![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, September 2, 2005
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
'Single and Sexy'
preview
production Friday 11:30, Humanities Theatre, for dons, orientation
staff, UW faculty and staff, and others, admission free.
Bookstore open (along with UW Shop and TechWorx) Saturday 12 noon to 4:00; closed Sunday; open Monday (Labour Day) 12 to 4, Tuesday 8 to 5. Campus TechShop closed Saturday and Sunday, open Monday 12 to 4, Tuesday 8 to 5. Warrior baseball vs. McMaster, Saturday 1:00, Jack Couch Park, Kitchener; Sunday 1 p.m. at Toronto. Warrior football at York, Monday 2 p.m. New faculty "welcoming event", day of panel discussions followed by barbecue, September 7, details online. English Language Proficiency Examination September 7 and 8, details online. |
As always, the Labour Day long weekend marks the beginning of the term. So while things will be bustling around the residences, where the move-in process is carefully choreographed over Sunday and the Monday holiday, the rest of the campus will be quiet. Monday, September 5, is a statutory holiday, and UW offices and services will be closed, giving most staff the day off.
Here's the usual reminder that essential services at UW never close:
The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries, which will be open noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, will be closed on the Monday holiday.UW police: on duty 24 hours, 888-4911.
Student Life Centre: open 24 hours, turnkey desk 888-4434.
Maintenance emergencies: phone ext. 3793.
Report major computer network outages to 888-4357.
By Tuesday morning the campus will be swarming with activity, as upper-year students trickle back and the first-year orientation program is in full swing. Largely organized by a university-wide Federation Orientation Committee, the week-long program includes everything from "meet the dean" sessions to tours, sporting events and plenty of food. The two big social events of the week are the same ones that have been featured in past years: Monte Carlo Night on Thursday in the Student Life Centre and the Toga Party on Saturday (with a comedy show in Federation Hall as an alternative).
Orientation is organized in blocks of time -- some according to the faculty the new students are entering, some according to where they live. Right along with the Villages and the colleges, the Off-Campus Dons have a lively program for students who are living away from UW itself. And there's a separate stream in orientation for architecture, with some events in Cambridge and some on the main campus as part of the engineering faculty.
Orientation starts slowly on Monday, as thousands of students will still be arriving, but a couple of the colleges have noontime "opening ceremony" events, and so does the off-campus group (1:00 at Federation Hall). By Monday evening, mass social events are the order of the day, including residence opening celebrations on the Village green. Tuesday morning activities have a faculty emphasis, with a "meet and greet" event in environmental studies, "boarding call" for math (in the Davis quadrangle) and "welcome to the jungle" for applied health sciences.
Performances of "Single and Sexy" also start Tuesday in the Humanities Theatre: there are shows at 10:00 (mostly for science and applied health sciences) and 4:00 (mostly for engineering). More performances are scheduled Wednesday and Thursday.
Move-in for some 3,400 first-year students will be staggered to help reduce traffic congestion. You're welcome Sunday if your assigned room is in the north or south quad of Village I or Ron Eydt Village, the east wing of King Village, the odd-numbered floors of Beck Hall at UW Place, or the north quad of Wellesley or Wilmot Court in UW Place. In the other quads and floors, move-in will be a day later, on Monday, Labour Day. Even the time of day is assigned: come between 8:30 and noon if home is within three hours' drive of Waterloo, between 12:30 and 4:30 if home is farther away than that.
Both days, traffic is expected to be heavy, and UW police will be doing their best to keep things moving and help visitors find parking. Information sent ahead to first-year students asks them to "be sure to unload your vehicle quickly," with the help of volunteers who will be on hand.
H-hour comes at 5:00 Monday afternoon, when dons will hold floor meetings all across the residence system, followed by a meal as newcomers get to know the people they'll be living with for a term or two.
Upper-year students in residence -- mostly in Eby Hall and Woolwich and Waterloo Courts at UW Place -- can arrive any time starting Monday. Registration is at the community centre in Beck Hall. For first-year and upper-year students alike, classes start September 12.
