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Monday, February 4, 2002
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Mansard roof, limestone tower]](/images/2002/0204tiger.gif)
Historic Cambridge is all around the Riverside Silk Mills ("Tiger Brand") building in downtown Cambridge, proposed as the future home of UW's school of architecture. This view across the Grand River from inside the still unrenovated building shows the 1885 Galt post office, now a restaurant. UW's board of governors is expected to give formal approval to the Cambridge move at its meeting tomorrow. Meanwhile, UW planning students working with the Centre for Core Area Research and Design will begin a "safety audit" of the downtown Galt district this spring, the area's business improvement association was told last week. |
Posters went up all over campus when the official campaigning period began Wednesday morning. And this week a series of open meetings will give students a chance to see the candidates and ask them questions:
Seeking to lead the Feds are three slates of candidates and two independents:
| President | Vice-President (Administration and Finance) | Vice-President (Student Issues) | Vice-President (Education) |
| Brenda Slomka | Rob Robson | Mike Kerrigan | Ryan O'Connor |
| Albert Nazareth | Chris Dilullo | Melissa Alvares | Liam McHugh-Russell |
| Stacey Watson | Nik Sydor | Julian Ichim | Steve Lockwood |
| Dave Ellis | |||
| Dave Huynh |
![[Smiles in the front seat]](/images/2002/0201carpool.gif)
Also in last week's Gazette: car-pooling partners Lori Boucher (institutional analysis and planning) and Dick Hutchinson (optometry), who were hooked up through a web site organized as a spinoff of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group. |
Judie Cukier of the faculty of environmental studies has been appointed director. She describes the program as "multi-disciplinary", encompassing environmental, social, political, geographic, planning and other themes.
In addition to Cukier, there are three other core faculty members: Geoffrey Wall, geography, and Stephen Smith, and Paul Eagles, both from recreation and leisure studies. Smith's research interests are primarily with tourism statistics and particularly with measuring the volume of tourism and its economic impact. As described in the Gazette and Daily Bulletin last week, he is currently investigating image problems for the town of Walkerton, looking for ways to make that community more attractive to tourists in the wake of the drinking water problems there two years ago. Eagles, a biologist and planner, has specialized in environmental planning and has worked on a wide variety of planning projects, with an emphasis on the planning and management of parks and protected areas.
"We also have a number of faculty doing tourism-related research on a part-time basis," Cukier says, "and we have excellent holdings in our library -- including many recently published tourism books. So we truly have the expertise; the new program will simply put it together. Because of our expertise and facilities we think the program will also attract international students to Waterloo."
She points out that tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In Canada, in the year 2000, tourism generated more than $54 billion in revenues and supported more than 500,000 jobs. The tourism industry's contribution to the Canadian economy is greater than mining, fisheries, forestry or agriculture.
"It is a huge industry and we hope to prepare graduates who will ensure that tourism in Canada and elsewhere is developed and planned in a sustainable manner," she says, adding that graduate programs in tourism have already been established in such countries as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
Cukier is looking forward to the establishment of a "tourism centre" at UW, which could become a link between the Canadian tourist industry and the new program, providing research opportunities for faculty and students, and holding workshops on tourism topics. She adds there already are some 25 graduate students in environmental studies working on degrees in the "tourism" field and more in recreation and leisure studies. She is also looking forward to the appointment of a Canada Research Chair in tourism.
Cukier says the UW program will be particularly concerned with "sustainable" tourism. She notes that an increasing interest in "ecotourism" can sometimes have disastrous impacts on the wildlife the travelers from abroad spend so much money to see: on the polar bears in the Canadian north, mangrove swamps in south sea islands, coral reefs or rain forests. "These are the types of issues we hope students in the tourism master's program will critically explore and evaluate."
Moving into the community "has been a goal for REEP since the program was established", a news release says, adding that the new location will make it easier for members of the public to stop by, examine displays, or ask questions.
"REEP is an ideal example of a project where the community and university work together and both benefit," says Paul Parker, professor of geography and a member of the REEP management team. "The move is a very positive step in bringing more awareness to the community about climate change, air quality, and the links to energy use."
The Residential Energy Efficiency Project has been helping homeowners understand how their home works for almost three years, using the computer modelling program EnerGuide for Houses. The tool was developed by Natural Resources Canada (office of energy efficiency) to help certified energy advisers understand where a home is losing energy. At the end of each home energy evaluation, a comprehensive report is provided for homeowners that includes suggestions on how to reduce energy loss, save money, improve ventilation, and ultimately, improve the environment.
Also, the information that is gathered during the evaluations and from post-evaluation homeowner questionnaires is used by undergraduate, graduate, and co-op students as well as professors for thesis and research work.
