October 25, 2002

Friday, October 25, 2002

Gold medals set for tomorrow's ceremonies
Review of 'information technology' at UW
Runners chase the national gold
And a little of this and that

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Set the clock back an hour on Sunday

[View out the window]
Under construction: "We are progressing with our new residence and enlarged dining hall," writes Caroline Woerns from Renison College. "The new residence will link the two buildings on our Renison campus, providing 50 additional residence spaces in a new modern facility. The residence will be ready for occupancy when classes resume in January 2003." The photo shows a view from the Luxton building, catching the new dining hall expansion in the lefthand corner, the new residence building on the right and the soon-to-be-landscaped courtyard in the middle.
Renison College will hold its own convocation ceremony after the UW convocation tomorrow, presenting awards (including the Principal's Special Award for Academic Achievement to Keri-Lyn Katchaluba). Valedictorians at Renison will be Connie Barton of arts and Colleen Smith of social work.

Gold medals set for tomorrow's ceremonies

Nicolaas Spronk will go home with more than just a PhD in pure mathematics from tomorrow's convocation.

He'll also be presented with the Alumni Gold Medal marking him as UW's top doctoral graduate of the year. Receiving the gold medal as the top master's degree graduate will be Jane Buckingham, whose MA is in Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures.

Gold medals at the graduate level are presented at fall convocation each year, and six medals are presented to bachelor's level graduates from the six faculties at spring convocation in June.

At tomorrow's Eighty-fifth Convocation, UW will present degrees to 1,007 students, and will grant four honorary degrees. Graduating students at the undergraduate and graduate levels will receive degrees and diplomas at morning and afternoon ceremonies in UW's Physical Activities Complex.

The morning ceremony, at 10:00, is for arts (including social work) and applied health sciences. Other programs get their time in the spotlight at the afternoon ceremony, which starts at 2:00.

Tomorrow's honorary degree recipients:

Robert Johnston, former general manager of the National Ballet of Canada, who will give the morning convocation address.
One of the founders of modern hydrogeology, R. Allan Freeze, who will address the afternoon ceremony.
Frank Clifford, former director of education in the Waterloo Separate School Board.
Rudolph Marcus of the California Institute of Technology, considered the foremost theoretical physical chemist in the world.

Besides the honorary degrees, UW will present the title of "Distinguished Professor Emeritus" to Sinnathamby Ariaratnam, who retired in October 2001 after a long career in the civil engineering department.

Review of 'information technology' at UW

At Monday's meeting of the UW senate, provost Amit Chakma presented the terms of reference for a "review of information technology" to be done over the next few weeks.

[Barnard] The review is in the hands of David Barnard (right), a computer scientist who is president of the University of Regina -- the institution where Chakma was a vice-president before coming to UW last year.

It comes in preparation for the search for a new associate provost (information systems and technology). Jay Black, the associate provost since May 1996, will finish his term next spring.

Says a one-page document that Chakma distributed to the senate: "The University of Waterloo's reputation as Canada's most innovative university is based, in part, on its leadership in IT education and research. It follows, then, that UW's IT strategy should build on this proud achievement, and position UW to maintain this leadership among its peers. Our goal, therefore, will be to enhance research, teaching and administrative processes through strategic application of IT, thereby enriching the quality of education and experience we provide our students and extending our outreach to preuniversity students and lifelong learners at home and abroad.

"This review should serve to inform UW's IT vision for the next decade, clarifying the integration of IT into leaming, research and outreach, while maintaining emphasis on high quality, innovation and efficiency.

"The review will examine the current applications and adoption of IT at UW and identify strategic opportunities to use IT to enhance the core missions of the University. Current IT use and level of investment in IT will be examined, as will the administrative structure, operation and policies governing IT at UW, leading to recommendations, as appropriate."

These points are listed as the "mandate" of the review:

To evaluate UW's IT applications in leaming, research, academic and administrative support services, and outreach relative to UW's comparators.
To recommend how IT can enhance UW's core missions of leaming (conventional and life-long), research and service (including administrative support and outreach) and identify strategic opportunities for IT applications to support these missions.
To recommend the appropriate level of investment in IT commensurate with UW's desire to become a leader in this area.
To identify "core" and "non-core" IT activities so UW can target its limited resources to the critical areas and develop and maintain in-house expertise to support them.
To recommend the distribution of tasks between central IST and faculty-based IT operations.
To recommend an administrative structure for IST in terms of optimal function and interaction with academic units, taking into account UW's decentralization and academic IT administration.
To identify key competencies of the next Associate Provost, IST.

The provost said Barnard will conduct a site visit November 11-12 and will meet with various groups. "The final report is expected to be available by January 2003."

Written submissions for the review are invited, and can be submitted to Anne Wagland in the provost's office by November 8.

Runners chase the national gold -- by Kerry O'Brien, athletics and recreational services

Cross-country is one of the rare sports where the men and women's games are identical. But while both Waterloo teams are ready and able, the women's team is doing slightly better than the men's this year.

