![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, December 15, 2003
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[And she's wearing antlers]](/images/2003/1215mittens.gif)
As pictured
on the front page of last week's Gazette,
a mitten tree is burgeoning in the research office on the first floor of
Needles Hall. Staff member Christine Kuehl adds to the warmth, and
people from other departments are invited to contribute in the
next three days. Mittens for
adults and children will be delivered to the Anselma House shelter
on Friday.
|
Other faculties are also looking at "enhancement" of the co-op program, but the engineering proposal is the most elaborate and likely to be the first one to come to UW's senate for final approval. But even if it's approved, it "will not be mounted unless there is sufficient funding to provide a quality programme without increasing the workload of the departments", the proposal stresses.
However, there's some concern that workload will be a problem for students, says the report to faculty council from Wayne Loucks, associate dean (undergraduate studies) in engineering. He notes that the undergraduate studies committee in engineering will keep a close eye on the amount of work each of the new courses will require.
"Included in the professional development umbrella," the proposal explains, "are topics such as learning how to apply academic material to practical applications, life-long learning on the job, and preparing to be an effective, efficient, professional engineer. A second common thread throughout the enhancement proposal is communications. Virtually all aspects of engineering require appropriate communication skills."
The "PDEng" courses are to be delivered online, each with "a set of learning objectives for the student to complete over the course of the term" and "a set of teaching modules".
The five courses are labelled "Overview", "Critical Analysis", "Responsibility", "Leadership", and "Integration". All, according to the official calendar copy, will include "such topics as ethics and the law, health and safety, the design process, management strategies, risk assessment, self assessment, intellectual property, etc." Other parts of the proposal mention "information literacy", "decision making", "accountability", "social implications of engineering", "managing innovation", "project management" and "performance evaluation (peer and self)".
Says the proposal: "Each element of the PDEng courses will be positioned relative to academic training and how it exists within the workplace, and the students will be encouraged and required to observe and reflect upon what they see and do. The PDEng courses will become part of the student's apprenticeship journey."
Students won't pay a fee for the courses, and they'll be required only for students who begin first year in September 2004 or later.
The faculty council meeting begins at 3:00 in Carl Pollock Hall room 3385. Among other agenda items is a presentation by Erin Young, director of the student-funded Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund.
![[Downer]](/images/2003/1215downer1.gif)
Roger Downer,
who was UW's vice-president (university relations) 1989-96, has been
president of the
University of Limerick,
Ireland, since 1998. He was honoured north of the border on Friday, as
the Queen's University, Belfast, in Northern Ireland,
presented
him with an honorary
degree. Downer, a zoologist specializing in insects, was
a faculty member in biology at UW for 27 years. He
was born in Belfast and graduated from Queen's.
|
| The 2003 dinner was held in Toronto on November 24, with Larry Beasley of the City of Vancouver as speaker |
"The UW Planning Alumni of Toronto is proud of its accomplishments," says Guzzi. "What began in 1988 as a modest dinner get together for Toronto planning alumni has become the planning industry and related industries 'must attend' annual event. With over 900 guests including architects, engineers, lawyers, land developers, and others in related professions, numerous sponsors and supporters, the dinner generates approximately $30,000 each year in revenue that supports the University of Waterloo's school of planning, funding the Planning-in-Residence program, student scholarships, and an endowment fund."
As well, the UW school of planning sends some 50 students to the dinner each year, giving them a chance to get acquainted with the profession.
A high-profile guest speaker is always invited to the dinner. Last October, international architect Helmut Jahn, of Murphy/Jahn, Inc. Architects based in Chicago, Illinois, discussed "Urban Architecture: Form-Space-Technology." Jahn was named one of the 10 most influential living architects by the American Institute of Architects in 1991.
Planning such an event is a challenge, even for a planner. "It requires a certain level of dedication," says Guzzi, who begins attending meetings with a dozen other UW planning alumni each January.
Guzzi attributes the success of the event to the fact that the UW school of planning is "a tight-knit group" of faculty and alumni. Alumni play an ongoing support role for the school as advisors to the Planning-in-Residence program, and as student mentors, providing career development and networking opportunities for the next generation of planners.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Touring Players children's show "Munsch Madness", 10:00,
11:45 and 1:30, Humanities Theatre.
Overview of Eating Disorders, workshop presented by Employee Assistance Program, 12 noon Tuesday, Davis Centre room 1302. Gay Liberation discussion group, 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Humanities room 373 -- topic: "Home for the Holidays". Social event follows. Final presentations by students who worked this term for the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology (LT3), 10:30 Thursday, Flex Lab, Dana Porter Library. |
UW's senate will meet this afternoon -- 4:30 p.m., Needles Hall room 3001 -- and continue the discussion, which began at the November meeting, of perhaps introducing more stringent admission standards, such as a minimum high school average of 75 or even 80. The agenda doesn't indicate that a decision will be reached today. Also on the agenda is a report on "research intensity" by vice-president (university research) Paul Guild. And senate will be asked to approve a schedule for preparation of UW's "sixth decade" plan, under the supervision of its long-range planning committee.
A note from information systems and technology: "The Computing Help and Information Place (CHIP) in Math and Computer room 1052 will be closing at 4:30 p.m. (not the usual 5 p.m.) starting today. It will close at 3 p.m. on Thursday, December 18, and Tuesday, December 23. The CHIP will be closed during the Christmas holidays and will reopen on Monday, January 5, at 8 a.m. (and go back to closing at 5 p.m.)."
The library reports, in its online newsletter, that a student gift has provided something new: "The Waterloo Environmental Studies Endowment Fund has generously donated $1,162.50 to the University Map and Design Library towards the purchase of a set of 263 photomap sheets that provide complete photographic coverage of the Region of Waterloo as of April 2000. These photomaps at a scale of 1:5000 complement the sets of photomaps held by the UMD Library for the years 1967, 1971, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1995, thus providing a record of change over time. Heavily used by students in Planning, Architecture and Geography, as well as other disciplines, these photomaps show urban and rural development at large scale."
A memo the other day announced the creation of a new unit on campus: the engineering advancement office, reporting to the dean of engineering. Said a joint memo from the dean, Adel Sedra, and UW's vice-president (university relations), Laura Talbot-Allan: "An important element in the Faculty of Engineering's quest to become one of the world's premier engineering schools is to enhance our ability to serve, inform, and, in the process, advance our cause with our constituencies: faculty, staff, students, alumni, friends, governments, industry. etc." Staff in the office will have titles like "senior development officer" and "alumni and communications officer", and its director will be Tim Tribe, who has worked in fund-raising for engineering. "We expect to expand the team within the next few months," the memo notes.
There was a UW connection when a group called Lake Ontario Waterkeeper presented an award last week -- membership in the new "Lake Ontario Hall of Fame" -- to two leaders of the Friends of Red Hill Valley. The valley is in the Hamilton area, and what its "Friends" are mostly currently doing is trying to prevent the construction of a controversial expressway through the middle of it. Long-time president of the 800-member Friends is Don McLean, who earned a master's degree in environment and resource studies from UW and taught several courses as an adjunct faculty member after graduation. He's currently the instructor for the correspondence version of Environmental Studies 195, "Introduction to Environmental Studies".
CAR