![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday | Thursday, August 12, 2004
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca Information and submissions: bulletin@uwaterloo.ca |
Photo by Chris Hughes, graphicsKitchener Mayor Carl Zehr (left) and UW Board Chair Bob Harding present the Minister with a gift to commemorate the occasion. |
UW is another step closer to building a Kitchener campus, following an announcement yesterday by the Hon. Mary Anne Chambers, Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities.
At an outdoor event in Civic Square in front of Kitchener City Hall, Chambers endorsed the joint UW-City of Kitchener plan to establish a health sciences campus in the downtown core, anchored by a School of Pharmacy.
During her remarks, the Minister brought greetings from Premier Dalton McGuinty, and praised the collaborative work done by all the parties involved. “I applaud your tremendous effort and partnership in your plan to bring a health sciences campus to downtown Kitchener,” she said. She closed by extending “the support of the Government of Ontario to the University of Waterloo’s new School of Pharmacy.”
Chambers was joined on stage by Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr, Members of Provincial Parliament John Milloy and Elizabeth Witmer, and by UW president David Johnston.
Johnston also spoke about the close working partnership between UW and the City of Kitchener. “The Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus represents a coming together of two great cultures,” he said. “In the Kitchener-Waterloo community, there is a healthy tradition of diverse groups working together towards a common goal. At the University of Waterloo, there is a strong culture of innovation and ideas. This health sciences campus and School of Pharmacy bring together the strengths of both cultures for the benefit of the entire province.”
The downtown campus was made possible by a $30 million commitment from Kitchener’s $110 million economic development investment fund. The city has also agreed to facilitate the transfer of 8.27 acres of land at the corner of King and Victoria Streets from private ownership to UW to establish the downtown campus. In addition to the School of Pharmacy, the campus will include a Family Medicine Teaching Centre that combines clinical care with teaching and research in family medicine.
A news release about yesterday’s announcement says “The School of Pharmacy could be under construction by 2005 with the first students arriving in 2007. The Family Medicine Teaching Centre will begin phase I in space near the new campus in 2005, in order to provide for new medical trainees for the 2005-2006 academic year.”
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has also endorsed the plan for a new health sciences campus in Downtown Kitchener. More from the release: “The Kitchener-Waterloo area has been hard hit by a national shortage of doctors, as an estimated 37,000 residents are without a family physician. The Family Medicine Teaching Centre model will encourage interns to train, to put down roots and develop relationships with the community, enabling Kitchener to attract more doctors.”
The provost issued a memo to department chairs and other university officials earlier this week outlining the progress made to date on the School of Pharmacy. Some details from the memo:
“With help from many partners, we have made very good progress on this initiative in a relatively short time, as summarized below, and I would like to thank faculty and staff who are showing such effective leadership in managing its complexities.
“The downtown Kitchener Campus, anchored by the UW School of Pharmacy, will allow us to further evolve our considerable strengths in health-related research and teaching, and will help us meet the need for greater numbers of pharmacists in the Province of Ontario.”
A ribbon-cutting and demonstration event is scheduled to take place this morning in Chemistry 2 room 267 at 11 a.m. The cause for celebration is the gift of a high-resolution mass spectrometer to the department of chemistry from Merck Frosst Canada & Co. According to a media advisory, “The gift will advance health, biochemical and biomaterials research at the university.”
Solar cars from five university teams will be on display later today at the Student Life Centre. The appearanace is part of the Canadian Solar Tour, an event sponsored by the Government of Ontario, and VIA RAIL Canada. The cars are travelling from Windsor to Quebec, and will arrive on campus at approximately 4:30 this afternoon. They're scheduled to leave at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. For more details on the Canadian Solar Tour, visit the website.
The Office of the Dean of Engineering is preparing to move home to CPH again, from its temporary quarters in CEIT. Tomorrow will be packing day, with the bulk of the move happening on Monday. The dean’s office hopes to be settled again by 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 17.
And there’s still time to enjoy the University Club before its summer break — the club will be closed as of Sunday, August 15, and will reopen with a “savoury new menu” on Tuesday, September 7.
C&PA