![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, October 7, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
'Digital data' ES lecture tonight![[Hall with camera]](/images/2004/1007hall.gif)
"Bridging the Digital Divide" is the title of this year's Faculty of
Environmental
Studies Lecture, to be given at 7:30 tonight by Brent Hall (left)
of the school of planning. Subtitle for his talk: "Using Information
and Communication Technologies to Assess School-based Education Quality
in Peru".
Hall will talk about how the Internet has had a huge impact, changing the role and importance of distance in most forms of human communication. There are, however, "substantial class, cultural and locational obstacles" affecting information access and use, he says. The lecture assesses this technology in transforming society, with a focus of interest on the use of digital information to assess educational quality and to plan for educational improvement in state-funded primary schools in Peru. The lecture will take place in the Theatre of the Arts, Modern Languages building. Admission is free. |
"It's been quite a few years in the making," says fine arts professor Art Green, who gave credit to SOFA members for "knocking themselves out" with the work required to make the Artery Gallery into a reality. Faculty efforts and alumni contributions have also helped, Green said, but "it's going to be run by the students."
The gallery is a space about 20 feet wide and 80 feet deep (6 metres by 24) in a city-owned building at 158 King Street West, near Kitchener city hall. The city helped to pay for building improvements, including accessibility, he said, and student enthusiasts have carried out other work to turn the former storefront into a gallery. The lighting isn't quite complete, he added, but it'll be ready in time for the second Artery show in a few weeks.
"An exhibit of the very best of student work from past years will be displayed in this exciting new space," says SOFA vice-president Lauren Hall. The show will be titled "Antecedents", and shows off former fine arts student work, "largely drawn from faculty and staff collections", Green said. Official opening of the show is tonight at 7:00.
Since there aren't a large number of students available to do duty at the gallery, it will be open only "by appointment", probably one day a week, Green said. That's not necessarily a bad thing: "Most of the classiest galleries in the world are by appointment," he laughed.
At the back of the gallery is a space that will be available for Tony Urquhart, the retired fine arts professor who's serving as Kitchener's civic artist-in-residence for the coming year. Urquhart has expressed interest in doing some drawings at the site, Green said.
The new program is university-wide and trans-disciplinary, "inviting participants to the campus during the school year to sample university life at its richest", a news release says.
"Waterloo Unlimited is the kind of initiative for which the University of Waterloo has become rightly famous," says provost Amit Chakma in the release. "It's innovative, unconventional and limited only by our students' own imaginations. We anticipate that Waterloo Unlimited will attract the very best and brightest minds from around the region and the country and that it will become synonymous for academic enrichment for high schoolers across Canada."
Student volunteers wantedWaterloo Unlimited plans to offer participants more than a "prof's-eye view" of university life, its news release says. The team is looking for UW student volunteers to become Unlimited mentors and represent the student's experience. Mentors will speak directly to the Unlimited participants about their own educations, chat over a meal, and be available through e-mail to answer questions after the participants go home.Undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in becoming mentors -- this fall or in the future -- can contact Waterloo Unlimited for more information at 888-4567 ext. 5176, or e-mail info@unlimited.uwaterloo.ca. |
More from the release: "Most high school students -- no matter how accomplished -- aren't specialists yet, nor should they have to be. Waterloo Unlimited exposes participants to cool stuff from all across campus and challenges them to make the connections. While they're at UW, they'll work on the skills that transcend disciplinary boundaries, such as creativity, synthesis, research and communication. That's how Unlimited students will become self-enriching."
The pilot program is being offered to Grade 10 enrichment students in Waterloo Region and will run from Sunday, November 7, through Friday, November 12. The students will be recommended by enrichment teachers across the region. There is a fee for participation, but bursaries are available. "The days will be packed with challenging classes, small-group workshops, public talks, recreation and unprecedented access to university professors, staff and students," the release says.
There are plans to run more regional pilot programs later in the school year, and to open up Waterloo Unlimited to nationwide applicants for the fall of 2005. "However, UW also hopes to maintain an annual Grade 10 program exclusively for outstanding local students."
