The Canadian Water Network flows from coast to coast, according to this diagram issued by the federal industry ministry along with a news release announcing its launch last week. The Network has its headquarters at UW; scientific director is Bob Gillham of Waterloo's department of earth sciences. It includes 175 researchers from 38 universities, 29 companies, and 40 government agencies "who will undertake research aimed at ensuring Canada's leadership role in the management and sustainable use of water resources", the release says. "In addition, the network will be studying the protection of human and aquatic ecosystems and applying new water technologies for continued economic growth." The network focuses on seven key research areas: Policy and Governance; Water Resource Management; Water and Public Health; Safe Drinking Water; Wastewater Management; Infrastructure; and Groundwater and Sediment Protection. Federal funding over a five-year period adds up to $14.9 million.

Eight weeks after the attacks

It was eight weeks ago this morning that life at UW ground to a halt as people clustered around TV sets to watch the destruction of the World Trade Center. Students, staff and faculty are back to work now, of course, but the changes are noticeable.

Just yesterday, the Bulletin carried advice from the safety office about how to handle "suspicious" packages, the suspicion being the idea that persons unknown may be mailing anthrax spores. And there's a special urgency to Islam Awareness Week, now under way.

More broadly, UW is in line to be affected by the economic slump that seems to have hit Canada and the United States as a result of the terrorist attacks and the subsequent low-grade war against the government of Afghanistan. The topic came up, for instance, when UW president David Johnston was talking last week about the likelihood of new federal government funds to pay for the "overhead" costs of research. Universities have been pressing Ottawa for the past couple of years to start spending some money in that way.

"Until September 11, I was quite optimistic that we would see something in the December budget," Johnston told Thursday afternoon's meeting of UW department heads. Now, he's not so sure -- though he and other presidents from across Canada were planning to press the issue during a weekend meeting with the federal deputy minister of finance. A recently announced billion-dollar allocation for new defence measures "may well be the money for indirect research costs", he lamented.

In fact, the National Post reported yesterday that the federal "skills development" and "innovation" agenda, which was top priority a few weeks back, is now being postponed to allow more spending on protection. "First of all, we have to deal with the issues of security and safety. There is no debate about it," said human resources minister Jane Stewart. That likely means a delay in the spending on a national Internet infrastructure that was recommended by a task force that Johnston chaired, and enthusiastically accepted by industry minister Brian Tobin.

Ontario treasurer Jim Flaherty will deliver an "economic outlook and fiscal review" in the Legislature today, and is expected to put the spending emphasis on security, rather than education and health. "I'm not going to fool around about it," Flaherty is quoted as saying this morning. "We have the effects of September 11. We're going to have some tough choices to make."

Back at UW, someone at the department heads' meeting last week asked how the economic collapse of the past few weeks affects prospects for the success of Campaign Waterloo, aimed at bringing in $260 million, mostly from individual donors.

"It's not just September 11," said Johnston. "The economy has really turned into a very disquieting period. We would love to be launching our campaign a year ago, with 4 or 5 per cent growth rates." The latest forecasts show an annual growth rate more like 1 per cent, which is considered pretty bad economic news.

The much-publicized implosion of "dot-com" stocks had happened before September 11, and there were other gloomy indications. In the September 3 issue of Time magazine, a columnist described a "worldwide slowdown" that was already in progress, and warned, "One spark could ignite a worldwide economic crisis."

The good news, the president said at Thursday's meeting, is that Campaign Waterloo isn't a short-term effort. Solicitations and gifts are scheduled to go on until close to UW's 50th anniversary in 2007. Well before that, the economy should be booming again and donors will be in generous spirits, he said. "I'm quite confident that we can do it!"

Playwright visits, drama season begins

Sears will speak at the UW bookstore at noon on Thursday, in the second in a series of interviews and readings celebrating the life of theatre lover Brian Silversides.

Sears gained international attention with her play "Africa Solo" in 1989, and more recently her "Harlem Duet" was the winner of the Dora Mavor Moore, Chalmers' and Governor General's Awards. She organized the first African-Canadian theatre festival during the 2000 World Stage Festival and is the editor of Testifyin', the first anthology of plays by dramatists of African descent in Canada.

On stage at UW this season will be three drama department productions:

• "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare, directed by Joel Greenberg, November 14 to 17, in the Theatre of the Arts, Modern Languages;
• "Absurd Person Plural: An Evening of Three Absurdist One-Act Plays" by Samuel Becket ("Play"), John Guare ("The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year"), and Harold Pinter ("The Dumb Waiter"), February 6 to 16, in Studio 180, Hagey Hall; and
• "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, directed by Kim Renders, March 20 to 23, in the Theatre of the Arts.

"'Twelfth Night'," he says, "exposes the ease with which we mistake the notion of love for the reality of love; "The Crucible" reminds us that mistaking self-interest for communal responsibility leads to horrific results; and make no mistake, the Absurdists warn us repeatedly that there is little to be gained from trying to make sense of a world in which 'sense' fails to register as anything more than a five-letter word. That the themes of folly and misguided self-interest dominate these plays written over a 400-year period, reinforces the timelessness of the live theatrical experience. That the playwrights' abilities to tell their stories with as much laughter as there is shock and horror, provides us a wide range of responses."

Tickets -- $12, students/seniors $10, student matinees $8 -- are available from the Humanities box office, phone ext. 4908.

Talk and action across campus

Today is ranking day for co-op students seeking to be matched with winter term jobs. Ranking forms will be available at 10 a.m., the co-op department says, and must be returned by 4 p.m. (Students in the accounting, architecture, and teaching programs aren't part of today's ranking exercise.)

It's the last scheduled day for the flu shot clinic being operated by health services. Shots are available in the Student Life Centre from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A sale of Jocus toys runs today and tomorrow in the Early Childhood Education Centre in the PAS (Psychology) building. Toys are for sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and "you'll be sure to find something for every child on your list," organizers promise.

Revenge of the Sublet continues in the Student Life Centre, today and overnight. It's a fundraiser for the ROOF ("Reaching Our Outdoor Friends") agency in downtown Kitchener, and is organized by Students for Society.

Yadin David of the Texas Children's Hospital is at UW today and will speak at 11:30 in Carl Pollock Hall room 3385. His talk is the third in the engineering "Bridging the Gap" series. Title: "Telemedicine: I Can See the Highway, But Where is the Ramp?"

Islam Awareness Week continues, as I was saying. Tonight, the Muslim Students Association presents a lecture on "Human Rights in Islam", by Shabir Ally, at 6 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302. All day, displays continue in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre.

Ashok Kapur of UW's political science department, along with Christopher Raj of Nehru University, India, will speak tonight in a forum on "Afghanistan and the Future of South Asian Politics". Starting at 7 p.m., it's sponsored by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and will be held at the Kitchener Public Library main branch.

For tomorrow:

• "Is It Good for Me or Not?", a drop-in nutrition display from the health services department -- 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the food court in the Student Life Centre.
• An information session about the planned graduate student referendum on creating an endowment fund -- 12 noon at the Graduate House.
• The regular sale of surplus UW property, 11:30 to 1:30 at central stores, East Campus Hall.
• A talk by Mike Lazaridis of Research In Motion, as part of this year's "Visionary Seminar" by the Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills -- 11:30 to 2:00, Humanities Theatre.

CAR