![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, February 2, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Grab around the waist]](/images/2004/0202fass.gif)
Princes
and dragons and wolves are promised in this year's FASS show, and I'm
not sure which of the three are seen tackling the princess (or she-wolf?)
at centre in this rehearsal photo. Things can be anything you want them to
be in a fairy tale -- or in FASS, UW's annual variety and comedy production.
Performances are Thursday through Saturday in the Humanities Theatre;
the box office, at 888-4908, has tickets.
|
| Election coverage from 'uwstudent.org' |
Voting next week will be possible both
online and at ballot boxes
in nine UW buildings that will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the three
days of the election.
The newly elected Fed executive will take office May 1.
Arts students
will vote next week on whether to create a voluntary endowment fund
similar to funds that already exist in all the other faculties.
The proposal
is for a refundable fee to be paid by undergraduates each term. In next
week's balloting they'll be asked whether, if creation of the endowment
is approved, the fee should be $10, $12, $15, or $17.
Graduate students
are about to vote as well. A call for nominations has been issued for
election of the 2004-05 Graduate Student Association executive -- a
president and three vice-presidents. Details can be found
on the GSA
web site. Nomination deadline is February 12.
Meanwhile, this morning at 10:30, storyteller and dancer
Adwoa Badoe (left)
will read at the UW bookstore for children from campus day care
centres. She'll also be at the 12:15 opening event in the SLC.
The Aboriginal Students Association will hold a day-long event in the SLC
that includes creation stories, drumming, art and
craft exhibition, and speakers, says Darlene Ryan of the international
student office. And more, as the day goes by:
"Students can find information about international study and work programs
at the 'Youth on the Move!' information kiosk in the SLC.
Laszlo Sarkany presents 'Two Weeks in the Past: The Experience of
Preparations and Travels in Czechoslovakia' at 1 p.m. in the Multipurpose
Room of the SLC.
"Tour the Earth Sciences Museum and fill out a ballot to win a crystal
specimen and copies of books authored by the curator, Peter Russell.
Visit the International Photo Exhibition at UW's residences to see photos
of places, events, and history from all over the world.
Check out Food Services outlets and St. Jerome's University cafeteria for
the international cuisine of the day.
"There will be henna painting and Raas dance lessons at 9 p.m. in the Great
Hall of Renison College."
And students are invited to sit in on a number of lectures in
regular courses. Today's offerings include Philosophy 324 ("Introduction
to Political and Social Philosophy"); History
205 ("History of North American Sport"); Psychology 356 ("Personality
Theory"); and French 354 ("19th Century French Literature"). Details are
on
the International Week web site.
A letter from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
urged "that
the federal government commit to working with provincial and
territorial governments to design and implement a fiscal
transfer to the provinces and territories for the specific
purpose of funding post-secondary education".
Students will be lobbying along similar lines, says a news release from the
Canadian Alliance of Student
Associations, a national group that
includes UW's Federation of Students.
"Our goal is let this new government know that Canadians expect the
accessibility and affordability of post-secondary education to be the
first order of business. Students have suffered greatly from the policy
decisions of the last decade and it's high time for action," said James
Kusie, national director of CASA, in a news release.
CASA says its "ambitious agenda" includes reaction to the throne speech;
the launch of a nation-wide
petition calling for reforms to student financial aid and a new funding
arrangement with the provinces for post-secondary education; efforts to
influence and respond to the release of the federal budget; and a
broad-based public awareness campaign during the federal election,
expected this spring.
"It is crucial that, in the coming months, students and concerned
Canadians express themselves clearly and loudly on the issue of
post-secondary education. With these initiatives, CASA will play a
leading role providing opportunities for its members to have their
voices heard," says Kusie.
He called today's speech, setting out the program that Martin and his
government will put before Parliament, "the
first test of the Martin government's
commitment to post-secondary education.
In a meeting with CASA in
October, Martin said students could expect higher education to
be a key theme when his government's agenda is announced. CASA will be
looking for "a promise to create new grants for students from low-income
backgrounds and those with high financial need. It also expects the
Prime Minister to commit to negotiating with provincial premiers a
funding arrangement for post-secondary education that would ensure the
costs of a university or college degree are affordable to all qualified
individuals."
The Governor-General
will read
the throne speech this afternoon, setting out the Liberal government's
agenda.
Senate executive committee, 3:30 p.m., Needles Hall room 3004.
'Making Job Fair Work for You', 3:30, Tatham Centre room 1208.
The job fair is scheduled for Wednesday, 10:00 to 3:30, RIM Park.
