![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
![[Iron Ring]](/images/2000/0223ring.gif)
| Yesterday |
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[54-storey building opened 1972]](http://www.rockgroupdevelopment.com/images/1251pix/1251_tower.jpg)
The Canadian consulate in New York is in the former Exxon Building on the edge of Rockefeller Center, at 1251 Avenue of the Americas. This photo was taken before yesterday's blizzard. |
UW president David Johnston and vice-president (university relations) Laura Talbot-Allan were to make the trip, telling alumni in both cities how much their help is wanted and appreciated.
"Events like this are just one way we keep in touch with our 110,000 alumni," Johnston says (or would have said, in the speech text for the now-cancelled receptions). "We also try to stay connected through our e-community and other electronic services, like the new electronic newsletter @UWaterloo."
In New York, the plan was a noon reception at the Canadian consulate, where the consul-general is Pamela Wallin -- media star and, no coincidence, a member of UW's board of governors. The Boston event was an evening reception at the Canadian consulate in Copley Place.
Johnston's speech text, which he'll doubtless use other times in other venues, invites alumni to think about how learning works: "Consider, for a moment, the progression of learning, which moves from data, to information, to knowledge, to innovation, to wisdom. Learning begins with the collection of data. We collect far more data than we think we will put to good use initially, but out of great volumes of data we extract information.
"These bodies of information, when laid side by side in the right order, form our knowledge of a subject. And knowledge of seemingly disparate subjects comes together to produce a single new idea. The conception and application of that new idea -- that new way of looking at things we already know -- is called innovation.
"The University of Waterloo especially focuses on the part of the learning cycle that moves from knowledge to innovation. We do this in our teaching, our research, and through the advancement of learning, which enthusiastically encourages the transfer of research results to society. These things are part of the everyday routine within the borders of our campus. Our students and faculty breathe the air of innovation and absorb it into their lives."
Later he would tell alumni that "As members of our extended University of Waterloo community, you play a vital role in our continued success. We are glad to have the opportunity to share our news and celebrate our successes with you.
"I'd like to leave you with the idea that there are a few things that you, as alumni, can do to help us strengthen the Waterloo community.
![[Scene of ES II]](/images/2003/0217tour.gif)
A page from the virtual tour. Some spots are marked by still photos, others by panoramic views that let the user zoom in for a closer look. |
The re-design effort was led by Julie Hummel of the undergraduate recruitment office, who says that while the original virtual tour was designed primarily for an audience of prospective students, it's now clear that many more people are interested in it. "The feedback we were seeing on the tour was from such a varied audience -- alumni, parents, co-op employers, etc.," she says, "that when it was time to re-develop we knew it was in the best interest of the university to appeal to a much larger audience."
To appeal to that larger audience, Hummel enlisted help from several departments -- input came from alumni affairs, communications and public affairs, and the student life office. And UW graphics pulled the whole thing together, making sure that the virtual tour was graphically consistent with the university's current publications and website designs. "The team in graphics did an outstanding job creating an interface and landing page," says Hummel.
While the campus tour can be reached from the university's home page, Hummel says it's a great "value-added link" for visitors to any campus website. She encourages web developers across campus to link to the virtual tour directly from their faculty or departmental sites if they think it might be of interest to visitors.
Engineers take their obligationPictured at the top of today's Daily Bulletin is an Iron Ring, the proud symbol that will be on the hands of several hundred more Canadian engineers before today is over. Graduating students from UW's faculty of engineering will "take their obligation" and put on the Iron Ring for the first time. The ring, worn on "the little finger of the working hand", is a uniquely Canadian symbol, a token by which to recognize an engineer who has deliberately taken an "obligation" to his or her new profession. The first Iron Ring ceremony at UW was held in the spring of 1963.As in the past, there will be three Iron Ring ceremonies at UW today, all held in the Theatre of the Arts. There are at least 50 more graduating engineers than last year, and "we may be almost at our limit for the three ceremonies," says John Westlake of the co-op and career services department -- himself an engineer, and one of the "Wardens" responsible for Iron Ring matters at Waterloo. He's predicting that by next year four ceremonies may be necessary. By tradition, today's solemnities will be preceded by a day of hijinks around the engineering buildings, and followed by the Iron Ring Stag -- being held this year at a Kitchener night club. |
They're especially hoping for a federal commitment to paying for the indirect costs of research -- the utilities, bookkeeping, and libraries that make university research possible, but aren't covered in the grants received for specific projects. Universities got a taste of funding for those indirect, or "overhead", costs with a one-time payout announced in the budget of December 2001 -- a total of $200 million, including about $6 million for Waterloo.
"The federal government has reinforced its commitment to funding indirect costs on many occasions, including in the Prime Minister's response to the 2002 Speech from the Throne and at the November 2002 National Summit on Innovation and Learning," says a pre-budget alert from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. "Signs remain very positive" that the money will start flowing.
"AUCC anticipates," says the alert, "that if an indirect costs program is announced, a likely scenario would see the federal government commit to an initial investment beginning in 2003-04 that would ramp up over a period of perhaps three years. AUCC will be paying close attention to indications as to the initial level of funding and ramp-up; the number of years for which funding is committed; how this funding is to be delivered to universities; the allocation formula that is to be applied; and the type of accountability that will be required. It is quite possible, of course, that only some of these important details will be available on budget night."
Other things to watch for in Manley's budget include allocations for the federal research granting agencies; possible special funding for graduate education; funds for the promised Canadian Learning Institute; and, just possibly, hints about what funding arrangement will replace the Canada Health and Social Transfer, which currently bundles higher education funding together with money for health and social programs.
And then there's the matter of student assistance. Says the AUCC: "With many Cabinet members reportedly in support of a number of proposed changes to the Canada Student Loans Program, the budget may well contain a number of long-awaited improvements to student aid. These include new debt reduction and interest relief measures and an increase in the in-study income limit (frozen at $600 for many years). The latter change might also include a further exemption of merit-based scholarship income from the CSLP needs assessment. Some tweaking of financial aid is also a possibility to better respond to the special needs of adult and part-time learners. . . .
"AUCC will also be watching closely to see whether the budget increases the Canada Education Savings Grants, as recommended by the Finance Committee, to improve the participation of lower and middle income families in Registered Education Savings Plans."
Budget information will be mirrored on the AUCC web site shortly after Manley makes his speech in Parliament, and university leaders will be standing by to comment on what they hear. At UW, media will be talking to such experts as John Hirdes of health studies and gerontology (to talk about health funding), economics professors Jim Brox and John Burbidge, and provost Amit Chakma (with UW's reaction to anything Manley says that affects universities).
There will be no soft water tomorrow (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) in all campus buildings within the ring road, as plant operations is doing work on the softening system. . . . Steven Huesing, editor of Healthcare Information Management and Communications Canada, will speak tomorrow in the "smarter health" seminar series (3 p.m., Davis Centre room 1302). . . . The interdisciplinary coffee talk series tomorrow presents Masha Brown speaking on "Developmental Biology and Pattern Formation" (5 p.m. at the Graduate House). . . .
Also tomorrow, UW's Civics Research Group will hold an evening of discussion about the proposed "central transit corridor" for Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge. The talk starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at 70 King Street East in downtown Kitchener.
The "Potato People" present kids' shows in the Humanities Theatre tomorrow and Thursday at 10 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. . . . Staff who aren't members of the UW staff association are invited to a "town hall meeting" Thursday at noontime (Arts Lecture Hall room 211) to hear about what the association might have to offer them. . . . This year's Hagey Bonspiel is scheduled for Saturday at the Ayr Curling Club. . . .
CAR