It has taken less than three years for more than 3,000 homes to be evaluated for energy efficiency in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Through the consultations, homeowners have made significant improvements in their homes that contribute to the potential carbon dioxide emission reduction of nearly 10,000 tonnes. As well, it is estimated that the stimulus in the local economy has amounted to $5 million a year.
The Residential Energy Efficiency Project is a joint project of UW's faculty of environmental studies and the Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence. It can be reached at 744-9799, e-mail reep@fes.uwaterloo.ca.
Happening todayImaginus poster sale in the Student Life Centre, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.Economics professor Larry Smith speaks at Kitchener Public Library, 12 noon ("Beyond the Internet: Computing's Next Great Empires"). Senate executive committee, 3:30 p.m., Needles Hall room 3004. "Wine Nite" at the Ron Eydt Village cafeteria, 4:30 to 7:00. All day tomorrow (6 a.m. to 5 p.m.), chilled water will be turned off in the Physics, Engineering II and Engineering III buildings, as connections are made for the new CEIT building. And tomorrow brings a visit to campus by Robert Schad, CEO of Husky Injection Moulding Systems, a huge plastics company. He'll speak to fourth-year systems design students on "Competing in a Global Industry", at 11:30 a.m. in J. R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 101. Visitors are welcome. |
On January 30, 2002 at 08:40 hours, a male jogger exposed his genitals to a female that was walking on the gravel path at the animal cages in the Waterloo Park. The report was made after the fact however there is still an onus on the police to caution the community and especially the female population at the two universities. The description of this suspect is unlike previous similar incidents. The time of day was daylight hours as opposed to previous ones that were night hours.Anyone with information can reach Waterloo Regional Police at 653-7700 or the UW police at 888-4911.Police caution women about these incidents in Waterloo Park. They encourage women to walk with a friend, as there is strength in numbers.
Description of suspect: Male, white, age 50's, white hair, black warm up pants, dark green sweatshirt. (No further description available.)
A memo from Rose Vogt of the Graduate Student Association: "The GSA is looking for candidates interested in running for At-Large Director and Executive for the upcoming GSA election (not to be confused with the Feds election). Those who are interested in running, please contact bsyoun@engmail before February 13."
Thursday was the first day Ontario universities were allowed to make offers of admission for next fall, but it'll be months before most would-be students get the good (or bad) word. "We are sending out only a handful of offers as files become complete, etc.," says Peter Burroughs, the director of admissions. Those offers will be to "non-OSS" students, that is, people entering from the work force or transferring from community colleges. Says Burroughs: "As we begin receiving the fall term marks from semestered high schools in the next few weeks, the number of offers extended to OSS applicants should increase steadily and as the non-OSS applicants begin to complete their application files, we will be making offers on a 'rolling' basis."
As I bought my coffee at Pastry Plus in Needles Hall the other day, it occurred to me that business there will be less brisk once the co-op and career services department moves to its new building later this year. If the outlet should close, there would be caffeine horrors here in the departments that remained in Needles Hall, so I turned for reassurance to Mark Murdoch, director of food services. The news was good: plans are to keep Pastry Plus open (even though it accounts for just one-tenth of one per cent of total food services revenue). And there will be a food services outlet in the CECS building as well, he adds -- then hints that other new sources of food on campus are in the planning stages.
Staff and faculty members whose paycheques are lightened each month (or each two weeks) by pension plan contributions will be aware that those contributions went up a little last May 1. For several years, both employees and the university itself had been paying just 25 per cent of the normal amount into the pension plan, thanks to a healthy surplus in the plan. As of last May, that went up to 40 per cent, and it's scheduled to rise again to 60 per cent on May 1, 2002, on the way to a 100 per cent level by 2004. People may also remember that, as the stock market staggered during 2001, the pension and benefits committee warned that it would keep an eye on the situation, in case premiums needed to go up faster than scheduled. Well, here's the good news: the committee recently reviewed the state of the pension plan and reports that there's no need for the increase to be accelerated. Premiums stay at 40 per cent of normal this spring, and go to 60 per cent in 2002-03 -- subject to review again, of course.
Friday's issue of Imprint included a full-page ad from the local bus service, now called Grand River Transit, with a multicolour map showing just how UW's campus is served by city buses. Five routes now reach UW: the 7D and 7E "main line" or King Street buses (one via Columbia Street, one via University Avenue); the number 8, passing by on University Avenue; the number 12, "your major shopping link", also on University Avenue; and the new number 13 Laurelwood bus, which makes a loop involving Phillip Street and the east side of the ring road, then heads west along Columbia. GRT's information line is 585-7555.
CAR
TODAY IN UW HISTORYFebruary 4, 1971: Philip A. Lapp visits campus to talk about his controversial report on engineering education in Ontario, which recommends that the faculty of engineering separate from UW to become an independent institution. |