February 20, 2003

Thursday, February 20, 2003

Campus first aid teams meet here
Drama alumni stage gay murder play
Two days without classes

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[Thomas with wall of books]
Keith Thomas, UW's dean of arts as the faculty began in 1960-61, and a faculty member in English for three decades after that, died January 31. An obituary was published in yesterday's Gazette.

Campus first aid teams meet here

Heroes from campuses across Canada will be in Waterloo tonight through Sunday for the annual National Conference of Campus Emergency Responders.

The gathering -- which includes a fair sprinkling of social events as well as training seminars and a spectacular practice emergency -- is hosted jointly by UW's Campus Response Team and its counterparts at Wilfrid Laurier University. Teams from campuses across the country will be taking part.

"We are a group of dedicated student volunteers, who provide first aid and patient care at events on campus," the UW response team's web site explains. "During campus events we respond to medical emergencies, providing first aid to students between the time an accident occurs and medical assistance arrives.

"CRT members work in two-rescuer teams at campus events, and all our active members are certified in Standard First Aid and CPR. We train on a weekly basis to constantly improve our skills, and we are equipped with extensive first aid supplies to ensure safe and efficient treatment."

The group is sponsored by the Federation of Students and linked to the UW Police and other university units as well as the St. John Ambulance, which helped organize it in 1998.

This weekend's conference has the theme "Canadian Heroes", organizers say. "This focus concentrates on the achievements of those who go above and beyond the call of duty."

Of special interest will be Sunday's competition -- "a day-long series of intense simulation first aid scenarios where teams of 3 to 4 volunteer emergency responders are evaluated by paramedics and advanced first aid instructors on their first aid care. The best three teams of the day are chosen to enter into the final scenario, a scenario the competitors enter into unaware which realistically simulates a campus incident complete with live actors in makeup."

The public will be welcome at the finals of the competition, from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sunday at Federation Hall.

Say the organizers: "There is an ever-present need for immediate and qualified first-aid care on university campuses, and conferences like the NCCER help Canadian universities build and maintain such services. . . . The national competition provides an opportunity for campus responders to drive up the standard of their care on their team by training in an open competitive environment."

Drama alumni stage gay murder play

UW alumni in Toronto will make an outing to a performance of "The Laramie Project", a headline-grabbing play directed by drama professor Joel Greenberg and staged by a new Toronto company that draws heavily on UW drama grads.

The group, who have taken the name of Studio 180 in honour of UW's studio theatre in the Humanities building, are mounting the first professional Canadian production of the show. After its current run at Artwood Theatre in Toronto, the play will run March 5 to 8 in UW's Theatre of the Arts.

[Laramie Project poster] "The work has been daunting," says Greenberg. "The Laramie Project is a play about how the brutal beating and murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, affected the town of Laramie until, and following, the trials of his two assailants. The text is documented from hundreds of interviews conducted by members of Tectonic Theater Project, a New York-based company, and the production originally ran in New York for 18 months, beginning in the spring of 2000."

HBO film of 'The Laramie Project'
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Online Resources
"We are a new company," he adds, "called Studio 180 as a way of identifying the university connection -- and we began life almost a year ago when I met with four UW drama alumni who, like me, wanted a chance to work together again after many years apart. . . . And so I brought the play to our founding group of five, of which I am a member, and they were inspired by this documentary piece of theatre."

The result may not be perfect, but it's certainly worth seeing, reviewers are suggesting. According to Kate Taylor in the Globe and Mail: "Some individuals do emerge as full-fledged characters but in a show built almost entirely from interview texts now spoken directly to the audience, there is never any pretense that the actors are other than themselves. This straightforwardness, the inevitable snatches of comedy that arise from the interviews and the great swathes of sorrow also apparent in Laramie make the project utterly compelling."

And Richard Ouzounian in the Star: "The problem with a piece like this is that it has to be presented with consummate taste and skill if it isn't to seem condescending or morally superior. The company that director Joel Greenberg has assembled only succeeds in this part of the time."

Tonight's performance in Toronto will be followed by a reception for Waterloo alumni, says Jude Doble in the UW alumni office.

The Waterloo run of the show in the first week of March will include a special benefit performance on Wednesday, March 5, to raise money for an exhibition of the Canadian AIDS Memorial Quilt in Kitchener-Waterloo, June 12 to 15.

UW students, staff and faculty who book before March 1 can receive 50 per cent off tickets for the March 6 and 7 performances (limited number of discounted tickets available). Tickets -- $12 general, $10 students and seniors -- are available at the Humanities box office, ext. 4908.

Of interest on the web

U of T president praises federal budget
Ernst & Young analysis of Manley's budget
BC universities hope for share of federal funds
Wilfrid Laurier University annual report
English universities attract francophones
Women lag in top academic positions
Statement on Scientific Publication and Security
Perimeter physicist moving towards unified theory

Two days without classes

It's been quiet on campus this week -- except for the few hours on Tuesday before the Iron Ring ceremonies, when almost-engineers were pretty raucous in, among other places, the Math and Computer building. Today and tomorrow will be even quieter. The reason: a two-day "reading period" in the math and engineering faculties, as the week-long "reading week" in the other four faculties continues. And I trust that much reading will be done.

Younger folk will be excitedly arriving on campus however, for morning and afternoon performances by the "Potato People" in the Humanities Theatre -- expect a row of school buses on the ring road.

[Breen] The staff association is holding a "town hall meeting" today aimed not mostly at its members, but at the 40 per cent of UW staff who are not members. Actually members are welcome too, says association president Steve Breen (left). "The executive will be doing a presentation," he says, "Get to Know Your Staff Association. Bring your lunch, and the staff association will provide refreshments and dessert."

The Interdisciplinary Coffee Talk Society has one of its monthly sessions today, starting at 5:00 at the Graduate House. The speaker this time is Masha Brown, and the topic, "Developmental Biology and Pattern Formation".

Then at 6:30, the Computer Science Club has an offering: "It is widely acknowledged that the best system by which to typeset beautiful mathematics is through the TE typesetting system," specifically LaTeX. "In this seminar, learn how to typeset elegant mathematical expressions." Location: Math and Computer room 1085.

There's music by Jack Cooper at the Graduate House starting at 9:00 tonight. . . . Tomorrow's meeting of the pension and benefits committee has been cancelled. . . . The final exam schedule for the winter term is now available on line. . . .

CAR