![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, August 9, 2002
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
According to a web page on the site of associate provost Jay Black, "UW has a long history of reliance on electronic mail, and a deep, robust infrastructure supporting it. With the advent of Quest and other new systems, we are in a position to realise more benefits from the use of e-mail than has been the case."
So the committee is to make recommendations that will "lead to improvements in our use of electronic mail as an important communication tool for the UW community. The committee is intended to have broad enough representation to ensure that functional needs are evaluated and solutions proposed in the context of technical and financial constraints. It should consult with stakeholders as appropriate."
The committee was set up in the spring, and originally asked to report by June 30. But its chair, Dave Kibble of the IST department, says things are taking longer: "There has been some background work started, and we've held a couple of meetings."
"Historically," says the web page, "faculties have been responsible for allocating resources to store and process e-mail for their own students, faculty, and staff, and IST has fulfilled those responsibilities for academic-support departments. The result has been a large and robust collection of (mostly) Unix mail servers, with centralised distribution of mail software, but no centralised management. For a number of years, UWuserids have been associated with account names on most mail servers, and UWdir supports a mail redirection service that allows individual users to direct mail to a server of their choice, on-campus or not.
"There has been a general evolution towards permanent allocation of computing resources for students throughout their career at UW (including e-mail accounts). . . . UWdir (in conjunction with related systems) also supports the creation of and access to class lists."
It notes that the arrival of Quest, by which many interactions between students and the registrar's office are now electronic, "imposes a requirement for earlier electronic communication with students (via the web and e-mail) than was previously the case", and that has implications for UW's e-mail services.
Among the questions the committee has been asked to consider:
![[Posed in front of bright tents]](/images/2002/0809volunteers.gif)
Campaign volunteers posed at the Keystone launch party in June. |
"That's 31% of our goal," writes Bonnie Oberle of the development office, noting that the figure includes donations since May 2000. The campaign is to run through July 2007 -- UW's 50th anniversary -- as the on-campus branch of Campaign Waterloo.
"My sincere thanks," says Oberle, "to the many faculty, staff and retirees who are making a difference by helping to raise this support for UW and its students! There are 714 current donors, approximately 200 volunteers, and more than 60 sponsors."
At a volunteer luncheon July 31, held in the Environmental Studies courtyard, "awards of merit" were presented to representatives from a number of departments reflecting high participation in giving among their faculty and staff.
That included two "platinum" awards to small departments where everybody listed as an employee is making a Keystone donation: the Centre for Cultural Management and the Graduate Student Association.
Next in line come "gold" awards for departments with at least 75 per cent participation: anthropology; the associate provost (academic affairs); the dean of arts; the dean of science; ethical behaviour and human rights; graduate studies; information and public affairs; management sciences; accountancy; the secretariat; teaching resources.
There were also almost 50 "bronze" awards for departments where the participation rate is up from last year's level.
This week, individual winners were drawn for the monthly prizes being offered to Keystone donors. Oberle provided this list of the latest winners:
Extended exam hours at the libraries continue tonight: the Dana Porter Library will be open to 2 a.m., the Davis Centre library to 3 a.m. On Saturday, Dana Porter will be open 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Davis 8 a.m. to midnight. Sunday, both libraries will be open noon to 6 p.m. only.
And here's a reminder that the faculty of arts undergraduate office, the mature student services office, and related offices will all be closed August 12 through 23. During that time, arts students shouldn't expect to find academic advisors available.
Math student Vicki Ferguson, who's helping to organize a women's fast-pitch team for this fall, sends word that tryouts will be held Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the north campus fields. "There will be another round of tryouts for the fall students during the first week of the fall term."
At the Village conference centre this weekend are participants in the 37th Actuarial Research Conference; teams taking part in the World Fastpitch Championships, now under way in Kitchener; and members of a Ron Eydt Village 1982 reunion that's running over the weekend.
Finally . . . as announced, Student Life 101 will bring thousands of soon-to-be students, and their parents, to campus on Monday. Parking lots and cafeteria lines could be busy, and there will be plenty of opportunity for the people who work, study and live here to give directions and welcoming words to newcomers.
CAR
TODAY IN UW HISTORYAugust 9, 1967: The Gazette announces that Of Mud and Dreams, a history of UW's first ten years, is on sale at the bookstore for $3.75. August 9, 1998: UW hosts 2,000 chemists at the 15th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education. |