There may be a bit less spam in
your
e-mail than there was a few days
ago, as the information systems and technology folks have introduced
new software to filter out some garbage. Dawn Keenan of IST
reports that the new "mail-checking cluster" handles about
half the incoming mail that's addressed to 'userid@uwaterloo.ca'
addresses from off campus:
The unsupported, undocumented 'nickname' feature and similar mail
addressing options may stop working without notice. Mail to addresses
of the form 'firstname.lastname@uwaterloo.ca' will not stop working
immediately, but should not be relied upon as this feature is
deprecated and may be removed in the near future after its current
usage has been examined in more detail.
Also from IST:
"The Information Systems and Technology department (IST) is offering
computing courses in February to UW faculty, staff and students. The
following courses are being offered for students: Introduction to Unix,
Using PowerPoint for a Class Presentation.
The following courses are part of the Skills for the Academic e-Workplace
program, and are offered to faculty, grad students, and staff with
instructional responsibilities: Scientific Computing Using Maple,
Statistical Analysis Using SPSS, SAS Part II: Basic Statistical Analysis,
Technical Diagrams Using Visio, Word and PowerPoint Equations, Posters
with PowerPoint, Parallel Computing with MPI, Keeping Current Digitally --
Engineering.
Information about the courses, along with a registration form, can be
found on the
web."
Finally . . . Carolyn Vincent of human resources says the next
"Get Up and Grow" brochure, listing staff training and development
opportunities, will be mailed to staff members this week. "Leadership
for Results, Personality Dimensions and Maximum Achievement are the
courses that will be offered this term," she writes. "The SEW brochure will
be mailed out the week of February 16. New courses include Creating
Organization Charts using Visio and Using a BlackBerry at UW. Those
interested in registering for any of the courses can complete the
appropriate registration form." More information is available from
Vincent at ext. 2078.
CAR
For president
Rebecca Wroe (science)
Kevin Ma (math)
Will Hamilton (arts)
For vice-president (education):
Jeff Henry (engineering)
Muneeba Omar (arts)
For vice-president (internal):
John Andersen (science)
Brent Taylor (science)
For vice-president (administration and finance):
Raveel Afzaal (math)
Andrew Clelland (arts)
Happening for international week
![[Badoe]](/images/2004/0202badoe.gif)
Much is happening as International Celebration Week gets going
today -- even before the opening at 12:15 p.m. in the Student
Life Centre. At that event a top UW official -- associate provost
Bruce Mitchell -- will share the stage with the UW Drum Circle,
and winners of the international literary contest will be announced.
Students counting on throne speech
Students are joining the university leaders who have already
called on
the new prime minister, Paul Martin, to make higher education a
priority in
today's
throne speech and -- by implication --
the Liberal election platform.
Just a few other notes
I wrote in the Daily Bulletin on Thursday
that Ernie Regehr of Project Ploughshares, having
been named to the middle rank of the Order of Canada, was now a "member"
of the Order. That's incorrect: he becomes an Officer of the Order, entitled
to put the letters O.C. after his name.
The three
ranks are Companion (C.C.), Officer, and Member (C.M.).
As noted the
other day, staff members will be undergoing their annual performance
appraisals in the next few weeks; appraisal forms are due at the human
resources department on March 15. As in the past, ratings are on a
1-to-5 scale, and this year quarter-points as well as half-points are
an option for ratings. There's also something else new.
The top ranking is 5, defined as "Exceptional performance in all areas
of the job requirements which is recognized throughout their unit or
broadly through the University." Another sentence has been added this
year: "Normally, an employee would not receive a rating of 5 in
consecutive years."
Freddie Swainston, manager of salary administration, said the new
sentence was agreed on by the staff compensation committee,
representing administration and the staff association. "They wanted
to reiterate what a 5 meant," she said. "It's intended to recognize
when you've had a stellar year. . . . Sometimes people (managers)
give a 5 and then they find it's hard to move back from a 5."
WHEN
AND WHERE
Climate change lecture, "Urban Dimensions of Climate
Change", Quentin Chiotti, 10:30, Arts Lecture Hall room 124.
Service will be ramped up to take over the
bulk of incoming email over the next several days, ending in full
replacement of the SMTP services currently provided by the server 'ego'.
All incoming mail to userid@uwaterloo.ca
is
being filtered with
j-chkmail to refuse messages containing executable content. Additional
filtering, possibly including anti-virus software and SpamAssassin
(honouring user-configurable blacklists and whitelists and possibly
other per-user preferences) is under test and development. These
filters will be available for use on other mail servers on campus for
the benefit of people receiving mail directly to faculty, department
or workgroup mail servers.
She said IST originally intended to run the software just for a few hours,
to see how it went, "but the combination of
the
MyDoom virus and
excellent performance led us to leave the system in production." Other
members of
the
project team included Giles Malet, Rob Schmidt and Jeff Voskamp.
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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Friday's Daily Bulletin
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