It's "to prepare dons to be able to deal with or refer students who need help," says Pam Charbonneau, manager of marketing and residence life development.
The training is run by UW's Residence Life Coordinators, or RLCs, who work for the residences. Training sessions cover such areas as budgeting, crisis management and discipline. Guest lecturers are common, and a "super services" event introduces the dons to UW Athletics, the Federation of Students, the International Student Office and many others of the services available to UW students.
Charbonneau pointed out that many dons also deal with upper-year students, some of whom are returning from co-op placements away from Waterloo. The dons "help them develop a sense of community" upon their return, helping them "have that connection here on campus."
As important as the training sessions, however, are the team-building opportunities that come during "Dons O" week. The 109 dons-in-training are all housed this week in Ron Eydt Village, where they are assigned roommates, stay overnight and eat meals together. Extra team building activities take place in the after-hours, including bowling trips, talent shows and even a special private Craig Cardiff concert that was put on for "dons only."
"Everyone is so accepting of everyone else and always has a smile plastered on their faces," said Jocelyn Ridgway, a third-year science student who will serve as a don in Beck Hall at UW Place. "I never knew it was so possible to have only known people for less than a week, and feel such strong connections with them."
She went on: "A great don needs a solid support staff to fall back on. The training also obviously prepares us for programming events and dealing with the residents themselves, but all the hard work we put into events would most likely go to waste if we couldn't call on other dons as resources. "I have loved, loved, loved the experience here so far."
![[Columbia Street view shows 195 address]](/images/2005/0902bfg.jpg)
Plans to sell the building (pictured), at 195 Columbia Street, to RIM were announced in June when the university's board of governors gave its approval. The building, popularly known as the "B. F. Goodrich building" because of its former owner, is just east of the railway tracks at the northeast corner of UW's campus.
RIM already owns the neighbouring property at the corner of Columbia and Phillip Streets, as well as other buildings on the north side of Columbia.
The 36,000-square-foot building, which UW acquired in 1991 for $2.8 million, was sold to RIM for $5.1 million, yesterday's announcement said. Terms of the deal are that UW will lease the building until April 30, 2008, with the right to vacate all or part of the space sooner if it chooses. Annual rent will be a percentage of the selling price of the building. UW will continue to look after the maintenance as long as it's in the building.
It currently provides space for the Institute for Quantum Computing, parts of the school of accountancy and Germanic and Slavic studies, CRESTech (the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology, an Ontario "centre of excellence"), and the Canadian Water Network.
Says the announcement: "The appraisal process to determine the fair market value for the building was of the highest industry standards. UW and RIM each appointed an independent licensed real estate appraiser, with the understanding that if the two appraisals were within 5 per cent of each other, the sale price would be the average of the two. If the valuations differed by more than 5 per cent, then a third appraisal would be obtained and the sale price would be the average of the two nearest in value."
Mechanical engineering. Meishen Li, "Initial Droplet Size and Velocity Distributions for Liquid Sprays Based on Maximization of Entrophy Generation." Supervisor, X. Li. On display in the faculty of engineering, CPH 4305. Oral defence Tuesday, September 13, 2 p.m., Engineering III room 4117.
Statistics and actuarial science. Cody Hyndman, "Affine Futures and Forward Prices." Supervisor, A. Heunis. On display in the faculty of mathematics, MC 5090. Oral defence Monday, September 19, 8 p.m., Engineering II room 1307G.
English. Faith Jones, "Bardic and Ignatian Voices in the Poetic Rhetoric of Gerard Manley Hopkins' Mature Verse." Supervisor, John North. On display in the faculty of arts, HH 317. Oral defence Friday, September 23, 2 p.m., Humanities room 334.
Physics. Artem Starodubtsev, "Topological Methods in Quantum Gravity." Supervisors, L. Smolin and R. Mann. On display in the faculty of science, ESC 254A. Oral defence Tuesday, September 27, 10 a.m., Physics room 352.
CAR