September 27, 2002

Friday, September 27, 2002

History launched at Feast of St. Jerome
UW meets thousands at the fair
Students talk about sustainability
'Forbidden' music played Sunday
Also today and on the weekend

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Kitchener experiences The Word on the Street

[In cardinal's robes]
St. Jerome, as envisioned by El Greco

History launched at Feast of St. Jerome

Good food, conviviality and Canadian history will be the themes of the second annual St. Jerome's Feast for Catholic University Education tonight at St. Jerome's University. The Chancellor John Sweeney Award will be presented to Rev. Jacques Monet, an eminent Canadian historian, "for his leadership in Catholic post-secondary education".

At the same time, St. Jerome's, which has been federated with UW for four decades, will launch the publication of Enthusiasm for the Truth: An Illustrated History of St. Jerome's University by Ken McLaughlin, Gerald Stortz and Rev. James Wahl.

The book's title was inspired by Louis Funcken, the Resurrectionist missionary who founded St. Jerome's, and who declared in 1864 that the Roman Catholic college he was creating would instill in its students an "enthusiasm for the truth". St. Jerome's has evolved from a small log cabin near St. Agatha to a landmark building in downtown Kitchener, to its Kingsdale location in south Kitchener, until finally, in 1962, it arrived at its present location on the UW campus.

The history of that evolution is also the history of post-secondary education in Ontario, says an announcement of the new book. "The essence of the story is how all universities have changed in the way they relate to society," says McLaughlin. "The idea of the truth we seek has broadened from the days of the founders. To their emphasis on spiritual truth we have added an understanding of society and science. The book traces those changes."

Student life and a vibrant student culture are part of the St. Jerome's story just as they are of any university, and through the use of photographs and interviews this aspect of the St. Jerome's history comes alive. The publication costs were substantially underwritten by the Jackman Foundation, a news release from the college says.

As it celebrates its past, St. Jerome's will make more history by honouring Father Jacques Monet with an award named for John Sweeney, who served as the University's chancellor until his death in 2001. Michael Higgins, president of St. Jerome's, characterizes Monet as "an exemplar of the scholarship, vision and service which have advanced the cause of Catholic post-secondary education in Canada and the world". The present chancellor, Richard Gwyn, will make the presentation to Monet, who served as president of Regis College, Toronto, (1982-88) and of the University of Sudbury (1992-97).

Monet's works include The Union of the Canadas, The Last Cannon Shot: A Study of French Canadian Nationalism, and The Canadian Crown. He is currently the director of the Canadian Institute of Jesuit Studies and co-director of the Jesuit Archives at Regis College, Toronto.

Warning -- the sting goes on
Here's a warning from Kevin Stewart, UW's director of safety: "Please note that in at least three reported trips/classes [Wasp at Harvard] this fall term, students have had encounters with wasp hives resulting in multiple stings to individuals.
"Hopefully the cooler weather will diminish wasp activity. However, field program participants and supervisors are cautioned to be wary of wasp hives (usually found in dense brush and sandy ground). If wasps are encountered, immediately vacate the area."

UW meets thousands at the fair

Waterloo will meet its future, and thousands of young people will meet their Waterloo, as the Ontario Universities Fair gets under way today at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The fair will continue through Sunday.

"All Ontario universities will be participating," says Julie Primeau, UW coordinator of undergraduate recruitment. And that means one of them will be there for the first time: the newly opened University of Ontario Institute of Technology, based in Oshawa.

The idea is to let future students, and their parents, find out about the universities to which they might apply in 2003, 2004 or later. There were 47,000 visitors to last year's fair, says Primeau, "and it's expected that 60,000 will attend this weekend."

More than 100 volunteers -- staff, faculty, students and alumni -- will be there in shifts to represent Waterloo. They'll be on duty around a "brand new" 100-foot-long UW booth, Primeau said.

The fair will be open for business from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

Of interest on the web

'Canadian e-Business Initiative' is under way
How to Find Work in the 21st Century
Former UW prof honoured at Alberta
Rankings of US universities
Financial responsibility for students

Students talk about sustainability -- from the UW news bureau

A student conference from today through Sunday will host more than 100 people from across North America to discuss sustainability issues and initiatives at post-secondary institutions.

The annual Sustainable Campuses Conference, launched in 1999 by the Sierra Youth Coalition, is focused on supporting post-secondary students in their efforts to develop sustainable environmental systems on campuses. With representatives from at least 23 schools across Canada and the United States, the conference is hosted by the UW Sustainability Project with the support of UW and many volunteers.

"Guiding the conference is the ideology that by demonstrating sustainable practices, universities can be models of sustainability," said Ian Howard, in charge of media relations for the event. "The leaders of tomorrow can bring this ideology and experience with them to their future endeavours in government, business, education and to their families," he added.

"David Orr is the 'father' of 'greening the campus', or WatGreen as we call it here," writes Patti Cook, UW's waste management coordinator. "Greening the campus is a process whereby students, as part of their course work, study the environmental issues facing the university, using the university as a laboratory." Orr will speak at 7:30 tonight in Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 101.
The conference hosts a number of activities, including presentations from David Orr (author of Ecological Literacy, Earth in Mind and chair of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College), Alan Nymark (deputy minister at Environment Canada), and other VIPs and sustainability leaders.

