Some 200 students gathered yesterday to commemorate the victims of the September 11 attack on the United States and its aftermath in Afghanistan, and to offer prayers for peace. Participating in the Walk for Peace and the ceremony in the Student Life Centre were UW president David Johnston and provost Amit Chakma, the presidents of the Federation of Students and the Graduate Student Association, and representatives of the Muslim Students Association, the Jewish Students Association, the Sikh Students Association, Christian communities and clubs on campus, and the Sri Sathya Sai Spiritual Group. Photo by Barb Elve.

The topic: suffering in God's world

The afternoon is billed as the World Religions Conference 2001, and is expected to draw "numerous national and provincial leaders (religious, social and political)", as well as faculty members from such UW departments as philosophy and religious studies.

Says Nabeel Rana, one of the organizers: "Several scholars from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Native Peoples Religions will address the conference on a pre-determined topic. This year the topic is Reconciling the Existence of God and Human Suffering."

"This is expected to be a very big conference," says Rana.

God and human suffering: even the characters in "Doonesbury" are asking the perennial question these days.

Each participating organization or group will also coordinate a 5-10 minute presentation giving a flavour of the culture of their faith. "Typically," says Rana, "we are looking at a devotional poem, song or melody sung by children, dressed in their religious traditional costumes. Each participating organization shall be provided a display area in the lobby to display their faith's books, literature or other browsing material as well."

People from the corporate, diplomatic and multicultural worlds are also being invited, Rana said. "The conference provides an excellent opportunity to learn about each other's faiths. The conference is not a debate, or event of rebuttal of arguments various faiths, but an event to learn from each other's experiences and perspectives. It also provides an opportunity to socialize and mingle with the speakers and with each other during our sponsored feast. This is a rare experience of affiliating between the followers of all faiths, philosophical traditions and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, it provides us all an opportunity to examine our differences and similarities."

Co-op warns of a job slowdown

Students in the architecture and teaching programs should hand in their résumé packages by 8:00 tonight, as interviews for those exceptional groups are about to begin.

"An economic slowdown, which began earlier this year, continues," it tells students. "You are likely aware of well-known corporations laying off thousands of employees. Although high-tech companies appear to be hardest hit, there is an inevitable ripple effect that is, or will be, affecting other sectors as well.

"Compared to last year at this time the Initial interview phase contains 30% fewer job openings for students in Math and 34% fewer openings for students in Engineering. Although this is cause for concern, there are still a significant number of co-op job openings, so most students should be able to secure employment."

The memo predicts what will happen this term:

• "There won't be as many jobs to choose from as in the past."
• "The competition for those jobs will be greater."
• "There will likely be more students taking part in the continuous interview phase."
• "It could take longer for many students to secure employment than before. Some students may still be looking for a job past the beginning of the work term."
• "Some students may not be able to find employment that qualifies for official work term credit."

What kind of action? "Although CECS is doing as much as possible to locate jobs for co-op students," the memo says, "there are a number of things you can do to optimize your chances for employment: Be flexible when choosing jobs to apply to; don't narrow your focus to specific employers or job titles. Be open to any job location; sometimes the best job opportunities exist in smaller or more distant communities. Don't let salary be your only criteria. Is your résumé as well constructed as possible? Have it critiqued. Practise your interview techniques. Rank interviewed jobs intelligently, i.e., consider any job "offers" seriously. If attempts to find a job through CECS have not been successful, consider looking for a job on your own. Practise your networking skills; you may be able to open your own doors to the job you want by using who you know and who they know."

The memo also notes that the co-op department will be running various workshops -- on résumé writing, interview skills, and other aspects of job searching -- over the next few weeks.

"If you would like help to become competitive," it concludes, "our field co-ordinators and co-op advisors are at your service."

New Ontario employment standards

Says Murray: "It is important to note that the Regulations, appendices to the Act which described eligibility and exemptions, have now been incorporated into the Act and as a result interpretation is not as clear as it was previously. No doubt case law that is developed over the next year or so will provide more guidance as to how some of these new provisions are interpreted by the Ministry and the courts."

Key areas that have been revised are Posting Requirements, Pregnancy and Parental Leave, Emergency Leave, Hours of Work and Overtime, Rest Periods Between Shifts, Direct Deposit of Wages, Vacation with Pay, Public Holiday Pay, Temporary Layoffs, and Compliance and Enforcement. "It is important to note," says Murray, "that except for the few areas described below, the University of Waterloo already meets or exceeds the requirements of the revised Act, either by existing policies or practices."

Enforcement and Compliance: "Perhaps the most significant change is the authority granted to Employment Standards Officers to look into possible violations of the ESA, including the right to inspect workplaces. All persons must co-operate with investigations and inspections carried out under the ESA. Employment Standards Officers have new powers, including the power to order employers to comply with the ESA, and to make them reinstate or compensate an employee in cases of reprisal."

Departments are being told: "If you receive notice of an investigation or a request for an inspection, please contact your Staff Relations Coordinator or Neil Murray, Director, Staff and Labour Relations at ext. 2829."

Perimeter Institute The much-publicized Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, now in a temporary home in downtown Waterloo while its permanent building is planned, will hold its first public event on Sunday night in UW's Humanities Theater. The event is "an evening with Sir Roger Penrose", described as a "distinguished scientist with many awards". He'll speak on "Towards a New Quantum Physics". Says a flyer: "This lecture promises to be a fascinating discussion leading our imagination towards what may be the future of quantum physics. The lecture is aimed at a general public audience." It'll start at 7:30 Sunday evening in Humanities. A reception follows at 8:30.