Other sports this weekend
Men's hockey as the Warriors host Lakehead, both tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Icefield. Women's hockey, hosting Guelph, Saturday at 2 p.m., also at the Icefield. Women's rugby, the OUA bronze medal match, hosting Queen's, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Columbia Field.
Out of town play: men's basketball at the Ottawa Tournament; women's basketball at the Dalhousie Tournament; field hockey in the OUA championships in Toronto; football at Queen's (OUA finals), Saturday afternoon; men's rugby at Trent (OUA finals), Saturday afternoon; men's and women's soccer, the OUA finals, details to be announced; swimming at Queen's tonight, at McGill tomorrow, at Carleton and Ottawa on Sunday; men's volleyball at Guelph, Saturday afternoon; women's tennis, the OUA semi-finals at York.
Despite losing three of its top five runners from last year's OUA Bronze medal squad, the biggest obstacle for the men's team so far has been injury. A full complement of racers took the bronze for third place at the Mustang Invitational earlier this year and gold at the Waterloo Open, while a team missing five of its top seven runners came in sixth at the Guelph Open. The team's other big loss was at the Western International, where they dropped to a 7th place finish against teams from as far away as Japan.

Short-handed losses like these have contributed directly to the team dropping to a national ranking of 9th in the coaches' poll, a ranking which the team is eager to change. Currently four of the top seven Waterloo runners are nursing various injuries, so it will be a struggle to see if they can pull out a strong finish at the OUA (Ontario) and CIS (national) championships. "A healthy team come OUA and CIS championships will do better than a team as banged up as us right now," says team co-captain Will Gibbons.

Meanwhile, last year's fourth place finish in the OUA's and fifth place finish at CIS has only served to fire the women's squad up this year. The team has been relatively injury-free and is showing it, taking second place at the Western International meet and topping it off with gold at both the Mustang Open and the Waterloo Invitational. A stellar squad includes last year's OUA and CIS rookie of the year in Waterloo native Joanna Fedy, a returning Canadian champion in Erin McClure and a world class triathlete in Caroline Amyot.

The team is currently ranked third in the country behind the University of Toronto and the University of Manitoba and has a very good chance of taking gold at both the OUA championships -- this weekend in Guelph -- and the national championships to follow.

And a little of this and that

It's the last day of interviews -- well, the last day of the regular interview period anyway -- for co-op students in search of winter term jobs. Ranking forms will be available Tuesday morning, and job matches will be posted November 4.

Some 50 students are busy this morning with a charrette -- a high-pressure design workshop -- on the future of Waterloo Region, as part of the Record's Grand Vision series. The event continues from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Environmental Studies I courtyard.

There are two musical offerings on campus this evening. It's New Orleans Jazz Night from 4:30 to 7:30 tonight at the University Club. Resevations: ext. 2801. And Toronto band Dreddwood plays the Bombshelter tonight "with UW's own Red Pepper Fetish."

Children and their parents can experience science and technology at the annual Science Open House tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Among the activities and demonstrations at the open house will be the Circus of Physics in ESC 146, a barbecue lunch, and the "magical (and rather loud)" Chemistry Show Spectacular in B1 room 271. More information is available on the web, or by calling 888-4631.

Also tomorrow, for those interested in operating systems design, the CSC mini-conference will take place at 1:30 p.m. in MC 2066. Says the announcement: "three OS hackers will give talks on various OS implementation topics...." More detail is available on the Computer Science Club's website.

Co-operative education and career services presents a Career Development Workshop tomorrow from 9 a.m. to noon, entitled "Career Essentials." The workshop will be held in NH 1020.

The Graduate Student Association's scholarly wine tour departs by bus from the SLC tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., and will return by 6 p.m. The tour features visits to small estate wineries in the Niagara Region, and a one-hour stop in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Tickets are available at the Grad House ($30 for GSA members and their guests; $55 for others).

Tomorrow features a Haunted Hallowe'en Evening sponsored by the Staff Association at the Kim-Glo Farm on Highway 97 West (just west of Ayr). The fun goes from 7 to 10:30 p.m. and includes a 30-minute haunted hayride, a terror walk, and a haunted barn. Tickets are $8 for Staff Association members, $10 for non-members. For ticket information, contact Terri McCartney at tmccartn@math.uwaterloo.ca or Verna Keller at vkeller@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca by noon today.

And on Sunday, the K-W Hadassah-WIZO 'Heirlooms and Collectibles Sale' will take place in the Rotunda at Kitchener City Hall from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $10, and includes underground parking, coffee, and a slice of "famous Hadassah Bazaar Cheesecake."

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
October 25, 1964: A dedication service is held for Conrad Grebel College. October 25, 1973: Paul Dirksen is named director of the computing centre, succeeding Wes Graham. October 25, 1990: A bomb scare closes the campus for the afternoon.