September 6, 2002

Friday, September 6, 2002

Warriors aim for the Yates Cup
It all leads up to the toga party
Biotechnology symposium opens today
Some notes in black and gold

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[Yellow caution tape]
No pasarán: Almost anywhere on campus, it seems, might be blocked off on a given day, as construction and repair work continues. The other day, as Barbara Elve of information and public affairs happened to walk by with the camera, it was the stairs south of the Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall that were impassable.

Warriors aim for the Yates Cup

The football Warriors, who pulled out an 18-16 victory in a thriller against Laurier on Monday, will play at University Stadium again Saturday afternoon, continuing a season they hope will lead to the Yates Cup game for the Ontario championship.

The Warriors are looking to improve on last year's 4-3-1 finish, which left them only fifth in the Ontario University Athletics league. Missing out on the championship game in 2000 and 2001 after four consecutive Yates Cup appearances (and two wins), the team is looking to youth for leadership, says Chris Gilbert of UW's athletics department, whose weekly reports are the distillation of what's what in UW sports.

He writes: "Third-year players including tailback Jay Akindolire, free safety John Sullivan, and tight end Matt Reid are leaders amongst a very talented team. The offensive line will be anchored by big Steve Bosa, and the defensive line will be led by seniors Jamie Verdone and Jeremy Bezaire. The Warrior coaching staff is relying on sophomores such as receivers Graham Baechler, Ian Forde (arguably the fastest player in the league) and middle linebacker Paul Kowalik to establish themselves league wide.

"With an exceptional recruiting class entering this year, the Warriors are ready to roll back to the top in 2002."

And Kerry O'Brien, also of athletics, concurs: "After the departure of many top players due to graduation (most notably current Edmonton Eskimo Mike Bradley), many naysayers are expecting a dismal record and a disappointing season for the football Warriors this year. Upon closer inspection, however, the Warriors are at least as strong as they were last year, if not stronger. While some big names and big talents have gone, there are some hungry young players ready to replace them, and the Warriors' roster is deeper than it has been in a while."

Warrior teams welcome walk-ons -- schedule of team meetings as the seasons begin
Head coach Chris Triantafilou is emphasizing the value of depth on the team. "Playing your first two games so quickly," he says, "you're not going to get through these first two weeks without injuries." Through very selective recruiting, O'Brien writes, Triantafilou "has assembled a crew of top frosh to complement the current roster". But while the rookies are impressive, Triantafilou wants to stress that the weight of the team is not riding on their shoulders. "What you don't expect is frosh to come in and fill holes. That's what second and third year kids are for. We're not a desperate program. We can surround kids and prepare them for the future."

Last year's Warriors had a disappointing finish, with a loss to Western in a quarter-final game, after a slew of injuries mangled their defensive and offensive lines. But individual highlights include Mike Bradley setting the OUA career rushing and touchdown record, and Chuck Walsh winning the most valuable lineman award for the OUA. Mike Bradley, Chuck Walsh and punter Matt Armstrong were named All-Canadians. Twelve members of the team were also Royal Bank Academic All Canadians, and three Warriors made CFL rosters after graduation.

In tomorrow's game, which starts at 2 p.m., the Warriors host the McMaster Marauders. Opponents later in the regular season will be Ottawa on September 14 (another home game), Windsor on September 21 (away), Western on September 27 (home), Guelph on October 5 (away), Queen's on October 12 (home), and Toronto on October 19 (away).

It all leads up to the toga party

First-year students may be getting a little hoarse and weary by now, but the pace doesn't lessen much. "Everything is going really well," says Catharine Scott, the associate provost who's the top administrator responsible for orientation activities. "The leaders are doing a terrific job of dealing with everything and making their frosh feel welcome and happy."

Orientation emphasizes residence activities for much of today, including a noontime carnival on the Village green and afternoon talent show. Tonight, activities are organized by faculty -- there are scavenger hunts in engineering and environmental studies, a pub night for math, "Black Light Night" at Fed Hall for arts, a bonfire for science, and something called "Festival of Gold" for applied health sciences.

And tomorrow -- well, it's the big day of all big days, under the label of "Black and Gold Day". At noontime, students will gather for a live outdoor concert before heading en masse to University Stadium on Seagram Drive to cheer for the Warriors in that football game against McMaster's Marauders.

And then the evening brings the biggest party of them all, the long-awaited toga party on the Matthews Hall green. One indication of what to expect there is that the city of Waterloo was asked for a special exemption from local noise bylaws, although I know UW police will be on hand to make sure things don't get too far out of hand. The party starts at 9 p.m. and will run into the small hours.

For those who don't think they look good in sheets, there's a Saturday night alternative, a movie night in the Student Life Centre.

