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Wednesday, May 5, 2004

  • Journalist gives library lecture today
  • Easier sign-up for fitness classes
  • New software for day's schedule
  • Things to consider over coffee
Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Cinco de Mayo


[Trillium winner]

François Paré of UW's department of French studies is a winner of the Prix Trillium, Ontario's top prize for French-language writing. Two winners were announced last night at an awards ceremony in Toronto, along with two winners of the English-language Trillium Prize. Each prize carries a $20,000 cheque. Paré was honoured for his book La distance habitée, an essay on minority cultures around the world.

[Gwyn]

Journalist gives library lecture today

Political journalist Richard Gwyn (right), international affairs analyst and chancellor of St. Jerome's University, will give the annual Friends of the Library lecture today. The talk is scheduled for 12:00 in the Theatre of the Arts in the Modern Languages building, and everyone is welcome.

The talk, called "Running After History", is part of the Friends of the Library event at UW, which annually since 1993 has highlighted creativity in all forms across campus.

Gwyn is, organizers say, "one of the nation's most highly regarded senior journalists. He is known as a passionate and insightful columnist and is equally renowned as an author whose books are often considered classics."

He has been writing for the Toronto Star and its affiliated newspapers since 1973, first as national affairs columnist and, later, commenting on international affairs. He appears weekly on foreign policy panels for TVO's Studio Two and Diplomatic Immunity programs and is a frequent commentator for the CBC.

The lecture is designed to bring the campus community together to be inspired by the creativity expressed in all disciplines, said Mary Stanley of the library office.

The UW Friends of the Library is the organizing body behind the lecture. The event reflects the fundamental work of the library -- bringing together information from a diverse range of disciplines for the creation of new knowledge, she said.

Along with the lecture, today's event includes a display of the past year's creative work -- books, artwork and music -- by some 30 people from across campus. The display can be seen in the Modern Languages gallery, which serves as the theatre's lobby.

Easier sign-up for fitness classes

"We are ready for you," is the message from the campus recreation program, as the sweat is about to start pouring on playing field and gym floor.

[CR logo] Registration for competitive and recreational leagues started Monday, an announcement says. "You can also buy your locker for the term, purchase a Fitness Shoe tag or Fitness Punch card, or hand in your application for one of the many Campus Recreation jobs offered this term."

Registration for instructional programs runs May 10 through 13, with most classes starting May 17. New this term: "Triathlon Transition Training", a nutrition workshop, belly-dancing, a running group and a dozen other activities. Old favourites that are being offered again include bike maintenance, kayaking, lifesaving, scuba, and a range of aerobics and conditioning classes.

"We are changing the way we offer some of our programs," the campus rec announcement says. For fitness classes, such as "Yogafit" and "Cardio Jam", there are two ways to register: buy a shoe tag ($45) and go to as many classes as you like, or buy a punch card ($20) that's good for any ten classes.

Individual class registration still applies to such topics as Irish dance, power skating, tennis lessons, Pilates, a women's weights workshop, fitness swimming and bouldering. But the old two-stage registration arrangement is gone; instead, registration runs all day (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) Monday to Thursday next week in the athletics office in the Physical Activities Complex.

ONE CLICK AWAY
  • Blue Bombers draft Warriors' John Sullivan
  • Alumni mentors give back to their institutions (Univ Affairs)
  • York U campaign in the Toronto subway
  • Canadian universities relying on private benefactors
  • Alberta's new Post-Secondary Learning Act
  • New Zealand assessing quality of research
  • Manitoba plans University College of the North
  • UW student to raft down the Mississippi (uwstudent.org)
  • Female students use 'aggressive' sexual tactics
  • Progress on northern Ontario's medical school
  • Laptop cheats face the heat (Star)
  • 'Landmark' decision on profs' copyright ownership at UBC
  • 'Feds force cancellation of academic conference'
  • Harvard plans major change to curriculum
  • Campus rec is reminding students who weren't here in the winter term that there are new facilities since they last hit the change rooms. The fitness centre in the Columbia Icefield opened in January, along with a third gym, and now offers an alternative to the fitness centre in the PAC. Both buildings are open for recreational programs Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., weekends 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

    New software for day's schedule -- from Carol Vogt of information systems and technology

    For about nine years, UW has been using Synchronize as its calendaring and group scheduling program. Synchronize will be retired by the end of the summer, to be replaced by Oracle Calendar. That's a rather long name, so we have decided to call the calendaring system Bookit.

    Bookit has a desktop client for Windows, Macs, Linux and Solaris. There is a fully functional web client, and Outlook users can choose to use Outlook as their interface to Bookit. There are also synchronization tools for hand held devices.

