![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, November 4, 2002
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Smith with certificate]](/images/2002/1024smith.gif)
Concrete findings:
Civil engineering graduate student James
Smith has received a $20,000 (US) research
grant from the
Portland Cement
Association's Education Foundation.
Supervised by faculty member Susan Tighe,
he was among seven university students awarded fellowships
for cement- and concrete-related research, and received the
award and plaque at a ceremony recently in Chicago.
Smith received the grant for his study of "Fast-Track Concrete on
Aprons: How Does One Address Cracking?"
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It comes from Bruce Mitchell, the associate vice-president (academic), and was brought to both UW's senate and the board of governors in October. Reviews of 21 departments and programs have now been done, says Mitchell, and more are under way. The latest report includes summaries of the reviews in economics, independent studies, mathematics, sociology, and the society, technology and values program. They'll be summarized in the Daily Bulletin in the next few days.
Program reviews already publishedAccountancyArchitecture Computer science Germanic and Slavic Health studies and gerontology Music Physics Planning Political science |
Says Mitchell's report: "Adjustments have been or are being made in plans, as a result of the program review process, or as a result of it in combination with other initiatives. Specifically, notable changes have been or are being made in Economics, Fine Arts, Geography, Human Resources, Management Studies, Political Science, Planning, and Sociology.
"To reduce the impact on students when major adjustments are made to a curriculum, a pilot project has been initiated to assist a department in the transition. If this pilot is effective, opportunities will be provided on an ongoing basis to departments judged to have made major changes as a result of the program review process."
He writes that departments that have gone through the review process find it takes "significant" time and resources, "but the process is constructive and useful, since for many departments it is the first time they have systematically and thoroughly assessed strengths and weaknesses, and considered future directions. . . .
"While the review process is generally viewed as positive, there is some frustration at the inability of the Faculties or University to respond to basic barriers to enhance quality of the learning experience, particularly related to providing funding for acknowledged needs."
Among the general findings:
"The festival is a wonderful opportunity to immerse oneself in the texture, colour and splendour of East Asian culture through an array of activities organized by the college with the help of the local Asian community," says Caroline Woerns, communications director at the college.
Tonight at 7 p.m., a wine and cheese reception at the college will open the festival. The reception will feature an "Opening Celebration and Exhibition" with award-winning artist and children's illustrator, Warabé Aska. He will give an address and sign books. Aska's work has achieved international acclaim and has appeared on Unicef greeting cards. His work is part of the permanent collections of Japan's Imperial family and the city of Toronto, and is included in many private collections.
On Thursday, the festival will present a wide variety of activities, beginning with an academic showcase of student displays, overseas employment and exchange opportunities in East Asia, and UW East Asian clubs. Information on the East Asian studies program will also be available. The showcase is taking place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Student Life Centre.
Also Thursday, at 1:30 p.m. at Renison College, there will be a panel discussion on "Environmental Problems and Prospects in East Asia". Later on, a literary evening starts at 7 p.m. at the Waterloo Public Library, where author Rui Umezawa will read from his first novel, The Truth About Death and Dying.
The festival continues Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a Cultural Day celebration at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute on Charles Street East in central Kitchener. It's described as a fun-filled day for the family, complete with demonstrations of traditional dances, martial arts, music, costumes and crafts. The day is sponsored by Toyota.
The festival concludes at 6:30 p.m. Saturday with a fund-raising dinner and auction at Federation Hall. A gourmet meal, with Chinese, Japanese and Korean food, will be featured.
Spring housing applications welcomeThe housing and residences department "has recently revised policy and practice to make our summer term housing program more attractive and beneficial to students who are studying from May-August," says a note from Pam Charbonneau in housing administration."For the first time," she says, "we will be encouraging students to apply to the most sought after residences in November, before they leave campus on a work term. In previous years applications were not received until February. "Upper year students can sign a one term contract, live with their friends and will be given priority to live in UW Place or Mackenzie King Village (air-conditioned) -- two popular facilities that are reserved for first-year students in the fall term. All utilities are included in the fees. "We will be hosting the first ever Fall Residence Open House for current UW students, on Friday, November 8, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., when students can visit and have a tour of Mackenzie King, UW Place or Village I. Applications are currently being accepted on-line on a first come, first served basis -- no longer a lottery system. "I think that these changes are in response to what we've been hearing from students and will provide them with an exceptional housing experience that is both convenient and comfortable." |
The senate executive committee will meet at 3:30 in Needles Hall room 3004, facing a humongous agenda that has to be pared down for this month's meeting of the full senate. Major items include the recent reviews of the graduate studies program and the library, UW's response to the federal Innovation White Papers, a report from the Provost's Task Force on Female Faculty Recruitment, a proposed Integrated Centre for Visualization, Design and Manufacturing, expanded powers for the undergraduate council to approve curriculum changes, reactivation of the "parks" option in applied health sciences, reports from the University Appointments Review Committee and the University Committee on Student Appeals . . . you get the idea.
