Advice about opening the mail

Said a memo from safety director Kevin Stewart: "Following reports of possible bioterrorism incidents in the United States, UW Police Services, Health Services and Safety Office continue to monitor the situation and have briefed those staff who are UW's initial handlers of incoming mail on both hazards and precautions." (UW mail is generally delivered to the "central receiving" dock of central stores in East Campus Hall.)

He noted that mail and parcels come to UW through Canada Post and several courier companies.

A set of "Guidelines for Identifying and Handling Suspicious Envelopes/Packages" is available on the safety office web site. Here's a summary:

Identification of Suspicious Envelopes/Packages No return address. Excessive postage. Restrictive markings such as "personal" or "confidential". Addressed to someone no longer in office or department. Items protruding from envelope/package, wet areas, openings or strange odours. Unusually heavy envelope/package and/or presence of small bulges of powder or granules.

If Identified as Suspicious Envelope/Package Place package and contents gently on a flat surface. Cover with available material such as paper to minimize disturbance of contents. Notify supervisor/co-worker to secure area and to call UW Police, ext. 4911. Wash hands.

Anyone with questions or concerns about mail handling, says Stewart, should contact the safety office at ext. 3587.

He also provided these tips on "Reducing Risk of Infection", prepared by Barbara Schumacher, UW's medical director of health services:

• Remember a healthy lifestyle promotes a healthy immune system.
• Personal hygiene habits are important in the prevention of disease. Wash your hands frequently and especially before eating or preparing meals. When working, keep your hands away from your face, eyes and mouth. After handling packages or mail, wash your hands. Wet hands, add soap and wash for 30 seconds. Then rinse under running water while rubbing hands together vigorously and dry well.
• Plan to have a flu shot this year.

  Health services flu shot clinics continue in the Student Life Centre today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

  The symptoms of inhalation anthrax are similar to influenza: fever, fatigue, malaise, dry cough and pressure beneath the sternum (breast bone). A flu shot boosts the recipient's immune response, thereby reducing the risk of acquiring respiratory illness caused by the strains of Influenza A and B, which are predicted to be prevalent this season. Reduce your risk of acquiring respiratory illness with the fever, headache, muscle aches, cough, sore throat and nasal discharge, which are familiar flu symptoms. Enjoy better health and less potential for anxiety.

Questions from the provost

"We have an ongoing structural problem of balancing our books," Chakma told a Thursday afternoon meeting of about 125 department chairs and other UW leaders in South Campus Hall. They heard a briefing from UW president David Johnston about Canada's economic challenges, and the university role in solving them, before Chakma spoke about the local problems and possible solutions.

He listed a series of possible ways to deal with the reality that costs are going up and income isn't. Without some kind of action, he reminded his audience, UW could look forward to spending cuts of around 4 per cent per year for the next few years. But what kind of action?

• Freeze salaries? ("My answer is no.")
• Freeze new hiring?
• Diversify the university's income? "We have a plan to do that," he said, "but it takes time."
• Increase enrolment? "We have grown significantly," the provost said, "and I would suggest that we have to grow even more, in spite of the pains that you all have to go through in coping with that growth."

Beyond that, he said, UW needs the authority to set its own tuition fees. "We need to convince the government to lift that restriction," he said.

He also spoke of the need to "optimize resource allocation", that is, spend money in the most effective way. "Should we be making partial budget allocations based on quality?" he asked, pointing out that UW hardly knows how to measure the quality of academic programs, let alone how to improve it.

"Can we afford to do all the things we did in the past?" he asked, pointing to a broad -- and expensive -- diversity of options and programs offered at UW. There are more than 400 course sections a year with five students or even fewer registered in them, he said, and it might be wise to see whether some of those could be cancelled, making faculty members' time available for other things.

There's also the possibility of making professors more effective, and letting them teach more students, through "technology mediated learning", both on and off campus. "Can we afford not to?" Chakma asked.

Environment magazine marks its 30th

It's entitled "An Inquiry Into the Health of Nature", and those who attend "will benefit by learning about the often ambiguous relations between environment and health, what types of progress have been made, and what issues are at the forefront of concern", organizers say.

The evening will feature Elizabeth May, executive director of the Sierra Club Canada and first chair holder of the Elizabeth May Chair in Women's Health and Environment at Dalhousie University. Also speaking will be Nettie Wiebe, writer and speaker on agriculture, environment, public policy and trade issues, and the first women ever to be elected president of the National Farmers' Union.

The event is scheduled for 6:30 to 9:00 tonight at the Waterloo Stage Theatre, 24 King Street North in Waterloo. After the talks by May and Wiebe, a reception to celebrate Alternatives' 30th anniversary will be held for all in attendance, with free refreshments. Tickets are required for admission, and are available free from Alternatives Journal, OPHA, and WPIRG.

"As Canada's most widely read environmental magazine," the news release says, "Alternatives has published views, news, and academic articles about environmental action, thought and policy. By combining the learned rigour of an academic journal with the accessible style and format of a general-audience magazine, Alternatives continues to provide writing that is engaging to read and that also provides a deep level of analysis and insight. The journal successfully promotes dialogue and exchange of information among environmental activists, academics, and professionals."

The upcoming winter issue has the theme of "Children's Health and the Environment", and is due for release in early December.