Also happening today and on the weekend

Something called the Canadians Against Extinction Tour rolls into Waterloo today, here to draw attention to a proposed Species At Risk Act. "The proposed law, as it is now written, will do little to protect Canada's threatened and endangered species," says activist Gwen Barlee. She'll bring postcards which people here are invited to sign, urging the federal government to make the law stronger. The visitors -- including a "giant grizzly and marmot", presumably not still living -- will be at the Student Life Centre from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Ontario Inter-Urban Pain Association is holding a one-day conference in Kitchener today, co-sponsored by UW's Centre for Applied Health Research. The conference, on the topic "Pain -- Something to Think About", takes place at the Freeport Health Centre, a branch of Grand River Hospital. Speakers include Stuart McGill and Howard Green of UW's kinesiology department, and Don Ranney, now retired from the kin department and heading Disability Assessment Services Inc.

The tourism research lecture series continues with a talk at 2:30 (Environmental Studies I room 132) by David Simmons of Lincoln University, New Zealand. He'll speak on "Research Contributions to Tourism Destination Planning".

Graduate student Baljinder Sahdra will give this week's philosophy colloquium, at 3:30 p.m. in Humanities room 334. Topic: "Self-deception and Emotional Coherence".

Columnist and author Richard Gwyn will speak at St. Jerome's University tonight under the title "Coming Out of the Closet: Religion in Public Affairs". The phenomenon is "bigger than Stockwell Day", he argues, "and it poses new challenges for Canadians." Everyone is welcome, it's free, and there will be be coffee. The lecture starts at 7:30 in Siegfried Hall. (St. Jerome's is billing the event as "the inaugural Somerville Lecture in Christianity and Communications", and Gwyn will be giving the same lecture in Toronto on Tuesday night.)

Oktoberfest continues in Kitchener-Waterloo, and it was bound to touch Federation Hall, which is promoting "Villagehausen" tonight and "Oktoberfed" tomorrow night. Tickets should be for sale, if there are any left, in Aussies variety store in the Student Life Centre.

Tomorrow brings retirement festivities for Ann Roberts of the fine arts department, including an open house in East Campus Hall (2 to 5 p.m.) and a reception at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (7 to 10 p.m.). Lesley Hartley in fine arts, phone ext. 6923, should have last-minute information.

The Humanities Theatre is booked for what's listed as "Travel Show, Jerry Van Dyke" at 2:00 Sunday afternoon.

Sports this weekend: The men's basketball Warriors play an alumni game at 7:00 tonight in the PAC main gym, kicking off the season. The women's rugby team host the league quarter-final playoffs starting at 1:00 tomorrow at Columbia Field. And on the next field over, the two soccer teams will be hosting Windsor's Lancers: the women at 1 p.m., the men at 3 p.m. I've already noted the Oktoberfest hockey tournament tonight and tomorrow night at the Icefield. Away from campus, there's badminton action at McMaster, women's basketball in a tournament at Ryerson, men's rugby at Toronto, and football tomorrow afternoon at York.

The talk of the campus

The United Way campaign is chugging along, with participation (gifts and pledges) from staff and faculty now at almost 10 per cent, and from retirees at almost 5 per cent. Total as of last night was $99,266 toward the $150,000 target. Several "special events" are planned to help swell the coffers, and one of them promises to be a little out of the ordinary. On Friday, October 26, the university secretariat and senior folks in Needles Hall will be holding Wacky Hair Day. "Watch your favourite officer get hairified," a flyer suggests. And Trenny Canning in the secretariat maintains that "donations are already pouring in" for the joy of seeing David Johnston and other VIPs get all dolled up. I think we'll be hearing more about this one.

It looks as though some SuperBuild money -- but not as much as requested -- will be available to help UW's school of architecture build a new home in the historic Galt section of Cambridge. An editorial in the Record yesterday complained that $4.1 million (out of Waterloo Region's $40 million SuperBuild allocation) isn't as much as $7.5 million (which had been requested) and the project will likely be delayed as a result. The Record also reported yesterday that SuperBuild funding for UW's proposed north campus "research and technology park" remains uncertain.

The human resources department reminds faculty and staff members that individual pension plan statements were mailed out a few days ago. Anybody who should have received one, but hasn't, should call David Tran in the HR department, phone ext. 2785.

The oldest central computing system at UW is VM, otherwise known as CMS -- at one time the only place people could get e-mail service, or do much of anything else. With one new computing development after another, most recently Quest, VM is used for just a few special purposes now, and the information systems and technology department is longing to shut it down. "There is a new project to terminate VM sometime in the year 2002," Bob Hicks of IST said in a memo recently. He and his colleagues are looking to talk to anybody who still needs the system, or needs help getting free of it.

Among the current opportunities from the local Volunteer Action Centre: "Local seniors who are isolated and living in their own homes would really appreciate a friendly visitor to brighten their day. Currently, women are especially needed once a week to chat, play cards, go for a drive, have coffee or just share time together. K-W Friendship Group for Seniors provides training and support to all volunteers. All it takes is 2-3 hours a week to let a local senior know that someone cares." For more information, the VAC can be reached at 742-8610.

CAR

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