![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, October 3, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[I'm dressed this way for United Way]](/images/2003/1003uway.gif)
Fridays
in October will be Dress-Down Days for the United Way campaign:
"Exchange a toonie," says campaign co-chair Pat Cunningham, "for a
United Way sticker, available from the more than 50
United Way reps across campus." The campaign kicks off
today, aiming for $150,000 in pledges and gifts to support community
agencies.
Starting October 10, there will be random draws for prizes from among those whose pledge forms have been returned to the United Way office. The final draw on October 31 will be for a day off with pay, or a $100 certificate for the University Club. "If someone has not received their United Way pledge form yet, they can obtain one by contacting ext. 3840." |
Dalton McGuinty led the Liberal Party to a sizeable majority in the provincial legislature. As of this morning, standings are 72 Liberals, 24 Progressive Conservatives and 7 New Democrats.
Elizabeth Witmer, who has been deputy premier and minister of education, was among the Conservatives who survived from the Ernie Eves government, narrowly defeating Sean Strickland of the Liberals in Kitchener-Waterloo riding. Waterloo-Wellington also stayed Conservative, but Kitchener Centre was taken by Liberal John Milloy. Dianne Cunningham, the minister of training, colleges and universities, was defeated in London North Centre.
There's not much doubt what David Johnston, president of UW, and Robert Birgeneau, president of the University of Toronto, want the Liberals to do when they take office. In a speech he'll be delivering to a Bay Street group in Toronto today, Johnston quotes the question Birgeneau posed to all the candidates publicly in late September: "Will you bring provincial operating-grant support to universities from last place up to the national average of the 10 Canadian provinces within five years?"
Says Johnston: "I applaud Dr. Birgeneau for putting this question squarely before the political leaders of this province. It now sits before our new Premier, Mr. McGuinty, and his colleagues. I believe that increasing the province's investment in universities is an investment in our young people, in our future economic prosperity, and in our strength as a civic society."
He said the same thing in an article published in the Record on September 26 (and more briefly in the Globe and Mail):
"We must measure the quality of Ontario's teaching and research against the best North American institutions, if we wish to improve. Let us take one public and one private university from this competitive group using information from their websites. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in a state that has not been blessed with affluence over the past two decades, shows a student-faculty ratio of 9:1 and operating support per student of $25,000. For MIT the ratio is 4:1 and the operating support $100,000. The comparable figures from the University of Waterloo are 25:1 and $11,000. We compete with MIT with approximately one-tenth of their investment per student."
To reach more people with this argument, UW's alumni affairs office e-mailed the text of Johnston's article to some 21,000 Waterloo alumni a few days ago. It's been well received, says Hulene Montgomery, associate director of development and alumni affairs: "A number of alumni took the time to respond to this letter. Their responses were thoughtful and overwhelmingly positive."
She said more than 80 percent of 61 e-mailed responses on the first day were positive, "and of the 9 opposing positions, over half cited the stellar performance of Waterloo in its ability to compete with only a fraction of the resources.
"Less than 10 responses indicated they were surprised to learn that Ontario ranks last among Canadian universities for per-student funding. About the same number offered to help in some way from fundraising to speaking with their elected officials. Others told us they shared copies of the letter with colleagues and friends. A few indicated they had already been active in raising this issue and wished we had sent the letter earlier and asked what else the University has done."
Montgomery notes that "maintaining an ongoing dialogue with all levels of the government" is an important activity for Johnston, provost Amit Chakma, and vice-president (university relations) Laura Talbot-Allan. "There are many people on campus," she added, "who raise the issue of quality and accessibility with government, from students to profs to staff."
![[Waterloo Roots]](/images/2003/1003watroots.gif)
The event starts at 2:00, and "everyone is welcome to attend," says a memo from the co-op education and career services department, which occupies the Tatham Centre. The new sculpture (left) hangs on the entry wall in the main lobby of the Tatham Centre, next to the information desk.
Designed by architecture student Jonathan Wong, the work is called "Waterloo Roots". Wong won the competition to design an art piece for the new building earlier this year.
Constructed out of maple and walnut wood, the sculpture is composed of three intertwined and interconnecting branches, which are said to represent the "dynamic yet balanced relationship" among co-op students, businesses, and the university. "Its organic-looking structure carries the themes of growth, sustenance and resilience, and its innovative design and fabrication are a marriage of art and engineering."
Much of the wood used to create the art work comes from a mighty maple tree that formerly stood on the site of the new building. The competition sought design entries that would be fabricated from the lumber of this tree, felled in 2001.
CECS acknowledges "the support of WoodWorks and the Grand Valley Society of Architects, whose generous financial contribution made construction of 'Waterloo Roots' possible."
![[Solemn little face]](/images/2003/1001mali.gif)
Chitan
is 6 and lives in the Bani Valley in Mali, west Africa. As part of the
recent "World Vision challenge" in
Kitchener-Waterloo, staff of the UW police and parking services have
become her sponsor. "For the price of a daily cup of
coffee," says police sergeant Alan Binns, "Chitan will now
receive the basics that every child deserves, like clean drinking
water, food, health care and the chance to go to school." The target
of 1,000 new sponsors was met, but more children are still looking for
sponsors through World Vision.
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WHITT is a forum for industry and academic leaders to explore, examine, critique and analyze information-related problems and solutions in health informatics. Health informatics is the discipline that investigates how information, information management, and information and communications technologies can deliver value in the area of health.
