![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Gates]](/images/2005/1005gates.jpg)
Bill Gates is chairman of the board and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corporation. |
During Gates's time on campus he will meet University officials and faculty, as well as address Computer Science, Math and Computer Engineering students in the Humanities Theatre. Student leaders from each faculty and Federation of Students took the lead in helping to invite students to the talk.
At 10:30 a.m., Gates will talk to students about innovation and breakthrough technologies, new opportunities for technology to improve our personal lives and the way we work and collaborate, and why careers in computer science are exciting, rewarding and vitally important. He will also show off cutting edge technology, discuss his vision for the future and answer questions from students.
There are no tickets left. Students and others from the campus and greater community will have the opportunity to watch Gates's speech on telecasts in the Davis Centre and Student Life Centre.
She says about 150 alumni are expected at the event, from 5 to 7 p.m. on the 33rd floor of the Sutton Place Hotel on Bay Street. Displays will feature ES academic units, research groups and graduate programs.
Says Cook: "Remarks from Interim Dean Ellsworth LeDrew will highlight the Faculty's new strategic plan and announce the installation of an Air Biofiltration System (Living Wall) in the ES1 building. Barry Goodison, a Geography alumnus from 1968, will talk about the 125th anniversary of the International Polar Year in 2007-08 and his role as the Chair of the Canadian Steering Committee for the international programme of coordinated interdisciplinary scientific research and observations in the Earth's polar regions. Goodison is also the Chief at the Climate Processes and Earth Observation Division of the Meteorological Service of Canada.
"Jean Andrey, Associate Dean (graduate studies and research) and Mittale Suchak, a second year undergraduate in Environment and Business, will round out the remarks."
Also happening at UW: It's the last day of regular daily job postings for co-op students, as employer interviews for winter term jobs are about to begin. . . . With the holy season of Ramadan under way, when Muslims are not supposed to eat or drink during daylight hours, Mudie's cafeteria in Village I is opening for breakfast at 5 a.m. daily. . . . The UW-ACE course management system will be down tomorrow morning from 8:25 to 8:45. . . .
The Bombshelter pub in the Student Life Centre claims to be celebrating "Alexander Keith's 210th birthday" tonight. . . . The Campus TechShop in the Student Life Centre will hold an "Apple Power Hour", with expert advice on Apple products, every Thursday from 11:00 to 12:30, starting tomorrow. . . . Health services will start a free eight-week "weight management" program next week, and information is available at the front desk in the little white building. . . .
"To date," a memo from provost Amit Chakma notes, "UW has awarded this distinction to six individuals: Garry Rempel, Mary Thompson and Mark Zanna in 2004, and Terry McMahon, Cam Stewart and Robert Jan van Pelt in 2005."
He summarizes the purpose of the award and the nomination process, established in 2003 when UW's Senate approved the introduction of the University Professor designation. Says the document: "The University of Waterloo owes much of its reputation and stature to the quality of its eminent professors. UW recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence through the designation 'University Professor'. Once appointed, a faculty member retains the designation for life.
"Not counting retirees, it is anticipated there will be 14 University Professorships at steady state, with at most two appointments each year. Such appointments are reported to Senate and to the Board of Governors in March and April respectively, and are recognized at Convocation."
Each year, nominations are sought "from Deans, Directors and Chairs, as well as from the University community generally. A nominee shall have demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence in a particular field or fields of knowledge. The individual who nominates a colleague is responsible for gathering the documentation and submitting it to the Vice-President, Academic & Provost. The University Tenure and Promotion Committee will act as the selection committee; its decisions are final.
"A nomination must be supported by at least six signatures from at least two UW departments and must be accompanied by a curriculum vitae and a short non-technical description of the nominee's contributions. A nomination must also be accompanied by letters from the nominee's Dean," and also comments from "scholars of international standing in the nominee's field" -- the memo gives the details. The provost adds that the selection committee keeps the dossiers of unsuccessful nominees on hand for two more years, to be considered again along with updated information.
Nominations for this year's awards should be "in my hands before Christmas", Chakma writes.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Faculty of education talks from Canadian institutions,
Wednesday and Thursday 10:30 to 5:30, Tatham Centre, information from
career services.
