![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, February 23, 2004
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[From above, orange light]](/images/2004/0223ceit.gif)
The concourse
of UW's new Centre for Environmental and Information Technology --
the "March Networks Exhibit Atrium", to honour
the
company that's helping to pay for it -- is seen in this
photo by Chris Hughes, UW Graphics photo/imaging. The CEIT, home of
the earth sciences and electrical and computer engineering departments,
was finished late last year at a cost of some $43 million. Official opening
ceremonies are scheduled for this Friday at 10:30.
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The review, which will take about a year, will be headed by Bruce Mitchell, associate provost (academic and student affairs), the senior UW administrator to whom the co-op and career department reports. He'll chair an overview committee that will also include two students, representatives named by the deans of the six faculties, and a resource person from CECS.
Mitchell says in a memo announcing the review that when UW was created, "the concept of cooperative education was a founding feature of the new university. Since then the program has grown to encompass 60% of the undergraduate population, with over 11,000 students registered in 100 programs across all six Faculties of the University. With relationships with 3,000 employers, it is reputed to be the largest single institution-based coop program in the world. Coop education is now a well-established education model in Canadian higher education, and the University of Waterloo is seen as a leader in work-integrated learning.
"Thirty years ago, the career services and graduate placement activity was incorporated into the original Coordination department, and the department was renamed Cooperative Education & Career Services. Career Services serves the entire University student community and has recently added career development advising for alumni. The activities of the unit consist of workshops, a Career Services Centre and individual advising. The Career Development Manual has received international recognition and is regularly sought by companies as a tool to provide career development programs for employees.
"Neither the university-wide program of cooperative education nor the department has ever been comprehensively reviewed. The understanding and the practice of both coop education and career development have changed dramatically in the intervening years. It is critical for the health of the University to understand the place and role of both cooperative education and career services within the University's overall mission."
So, he writes, the review will look at "the university-wide program of cooperative education and career services, and Department of Cooperative Education & Career Services (CECS), in order to clarify the philosophical underpinnings of cooperative education and career services, identify the opportunities and challenges facing the programs and CECS, especially for the latter including relationships with other UW departments, and provide recommendations to the senior administration of the university for the direction of the overall programs and CECS over the next 10 year period.
"This review will contribute to the University's Sixth Decade Plan."
Faculties will be asked for their view, students will be "systematically consulted", employer views will be collected, there will be "self-studies" by CECS, and a visit by an outside review team will be completed by December this year, Mitchell says. An overall report will be expected in February 2005.
He'll speak about the review at tonight's meeting of the UW senate, and Bruce Lumsden, director of co-op education and career services, will be reporting to senate on how things are going in co-op in this high-pressure year.
Among the questions the review will try to answer:
What won't work: E-mail addressed to "chris.redmond@uwaterloo.ca" (currently an acceptable, though "deprecated", form) or to a nickname. These variations "have led to numerous problems," says IST, "since none of these methods was guaranteed to be a unique method to contact a specific individual."
What will work: E-mail to "credmond@uwaterloo.ca", since "credmond" is my uwuserid. IST explains: "Every member of the UW campus community -- including all staff, faculty and students -- is assigned a uwuserid which serves as a unique identifier for that individual in the UWdir campus directory."
What will also work: "Please note that mail addressed to a specific mail server (name@server.uwaterloo.ca) will not be affected by this change." Within the campus network, it's likewise possible to e-mail to a userid @admmail or @engmail or @library, as long as you know the name of the specific local server.
A more extensive version of the IST announcement is on its web site.
Football correctionI wrote in Friday's Daily Bulletin that Matt Armstrong of the football Warriors had been an All-Canadian in 1991. "I'm not that old!" he writes with a smiley. It was actually 2001. |
The open session of senate will start at 4:30 p.m. in Needles Hall room 3001. Today's meeting will likely bring a report from provost Amit Chakma about preliminary plans for a "health sciences campus" and pharmacy school in Kitchener -- a proposal that drew headlines earlier this month. The agenda also includes a report on "enrolment plans and co-op in the year of the double cohort", as well as a decision on the proposed "professional development courses" for engineering students during work terms.
Earlier today, and speaking of work terms, job match results for the spring co-op term will be posted at 3 p.m., the co-op and career services department says. Students who don't get employment as a result of this round of interviews and matches should attend meetings at 4:30 p.m. to learn what comes next.
The graduate and research council will meet at 10:30 this morning in Needles Hall room 3001. . . . The climate change lecture series continues with a talk by Bary Smit on "Adaptation to Climate Change", at 10:30 in Arts Lecture Hall room 124. . . .
Tomorrow brings an information meeting for students considering a major or minor in French studies (10:00, Arts Lecture Hall room 124). . . . A group of research paper presentations from the Certificate in University Teaching program is scheduled for tomorrow at 1:00 in Math and Computer room 5158. . . .
Registration starts tomorrow for the UW section of the "Let's Make a Deal" contest for people who want to stop smoking, reduce their smoking, or not start smoking. The contest, sponsored by Leave the Pack Behind, offers prizes as a sweetener to the real prize: less poison in your lungs. Contest participants need two "witnesses", or a "witness" and a "buddy" for those who are going from smoker to non-smoker status in the course of March. Participants, witnesses and buddies will sign the registration documents (Tuesday or Wednesday in the Student Life Centre), and participants start off with a "Smokalyzer test of the carbon monoxide level in the air you exhale". Flyers also note: "Leave the Pack Behind student-staff are available to help all contestants quit or reduce smoking. As a contestant, you will be provided with an assessment to help you quit and will be given a Survival Kit to help you keep your part of the deal. Quit-smoking aids are encouraged!"
CAR