![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
Stickers mark alumni![[glad to be a grad]](/images/2003/0828button.gif)
Stickers like this one
will mark a special kind of UW staff and faculty this week --
ones who are also Waterloo graduates. Mailed out just in time for
orientation, they're a creation of the alumni affairs office, which
asked on-campus grads to wear them to "demonstrate your
pride in the university, while establishing an instant bond with new students".
"Thank you," writes alumni affairs director Gwen Graper, "for helping
to welcome our future alumni to campus!"
Need more stickers? Call ext. 2530.
Weekend sportsBaseball -- Friday: Brock 12, Warriors 4. Saturday: Warriors 5, Laurier 0. Sunday: Warriors 2, Toronto 1; McMaster 4, Warriors 2.Football -- Ottawa 25, Warriors 24. Golf -- UW edged the University of Ottawa for the men's team title in the 14-team St. Lawrence University Invitational Saturday and Sunday. Waterloo had a two-round score of 601, with four scores counting among five-man teams, while Ottawa shot 608. Full results. |
Orientation programming, organized by hundreds of volunteers in both faculties and residences, will keep the new students busy for the next several days. (Exception: every faculty has either Wednesday or Thursday morning designated as "free time", to make sure students can catch a nap, do a load of laundry or buy some books.)
Last night saw compulsory floor meetings in the UW residences, "movies-on-a-wall" for students in the off-campus program, and special events in the four church colleges, including a St. Paul's College campfire. Today it's faculty activities until dinner time, residence activities afterwards.
While each faculty has its own style -- and students in software engineering will shuttle between math programs and engineering programs, ending the day with both a hard hat and a pink tie -- there are some common elements. In four of the six faculties, for instance, the program today includes a meal or meeting with the dean of the faculty. (In arts, it's lunch in the quad with dean Bob Kerton.)
Newcomers to AHS, engineering and science are scheduled to see performances of "Single and Sexy" today in the Humanities Theatre, at either 10:00, 1:00 or 4:00. (Performances continue Wednesday at 9;30, 1:00 and 4:00, Thursday at 10:00, 1:00 and 4:00.)
Elsewhere the schedule includes the "Secret Science Dance Show", the usual aerial photo of new engineers, "World Cup Qualifiers Activities" for arts students, and a "Saddle-Up Tour" of student services aimed at AHS students. Later on, it's Village Variety Night for residence students.
Tomorrow morning: the traditional Junkyard Wars event for engineers, on the Village green, and a math barbecue in the Davis Centre quad.
Orientation starts in CambridgeStudents at UW's school of architecture are starting their orientation program at the new architecture building in Cambridge this morning. But they'll be on the main campus by noon for a key part of the orientation program -- a meet-the-dean event -- and will spend much of the week at Waterloo."They will have two half-days in Cambridge," says Heather FitzGerald, UW's student life coordinator -- this morning, then tomorrow morning when a welcoming program involving the city of Cambridge is planned. Otherwise, architecture students will be in Waterloo, taking part in the environmental studies and "off-campus dons" segments of orientation week. Buses will be laid on to move them back and forth, FitzGerald said. |
"We have some changes this year," says Barrett. "The venue is the same -- the PAC -- but we will be using the upper levels as we expect many more students than last year. The reason for the extra writers is that the faculties of Arts and Science have made a change to who does and who doesn't write the exam. As of September, 2004, all new Arts and all new Science students write the exam. (In the past some students have been exempted based on OAC or Grade 12 English grades.)
"Arts will send the largest contingent of writers to the PAC, but students who come late and cannot find a seat should not panic as we have made plans to accommodate all those who come to write the exam. On Wednesday, September 8, Arts students write at 11:00 a.m.; Environmental Studies and Science students write at 1:00 p.m. On Thursday, September 9, Engineering students write at 11:00 a.m. and Applied Health Sciences, Math, and Software Engineering students write at 1:00 p.m.
"Students must write in the time allotted for their faculty and, as usual, they must bring their WatCard (no other form of ID is acceptable), something to write with, and their sparkling wits."
Geography professor Ellsworth LeDrew was appointed to the dean's office for a one-year term, which started July 1, after a nominating committee was unable to choose a successor for seven-year dean Geoff McBoyle.
"I've had a tremendous amount of support," said LeDrew last week in an interview that touched on both challenges and some exciting prospects for ES.
"There are opportunities to show that the faculty has a real niche within the university," he said, adding that ES will be working towards "a strategy for conveying an environmental theme", particularly to future students. It's likely to have great appeal, he said, and will involve not just ES -- the university's smallest faculty -- but also the environmental programs in the science and engineering faculties.
![[LeDrew]](/images/2004/0701ledrew.gif)
LeDrew (left) also noted that new programs are either being developed
or under consideration. He mentioned aviation,
and most of all the hot field of geomatics (based on
UW's existing strength in remote sensing and
geographic information
systems).