As well, there are workshops, covering topics such as food co-operatives, sustainable campus indicators, and corporate influence on campus. The workshops are designed to teach young environmental leaders how to implement and organize sustainability initiatives on their own campuses.

The Sierra Youth Coalition is a branch of the Sierra Club of Canada and seeks to educate and empower youth to lead environmental change. The UWSP, operated by the Federation of Students environment commission, is charged with the promotion, education and facilitation of sustainable environmental practices on campus.

'Forbidden' music played Sunday

A free concert Sunday afternoon will present "Forbidden Music of Nazi Germany", sponsored by the music department at Conrad Grebel University College as well as UW's Jewish studies program.

The music was "forbidden" because it was by Jewish composers. In Sunday's event, it will be performed by American pianist Sherri Jones, with commentary -- "richly annotated", a news release says -- by German musicologist Albrecht Riethmüller.

The event starts at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Grebel chapel. "It will include a fascinating recital of exquisite but infrequently heard piano works written mainly by German Jewish composers during this time period."

[Jones] Sherri Jones (left) is a award-winning American concert pianist, and Albrecht Riethmüller is head of the musicology department at the Free University of Berlin. "Both Jones and Riethmüller are specialists in the music of this troubled time and place. Jones, now permanently located in Germany, is recognized as one of the finest recording and performing pianists of early 20th century music, and Riethmüller, the 1999 recipient of Canada's Diefenbaker Award, has published many articles on German musicology's involvement with Nazi racist ideology."

Jones and Riethmüller describe the "Forbidden Music" in these words: "Dictatorships have always been known to ban certain types of music, either foreign, domestic or both. In Nazi Germany the restriction applied to all music composed by Jews, jazz, and major parts of contemporary art music. The rationale behind these measures from racist ideology to marketing strategies will be reviewed, as well as the phenomena that mere sounds and rhythms, under the pretext of nationalistic cultural values, can be regarded as subversive, even dangerous to listen to. After 1945 bans on certain types of music continued to exist behind the Iron Curtain."

Friday night football in the rain
The football Warriors will play an unusual Friday night game this week, hosting the Western Mustangs at 7:00t his evening at University Stadium. Besides the game, there will be an "alumni special events tent", and at halftime, the athletics department will present a check for $1,000 to Ronald McDonald House. Halftime will also feature a minor football game between the Warriors and Golden Hawks of the Ontario Minor Flag Football Association.
Other sports this weekend: Tonight, the men's volleyball team hosts the National Team Masters (7:00). Tomorrow, the women's rugby team hosts Toronto (1:00) and the women's tennis team is visited by Queen's and Toronto, all day.
In away games, the baseball Warriors are at Western on Saturday and McMaster on Sunday; the cross-country runners take part in the Western invitational tomorrow; the field hockey team plays Trent tomorrow, in Toronto; the soccer teams, both men's and women's, play at Western tomorrow afternoon; the men's tennis team is at Queen's; and the women's volleyball team spends the weekend in a tournament at Ryerson.

Also today and on the weekend

Anne Foerst, who gave the first of her two Pascal Lectures last night, will speak twice today. First there's a seminar at 12:30 (Davis Centre room 1302) on "Theology and Robots". Then at 8 p.m. comes the second of the Lectures, in the Theatre of the Arts, under the title "Robots, Humans and the Community of Persons". Admission is free.

The student leaders at the heart of this fall's orientation -- the Federation Orientation Committee, or FOC -- will be guests at a banquet tonight. The event acknowledges their hard work, says Heather FitzGerald, UW's student life coordinator, and will "celebrate the completion of a successful Orientation Week".

The Renison Institute of Ministry, based of course at Renison College, will hold an open house tomorrow from 10:00 to 2:00. More information is available from Marilyn Malton at Renison, phone 888-4404 ext. 628. What's RIM? Says its web page:

Renison Institute of Ministry serves the Church by providing practical and academic educational opportunities for individuals and parishes through various events, workshops, courses and programs. From an Anglican perspective, we assist individuals and groups who wish to grow in their knowledge of Christ and the traditions and literature of the Christian Church, and to become more effective, informed members of the Christian community.

In its series of workshops and courses, RIM will be holding a workshop on Christian meditation tomorrow, under the title "Food for the Journey", and details on that are also available from Malton.

For the second Saturday in a row, a programming contest will be held on campus tomorrow, as UW moves to choose its team for the big ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest for this year. Gordon Cormack of the department of computer science, who coaches UW's programming teams to top placings in the international competitions almost every year, notes that the contest runs for three hours and involves on-line problem solving in Java, C, C++ or Pascal. Information for potential competitors is available on-line.

A "mock" Law School Aptitude Test will be offered tomorrow through the legal resource office; last-minute information should be available from them at room 2123 in the Student Life Centre.

And it's not much of a day for golf, but the Waterloo Professional Association of Students has a "shotgun format" event starting at 4:00 this afternoon at Conestoga ("for those who have never played golf, we will be providing information on rules and etiquette").

And this weekend brings the long-awaited Black Knight Squash Tournament in the campus recreation program.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
September 27, 1967: B. F. Goodrich Ltd. donates $30,000 to UW to establish a library collection in polymer science as its centennial project.