Daily
Bulletin

Moment of silence at noon today

Today has been declared an official day of mourning in both the United States and Canada. A three-minute silence will be observed on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at noon.

Here on campus, the president says in a brief message this morning, "professors may wish to lead their students in observing the minute of silence at noon. Department heads may lead their colleagues by gathering in their offices to also observe the minute's silence."

Wars and rumours of war continue to preoccupy the campus, the country, the world. A number of chalked comments appeared yesterday on walkways between Math and Computer and the Student Life Centre.

Grad students to vote on endowment

Ben Youn of chemical engineering, corporate secretary of the Graduate Student Association, said the GSA Council "has approved overwhelmingly to hold a referendum by November 30, 2001 to establish an endowment fund for graduate studies. . . . This will require a seed funding from the students in the form of a refundable contribution of $20/term."

A year ago, grads voted on a similar plan that called for a $25-a-term fee. More students said yes than said no in the mail-in voting, but the support of 61 per cent did not reach the two-thirds level that the GSA had set for the plan to go ahead.

"The content of the referendum remains the same," GSA president Sabesh Kanagalingam said yesterday. "The question will be different, this time; it will mention the voluntary student contribution of $20 a term."

Said Kanagalingam in an e-mail message: "The GSA Council, representing the graduate students from various departments at this university, has voted overwhelmingly in favor of having this referendum. Thus, the GSA Executive is obliged to ensure that this does indeed take place. Many students have spoken increasingly in favor of such a referendum this year and we intend to oblige."

A special night at UW Place

Those residents have changed quite a bit over the five years since the Community Life Nights began. In 1986, UW Place was the Married Student Apartments, populated by students (many of them international graduate students), spouses and a large number of children. Now, half the complex has been turned into residence-style accommodation for upper-year undergraduates, while the other half is still apartments.

The result: a very mixed community, "made up", Pascoe says, "of students and their families from over 20 countries and of every background and age group. The Community Life Night was created to welcome new residents to UW Place, to the University of Waterloo and for many, to Canada. Over time it has grown to showcase university services and community organizations and to celebrate the vibrant and diverse community that exists at UW Place."

Tonight's event will offer rides for children, food, cotton candy, fire safety information, music, magic, a fire truck demonstration, community service organizations, UW donations, prizes "and a whole lot more".

God and mammon in ecology lecture -- a news release from St. Jerome's University

On Friday, September 14, at St. Jerome's University, Scharper will deliver a talk entitled "Following the Cosmos in a Consumer Society: Where Faith and Ecology Meet." The event takes place at 7:30 p.m. in Siegfried Hall, free of charge. All are welcome.

With tropical rainforests disappearing at the rate of an area the size a football field every second, and with ozone depletion, population growth, and air and water pollution apparently out of control, we are clearly facing an environmental crisis, Scharper says. Religious communities around the world are looking for solutions through the lenses of their respective cosmologies. But they find themselves facing a globalized consumer culture that sees the cosmos as resources to be used, not as a sacred space in which we are privileged to live. Is it possible to "follow the cosmos" in a consumer society?

Stephen Scharper is the author of Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment (1997) and co-author of The Green Bible (1993). He is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Toronto, an associate of the Institute for Environmental Studies, a fellow of St. Michael's College, and a former president of the Religious Education Association of the United States and Canada.

Scharper's talk is part of the 2001-2002 season of the St. Jerome's Centre for Catholic Experience (SJCCE). It is also the first in the Right Livelihood/Right Living lecture series on faith, ecology, and simple living sponsored by the Diocese of Hamilton Social Awareness Office and Justice and Peace Commission, the Working Centre of Kitchener, the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice Ecology Project, and St. Jerome's University. A SSJCE talk by Senator Douglas Roche, entitled "Bread Not Bombs," later in the season, will also be part of the Right Livelihood/Right Living lecture series.