"This is just a logical extension of what we do," said LeDrew, whose
own research uses remote sensing to learn more about environments
that range from Arctic ice to south Pacific coral reefs.
To make ES as effective as it should be, he said, "We have to share with the talents of people in other faculties and be sure our students have access to some of their courses." The ES faculty consists of two academic departments -- geography, and environment and resource studies -- and two professional schools, planning and architecture.
The largest of those units is the architecture school, which is precipitating big change in ES this fall with its move from the main campus to a new site in Cambridge, half an hour's drive away. "There will be many changes," says the dean, "the biggest of which is pedagogic."
He said there are more questions than answers, with the term beginning in just a few days. On the one hand, architecture students are interested in taking some courses that are offered by other units -- inside and outside ES -- on the Waterloo campus, and it's not clear how they will get to classes and the resources they need. On the other hand, the architecture school "brings a lot to ES", LeDrew said, such as exhibits of student work "so that other students can see and explore what they're doing." How will that continue when so much distance intervenes?
He emphasized that "The Internet is not the full solution. We've got some work to do."
Architecture faculty members, LeDrew said, "do recognize that they're part of a university." He referred especially to Rick Haldenby, director of the architecture school, who has been much quoted about the wonders of historic downtown Cambridge, and the pleasure of finally spreading out in a building that's big enough for what the school wants to do. "He recognizes," the dean said firmly, "that they've got to do some work to make sure they remain of the university as well."
A related issue is the proposal that surfaced last spring to take architecture out of ES altogether, moving it into the faculty of engineering. The first stage of making a decision on that proposal -- a vote by professors within architecture -- has been repeatedly delayed, partly because the Cambridge move has occupied everybody's attention.
But the internal vote isn't the whole story. "There has to be some discussion," LeDrew said, "involving the rest of ES and the rest of the university." And he'd like to move things along: "There's a great deal of stress, not knowing what's going to happen."
As a final complication, it may make sense not to resume the search for a new permanent dean of ES until the future shape of the faculty is known. What does that do to LeDrew's plans? "My appointment is for a year," he said, and wouldn't be drawn into talking about what might happen after that.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Computer Help and Information Place, Math and Computer room
1052, returns to regular hours: 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Monday-Friday.
Key control open over the noon hour this week, in addition to regular hours of 8:30 to 12 and 1 to 4:30. Senate executive committee meets 3:30, Needles Hall room 3004. Warrior team meetings (walk-ons welcome): football, 3:00, Columbia Icefield football room; men's and women's soccer, 4:30, Columbia Field #2; men's rugby, 4:30, Columbia Field #1; women's tennis, 4:30, Waterloo Tennis Club; women's rugby, 5:00, Columbia Field #6; men's tennis, 5:30, Waterloo Tennis Club; women's field and indoor hockey, 6:00, PAC room 1001. Fall term fees due tomorrow, September 8, by bank payment. Late fees begin Thursday. Class enrolment appointments for winter courses listed on Quest as of tomorrow (change from previously announced date); appointments begin October 4. 'Digital Challenge', an opportunity for new faculty members to meet colleagues and discover campus technological resources -- Thursday 9:30 to 12:00, sponsored by Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology. One Book, Two Restaurants, Three Readers literary events Wednesday and Thursday evenings sponsored by The New Quarterly. |
Tomorrow from 10:00 to 2:30, the office of research will hold its annual faculty workshop, aimed mostly at beginning researchers. It takes place in Rod Coutts Hall. "The morning session," says the research office web site," will focus on issues and trends in research at the University of Waterloo as well as the mandates and services provides by each of the departments of the Office of Research. The afternoon session will consist of two breakout workshops: NSERC, and SSHRC & UW/SSHRC, which will focus on the grant application and review process."
Thursday brings the annual "welcoming event for new faculty", held in the Dana Porter Library, with a barbecue to follow. It's sponsored by the officials in the senior administration who are most concerned with what faculty members do: the associate vice-president (learning resources and innovation) and the associate provost (academic and student affairs). "This," says Hannigan, "is an event by invitation only, to all new faculty for this past academic year, fall '03 to spring '04."
Also this week, there are special events aimed at teaching assistants -- mostly graduate students for whom teaching is both professional experience and a source of income. Skills at everything from marking papers to observing personal boundaries will be on the agenda in TA training sessions that are offered by most departments or faculties during the next few days.
The Germanic and Slavic department, for instance, has three days of activities planned, ranging from a Dana Porter Library tour on Wednesday afternoon through a language lab training session, an "introduction to communicative language teaching", and a Friday night barbecue.
Many of the programs are shorter, such as ones offered in applied health sciences on Thursday afternoon, and biology, Friday afternoon. The longest-established TA training program is ExpecTAtions in the faculty of engineering, which will run through Thursday and Friday for assistants from all the engineering departments.
There's
a list
of TA training programs on the web site of the teaching resources and
continuing education office.
CAR