![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, August 11, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Curious faces and fingers]](/images/2003/0811harp.gif)
Young musicians
converge this week "to
sing and play violins, pianos, trombones, trumpets, violas,
tubas, slide whistles, capture the flag, cellos, flutes,
percussion, toss the chicken and much, much more!"
It's the annual
Ontario
Mennonite Music Camp, held at Conrad Grebel University College
for youngsters 12 to 16. Singers and instrumental musicians will mix
lessons and practices with time for games and other activities, all
leading up to an end-of-camp concert on Friday night, August 22.
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![[Habitat logo]](/images/2003/0811habitat.jpg)
A pair of homes for local families will be built in a "blitz" during
orientation week next month, says a news release announcing
today's celebration:
"Habitat for Humanity is laying the foundation for a stronger community."
Students will travel from across Canada to take part in the work, which will see the construction finished within ten days. As for the cash costs of the project, Habitat chapters at UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph worked together to match a $30,000 donation from sponsoring firm Pepsi-QTG (Quaker Tropicana Gatorade) Canada.
Habitat says it's building a semi-detached unit that contains two homes: one home (#14) is fully-funded by the campus chapters and Pepsi-QTG Canada; the adjoining home (#18) is funded by MCAP and Marlborough Sterling, two financial services companies.
The groundbreaking, starting at 10:30 this morning, will be attended by the likes of Kitchener mayor Carl Zehr, as well as Habitat leaders and sponsor representatives. Also on hand will be members of the two families who will live in the houses when they're finished.
Founded in Canada in 1985, Habitat for Humanity has worked to build more than 600 homes for "deserving families who would not otherwise be able to afford their own home". Volunteers, often from church groups, do most of the work, in a short-term effort similar to traditional barn-raisings. The organization came to prominence a decade ago with the involvement of former United States president Jimmy Carter, who took part in a build in Kitchener in 1993.
"By 2005," the news release says, "Habitat for Humanity Canada is focused on completing 1,000 homes." Habitat Canada has its nationaloffices on Albert Street in Waterloo. There are 15 campus chapters across Canada that partner with Habitat through builds, on-campus education, and fund-raising.
As National Campus Build Sponsor of Habitat for Humanity Canada, Pepsi-QTG sponsored the building of the first Habitat home in Peterborough this summer.
![[Ages]](http://french.uwaterloo.ca/members/arnold.gif)
Arnold
Ages (right), department of French studies, who came to UW in 1963.
Hamish Duthie, department of biology, who joined the faculty in 1963.
Patricia Bowers, department of psychology, who has been at Waterloo since 1968 (and full-time since 1980).
Floyd Centore, department of philosophy at St. Jerome's University, who joined the faculty in 1969.
Karl Bennett, department of economics, who came to Waterloo in 1966.
![[Brude-Firnau]](http://www.graphics.uwaterloo.ca/content/imagebank/images/19970240.jpg)
Gisela Brude-Firnau (left), department of Germanic and Slavic
studies, who came to UW in 1968.
David Carter, school of accountancy, who joined UW's faculty in 1978.
Werner Packull, history professor at Conrad Grebel University College, whose Waterloo career began in 1974.
Francis Tang, department of pure mathematics, who became a member of faculty in 1965.
Lloy Coutts, department of drama and speech communication, whose UW career began in 1994.
![[Wood]](http://ottawa.cbc.ca/gfx/Ottawa/photos/wood_ardeth20030807.jpg)
A UW student has made national headlines over the past four days
following her disappearance in Ottawa. Philosophy graduate student
Ardeth
Wood (CBC photo
at right) has not been seen since she left her parents' house in an
Ottawa suburb to go for a bike ride at midday Wednesday.
Searchers found her bicycle yesterday in a creek. Volunteers and
police are continuing the search.
A third-year student is facing a number of charges -- and recovering from a gunshot wound -- following an incident in Waterloo August 2. A customer at a bank machine in the Weber Street area was robbed at knifepoint; a suspect was arrested shortly afterwards, but only after police fired one shot that hit him in the arm. Edgar Wambaa, a biology student, appeared in court late last week, and the Record published a story Saturday citing his roommates' astonishment. The provincial Special Investigations Unit is investigating, as it does whenever police guns are drawn.
An announcement is planned for noontime today about the 23rd annual World Religions Conference, to be held at UW on October 4. As in the past, the event is sponsored by the local branch of the Ahmadiyya Movement, a Muslim denomination, with involvement of various local religious groups. Today's announcement (12:00, Humanities room 334) will include word about this year's speakers and theme.
Here's a message from Matthew Plant, an applied health sciences student and "founding co-president" of a new organization:
The Waterloo-Israel Political Affairs Committee (WIPAC) has been formed as a response to anti-Israel propaganda that has begun to appear more readily on campus. The fact that an inflammatory speaker such as Norman Finkelstein has not only been allowed on campus, but has been funded by FEDS shows that UW is in dire need of a group that will look out for Israel's political interests on campus.Anyone interested in membership, Plant says, can reach him by e-mail: Waterloo_Israel@hotmail.com.The WIPAC is a secular organization for students of all religions and backgrounds who believe that the Israeli issues in the middle-east deserve the same respect as the Palestinian ones. The WIPAC will defend the name of Israel, promote its causes and encourage open, civilized debate on any issue involving the state of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Here's a reminder that the arts undergraduate office is taking "its annual advising hiatus" today through August 22. "For these two weeks," a memo notes, "the undergraduate office will be closed. Normal advising and office schedules will resume on Monday, August 25."
Finally, a brief excerpt from Sujeet Chaudhuri's final message as dean of engineering, just published in the engineering alumni newsletter: "The Faculty has long been aware of the intellectual property (IP) created here, and with proper nurturing we are ready to respond to the challenges coming our way through Canada's Innovation Strategy (which basically envisions that universities would become more proactive in closing the gap between IP creation and the end result of value-added products). In the coming years I foresee our Faculty pushing research to its limit with an entrepreneurial bend, making scholarship highly relevant to tomorrow's needs of society, and thus deriving an enormous impact and benefit to this region, province, and nation."
CAR