Countdown to the long holiday

The end is nigh: tomorrow will be the last working day of the year for most UW staff, and the last day of fall term examinations. A few notes on what will be happening across the campus (or campuses, plural) over the next few hours:

• More food services outlets have closed for the season: Bon Appetit in the Davis Centre and the Modern Languages coffee shop. By tomorrow, there will be food only a few places: Browsers in the Dana Porter Library, Brubaker's in the Student Life Centre, Pastry Plus in Needles Hall, and Tim Horton's in South Campus Hall, until various closing times Friday afternoon; Mudie's cafeteria in Village I, until 7 p.m.; and Tim Horton's in the SLC, "open till 7 p.m. for those students who have the misfortune of writing exams that night," says Heather Kelly from the food services office. (And the University Club will offer its Christmas buffet lunch tomorrow, one last time.)

• The Computing Help and Information Place is open 8:00 to 4:00 today; Friday, only 8:00 to 11:45 and 1:30 to 4:30. The help desk phone number, 519-888-4357, will be checked for messages regularly all through the holiday.

• The Davis Centre library is open 24 hours a day during exam season, closing at midnight Friday night and reopening in January. The Dana Porter Library is open 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. today, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday. The Musagetes Architecture Library will close at 12 noon Friday and the University Map Library at 4:30 p.m.

• Central stores will provide a "condensed" mail pickup and delivery service tomorrow, with the last run to departments starting at 1 p.m.

• Retail services stores (the bookstore, the UW Shop, TechWorx and the Campus TechShop) will close at 5 p.m. tomorrow, reopening January 2 at 8 a.m. There will be extended hours January 3 and 4 for winter term textbook purchases.

A thorough roundup of arrangements for the end of the fall term, the Christmas and New Year's holiday, and the return to work, study and life in January will appear in tomorrow's Daily Bulletin. That information will continue to be available from the UW web home page throughout the shutdown period, December 23 through January 1.

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The DesChamp family that travels together . . . comes back to Waterloo together.

How she saw the need for scholarships

“Wendy DesChamp’s experiences at UW can be divided into decades,” says the Keystone Campaign web site, presenting her as this month’s “profile” selected from among staff, faculty and retiree donors.

The article tells her story: “During the late 1970s she was a student working towards her BA. In the ’80s, she was a receptionist at the front counter of the Registrar’s Office, which also happened to be where her husband Robert (also a UW grad) first spotted her. In the ’90s, she juggled an active home life with three growing boys and contract work in the Registrar’s Office and the Faculty of Mathematics.

“Now in the new millennium, DesChamp is back in the Registrar’s Office full time as an Admissions Specialist, where her focus is on admitting new students. It’s clear that she is a true supporter of UW and has really loved working on campus over the years. She can always be found in the middle of a group of prospective students at any number of recruitment events, including the Ontario Universities Fair, Campus Day, and UW Day.”

The article notes that when she was asked why she gives to UW, DesChamp was quick to reflect on the time 20 years ago when she was working at the front counter of the Registrar’s Office. She would often have to respond to a student asking why UW doesn’t offer more scholarships. She felt a sense of responsibility to change the answer, and so she began to designate her donor dollars towards scholarships.

Keystone is still welcoming gifts for that purpose, although there are other priorities as well these days, including the library’s Kresge Challenge for renovations to serve student users better. An extensive list of Campaign Waterloo projects is available on the Keystone site along with several years’ worth of monthly donor profiles.

More about DesChamp starts with an easy question: Where did you grow up? “I was born in Orlando, Florida, to Canadian parents. Although I was 10 years old before I saw snow, I enjoyed other childhood experiences. I was five years old when I swam a quarter mile in a lake that was home to an alligator. I experienced a hurricane. I watched a space launch on TV and then when the announcer exclaimed ‘Liftoff,’ I ran outside to see the plume of smoke go straight up in the sky.”

What do you like to do in your spare time? “My husband Robert and I were subjected to road trips when we were children; mine was an annual trip to Canada, and his was an annual trip to Nova Scotia. We have taken our three boys across Canada, and to parts of the U.S. and Mexico. Our infamous road trips typically involve more time on the road than at each destination. Some memorable adventures include the 36 hour ferry ride from Goose Bay to Lewisporte, Newfoundland, and going to Vancouver Island and back in two weeks with a stop to see Old Faithful under a cloudless, summer sky.”

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The warm glow of giving, and more

"The 2006 UW United Way campaign has closed its books as of Monday," Karen So writes from the United Way office. "This year, with the help of 573 staff, faculty and retirees we were able to surpass our goal of $165,000 by raising a total of $184,193! We would like to thank all those who have helped this year. The funds raised will go towards what matters most — strengthening the K-W community. Have a safe and happy holiday season." On the larger scale, across Kitchener-Waterloo and the neighbouring townships, the year-end news is less bright. At last report, the United Way had collected slightly less than $4.7 million of its $5.75 million goal for support of some 50 local agencies. "The campaign continues, although not publicly, until the end of January," a news release noted.

Johan Reis of the counselling services and health services department has been involved with UW's Employee Assistance Program since it was created 17 years ago, and has been chair of the EAP committee for nine years now. He sends word that he's leaving the position as of the end of 2006 (the new chair has yet to be announced), and adds thanks for all the staff and faculty members who have helped make the program a success, as well as those who have taken part in its various events and activities. A number of new EAP ventures were started this fall, including distribution on campus of the health magazine Moods, and more are planned for the months ahead.

"The results of the on-campus December 7 English Language Proficiency Examination (ELPE) are now posted in all undergraduate offices and outside the Writing Centre in PAS 2082," director Ann Barrett writes. "Congratulations to students who passed, and students who were not successful can explore their options by consulting the UW Calendar, their academic advisors, or us."

Clarence Woudsma of the School of Planning has been appointed director of the Local Economic Development Program in environmental studies, effective January 1. • The "Create a Snowman" site offered by UW Graphics was chosen as Sympatico/MSN "site of the day" earlier this week, producing a mind-boggling 117,763 web hits on Tuesday. • The graph that appeared in Monday's Daily Bulletin to show the ten-year growth of the UW endowment fund had a wrongly numbered Y axis, you might have noticed if you looked closely, but a corrected version is now available on the development office web site.

"Could we remind people," writes Tami Everding, one of the key people in 50th Anniversary planning, "to register their team for the Reach for the Top competition." That's a trivia contest to be held periodically during 2007 (the first round is at the January 11 launch event) with a championship team to be crowned before the anniversary year is over. "We want to stress to people," she adds, "that the Reach for the Top will be testing their general knowledge," not any one subject.

And . . . last week three co-op students who are working for Information Systems and Technology gave a presentation at the weekly IST professional development session, revealing "How Students Communicate". (The answer: MySpace, text messages and other technological mysteries, not that boring old e-mail stuff.) By popular demand, their presentation is now available online, says one of the group, Marguerite Doyon, who's been stationed this term at the applied health sciences help desk in Matthews Hall.

CAR

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