Nomination forms are available online or from the Federation of Students office. At least five nominators are required in each case. Completed nomination forms should be submitted to the Chief Returning Officer, Secretariat, NH 3060, no later than 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 18, 2005. Elections, if necessary, will coincide with the annual Federation of Students' elections (February 15-17). A "Close of Nominations" meeting for all candidates is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19, 2005 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre.

Student senators completing their terms of office or stepping down as of April 30, 2005 are Amy Jack (AHS), Emma Bardon (Eng), Katherine Johnston (ES/IS), Albert O'Connor (Math) and Liam McHugh-Russell (at-large). All are eligible for re-election.

Refer to the Secretariat's website for information about Senate and its Committees and Councils.

Graph of temperature readings through 2004, provided by the UW weather station, showing two colder-than-normal stalactites in December.

A chilly end to a chilly year

"Even then," he adds, "it was only a little bit colder than average." And yet the minus-28.7 degrees Celsius recorded on the morning of Monday, December 20, "was the coldest December temperature we have ever had at the weather station," he says, as well as being the coldest temperature of all 2004. "It is also interesting to note that the next day we had a high of 2.5 C, over a 30 degree difference. There are many places in the world that wouldn't see that much of a temperature difference in an entire year and we saw it in one day."

December saw 106.3 millimetres of precipitation at the weather station on the north campus, well above the average of 73.5 mm in previous Decembers. "We had 23 days of with some precipitation, again more than the average of 18," the report says. " The big storm of the 23rd dropped 27.2 mm of precipitation, which translated into a snowfall of about 23.5 cm."

Looking back on all of last year, Seglenieks observes that "the top local weather story" was the lack of warm weather through the s summer. "In fact it never went over 30 degrees Celsius the entire year," he notes. "Contrast this with the city of Whitehorse in the Yukon, where according to Environment Canada they had eight consecutive days of above 30 degree temperatures in June. In our area we never got the typical extended period of hot humid weather that sends people into air conditioned buildings and swimming pools.

"Although most people complained about the summer, a couple of benefits were a reduction in the number of days with smog alerts and generally lush gardens and lawns."

The graph reproduced above shows the year's temperatures, and a glance indicates a shortage of red marks -- meaning above-average temperatures -- for the summer months. "But," says Seglenieks, "this summer also didn't have an excess of blue portions of the temperature graph (blue indicates lower than average temperatures). This shows that the summer wasn't particularly cold, it just wasn't all that hot.

"In another strange twist, it was warmer in September than it was in August."

The graph also shows a generally cold winter, an average spring and a fall that was slightly warmer than average. The year's average daily high temperature of 11.65 C was only a little below the average of 11.86 C in past years. "And interestingly, the average daily low temperature of 1.86 C was actually slightly warmer than the average of 1.67 C." The highest temperature of the year was 29.3 C at 4:15 p.m. on July 15.

The spring was very wet, with an almost record amount of accumulated precipitation by the end of May, but a few dry periods during the summer and early fall brought the total back closer to the average. The rest of the fall and early winter were close to average, resulting in a final total precipitation of 956.2 mm, slightly above the average of 907.9 mm. The wettest day of the year was July 31, with 40.6 mm of rain.

Co-op jobs and other notes

Friends of Ruth Parker, of the co-op and career services department, are invited to a reception today to mark her retirement. The event runs from 4:30 to 6:30 at the University Club, with presentations scheduled for 5:15. Colleague Olaf Naese notes that Parker is ending 22 years of work developing employment opportunities for co-op students: "Arriving at UW in October, 1982 following a previous career in teaching, she initially focused her efforts toward finding jobs for students in the Teaching Option. Later, CECS restructured and Parker's responsibilities were broadened to include co-op Mathematics. Over the years Parker has been active in the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education and the Ontario Association for Mathematics Educators. She is a co-founder and first chair of University Co-op Educators of Ontario. The highlights of Parker's career in CECS include developing a French Teaching program and a Science Teaching program, writing a book called 'The Co-op Adventure', developing a Career Counselling Model that was the first to acknowledge the self-knowledge to be gained from examining all aspects of the environment of a co-op work term, and obtaining a $250,000 grant from Xerox to subsidize work terms for teaching option students."

With the new term beginning, thousands of students have financial paperwork to do. The registrar's office says Ontario Student Assistance Program loans, Canada and Ontario Student Loans, and some other provincial loans are available from the Student Awards Office on the second floor of Needles Hall; it's open 8:30 to 4:30, Monday to Friday, like most UW offices.

And with a new year beginning, there's likely to be a spike in demand for fitness classes. The campus recreation program has plenty to offer for students, and some special offerings for staff and faculty as well, as a memo notes: "There are now two Staff classes for you to take: The Staff Fitness class runs from MWF 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. -- giving you time to get to the PAC, work out and get back to work. It's a great way to stay active while working at UW. Register for the class for $54.50, or buy a Shoe Tag (with the Shoe Tag, you can take any of the regularly-scheduled Fitness classes in the Winter term, including the Staff Fitness). New this term, Campus Recreation is offering a Staff Yoga twice a week. The Staff Yoga will run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. The class will run for 10 weeks, with no Classes during Reading Week. The class will be $60."

Nominations are open now, through January 18, for next year's Federation of Students executives and council members. . . . The Feds' used book store, on the lower level of the Student Life Centre, is open from 8 to 6 today through Friday, and 11 to 5 this Saturday, to deal with the beginning-of-term rush. . . . A flyer notes a course that's being offered for the first time this term, Sociology 345, "Cyberspace and Social Life", taught by Lorne Dawson. . . .

CAR