    Bookit will be available to all faculty and staff, and will be phased in over the next few months. IST will move to it first, sometime in early June. We want to use ourselves as guinea pigs to make sure that the conversion software we are developing to move data from Synchronize to Bookit works properly. Then some groups who have volunteered to be early adopters will start using it. Mainly, these are people who don't use Synchronize, so data conversion is not an issue. Then everybody else will be moved. It would be desirable to move department by department, but that isn't easy, because there are a lot of instances of cross booking of meetings among department members.

    We are currently developing Bookit courses as well as on-line instructional material. To learn more about Bookit, please check the Bookit web site.

    WHEN AND WHERE
    Midnight Sun solar car tour and recruitment: near Student Life Centre and Math and Computer this morning, in arts and engineering areas this afternoon. Also, recruitment meeting Tuesday, May 11, 5:30, Rod Coutts Hall room 301.

    North campus environmental reserve information open house, 2 to 4 p.m., Environmental Studies I courtyard.

    Perimeter Institute panel discussion: "Are You Ready to Live in the Quantum World?" All welcome. 7 p.m., Waterloo Collegiate Institute, Hazel Street.

    K-W Symphony baroque concert: "Maria Theresa -- Impressive Empress", including Haydn, Symphony No. 48. 8 p.m., Theatre of the Arts.

    Optometry school celebrates its largest gift to date, from CIBA Vision, Thursday 9:30 a.m., Optometry room 350.

    Term loan books from UW libraries, borrowed before early April, are due May 12.

    Things to consider over coffee

    The price of coffee is a little higher as of May 1 at food services outlets across campus -- the latest step in a change that's involved a shift from four sizes available at most coffee counters to just [Morning coffee] three. "Our small coffee today is 10 ounces, the same volume and price as Tim Horton's medium coffee," explains Mark Murdoch, director of food services. "In February there was an industry-wide price increase, and virtually across the board, prices increased about 5 cents per cup. At that time UW Food Services decided to delay a price increase until the end of the term. We also decided to develop a single coffee price list for the campus core. Previously some locations were priced lower than others for the same cup size. We now have a single price for the same size cup within the campus core. The Villages have only one cup size." Suggestions for saving a little on the daily java? Use your WatCard, which means discounts, and consider carrying a lug-a-mug: "You get a large coffee for the medium price. When you combine that with the WatCard discount, the savings are significant."

    "Stage 2" of the Canadian Computing Competition gets under way today. The participants -- about two dozen top-scoring high school students from across the country, from among 2,500 who wrote "Stage 1" this winter -- will be staying in Ron Eydt Village, and have two days of talks, lab sessions and activities before the actual competition on Friday and Saturday. Things wind up Saturday night with a banquet in South Campus Hall. Results of the competition are used to determine the members of the Canadian team for the International Olympiad of Informatics, this year being held in Greece in September.

    Check today's Gazette issue for an ad announcing the big early-summer event for the Keystone Campaign. The date is June 9, and the theme is "Ulympics" -- that's with a U, for University of Waterloo. Good-natured games, in other words, will be part of the noon-hour picnic-style event on that day, to be held at and around Federation Hall. Everything's aimed at raising the profile of Keystone, which is the faculty, staff and retiree section of Campaign Waterloo.

    Coming up from UW's continuing education office is a two-day course on "Accounting Fundamentals for Non-Financial Managers". Taught by Bob Sproule, businessman and an adjunct professor in UW's accounting school, the course will run from 9 to 5 on two Mondays, May 10 and 17. The fee is $325 plus tax (with the usual 50 per cent discount available to full-time UW staff, some of whom might well feel that they're "non-financial managers"). More information: 888-4002.

    The Centre for International Governance Innovation, based in Waterloo and with close ties to UW, came into some big money last night. A news release explains that a gift "in excess of $2.5 million" has come from local philanthropists Michael Barnstijn and Louise MacCallum "to recognize and support the local organization and its work to establish secure multilateral governance practices". The money will go for various projects, including a study of "the feasibility of creating a Group of 20 at the leaders' level, a main focus in Prime Minister Paul Martin's speech in Washington earlier this week". CIGI held a fund-raising concert last night, at which the gift was announced.

    The "Deaf for a Day" challenge continues: "Experience simulated deafness for one day." Anyone interested can pick up the necessary kit, today, tomorrow or Friday, at the independent studies office in the PAS (Psychology) building.

    And . . . I'm going to be away for the next few days. In my absence, e-mail to bulletin@info.uwaterloo.ca will be forwarded to Pat Bow here in the communications and public affairs office, who will look after announcements that need to be made.

    CAR


    Communications and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
    200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
    (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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