'Visionary' seminar comes Wednesday

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive officer of RIM, will also be given the 2001 OPAS "Visionary Award" for his achievements at the fifth annual Visionary Seminar. This year's event is being held in the Humanities Theatre, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The seminar is presented by Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills, an affiliate of the Council of Ontario Universities.

Lazaridis, a recipient of a UW honorary degree, will deliver his vision on wireless technology breakthroughs, as well as the future of his company and industry. The presentation, sponsored by Bell Canada, will be transmitted live via satellite and webcast to 20 university campuses in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

After his formal remarks, Lazaridis will answer questions posed from the various university campuses.

The Visionary Seminar is designed "to provide a forum for industry representatives, university faculty and students to join together to assess an informed vision of the future". Previous speakers have included Ted Rogers, CEO of Rogers Communications Inc.; Jean Monty, then CEO of Nortel; John Sheridan, president of Bell Canada; and John Cleghorn, chairman and CEO of Royal Bank Financial Group.

OPAS is a partnership of Ontario universities and major Canadian companies, dedicated to advancing industry and university partnerships.

Notes as the Diamondbacks reign

The results are now in from "Wacky Hair Day", held October 26 in support of the United Way campaign. The event, organized by the university secretariat, added $2,277.63 to UW givings, which helped push the United Way total up to $152,579 as of Friday. That means the campaign is at almost 102 per cent of its $150,000 goal, and money is still trickling in.

A date has been officially set for the undergraduate student referendum on expanding the Student Life Centre and recreational facilities with the support of a new $20-per-term fee. Voting is scheduled for November 20 through 22. And Brandon Sweet of the Federation of Students sends this note as things get organized: "Students who are interested in forming 'Yes' and 'No' Committees for the upcoming Campaign Waterloo referendum are invited to drop by the Federation of Students offices at SLC 1102 and ask for the Chief Returning Officer or to contact bbgsweet@feds.uwaterloo.ca for more information."

Something a little odd will be going on in the Student Life Centre today through Wednesday. Kristina Jazvac, president of the Students for Society group, explains: "We run events throughout the school year, to raise money for local charities. Our first event of the year is Revenge of the Sublet. Five contestants will live in two Fisher-Price toy houses for 48 hours straight. One person will be left at the end after contests and votes kick the others out. People walking through the SLC can donate two dollars to ROOF, the charity we've picked, to vote on who they think should be next." We'll hear more about this one over the next couple of days, I think. The campout starts at 11:00 this morning.

Holocaust Education Week starts today in Kitchener-Waterloo (the much bigger Toronto version is already under way). The next few days will bring several events under the general title "Challenging Prejudice: Promoting Tolerance and Respect". Tonight at 7:30, two speakers discuss "Forgiveness, Forgetting and Foregoing the Past", at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 825 King Street West.

It's also Islam Awareness Week, with daily displays and movie showings in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. "In addition," says Salman Hoda of the Muslim Students Association, "there will be attendants who are more than wiling to try to answer questions about Islam, and books to be given away." Tuesday and Wednesday nights there will be special lectures (6:00, same location) and on Thursday an art exhibition in the SLC great hall.

It's debate season in the faculty of engineering, with faculty-level debates, sponsored by the Sandford Fleming Foundation, today through Wednesday at 11:30 in Engineering II room 3324. The finals will be held Friday at 12 noon at POETS pub in Carl Pollock Hall.

Elizabeth Muir of St. Paul's United College is the noontime speaker at Kitchener Public Library today, as their Monday series continues. Topic of her lecture: "Values in an Electronic Age".

Hot water will be shut off in South Campus Hall from 2:00 to 6:00 today so plumbers can connect the pipes to the new co-op and career services building, the plant operations department advises.

The senate executive committee will meet at 3:30 p.m. today in Needles Hall room 3004.

The LT3 learning centre today presents "coffee and scholarship", a once-a-month "gathering of faculty who are, or want to be, working with LT3 to develop effective applications of learning and teaching technology". The event, starting at 4:00 in the Flex lab on the third floor of the Dana Porter Library, is "intended to be a mixture of colloquium and kaffeeklatsch". Today's presenter: Eva Lau of the economics department.

Training in WHMIS, the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, will be offered on four occasions this month. Each session is the same -- a video and brief quiz, altogether running for about an hour -- and the official line is that "all university employees, volunteers, part-time employees and graduate students who have not previously attended a University of Waterloo WHMIS session are required to attend." (The safety office, phone ext. 6359, can provide more information.) The first session will be tomorrow at 9:30; later schedulings are November 9 at 10:00, November 16 at 2:00 and November 27 at 2:00. In each case, the venue is Davis Centre room 1304.

The human resources department sends a reminder that the November-December brochure for the Skills for the Electronic Workplace program has been sent out to staff members. "There is one new course this session," writes Carolyn Vincent from HR, "Web Page and Access Database Interaction Using Dreamweaver Ultradev. A complete list of courses can be found on the IST web site, or people can contact me at ext. 2078."

Coming later this week: this fall's "Silversides Event" from the department of drama and speech communication. It consists of a visit by playwright and actor Djanet Sears, who will read in the UW bookstore at 12 noon on Thursday. Watch for more publicity.

And . . . UW's Midnight Sun solar car is already in Australia, having been shipped there by Emery World Wide, and the first team members are on their way to Darwin, on Australia's hot and remote north coast. They're making final preparations for the World Solar Challenge, which will leave from Darwin en route to Adelaide on November 18.

CAR