August 2, 2002

Friday, August 2, 2002

Group brings solar power to campus
Universities consider college degrees
UW writers win local award

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[CEIT]
The CEIT is taking shape as seen through a third-floor window of the Physics building. Slated for completion in 2003, the Centre for Environmental and Information Technology will be a 170,000-square-foot, five-storey facility housing a 150-seat lecture theatre and 19 specialized laboratories for teaching and research. Some of the funding for the CEIT is coming from the Ontario government's Superbuild and Access to Opportunities programs, and efforts to raise private funds are still going on. Photo by Barbara Elve.

Group brings solar power to campus -- from the electronic newsletter for environmental studies alumni

Sunny days are more than just a sign of summer for a new UW group. The Solar Technology Education Project (STEP) is made up of faculty and students from various departments who want to bring an array of solar panels to campus.

The first phase will bring 25 panels, directly expandable to 50, to the UW campus. The energy output will be between two and four kilowatts - enough to produce about 2/3 of the energy required by an average home. In December 2001, Kitchener-based ARISE Technologies offered to donate an inverter which changes electricity from DC to the AC needed to run regular electrical devices.

The purpose of the project is to raise awareness of solar energy. A number of courses in Environmental Studies and Engineering will be able to use the panels to demonstrate course material. Once the panels are up and running, their presence will increase awareness of solar technology. STEP hopes to implement a monitoring system linked to their website so that the output of the array can be observed, and people can use the information for research or school projects.

In a letter to STEP organizers, City of Waterloo mayor Lynne Woolstencroft voiced encouragement for the project, saying that it is important to explore energy alternatives. The mayor emphasized the city's dedication to being an "Environment First" community saying that "[e]ducating citizens about the relevance of renewable energy will help bring our community one step closer to our vision of a healthy, sustainable city."

The group plans to raise $25,000 to install first 25 panels. Presently, STEP is moving into an external fundraising phase in tandem with feasibility studies for an appropriate location for the panels on campus.

Universities consider college degrees -- from a report by Mary Thompson, UW representative to the Council of Ontario Universities

In Bill 132, passed at the end of 2000, the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs) were given permission to seek to offer applied degrees. These are degrees with names like "Bachelor of Applied Human Services (Police Services)" or "Bachelor of Applied Technology (Advanced Manufacturing Technologies -- Wood and Composite Products)" or "Bachelor of Applied Environmental Studies (Integrated Design Technologies)". Proposals for programs are submitted in competition to PEQAB.

An 'elite level' of colleges is being proposed that would include Kitchener-based Conestoga College, the Star says. "The idea . . . could effectively create a third tier in the province's post-secondary system."
By [the end of May], twelve applied degrees had been approved by PEQAB and sent forward for ministerial consent, as a result of the first round of competition in April 2002. In the second round, there had been thirty submissions, of which twelve were to be approved. Comments on the thirty submissions were due by June 10, 2002.

For applied degree submissions, PEQAB is to consider not only quality but also possible duplication of existing opportunities, and the post-secondary community is encouraged to point out duplication if it appears. COU had prepared summaries of the proposals which appear on the PEQAB website, and the Standing Committee on Relationships with Other Post-secondary Institutions had drawn up a list of apparent duplications, primarily with college-university "articulation agreements". Articulation agreements set out ways in which students can obtain combined credentials from a college and a university.

Another important issue is the extent to which applied degree graduates will be eligible for admission to graduate studies or professional programs. COU had (in May 2002) issued a statement, affirming that: "(i) admission to graduate and professional schools is highly competitive; (ii) applied degrees are, by design, more applied and less academic or theoretical than university undergraduate degrees, which among other things are intended to prepare students for graduate school; (iii) the higher the degree of affinity between the applied degree and the program to which a student is seeking admission, the higher the likelihood of a successful application for admission; (iv) graduate and professional admission decisions at each university are made at the department level".

We heard about one new development which may at some point cause the statement to be qualified: while existing Faculties of Education still require a university degree for entry to a BEd program, the College of Teachers has decided that CAAT applied degrees will be considered equivalent to university degrees as a qualification for a teaching certificate. We heard further that there is at least one private institution eager to make application to offer a BEd program.

Monday, August 5, is Ontario's Civic Holiday. UW offices and most services will be closed, and no exams are scheduled.
The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Circulation services will be provided at both libraries from 1 to 5 p.m.

UW writers win local award -- from the UW news bureau

Two writers with University of Waterloo connections are among the winners of the Waterloo Regional Arts Council's first annual WRAConteur's literary contest.

The winners, Erin and Patricia Bow, are, as it happens, related: Erin is married to Pat's son James, also a writer. So UW has, perhaps, the start of its first literary dynasty.

Erin Bow, who publishes under the name Erin Noteboom, is the winner in the poetry category. She recently resigned from the EPstar Program in order to complete a writing project.

The judges had this to say of her winning entry, Early Symptoms: "Through the controlled use of language, Early Symptoms recounts the sense of vulnerability that emerges when, in the midst of the poet's buying a crepe from a vendor, the understanding of language is suddenly lost: 'A gap between the word/and knowledge of the word/opens.' This ironic tension underscores the ominous title and alerts the reader to attend to the poem's own signs: its images, rhythms and tropes. An ordinary human exchange of goods for coins becomes poignant, all the more so since a poet's currency is, after all, language."

Erin, who is originally from the United States, is beginning to make a name for herself in Canada. Her talents were rewarded by a win in the CBC Literary Competition last winter.

Patricia Bow won in the cultural journalism category. Cultural journalism has been a focus of the arts council's activities this year as it works to encourage and recognize excellence in arts writing. Pat's winning entry was "Global Warming", a piece about UW Fine Arts graduates and their involvement in the Globe Studios, which first appeared in the fall 2001 issue of the UW Magazine.

The judges said about it: "The story is well-told and doesn't presume that the reader knows about its subject already. There is good reporting and sparing and strategic use of quotations to illustrate the main points of the article. The article does what it sets out to do, giving insight into why this unusual facility exists, why it is so valued by the artists who inhabit and animate it, and why the rest of us should care."

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
August 2, 1995: A meeting is held in the president's office to launch plans for UW's 40th anniversary celebrations.