The goals of WHITT are to understand health system challenges, discover realistic and comprehensive solutions and connect interested organizations to the research and development capabilities of the Institute and its industry partners.
The think-tank will address topics such as potential health sector markets for new or enhanced information technology/information management (IT/IM) products and services; gaps, under-serviced areas or weaknesses in industry IT/IM offerings in the health sector that might be profitably exploited; and access to investment and grant funding for various IT/IM products and services.
As well, the think-tank will explore issues related to the development of the electronic health record; the mapping of new/established generic technologies into the health sector; opportunities in the health sector for "dormant" intellectual property; the evaluation of the impacts of health information systems; issues related to healthcare providers electronically accessing, transmitting or sharing information; the state of privacy legislation and its impact on informatics initiatives; the specification of the nature and level of security for health information systems; and other matters in the area of health IT/IM.
XJ Partners Inc. is the founding corporate partner of the institute in creating WHITT. Says William Tatham, the chief executive officer of XJ Partners Inc.: "It is critically important to our society that we maximize the productivity and efficiency of our health system. Informatics is the answer. We believe that this is an ideal venue for realizing the potential of private industry to deliver the value of informatics to the health system. We are planning several think-tank sessions with the institute and a conference in 2004."
WHITT sessions will include participants based on the issue being addressed. Representatives will come from the health sector, government agencies and private sector businesses. They will be joined by members of the institute and experts from other academic organizations. From time to time, representatives of the media, professional associations, consumers and industry groups will complete the team.
"We have already held several think-tank sessions that were very successful," said Dominic Covvey, founding director of the institute, "But the support and participation of XJ Partners makes all the difference."
UW Innovate Inc. will hold two seminars tomorrow -- "Intellectual Property Issues for Start-Ups" and "Cost Effective Marketing" -- aimed at faculty, graduate students and others who may be looking to "commercialize, patent or licence" something they've invented or developed. Together, they make a day-long program in the Tatham Centre; details, including fees, are on the Innovate web site.
It's "All Ages Night" tonight at Federation Hall. . . . Shannon Lyon will be playing the Bombshelter (tickets at the Federation of Students office). . . . The fall edition of the engineering Scunt, or scavenger hunt, runs from noon today through noon tomorrow, pretty much everywhere. . . .
Gays and Lesbians of Waterloo, working with its counterpart organization at Wilfrid Laurier University, will hold a series of events to celebrate "Coming Out Week", I'm told -- starting with a Saturday night dance billed as "Boyz & Boys & Girls & Grrlz Night", in parody of Fed Hall's singles nights. B&B&G&G is an all-ages event, and will be held at the Graduate House, starting at 9:00 Saturday. Muffy St. Bernard is the DJ; tickets are $3.
People from the Responsible Gambling Council of Ontario will be on campus next week with displays and other attractions. They'll be in the Student Life Centre at midday Monday through Friday, the student services office says, and at dinner time they'll be either in the SLC or in one of the residence cafeterias. Obviously enough, "What they are promoting is responsible gambling," Karyne Velez of student services explains, and so naturally they're offering a draw prize: "win $1,500 for tuition, as well as other items!"
Monday at 10:30 a.m., Elisabeth Burr of the University of Duisburg, Germany, will speak on "What Can Data-Driven Linguists Tell Us About Culture?" Burr "is a noted expert in romance languages and humanities computing," says Heather MacDougall, associate dean of arts, "and her presentation will be of interest to students and faculty from a wide variety of disciplines." It'll be given in the Flex Lab in the Dana Porter Library.
It's a bit early for Oktoberfest, but the women's hockey Warriors are holding their Oktoberfest Hockey Tournament anyway, tonight and tomorrow at the Columbia Icefield. At 4:30, Western plays Guelph, and at 7:30 the Warriors will face Brock. Losers of today's games will play at 2:00 tomorrow, with the winners facing off at 5 p.m. for the gold medal.
In other sports action this weekend, the golf Warriors are hosting the Waterloo Open today at the Elmira Golf Club, and the swimmers host Guelph in a dual meet in the PAC pool starting at 5:30 tonight. The field hockey team will host Western tomorrow morning (9:30) at University Stadium, then head to Toronto to play against McGill on Sunday.
The volleyball teams have a series of exhibition games on the weekend, all in the PAC main gym, with the men facing Niagara College tonight (6:00), Laurier tomorrow at 4:00 and an alumni squad Saturday night at 8. The women face Niagara tonight at 8, Brock tomorrow at 2, and an alumni team tomorrow night at 6:00.
The soccer teams are hosting Laurentian on Saturday (women at 1:00, men at 3:00) and Nipissing on Sunday (same game times) at Columbia Field. The men's rugby team will host Carleton at 1:00 tomorrow -- also at Columbia, but presumably not on the same field as the soccer game.
Away from Waterloo, the football team and the cross-country runners are both at Queen's tomorrow. The men's hockey Warriors are playing at Northern Michigan tonight and Michigan Tech on Saturday night. And the tennis teams, both men and women, have matchups with York and Toronto at various times on the weekend.
And the baseball Warriors have made it into the playoffs; they'll have two games tomorrow afternoon at McMaster, with a third game if necessary on Sunday afternoon at Kitchener's Jack Couch Park.
CAR