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Faculty of education talks, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tatham Centre
room 2218 (videos of yesterday's and today's sessions available by
October 25 at career services).
Playwright Tomson Highway speaks in the Silversides Theatre Artists Series, 12 noon, UW bookstore, South Campus Hall. Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System training for staff, faculty and grad students, 2 p.m., Davis Centre room 1304. Video and quiz run about 90 minutes. Information, ext. 5613. Entrepreneur Week event: "Chapter 2: How to Survive Building a Tech Company", 3 to 7 p.m., 57 Erb Street West, details online. 'Accessing Statistics Canada Data Sets' presentation by Southwestern Ontario Research Data Centre, 3:30 p.m., PAS room 2030, mostly for graduate students and new faculty in the social sciences. 'Business Etiquette', career workshop 4:30, Tatham Centre room 1208. Community litter clean-up with participation from UW Sustainability Project: meet at 5:30, Waterloo Park, picnic shelter near Westmount Road entrance. German 359 film: "Hangmen Also Die" (1943), 6:30, Rod Coutts Hall room 308, all welcome. Staff association open meeting to discuss the association's future, 7 p.m., Rod Coutts Hall room 302. Issues in Native Communities speaker series: Rene Meshake, "Nenabozho, Ojibway Oral Tradition", 8 p.m., MacKirdy Hall, St. Paul's United College. Tourism lecture series: Jack Contin, "Sustainable Aboriginal Tourism in Canada", Friday 9:30 a.m., PAS room 1229. School of architecture official opening of new Cambridge building, October 22, 10:30 a.m. You@Waterloo Day open house for future students, Saturday, October 30, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., information online. |
![[Elias tonight at Fed Hall]](http://www.feds.ca/graphics/elias-sept15%20WEB%20AD%20PREVIEW.jpg)
Reaction is coming in to Tuesday afternoon's throne speech, in which the federal minority government set out its intentions for the new session of Parliament. The speech "commits to elevating our country's economic performance, investing in people and in our ability to generate and apply new ideas," said one eager observer, Claire Morris, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. "Universities are crucial to all of these priorities, playing a central role in creating knowledge and enhancing innovation in Canada." AUCC said the speech "highlights the strong foundation that Canada has built in research over the past few years, with the government affirming it will continue to build on this strength. . . . AUCC welcomes the Throne Speech's recognition of the importance of improving access to postsecondary education."
The September 20 meeting of UW's senate heard a report about various "mentoring and support initiatives" offered at UW for faculty members and students, and the written presentation included a few words about what are called Chairs' Forums, gatherings for the people who head the academic departments and schools. It said in part: "The purpose is to bring new and experienced Chairs together so that they can share experience, and hear perspectives from others in the university community. Luncheon sessions are organized in the fall and winter terms. There were 8 sessions in 2002-03 and 6 sessions in 2003-04. The intent now is to have 6 sessions per year. About 20 to 25 Chairs have attended each session. Sessions have addressed the following topics: annual performance evaluation, budgeting, capital campaign, co-op education, faculty and staff workloads, faculty retention program (WatPort), hiring, human resources, mentoring new faculty, risk management, staff recognition award program, teaching portfolios, and tenure and promotion. Topics scheduled for the fall 2004 term are academic unit self-appraisal related to the Sixth Decade Plan, initiatives to enhance research intensity at UW, and the new ACE course support system."
The Computer Help and Information Place will close early today, at 4 p.m., as the department holds a retirement party for long-time technician Mak Kassa. . . . Tracey Cote has taken over as manager of graduate studies marketing and recruitment, as the previous manager, Amy Aldous, has moved to the Institute for Quantitative Finance and Insurance. . . . Two Warrior teams are in action today, the cross-country squad and the golf team, both in invitational tournaments at Western. . . . Tomorrow and every Friday in October will be a dress-down day for staff and faculty in support of the United Way campaign. . . .
CAR