![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, September 3, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Bright slices of watermelon]](/images/2003/0903watermelon.gif)
Water water water, melon melon melon: Juicy treats outside the Arts Lecture Hall yesterday, where the pounding of music over the noon hour confirmed that orientation fun was under way. Orientation highlights todayEngineers will take part in "Junkyard Wars" this morning and "Meet the Tool" later today, as the good times keep rolling for five-thousand-plus new students taking part in the UW orientation program. Applied health sciences students get a mystery bus tour, and tonight the "AHSSIE Olympics". For most faculties, tonight brings the "Lunar Luau" in the Student Life Centre -- and nearly everybody, perhaps tired of walking and yelling, gets some chunks of free time today.Students in arts and environmental studies will write the English Language Proficiency Exam at 11 a.m., and science students at 1 p.m. Performances of "Single and Sexy" are scheduled in the Humanities Theatre at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Orientation leaders from the Villages have the day off today, and are pitching in for various charity projects -- the current Habitat for Humanity student-led build, and car washes (to support the Canadian Cancer Society) at Conestoga Mall and the Sobey's supermarket on Northfield Drive. |
For new faculty: Lunch and dinner today will bracket the day's events for UW's newest professors -- invitations went to 76 of them who have arrived since this time last year.
The program starts with lunch (in the Festival Room, South Campus Hall) with deans and department chairs. Then at 1:30, the newcomers will hear from a panel on the perennial topic "Success Through Balance". What that means: the art of juggling teaching, research, service to the university, and a personal life through the early years of an academic career.
Speakers will be "three fairly new -- just tenured or not quite -- faculty members and a representative from the faculty association", says Barbara Bulman-Fleming, director of the teaching resource office ("TRACE"), which is organizing the day's activities. They're hosted by Tom Carey, associate vice-president (learning resources and innovation), and Bruce Mitchell, associate provost (academic and student affairs).
Participants will later spend an hour in "meet your colleagues" discussion groups. Then they're invited to the farm of UW president David Johnston, north of Waterloo, for what's described as an "Ultimate Barbecue", put on by UW's food services department and co-sponsored by the faculty association.
For graduate students: Skills at everything from marking papers to observing personal boundaries will be on the agenda in training sessions for graduate teaching assistants, being held all over the campus this week.
"Be approachable, enthusiastic, and honest," says the mathematics faculty's manual for TAs. "You should be able to answer all routine questions about the course material. When a student asks a difficult question, allow yourself a minute to think. If a question stumps you, admit it instead of fabricating an answer."
It's not always simple -- which is why nine people, from the dean to the mathematics liaison librarian, will be part of the "introductions and general information" in tomorrow's one-day session for new math TAs. A practice marking session is also part of the day.
TA training in the department of English is scheduled for today. Besides math, applied health sciences and psychology have their TA workshops tomorrow; and tomorrow begins the two-day "ExpecTAtions" program for TAs in the faculty of engineering. Details of department-by-department sessions are listed on the teaching resources web site.
Anne Jenson of the electrical and computer engineering department, who is chair of the staff relations committee, issued a memo explaining the reason for the update: "In response to comments made by staff in response to the How's the Climate survey, the Staff Relations Committee reviewed the Emergency Leave Guidelines.
"Staff indicated that they were particularly concerned that the Guidelines were being overused and, whether it would be more equitable to eliminate the Guidelines and allot staff members a certain number of personal-leave days per year. Department heads, in response to a survey conducted in March 2003, indicated that, in general, the Guidelines were working well.
"Following its review, the Staff Relations Committee decided that the current Guidelines capture the intent of an emergency and, with minor exceptions, are working. The Committee was not in favour of adopting personal days as organizations that do indicate that employees feel they are owed these days, and if they aren't used up, simply take them as vacation at the end of the year. The Committee did agree, however, to tighten the wording used in the Guidelines and to indicate the 'normal' number of days per year one could expect to be taken for emergencies."
The guidelines (which are available on the secretariat web site) note that an "emergency" might include "a family member's sudden illness or accident", "a child's problem at school", or a household emergency. They say: "Emergencies are occasional, sudden and require immediate attention.
"While it may not be possible for staff to determine arrangements for emergency leave with their department head/supervisor at the time of the emergency, staff must inform their department at the time of their absence from work and communicate with their department head/supervisor during their period of absence.
"The department head/supervisor, in discussion with the staff member, will determine the duration, arrangements and compensation of the emergency leave. Although these details should be settled before the time off work begins, circumstances may necessitate delaying the discussion until the staff member returns.
"The time off work to attend to an emergency may be with pay if the work absence is of short duration. Normally, paid emergency-leave days per person should amount to no more than a total of three days in any one year. Notwithstanding, a department head/supervisor may choose to exceed this three-day guideline.
"If the time away from work due to the emergency is extensive, the department head/supervisor and staff member will consider the use of vacation, unpaid leave or the continuation of up to full pay where job duties can be fulfilled through evening and week-end work."
The document notes that in unusual situations or "where there has been repeated use of emergency leave", advice can be sought from the human resources department.
There are separate documents providing guidelines about leave for staff members in case of jury duty, death in the family (bereavement leave), or involvement in politics.
Renison principal John Crossley emphasized the importance of this donation to the quality of teaching and learning at the college. "Many instructors have been looking forward to the opportunity to integrate computer and Internet technologies into the classroom. And with growing enrolments and full classes, it is increasingly important to enhance students' classroom experiences. The donation of such high quality digital projection units is an enormous benefit to our students and faculty," he said.
Christie is described as the leading manufacturer of high-performance projection and integrated display solutions for network operation centres, broadcast monitoring centres, surveillance rooms, business presentations and meeting rooms, briefing centres, training rooms, auditoriums, 3D, virtual reality and movie theatres. The firm has installed more than 50,000 projectors around the world.
Says Christie president Gerry Remers: "Giving support to the local community where Christie makes its home is important to us. Renison College offers unique programs within the University of Waterloo, and being able to make a difference to students enrolled in their programs by enhancing the educational experience is very rewarding."
Yesterday's Daily Bulletin talked about the Warrior soccer teams and coach Peter Mackie -- but what I didn't realize is that both men's and women's teams had been in exhibition action over the weekend. Scores are now available from those games. The men defeated the Guelph Gryphons 4-1; the women lost to their Guelph counterparts 4-2. Julia Callahan, a first-year student, played the whole 90 minutes in her Warrior debut and scored both the Waterloo goals.
Another interuniversity sport season begins today, as the baseball Warriors play Brock in a game at Toronto this evening. Their first home game will be Saturday afternoon at Kitchener's Jack Couch Park.
The engineering copy centre will be closed today through Friday, while it's moved from its traditional location in Engineering II to its new home in the brand-new Centre for Environmental and Information Technology. It's also acquiring a new name, "Carbon Copy", and will be open under that title in EIT room 2022, starting Monday.
Finally . . . in case anybody missed the news, the long-awaited Ontario election campaign is under way, with balloting scheduled for Thursday, October 2.
CAR