![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, October 24, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Silveston]](/images/2003/1024silveston.gif)
Peter Silveston, new Distinguished Professor Emeritus |
The alumni gold medal for UW's top graduating PhD student of the year will be presented to Joanne DiNova, whose thesis -- "Spiralling Webs of Relation: Movements Toward an Indigenist Criticism" -- was supervised by Linda Warley in the department of English.
Pamela Wallin, broadcaster and Canada's consul-general in New York City, will receive a Doctor of Laws degree and deliver the convocation address. John Hobday, director of the Canada Council for the Arts, also receives an honorary degree.
The rank of "Honorary Member of the University" will be presented to Annick and Roland LeCorre, volunteer hosts of the Trent-Waterloo-Toronto exchange program at the Université de Nantes, France.
Then at 1 p.m. comes a convocation session for 580 graduating students in engineering, environmental studies, independent studies, mathematics and science. Among them is Adrian Del Maestro, who will receive the alumni gold medal as UW's top graduating student at the master's level for this year. He's graduating with an MSc in physics.
Princeton University dean Maria Klawe, an advocate for women in the mathematical and computational sciences, receives an honorary degree and gives the convocation address. Also to be honoured are Cambridge professor William Milne, a major contributor to engineering and science, and Abraham Halevy, the Wolfson Family Professor of Ornamental Horticulture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Peter Roe, one of UW's early engineering professors, will become an "Honorary Member of the University". He was identified as "UW's longest-serving faculty member" at the time of his retirement from the systems design engineering department last fall. And Peter Silveston, a faculty member in chemical engineering from 1963 to his retirement in 1997, will be given the title of Distinguished Professor Emeritus.
![[Chambers mug shot]](/images/2003/1024chambers.gif)
Mary Anne Chambers, the MPP for Scarborough East, was named minister of training, colleges and universities in the McGuinty cabinet. Chambers retired last winter as a senior vice-president of Scotiabank, and has been chair of the board of United Way of Canada and vice-chair of the University of Toronto's governing council. Says her web site: "She was a Member of the Task Force on Tuition and Student Financial Support which recommended the adoption of a policy whereby no student would be unable to study at the University of Toronto because of inadequate financial resources. The policy has been implemented." |
The funding "framework" set out by COU is complicated, but it includes more than $2.2 billion this year in operating funds from the province, plus another $1.8 billion in tuition fees. In addition there's money for student aid and research. "Total committed government support in 2005-06," the COU summary says, "is estimated to be approximately $2,800 million."
Speaking at Monday night's meeting of the university senate, UW president David Johnston noted that a two-year tuition fee freeze -- something promised by McGuinty's Liberals in the election campaign -- would cost universities $74 million in lost income in the first year and $151 million in the second. "We will then need to make that up," Johnston said, echoing numbers from the COU letter.
The president also commented on a "two-decade deterioration in the quality of university education in Ontario," where student-faculty ratios have risen to23:1 from 17:1. "I hope the new government has the enthusiasm of what we hold dear in higher education (and research)," Johnston said.
The federal announcement brings the number of Canada Research Chairs to 1,035 across the country and 26 at UW. The program plans to award a total of 2,000 chairs by 2005. The four new Canada Research Chairs at Waterloo:
The Canada Research Chairs are positions that allow a faculty member to concentrate on doing research and training the next generation of scientists. There are seven-year renewable chairs (Tier 1) for experienced researchers widely acknowledged as world leaders in their fields and five-year chairs (Tier 2) for researchers considered by their peers as having the most potential to lead in their fields.
Wireless coverage was turned on in the Bomber yesterday, adding to three other regions in the SLC that went wireless earlier this week. They're "located to cover the major high-density areas where students gather", according to Greg Cummings of information systems and technology. Besides the Bomber, that would be the great hall, the Brubaker's cafeteria area, and the new lounge area on the third floor. "I imagine," Roger Watt of IST adds, "that some people might have computers with wireless cards that are able to pick up a signal from one of those four access points in some other parts of the SLC, but there's no guarantee of that intended."
Watt said that Alan George, associate provost and head of IST, "has asked us to present him with a proposal for completing the campus-wide provision of wireless access". Several buildings are already covered, including the Davis Centre, the Dana Porter Library and Environmental Studies.
Says Watt: "There are a lot of interesting issues to be resolved in 'doing it right': coverage sufficient for today's number of users of 801.11b/g, growing to include 802.11a, adding more access points in high-density areas to provide coverage sufficient to address future years' emerging hand-held technology, etc., etc., etc."
He said IST will be working with each faculty's computing-support group "to inventory the extent of current coverage in each of the buildings they occupy, the additions they currently have planned, and an estimate of the number of additional access points needed to complete that coverage, now and for future growth. We'll be doing that ourselves for the non-academic buildings. And we'll also be addressing the outdoor areas of the campus.
"That's a lot of work required, both by IST and the faculty groups, to say nothing of the effort required to do proper 'site surveys' to confirm access-point numbers and locations to ensure that coverage really is complete. We're hoping to have an initial estimate of work required, costs, priorities, and suggested timing, by December. I'm hoping for sooner than that, but a lot of it is beyond IST's control."
UW plays host today and tomorrow to a symposium on "Building Communities, Connections and Curricula", sponsored by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. "The symposium offers the opportunity for academics to freely share knowledge and tools about building communities, make valuable connections and invest in efforts to improve curricula," a web announcement explains. Main sessions of the symposium will be held in the Humanities Theatre.
Looks like a big weekend at UW's student pubs. Tonight is Flashback Friday ("retro request night") at Federation Hall. Meanwhile, SuperGarage plays live at the Bombshelter as part of its Friday night concert series, with "special guest" Beaumont, a local band. Then on Saturday night, Sloan, out of Halifax, plays Fed Hall in an "all-ages (for UW students) show". Limited tickets are available, "and some might possibly be available at the door", says Dave McDougall in the Federation of Students office.
As UW's exchange program with the Université de Nantes, France, hits its 20th anniversary, a reunion of participants is planned this weekend. . . . The retirees' association is making a trip to see "The Turn of the Screw" at the Grand Theatre in London on Sunday. . . . The water softener in the Optometry building will be turned off all next week, the plant operations department warns. . . . A blood donor clinic will run Monday through Thursday in the Student Life Centre, and appointments for donors can be made now at the SLC turnkey desk. . . .
Here's a reminder that ballots in the election of a staff representative on the presidential nominating committee are due back by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, October 29. There are three candidates; ballots were distributed early in October.
Sports this weekend: Thanks to a 4-0 victory over Nipissing yesterday, the men's soccer Warriors are in the Ontario semi-finals, and will host Toronto at 1 p.m. Sunday on Columbia Field. Otherwise, the only home game this weekend seems to be a women's hockey contest, Warriors vs. Guelph at 7:30 Saturday night in the Columbia Icefield. Meanwhile, the men's basketball team is at Saskatchewan for a tournament; the women's basketballers and the swim team are both at tournaments held at Laurentian; the cross-country runners are at the OUA championships in Toronto. In individual games, it's Warriors at Toronto today in field hockey (an OUA semifinal); Warriors at McMaster tomorrow in football (a quarter-final); Warriors at Lakehead both tonight and tomorrow night in men's hockey; Warriors at Western tomorrow in women's rugby (an OUA final); and Warriors at Toronto tonight in women's volleyball.
CAR