A reception runs from 5:00 to 6:30 tonight in the foyer of Environmental Studies II, as part of a week's special activity in the school of architecture. Assessors from the Canadian Architectural Certification Board are here for accreditation of the program, and the school's building is filled over the next few days with a display of student and faculty work.
The Engineers Without Borders group presents a talk tonight by Larissa Fast of the peace and conflict studies program. She'll speak on "Contextualizing Development", at 5:30 in Davis Centre room 1304.
Then at 7:30, Stefan Reif of the University of Cambridge speaks on "A Thousand-Year-Old Jewish Archive", the remarkable find in Cairo that has come to be called "the Cairo Genizah". His talk, to be given in Siegfried Hall of St. Jerome's University, is a public launch for the UW-based Genizah Project. "Professor Reif," a flyer explains, "has been researching the remarkable documents from the Cairo Geniza for almost 30 years and will explain how its 140,000 fragments came to the Cambridge University Library. He will also relate the adventures of those who discovered them, explain their historical importance, and what is being done to ensure worldwide co-operation in their conservation, research and accessibility."
Stephen Clarkson of the University of Toronto is in Waterloo to give three talks today. At 2:30, he speaks in Doug Wright Engineering Building room 1501: "Uncle Sam and US: September 11th's Impact on the Canadian-American Relationship". Then at 4:15 he's in the Humanities building, room 373: "Global Governance and the Democratic Deficit: NAFTA and the WTO as Canada's Secret Constitution". Finally, at 7:30 he'll repeat the "Uncle Sam" talk at the former Seagram Museum in central Waterloo, sponsored by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs.
Then as the week goes on:
![[Blue hats, white world]](https://uwaterloo.ca/images/snow021101.gif)
Much of the talk on Friday was about the white stuff that fell --
rather fiercely for a few minutes -- and gave promise of a winter
to come. Barbara Elve of information and public affairs took the
photo (right) on one of the Laurel Creek bridges.
Coincidentally, flyers also appeared on Friday announcing
the Christmas lunch buffet that will be offered in the Festival Room
in South Campus Hall, December 10 through 13. Reservations: phone
ext. 4700. How does plum pudding sound?
Today through Wednesday, people will be talking about something called "Revenge of the Sublet 2", taking place in (I think) the Student Life Centre. It's kind of hard to explain what this event is about, other than a manic simulation of too-crowded student housing, in which participants spend the two days more or less in a cage. It's a fund-raiser for Save Haven, the local emergency shelter for youth, and there are cash prizes.
"Do you want to be involved in the planning of orientation week 2003?" asks Erin Moore from the Federation of Students office. She's currently accepting applications for the role of Warrior FOC, "the team within the Federation Orientation Committee that is responsible for planning and implementing all cross-campus events throughout the week". You're eligible if you have previously been an orientation leader. More information is available from the Fed office in the Student Life Centre, or from Moore at ext. 3426. Application deadline: November 15.
A couple of people from UW -- Virginia McLellan of the undergraduate recruitment office and Bruce Mitchell, the associate vice-president (academic) -- are in Korea this week. Main purpose of the visit is the Canadian Education Centre Fair to be held in Seoul next weekend, but the UW delegation will also visit four Korean universities to help promote UW and discuss possible academic links. "We will also," says McLellan, "visit a local high school to reach out to students interested in pursuing their undergraduate studies at Waterloo."
Research by Rob Macdonald of UW's mechanical engineering department got a half-page report in the October 24 issue of the prominent British journal Nature. The article mentions research first reported in Atmospheric Environment earlier this year, dealing with models of how wind affects the behaviour of smoke plumes from industry smokestacks. A key finding: "Smoke from chimneys set in line with wind direction, rather than across it, is likely to rise higher, travel further, and presumably become more dispersed and diluted before reaching the ground." Macdonald and his colleagues work in UW's Laboratory for Studies in Environmental Fluid Flow.
The Association of Cultural Executives, which is based at UW, held its annual meeting in Toronto on Friday, and events included the presentation of this year's ACE Award. The winner: Charles Cutts, president of the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, and former general manager of the O'Keefe Centre. ACE is based in UW's Centre for Cultural Management
The staff association is looking for a couple more vendors for its annual craft sale, to be held November 28 and 29. "You must be an employee or retiree of UW," says Sue Fraser of the kinesiology department, who's heading the project. "All items must be handcrafted." For more information, she can be reached at ext. 2968.
CAR
TODAY IN UW HISTORYNovember 4, 1974: About thirty students arrive at the office of vice-president (academic) Howard Petch to protest the decision by Renison College not to renew contracts for three instructors there -- Hugh Miller, Marsha Forest and Jeff Forest. |