And on the seventh day, they rest. Classes start at 8:30 Monday morning.

Biotechnology symposium opens today

The Murray Moo-Young Symposium on Biotechnology and Bioengineering, honouring a UW chemical engineering professor who has just retired, is being held today and tomorrow in the Davis Centre.

"Arguably, Murray is a founder of biochemical engineering in Canada," says chem eng colleague William Anderson, who is heading the event's organizing committee along with Jeno Scharer. "We wanted to celebrate his achievements with this symposium."

At this week's event, current and future research trends in pharmaceuticals, food ingredients and environmental remediation will be explored in a series of invited lectures by international researchers. As well, there will be poster presentations from around the world.

At UW, Moo-Young held an Industrial Research Chair in Biochemical Engineering, and he remains the director of the Unesco Microbial Resource Centre, which has trained more than 35 scientists and engineers from countries such as India, China, Cuba, Iran, Yugoslavia and Malaysia. A "distinguished professor emeritus" since his retirement, he continues to conduct research in biochemical engineering, industrial biotechnology and environmental management at the university.

Moo-Young, who taught at Toronto and Western Ontario before coming to UW in 1966, was instrumental in starting the chemical engineering department's Biochemical Engineering Group, which examines the biochemical engineering aspects of biotechnology. His work has produced nine patents, 11 books and more than 285 papers. In 1997, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Sponsors for this week's symposium and an annual visiting lecture series (to start next year) include Elsevier Science, Cangene Corp., Apotex Inc., National Research Council, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Aventis Pasteur, Merck Frosst, and Labatt.

Some notes in black and gold

Students beginning UW's optometry program aren't really first-year students -- it takes at least two years of undergraduate study to reach the minimum admission requirements -- but they may be new to Waterloo, and they're certainly new to optometry. So an orientation committee formed by the Optometry Student Society has a lively program of activities planned, starting with registration, "icebreaker games", speeches and dinner on Sunday afternoon. In between classes next week, there are several special events -- food seems to figure in a big way, along with a "Big Brother, Big Sister" program to help newcomers get settled.

And also in the general category of orientation, I'm told that Wednesday's program for new faculty members was a big success, with many ideas shared about how professors can balance teaching, research, administrative work, family responsibilities, relationships, health and perhaps sleep. Most popular of all, not surprisingly, was the evening barbecue at the farm of UW president David Johnston, which was co-sponsored by the teaching resources office and UW's faculty association.

Beginning-of-term training for teaching assistants is now a commonplace across campus. Several departments and faculties held sessions yesterday, and more are scheduled today, in departments as diverse as geography, sociology, and Germanic and Slavic. The faculty of engineering runs an extensive program under the title ExpecTAtions, which began yesterday and winds up with sessions from 8:45 to 3:00 today in Carl Pollock Hall. Typical fodder for such sessions includes everything from consistency in marking to ways of avoiding any suspicion of sexual harassment.

A note from the information systems and technology department dated September 3: "Effective today, we have increased our external Internet circuit's bandwidth from 17 Mbps to 31.7 Mbps. That's ATM circuit speed, which translates into about 27.5 Mbps of actual TCP/IP traffic. The CA*net circuit remains at 7 Mbps ATM or 6 Mbps IP." That means the size of the electronic "pipe" coming into UW's computer networks has roughly doubled this year; the last increase came in June.

We're coming up to what I have heard described as "the anniversary of September 11" -- that is, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States last year -- and a remembrance is planned at UW for noon on that day, which will be next Wednesday, says Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services). The memorial service will be held in "the outside atrium" to the east of the Student Life Centre. A choir from Conrad Grebel College will sing, Lowell Ewert of Grebel's peace and conflict studies program will speak, and David Johnston (president of UW) and Brenda Slomka (president of the Federation of Students) will also be heard from. "A tree will have been planted near the PAC," Scott writes. "Participants will be encouraged to think about how they can contribute to an understanding and open community which celebrates and works towards peace. Participants will be asked to visit the multi-purpose room where all of the Federation clubs will have exhibits reflecting on peace, harmony, acceptance and diversity."

Down the street at Wilfrid Laurier University, renovations at the library are drawing to a close, and "limited services" will be available next week as term begins. "The temporary services at St. Michael's Campus are now suspended," officials say. "Library services are relocated to the renovated building during the week of September 3 to 8. . . . Sometime in mid-September, the first three floors of the Library will re-open to the public." While WLU has been pretty much without a library, UW has been helping to provide materials to users down there. And for part of the summer, three WLU library staff members were actually based at UW to help with that service -- two in the Davis Centre library and one in Dana Porter. "It was really great having them work with us," says Wish Leonard, a supervisor in the UW library's user services department.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
September 6, 1977: The library's new Geac computerized circulation system becomes fully operational.