![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, November 29, 2002
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Baskets of pine cones]](/images/2002/1129craftsale.gif)
Crafty people
work all year towards the two-day pre-holiday craft sale sponsored by
UW's staff association. Vendors give 10 per cent of the proceeds to the
association, which raised more than $1,000 from the event last year. It
continues today, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Davis Centre lounge.
(Photo by Sherri Bowen of Graphics photo-imaging.)
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And when that happens, there's a fixed procedure for determining whether UW will be closed and classes cancelled or exams postponed -- as happened one day at this time two years ago.
Under the storm closing procedure established in 1994, UW will be "closed" for the day if the Waterloo Region District School Board cancels classes at all its schools. If only rural schools are closed, or if buses are cancelled but schools stay open, the university will remain open.
UW follows the school board's lead since it has "an effective system for evaluating weather conditions across Waterloo Region", and informing the public through the media.
Says the procedure: "The university will 'close' because of severe winter weather when normal operation would pose a significant danger to students, staff and faculty while on campus or would prevent large numbers of them from coming to campus or returning safely to their homes in Kitchener-Waterloo and the immediate surrounding area."
| Speaking of weather: the UW weather station reports that "Sometime between 4:15 pm and 4:30 pm on November 26th we had our 1 millionth visitor to the website since April 17, 2000 when we first put the counter on the homepage. The quick thinking 1 millionth visitor (Cody age 12) managed to get a screen shot of the moment." |
Says the policy: "Classes will not be held during 'closed' periods, and assignment deadlines must be extended. Faculty members and academic departments do not have the authority to make exceptions to this rule."
If there is a major winter storm on a day when the schools aren't open, such as the first week of January, the closing decision will be made in the early morning by the provost. When work has already begun for the day, UW will close "only in extreme circumstances", the procedure says.
A closing of the university will be announced on the UW home page. And the UW news bureau will report it to local radio stations, which have been asked to broadcast it quickly and often, "since the University of Waterloo attracts a large number of people from across the region and beyond".
![[Unpacking hardware]](/images/2002/1128leblanc.gif)
In a gesture of "extraordinary vision and generosity", an alumnus of the
UW school of architecture has transported
the school's Rome studio into the 21st century.
According to architecture director Rick Haldenby, Stephen Leblanc (left), who graduated with his BArch in the mid 1980s, visited Rome last winter, where he noticed that the studio in Piazza S. Apollonia had no computer system available for UW students.
"Over the last six months, Stephen, completely on his own initiative, raised enough money to create a local network of six workstations," Haldenby reports.
"In September of this year he came to Rome for two weeks and literally built the computers from components he purchased. He set up both wired and wireless networks which provide internet access for both school-owned and student-owned computers. He has added peripherals such as a scanner, printers, disc burners, and a webcam.
"Stephen has donated his time and his expertise -- when I first heard about the computers, I had no idea he intended to build them himself. More than this, he has brought a tremendous generosity of spirit to the Rome program and the school. . . .
He travelled with the class on the field trip to the south of Italy, participated in tours and visits in Rome and worked late into the night in the studio to get the system up."
As a token of appreciation, the Rome program presented Leblanc with a seventeenth-century print.
Today brings another stage of the long process by which Ontario's biggest-ever high school graduating class becomes Ontario's biggest-ever first-year university and college class next September. It's deadline day for applications from those students -- estimated at no more than 15 per cent of the total -- who will be using the old paper system rather than the new electronic system, SSOLA. "These have always been very soft deadlines," says Peter Burroughs, UW's director of admissions, meaning that students who try later will likely still squeeze in. He said the Ontario Universities Application Centre has already received what it thinks is about 10 per cent of the applications that will eventually come this year.
![[The wall is full]](/images/2002/1129fineart.gif)
The fine arts department's sixth annual miniature art sale and
silent auction starts today, following two days of previews. The
event begins with a reception at 3 p.m. and continues until 9:00
| And here's how the Ontario College of Art and Design is doing it |
A first-year computer science student, Zheng Chen, is in hospital after he was struck by a car on Albert Street last Sunday. "He was in very serious condition," I'm informed, but since then has made good progress in Hamilton hospital. He is now in fair condition and reports suggest he will make a full recovery. He is a Chinese national. His parents are trying to come to Canada to see their son but have not yet been able to make it over here."
A female student who was hit by a car on Columbia Street on Tuesday morning is walking with crutches thanks to a sprained ankle, but otherwise not much hurt, UW police said yesterday. The woman was crossing the street on her bicycle near the Optometry building about 8:30 a.m. when the accident took place. She was treated at K-W Hospital and released, sergeant Alan Binns said.
Richard Dong, an environment and resource studies student, has a lot of hair. "It is 25 inches long!" he writes -- and he's hoping that it'll soon be a lot shorter. Dong will shave his head, he says, if he can raise $500 in donations for cancer research. There was an item about him in last week's Imprint, but he's still looking for sponsors: e-mail richard.dong@waterloo.com.
"Imprint wants to know what you think," writes Magda Konieczna, editor of the student newspaper. "Fill out their readers' survey, either the online version or the paper version found in this week's newspaper. Respondents will be entered into a draw, and will contribute to making a better student newspaper at the University of Waterloo." Among the questions: "What news do you want to read? . . . What would you like on the cover? . . . Do you find the advertisements effective?"
Philosophy professor Jan Narveson speaks on "Slavery, Taxation and Moral Theory" at 2:30 this afternoon in Humanities room 334. . . . NuMus, "one of Canada's most active new music societies", has a concert in the Humanities Theatre at 8:00 tonight, under the provocative title "Strip Show". . . . "Not by Choice" plays the Bombshelter pub tonight. . . .
Ensembles from UW's music department will offer several end-of-term concerts this weekend:
Bluegrass group "5 on the Floor" will give a concert Sunday afternoon in support of the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre, a program of Conrad Grebel University College. Location: Waterloo North Mennonite Church on Benjamin Road. . . . The staff association's Winterfest event is set for Sunday afternoon at the Columbia Icefield (tickets were sold last month). . . . Guests of the Federation of Students will dine and dance at Federation Hall on Sunday night at the Feds' annual holiday party. . . .
Sports this weekend: The women's hockey Warriors host Laurier tonight and Western tomorrow night (7:30) at the Columbia Icefield. The women's volleyball team hosts Brock tomorrow night (7:00) in the PAC main gym. Other teams are travelling this weekend: basketball, both men's and women's teams, to Guelph tomorrow afternoon; swimmers to Eastern Michigan University for an invitational; the men's volleyball team to York Saturday night and Queen's Sunday afternoon.
CAR
TODAY IN UW HISTORYNovember 29, 1995: Ontario treasurer Ernie Eves cuts university grants by 15 per cent; "I'm pleased that it's not worse," says provost Jim Kalbfleisch. |