Demo Day: "Faculty, staff and students are invited to stop by and learn how the latest technology can make their academic or research careers easier," Campus TechShop, Student Life Centre, 11:00 to 3:00. 'Managing Stress Before It Manages You', counselling services workshop, 12 noon, Student Life Centre multipurpose room. Free noon concert: classical chamber music, cello and piano, 12:30, Conrad Grebel University College chapel. Novelist and poet Stan Dragland reads from his work, 2:30, St. Jerome's University room 2011. Canada-US Fulbright program information session for faculty and graduate students, 3:00, Needles Hall room 3001.
Computational mathematics colloquium: Fue-Sang Lien, mechanical engineering, "High-Fidelity Numerical Model for Hazard Prediction in the Urban Environment", 3:30, Math and Computer room 5158. Warrior swimming dual meet vs. Guelph 5 p.m., Physical Activities Complex pool. 'Toronto's Best Building' lecture by Max Allen, CBC radio "Ideas", first in the "Private Passions, Public Places" series, Architecture lecture hall, 7:30, tickets from Cambridge Galleries. Sandford Fleming Foundation technical speaker competition for engineering students, faculty-wide competition Thursday 10:00, Doug Wright Engineering room 2534. 'Online resources for new faculty' presentation by Mark Morton, Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology, Thursday 12:00, Flex lab, Dana Porter Library, registration online. 'Study Skills: Preparing for Midterms' workshop sponsored by counselling services, Thursday 12 noon, Student Life Centre multipurpose room. Aboriginal issues lecture: Kathleen Lickers, lawyer in private practice at Six Nations, "Resolving Aboriginal Land Issues in Contemporary Times", Thursday 7:00, St. Paul's College. Faculty of Arts Lecture: Herb Lefcourt, distinguished professor emeritus, psychology, "What Sense Is There in Having a Sense of Humour?" Friday 12 noon, Theatre of the Arts, free. 'The Craft of Research Writing' workshop chiefly for graduate students, Wednesday, October 12, noon, registration through teaching resource office. |
| POSITIONS AVAILABLE |
|
On this week's list from the human resources department:
Longer descriptions are available on the HR web site. |
A report on Bruce's study of the Stasi was issued as a news release recently by UW's media relations office. "I received my PhD from McGill in '93," he explains. "Since the Berlin Wall had just fallen (in '89) and since I was strongly interested in the history of Germany, I decided to base my thesis on the newly-opened Stasi files."
He soon discovered that there had in fact been an anti-Communist underground in East Germany and that the job of the Stasi was to exterminate it, or at least hold it in check. In doing so, the Stasi collected rafts of information on countless individuals suspected of underground anti-Communist activities. They also waged smear campaigns against many individuals they suspected of "disloyalty to the state" in an effort to isolate them, break them down and punish them.
To learn more about what had gone on, Bruce looked into Stasi files that disclosed what had been learned about those who resisted the Communists. "They had developed a massive secret information network," he notes, "containing an astonishing amount of facts, rumours and so on. In fact, the Stasi was East Germany's largest employer. It was a huge organization that had put together vast quantities of files on individuals. The organization was much, much larger per capita than Hitler's Gestapo. Most of the information was collected in a vast reinforced-concrete headquarters building. Some historians have argued that the Stasi was the most extensive secret police in world history."
Currently, Bruce is writing a history of two local Stasi district offices, seeking to explain how they were organized, how they went about controlling the population, how they recruited staff and how the population reacted to their presence. More recently he spent considerable time interviewing former officers of the Stasi. "Many former Stasi are still absolutely unyielding," he notes.
Essentially, Bruce describes the Stasi as an organization dedicated to controlling and ruining people's lives. One way of doing this involved spreading vicious rumors in the community about those they wished to ruin. This included, for example, writing anonymous letters to spouses or to family members.
In the fall of 1989, when it had become clear that the East German regime was collapsing, people began to see smoke billowing out of the Stasi building as the police destroyed many of the documents they had. Following this, East German citizens began storming Stasi buildings. As for the Stasi: "They knew it was all over and they just withered away."
The UW historian says his studies have awakened in him a new concern about secret police operations. "Citizens everywhere must always be vigilant about such activity," he says, "and about personal information a government may have which the individual has no access to."
Today's conference, sponsored by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, runs during the afternoon in Davis Centre room 1302 and tonight at St. Paul's College.
CAR
![[Kasta]](/images/2005/1005kasta-small.jpg)
Don Kasta (right), distance and continuing education, retirement
reception 3:30, Laurel Room, South Campus Hall, information from
Janet Moser, ext. 2025.