's ski day for engineering alumni, as members of the Waterloo Area Chapter and Waterloo Engineers in Toronto held for Osler Bluff.
• The blood donor clinic winds up in the Student Life Centre (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
• The band Critical Mass -- winners of the "best rock album" award last year from the Canadian Gospel Music Association -- will play at 8:00 at Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University.
• "We're gonna rock this house!" is the promise from the Grad House -- the house band, The Panty Daddys, will start playing at 9:30 tonight.
• The University Club presents a South African wine-tasting event tonight (dinner at 7:00). Information: ext. 3500.

Tomorrow brings Waterloo's local ACM programming contest -- a three-hour individual contest, in the format of the International Collegiate Programming Contest sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery, in which UW has frequently scored high. "Come out," organizers say, "and try your skill against members of Waterloo's team that will represent us at the world finals in Vancouver this March. Everyone from the UW community (local and remote) is welcome. Free pizza and post-mortem following the contest (local participants only)." More information is available on the web.

Also tomorrow, there's a somewhat special event in the career development workshop program: a one-day blitz covering just about all the separate seminars, from résumé writing to research about companies, under the title "The Whole Kit 'n' Kaboodle". The career resource centre in Needles Hall can provide more information.

Heating and ventilation will be turned off in parts of the Math and Computer building Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for maintenance work, the plant operations department warns.

Students involved in OCO, the "open source" group working on systems "to complement the CECS Access system for applying to jobs online", are looking for help. Says one of them, Andrew Sherk: "We are in desperate need of web developers to work on 'eBins', a paperless web interface that allows students to submit HTML resumes to electronic bins, which resemble the current application to the physical bins in Needles Hall." The co-op department is already using Precis, which was developed by the OCO group, to deliver electronic résumés to students who use the "skills" form. There's no guarantee that the department will adopt eBins, says another of the OCO folks, Simon Woodside, "but they are interested. They've expressed that they'll consider it carefully once we've delivered them a fully operational prototype. That's what we're working on now."

A number of universities have been announcing their first appointments to Canada Research Chairs, following funding approval from the federal government. But not Waterloo, and I asked the new vice-president (university research), Paul Guild, why not. "Waterloo did not submit any Chair applications in Round 1," he replied concisely. "There will be good news to report in Round 2!"

News from the department of drama: "How I Learned to Drive", originally scheduled for production next month, has been replaced by a show called "totally durang-ed" -- today is obviously Lower Case Letter Day. It consists of five one-act plays by Christopher Durang, and will hit the stage in Studio 180 February 7-10 and 14-17. Watch for more publicity about "totally durang-ed" in the next few days.

Something new happening Monday: "There will be a Speaking Circle in Math and Computer room 5136, at 1:30. The plan is to meet every other Monday after that, but contact Alastair Farrugia at afarrugia@math to make sure. A Speaking Circle is a group of people who alternate as audience and speaker -- everyone gets to speak for two minutes first, then everyone gets another five minutes. If you feel more comfortable, you can read from a book instead of speaking. The aim isn't so much to practice speaking, as it is to practice connecting with the audience. Various people have claimed that this helped them to be more comfortable and effective when speaking in front of groups or classes. You can attend as many (or as few) Circle meetings as you like."

A note from UW Graphics: "The Xerox 5750 has been removed from Davis Copy Centre and replaced by the Canon CLC800 colour printer formerly in Graphics Express. Graphics Express now has a speedy new Xerox DocuColor 12 printer/copier. The Xerox DocuColor 40 will be retired from Main Graphics. For a list of our available on-campus printers with easy setup instructions visit our web site."

Advance note: fine arts professor Ann Roberts will give the 20th annual Faculty of Arts Lecture next Wednesday, January 31. She'll speak under the title "The Art of Ceramics: A Muddy Field", at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon in the Theatre of the Arts.

Another advance note: a major job fair, co-sponsored by UW and other post-secondary institutions, will be held Tuesday, February 6, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Bingemans Conference Centre in Kitchener. Shuttle buses will run from UW's Student Life 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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