December 17, 2002

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Mackenzie King book is launched
Staff member taking help to Haiti
Happening in the midst of exams

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Io Saturnalia! Roman festival is under way

[Chairs in the middle of nowhere]
The first student to have an employer interview in the new CECS building, which opened yesterday, was Paul Graham, of 3B environmental-chemical engineering, who found that the waiting room isn't exactly finished yet. Moments later, he was meeting with interviewer Vladimir Paserin of Inco Technical Services, Mississauga. Student and interviewer both got a handshake from Bruce Lumsden, director of co-op and career services, to mark the milestone. And yes, Graham did get the job.

Mackenzie King book is launched

The launch of a new book, largely written by people with UW connections, today marks the 128th birthday of the man whose face is on the $50 bill and whose name is on UW's newest residence complex.

That would be William Lyon Mackenzie King, the longest-serving prime minister of Canada, whose birth and upbringing in Kitchener, so the authors say, had a profound effect on the rest of his career.

The book, Mackenzie King: Citizenship and Community, will be launched today at King's childhood home, which is now Woodside National Historic Site on Kitchener's Wellington Street. The event will run from 4 to 6 p.m.

Says a news release from the publisher, Robin Brass Studio: "King was born in Berlin, Ontario, now known as Kitchener, a town that was unusual in Victorian Ontario in being largely German in origin and mixed in religion.

"In this book some of Canada's leading experts on King and his times describe aspects of King's youth in Berlin, his fascination with posterity, his early interest in sociology, and the impact of his unusual community on his later political attitudes.

[Book cover] "Among the topics explored are King's concern to preserve Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic during the Second World War; his attitudes, typical for their time, toward Asians; his approach to social welfare programs; and his difficulties with western Canada. Mackenzie King has been regarded as perhaps the most successful of our prime ministers; these essays both evaluate that success and bring new insight to bear on this most remarkable Canadian leader."

Two of the three co-editors are UW faculty members: John English of history and Ken McLaughlin of St. Jerome's University. The third is Whitney Lackenbauer, a Waterloo graduate now at the University of Calgary.

Contributors to the book, besides all three of the editors, include Geoff Hayes of history, Ken Westhues of sociology, and graduate students Stephanie Bangarth and Galen Perras. Their work includes studies of King's links with the German community of Kitchener; his experiences of Kitchener's Victoria Park; and "the economic and political failures of his family in Waterloo County".

The book, priced at $29.95, will be available in the UW bookstore as well as other outlets.

Staff member taking help to Haiti -- by Barbara Elve

A winter holiday in Haiti may not be the top sunshine destination for most Canadians, but Lisa Szepaniak (right) isn't heading south for the sake of the beaches.

Armed with a supply of vitamins, medicine, rehydration salts, water purification tablets, antibiotic creams, baby formula and more, the electrical and computer engineering department's financial administrator is flying to Haiti to spend a week working at Mother Teresa's Malnutrition Centre in Port au Prince.

She'll be living in a guest house run by former street kids, and feeding, changing, holding and comforting the babies at the Malnutrition Centre, many of whom are dying of a combination of malnutrition and tuberculosis, AIDS, and other diseases.

Szepaniak will be traveling with nine other women, most of whom work at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, and some of whom have visited Haiti on similar missions in the past.

A newspaper story about one of those women inspired Szepaniak to go to Haiti, but she has traveled extensively in developing countries in Central and South America and has no illusions about the living conditions she'll find. Spending $2,000 for her travel expenses, getting booster shots, and taking safety precautions are a small price to pay, she says.

"It will be worth it to know I've comforted even one baby," says Szepaniak, a St. Jerome's University alumna, a long-time admirer of Mother Teresa, and a family and children's services volunteer.

But the memory of her parents reading her the story of "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen is her main motivation. "That story broke my heart. I never wanted another child to experience the cold, cruel world like the little match girl did. I didn't want that to be any child's reality. What I want is for the people in Haiti to know that we care, that's there's hope and good will outside of their cold reality."

A list of high priority items has been prepared by the group of women, and "any and all donations would be deeply appreciated by the Haitian children," says Szepaniak. With the support of her department, she's willing to pick up any items. Included on the list: pain medication for infants and children, powdered baby formula and cereals, bandages, gauze, tape, scissor, IV tubing, syringes, latex gloves, crutches, canes, eyeglasses and any other medical supplies, soap, combs, hair elastics, toothpaste and toothbrushes, cloth diapers and plastic pants, French books and school supplies, vegetable seeds, and monetary donations to support the programs at the malnutrition centre.

The deadline for donations is Friday, January 10; Szepaniak can be reached at her office (ext. 2874) or at lszepani@uwaterloo.ca.

Reminder: Friday's the last day of the year
In a change to the schedule as it appears in the UW calendars and various other places, UW offices and services will be closed on Monday, December 23, for the beginning of the Christmas and New Year's break.
The last regular working day of the year will be this Friday, December 20. Fall term exams end that evening.
Staff and faculty return to work Thursday, January 2, and the winter term begins January 6.

Happening in the midst of exams

And speaking of exams: if you're wondering when your marks from the fall term will be ready, the answer is at hand from the registrar's office. Look for them on-line (they won't be mailed) on January 23.

Today, four more graduate students in the Certificate in University Teaching program will give presentations on their work. The talks start at 10 a.m. in Math and Computer room 5158. Speakers: Shannon McKenna-Farrell ("Research and Teaching: Bridging the Gap"), Riley Metzger ("Grading: A Failure to Educate"), Daniel Piche ("Assessing Group Projects"), and Chris Shields ("Formulas vs. Function: A New Approach to Statistics in the Applied Health Sciences").

An open meeting in the "Know Your Workplace" series for faculty and staff is scheduled for today at noon, in Davis Centre room 1302. Topic for today: the UW benefits plan ("a session that will help you understand the coverage provided by the University Extended Health, Dental and Life Insurance Plans").

A highlight of the UW social year is scheduled for tonight, as the president of St. Jerome's University hosts the annual by-invitation "informal Christmas reception and dinner" -- drinks in the fireplace lounge at Sweeney Hall, dinner in the community centre at St. Jerome's. Dating back some forty years, it's a traditional opportunity for UW's "federated university" to entertain guests from the other church colleges and from the main campus; there will be expressions of good will and much merriment, as well as music from the New Berlin Chamber Ensemble.

Tomorrow:

The second half of "Reducing, Releasing and Managing Anger", a noon-our session by Dave Mackay of counselling services.
Graphics copy centres across campus will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The library's Trellis computer system will be shut down from Thursday at 6 p.m. until midday on December 23, for a software upgrade. Access to a backup catalogue will be available, the library says.

A final note: Friday's Daily Bulletin will have detailed information (on the same model as last year) about UW services and events over the long holiday period. If your department is responsible for anything that will be operating between December 20 and January 2, I'd appreciate e-mail about it immediately so I can include correct details in that Bulletin.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
December 17, 1974: A colloquium sponsored by the history department, marking the 100th birthday of William Lyon Mackenzie King, winds up at UW.