Blue roses for a grad lady: a vignette from Saturday's convocation ceremonies, at which 999 students received UW degrees.

East Asian festival comes this week

"The festival is a wonderful opportunity to immerse oneself in the texture, colour and splendour of East Asian culture through an array of activities organized by the college with the help of the local Asian community," said Kathryn McKee, the festival's coordinator.

The festival opens Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Student Life Centre with a showcase of student displays, overseas employment and exchange opportunities in East Asia, UW East Asian clubs and information on the East Asian studies program.

David Slover, a physiotherapist, will be speaking about the uses of Eastern healing practices in Western culture, beginning at 1:30 p.m., in the Chapel Lounge at Renison.

A literary evening, hosted by the UW bookstore, starts at 7 p.m. at the Waterloo Public Library, where award-winning author Joy Kogawa, who wrote Obasan, Itsuka and The Rain Ascends, will speak.

On Friday, in Renison's Chapel Lounge, Bill Saunderson, chairman of Ontario Exports Inc., will address the participants of the day's Business Seminar, a seminar on initiating and expanding the connections of companies in East Asia. Panelists from the manufacturing and service sectors as well as from high technology businesses will be on hand to share their insights and answer questions.

At noon, David Crane, economics editor of the Toronto Star, will deliver the keynote speech. Tickets for the business seminar are $99, while admission to most other festival events is free.

The festival continues Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a Cultural Day celebration at Cameron Heights Collegiate, 301 Charles Street East in Kitchener. It's announced as a fun-filled day for the family, complete with demonstrations of traditional dances, martial arts, music, costumes and crafts. Also, there will be East Asian food, cultural displays, bonsai demonstrations, along with origami and calligraphy workshops.

Thee festival concludes Saturday night with a fund-raising dinner and silent auction at UW's Festival Room, South Campus Hall. A gourmet meal, with Chinese, Japanese and Korean food, is promised. Performances of traditional Chinese folk music, Korean dancers and Japanese dancers will keep guests entertained, while a silent auction will be held with items such as a week's stay at a villa in Spain, a gourmet brunch, paintings, fitness membership and a weekend stay at a condo in Collingwood. A limited number of tickets are still available.

Students' council changes plan The news web site 'uwstudent.org' is reporting this morning that students' council approved a change yesterday in the Campaign Waterloo proposal that will likely be put to referendum this fall. Jesse Helmer of 'uwstudent.org' writes that council "removed the proposed artificial turf field from the Watpaign proposal. The other four components -- the SLC expansion, a fitness centre, a new gym and a dressing room for women's hockey -- remain as part of the proposal. "Also at the meeting, councillors set the referendum question. The original question was: 'Do you support the construction of an expansion of the SLC and North Campus Athletic Facilities, as detailed in the Waterloo Campaign: Student Projects document, through the addition of a $20 non-refundable fee to the fee statement?' The question was then amended to include the following: 'and that this fee be removed when the costs have been recovered or at the end of 25 years, whichever comes first'."

Automation firm hires mostly from UW -- by Ellen Schappert, from the co-op department's UW Recruiter newsletter

Eppcon's team of professional engineers and designers combines high-tech industrial automation with information systems to provide advanced solutions to customers. Current clients range from financial services companies to automotive manufacturers to pharmaceutical giants - and lately, even the US government. The company hired its first co-op student in January 1998.

"That was the point at which we had enough varied work and different choices of areas where we could plug in a student," recounts spokeswoman Julie Hymers. She calls it the company's first chance to "give a really great work term opportunity to a co-op student. We wanted to be one of the employers that the students came back and raved about," she says.

This strategy seems to be paying off. Eppcon already relies on word of mouth to attract some of Waterloo's best co-op students, like fourth-year mechanical engineering student Nina Pyron.

Pyron begins her third work term with Eppcon in September 2001. Initially, she applied to work at the company because its focus appealed to her. When interviews finished, however, she had four attractive co-op job offers to choose from. In the end, another co-op student's enthusiastic recommendation convinced her to accept a position at Eppcon. "I wanted to get into automation and control, and Eppcon does that," Pyron explains. "Also, because my friend worked there, and because Eppcon had an environment that sounded great, I went with them."

Interestingly, Pyron is an exception at Eppcon because she landed a co-op job there as an intermediate-level student. Usually, the enterprise looks for senior co-op students to fill its openings.

"The reason we do," Hymers says, "is that we want to have someone who can come right in and become a fully functioning member of the team. It also gives the student a first-hand picture of what a full-time position with the company might be like. So, when it comes time to decide if there's potential for a permanent position, both Eppcon and the student know if the chemistry is right."

There's something to be said for this approach. Since January 1998, three co-op students have joined the company as full-time employees. In fact, Hymers comments, "since we started hiring co-op students, all but one of the full-time people we've hired have been UW graduates who were with us as co-op students."

What's Eppcon's final rule of thumb? "If, in a particular term, we don't find a candidate who's a perfect match for us, then we tend to say, 'OK, we're going to take a term off.' We want to maintain the high level of interest on our side and the high level of satisfaction on the students' side."

Notes on an autumn Tuesday

The United Way campaign, in support of local charities and service organizations, continues to bring in funds daily from faculty, staff and retirees. As of last night, gifts and pledges had reached $122,738, on the way to the $150,000 goal. Special events are continuing to raise a few extra bucks for the cause -- today brings a luncheon in the statistics and actuarial science department, for example, and a silent auction runs all day in Doug Wright Engineering room 2513.

The Students for Life group will hold "a pro-life 101 session" starting at 6:00 this evening in Modern Languages room 349. "We will have a general overview of issues such as abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research followed by general discussion," writes Alex Cassar, vice-president of UWSFL. "Refreshments will be served and all are welcome."

Looking ahead to tomorrow, there's a special reading scheduled for 4:00 at St. Jerome's University. Presenting her work will be Annabel Lyon, whose first short story collection, Oxygen, was published by Porcupine's Quill last year.

Also at St. Jerome's, the Centre for Catholic Experience has a lecture by Senator Douglas Roche scheduled for Friday night. He will speak under the title "Bread Not Bombs", at 7:30 p.m. in Siegfried Hall.

This Saturday will bring the math faculty's Big E and Special K contests for this term -- K for first-year students, E for those in upper years. Questions from previous contests are available on the web, and the organizer, faculty member Ian VanderBurgh, notes that while advance registration isn't required, "it would be helpful if you would send me an e-mail if you intend to write either contest so that we have a vague sense of numbers." Both contests will run from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday in the Arts Lecture Hall.

Saturday also brings a major event, You@Waterloo Day, a fall open house for potential students and their families. I'll be saying more about the program in the Bulletin later this week.

Next Monday, October 29, members of the President's Circle (high-level donors to UW) and other guests will hear a presentation on "Water Issues in Canada: Responding to the Challenge". George Dixon, the dean of science, and Grahame Farquhar of civil engineering will both speak at the event, a luncheon in the Festival Room of South Campus Hall. The development office, phone ext. 4973, can provide more information.

And on Tuesday, October 30, television personality Pamela Wallin (who's a member of UW's board of governors) will be on campus for two events -- a noontime book signing and reading at the bookstore, and a dinner and reading at the University Club in the evening. (Tickets for the evening event are $30 from the Club, phone ext. 3801.)

Homecoming weekend, including the annual Naismith men's basketball tournament, is scheduled for November 2-4; watch for more information about those activities.

CAR