![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, June 14, 2004
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
The all-candidates' meeting starts at 12 noon and is sponsored by the Federation of Students, the Graduate Student Association, and the Wilfrid Laurier University Students' Union. "The debate will focus on issues surrounding post-secondary education," says Feds' vice-president (education) Jeff Henry.
| Elections Canada officials will be in the Student Life Centre to add names to the voters' list, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. |
In a news release late last week, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada called on the leaders of the four main federal political parties "to highlight the role that higher education and university research play in building a prosperous, healthy and forward-looking country".
AUCC issued an open letter, with signers who represent universities in every region of the country. AUCC is the national organization for 93 university and university-degree level colleges across the country, including UW and St. Jerome's University.
"The key to a healthy, productive and innovative society is a well-educated population," reads the letter. "Access to a high-quality, internationally relevant education fuelled by first-class research is central to the prosperity and quality of life of Canadians in the 21st century. Universities contribute to every part of our society through the knowledge and skills they instill in their graduates and through the ideas and innovations that they create from their scholarly and research activities."
Claire Morris, president of AUCC, stresses that for universities to maximize their contributions to Canadian society, "they must have available to them resources for education and research which are competitive with those available to their counterparts in Western Europe, Asia and the United States."
Said AUCC: "The university heads look to each party leader to engage Canadians in a serious discussion about the role of higher education and university research in building the kind of country Canadians desire. They urge the party leaders to share their perspectives on this issue so that voters can make informed choices on Canada's future on June 28."
"After the deadline has passed, you may not be guaranteed a space in the program," the admissions web site warns applicants, most of them currently in grade 12 in Ontario's high schools.
Some students received offers of admission back in the winter and others in May, with the last offers made at the beginning of June. By agreement among Ontario's universities, June 14 -- today -- is the earliest day most students can be required to say yes or no. Over the past weeks, many of them have been weighing the merits of Waterloo vs. Queen's, Toronto, or other institutions, as some have received multiple offers, with or without promises of entrance scholarships. They've looked over web sites, made quick campus visits and consulted family, friends and teachers. Now, they give their answers. (Students are also given today as the deadline for making a $500 deposit on residence fees, if they want to live on campus in September.)
And UW's faculties, as well as the registrar's office, are anxiously waiting to find out whether, in fact, high-demand programs are full, or even overfull, or whether they still have spaces to offer over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, some high schoolers are pondering their futures from a different angle. Those are the ones who applied to Waterloo but finally got a letter a few days ago saying no, because of marks or other factors in what's still a competitive admissions market.
"The admission standards are determined each year according to the academic strength of the applicants for that year," says one version of the rejection letter, signed by UW director of admissions Peter Burroughs.` Another version explains that "The program to which you applied has a limited number of spaces and a large number of applications."
Some students who are turned down are told about another UW program for which they might be qualified. Others are given two options:
![[At lectern]](/images/2004/0614mclaughlin.gif "McLaughlin speaks at last year's announcement of the RBC Library Information Commons in the Davis Centre library")
The award recognizes the demonstration "in the course of at least 10 years of their professional lives, an outstanding and active level of commitment to heritage concerns."
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Matthews Golf Tournament, starts 12 noon, Grand Valley Golf
Course, details
online.
Stress management presentation sponsored by Employee Assistance Program, 12 noon, Rod Coutts Hall room 302. 'Let's Dance' spring recitals in the Humanities Theatre, tonight and tomorrow, 6 p.m. 'Assessment Questions' workshop sponsored by teaching resource office, Tuesday 12 noon, Math and Computer room 5158, details online. Chemistry lecture, Pfizer Synthetic Organic Lectureship, William Roush, University of Michigan, speaks on "Recent Studies on the Total Synthesis of Natural Products", Tuesday 3:30, McNaughton Building room 105, University of Guelph, sponsored by Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry. 'One Book, Three Pubs', pub crawl and readings sponsored by The New Quarterly, Tuesday evening, information and tickets 884-8111 ext. 290. Engineers Without Borders discussion group on "higher gas prices", Wednesday 12:30, "grassy knoll behind the Grad House". Joint health and safety committee, Wednesday 1:30, Needles Hall room 3004 (change from previously announced date). Web creators presentation by Jesse Rodgers, communications and public affairs, "The Four Corners of the Web", Thursday 10 a.m., Davis Centre room 1302. |
Through UW's "public history" MA program, which he co-founded, McLaughlin has organized, edited and co-authored books with students on the history of the Kitchener Chamber of Commerce, Chicopee Ski Club, Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital, as well as the town of Hespeler (now part of Cambridge).
In 1997 he wrote a book about UW's founding and, most recently, he co-authored with Rev. Jim Wahl and the late Gerald Stortz the history of St. Jerome's University.
McLaughlin is scheduled to become chair of the UW department of history on July 1, taking over that role from Patrick Harrigan.
Rebecca Jackson, a second-year UW French program student, has won the ADEFUO Prize. This award and $500 from the Association des Départements d'Études Françaises des Universités de l'Ontario is for the best essay in a province-wide writing competition. It is awarded to an undergraduate student wanting to study in a francophone university in Québec or France.
People have been asking lately about whether UW's employee health plan pays the extraordinary expense of bringing someone home following a serious injury or illness in some distant part of the world. Details on the human resources web site are sketchy, since the plan is complicated, and the person with the answer is Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services). Yes, it's paid for through the health plan, she writes: "This kind of coverage involving air ambulances and special teams to bring home injured or ill employees is part of our out-of-country coverage, and has been used more than once."
Now a note from Pat Lafranier in information systems and technology: "On Thursday, June 17, IST will be turning off an outdated network resource that many staff and faculty map as the O: drive on their Windows PC. The O: drive provided software and data for directly accessing Oracle databases, which is now available through a newer resource. If on or after June 17 you find you can no longer access Oracle databases from your PC, please contact the IST Help Desk (ext. 4357) for assistance. More details are available on the web."
With convocation ceremonies scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday, a local florist, Hearts and Flowers, will have a booth in the Student Life Centre selling roses and other bouquets for graduates (orders, 886-6410). . . . St. Jerome's University will hold its second annual Festival of Art and Spirit June 24-26 (a schedule of events is online). . . . The spring term final exam schedule is now available on the web. . . .
CAR