Tourism lecture series Experts from Canada and elsewhere will speak in a series of lectures on tourism research that begins today, picking up where last year's series left off. Today's speaker is Simon Milne of New Zealand's Auckland University of Technology. His topic: "Tourism and Sustainable Development -- A Role for Community Informatics". The lecture begins at 2:30 p.m. in Environmental Studies room 132. Later lectures will be on such topics as "Thrills and Chills in Exotic Destinations" and "Religion and Tourism". The series is sponsored by the department of geography and the department of recreation and leisure studies.

TGIF, and what comes after it

Today will be "Band Day" as the Welcome Week winds up at the Graduate House. "Live music and a great time" are promised all day. Tomorrow, the Graduate Student Association has a bus trip to the Canada's Wonderland amusement park scheduled.

The UW Bike Centre will hold a fund-raising bike auction today in the courtyard of the Student Life Centre (or inside if it rains, which doesn't look likely). "The bikes will be out beginning at 11:30 a.m.," I'm told, "and the auction will start at noon. There are a variety of bikes available in all styles and sizes, and they'll undoubtedly go for very reasonable prices."

The philosophy department's colloquium series gets going today with -- well, nobody. "No speaker," says the description for the 3 p.m. event in Humanities room 334. "Graduate student orientation and welcome meeting. All faculty encouraged to attend. Party to follow at the Graduate House."

It's a "Summer Blues Barbecue" tonight at the University Club. Spicy grilled catfish, corn fritters and spiced sweet potato cake are among the items on the menu, and Blue Stew will play. Tickets for the party (4:30 to 7:30) are $29.95 -- phone ext. 3801 for reservations.

The weekend's engineering reunion, for graduates of 1966 and 1971, is pretty much packed into a 24-hour period, beginning with a "get reacquainted lunch" at 11:30 tomorrow at the University Club, and winding up with Sunday's "farewell brunch" at the Four Points Sheraton in downtown Kitchener. In between: tours, a reception in the Davis Centre hosted by UW's president, and a dinner, also at the Sheraton. Last-minute information is available from the engineering alumni office at ext. 6838.

'Tis time for the Fourth Annual Royal Medieval Faire, which I understand involves a number of people with UW connections. "Ye are all invited," saith a herald, "to attend this most entertaining community event. Saturday September 15, come to Waterloo Park West, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., for the small fee of 5 gold coins (squires and maids 10 years and under get in for 2.50 gold coins). You will enjoy a royal court, knights fighting, and a visit from the King of Dearth. This magnificent day also includes singing, magic, musicians, Scottish country dancing, and merchants from far off lands with their delightful wares. For those children, brave and skilled enough at the King's games, there are also free prizes. 'Tis truly a day for the entire family."

Many of UW's international students will be off to Niagara Falls on Sunday -- earlier this week a third bus was added to the trip, which will visit Niagara-on-the-Lake and stop at a winery as well as giving time for tourist experiences at the Falls themselves.

The annual East Indian Community Walkathon, in support of cancer care at Grand River Hospital, is scheduled for Sunday, leaving from UW's Student Life Centre.

Sports this weekend: In alphabetical order, there's Warrior baseball at Brock on Sunday afternoon; the cross-country runners are at the Guelph Invitational tomorrow; the football Warriors visit the Ottawa Gee-Gees tomorrow; the golf team is at the Windsor Invitational today; the men's rugby team plays at York tomorrow; the women's rugby team hosts Windsor at 1:00 Sunday; and both men's and women's soccer teams have games at Ryerson tomorrow and return to Waterloo to host Brock on Sunday (women at 1 p.m., men at 3 p.m.).

A reminder: Monday brings a half-hour training session on Polaris, aimed at faculty members who may now need to use that computer system in lecture halls. The session will start at 4:30 p.m. in Math and Computer room 4042.

A three-day workshop on "Parallel Programming on the IBM SP" will start Monday in the Math and Computer building. It's led by Eric Myra of IBM, and I have a note from Bob LeRoy, a computing whiz in UW's department of chemistry, recommending the course to all UW scientists "who have an interest in learning about parallel computation". The course is free; more information is available on the IST web site.

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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