UW comments on Maclean's rankings

UW "maintained its reputation" in this year's Maclean's magazine rankings of Canadian universities, a news release issued yesterday stresses.

Waterloo stood second among 47 institutions across Canada in the "Best Overall" column, behind the University of Alberta. Waterloo had been in first place there for 13 of the past 14 years. UW is still first as "Most Innovative", but came second in "Leaders of Tomorrow", and third in "Highest Quality". In the numerical ranking of 11 "comprehensive" universities — big institutions that don't have medical schools — UW is second this year, behind Guelph.

The news release quotes UW president David Johnston: "We are extremely pleased that our reputation for excellence continues to be recognized by the business and education leaders who provide input to Maclean's. Our faculty, staff, students and alumni deserve the credit. They are our best ambassadors."

The reputation rankings are derived from a survey of thousands of people across Canada, including high school guidance counsellors and principals from every province and territory, chief executive officers and recruiters of companies, heads of organizations and university officials.

Johnston says he's also pleased to be among the most highly ranked universities in the comprehensive category. He congratulated the University of Guelph for its first-place finish, a position the two universities occasionally trade. "The fact that two of the area's universities consistently finish in first and second place attests to the tremendous quality of its post-secondary institutions," said the president.

Said the release: "The University of Waterloo values surveys of this kind, believing they provide important information to students and families as they make important decisions about post-secondary education. The university works with the creators of such surveys with the intent of improving the quality of the information offered."

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Two open houses and a gem show

Marc Kielburger, youth leadership specialist and social advocate, will be the keynote speaker at UW Day, UW's fall open house for prospective students and their families to be held tomorrow.

About 3,500 visitors are expected at the all-day event — both on the main campus and at the school of architecture in Cambridge. The event comes as Ontario Grade 12 students are making up their minds about which universities best match their interests. UW Day runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with tours starting from the Student Life Centre. Information booths will be open all day long, and more detailed academic presentations by the various faculties will be offered at 11:00 and 2:30.

Kielburger, chief executive director of Free the Children and co-author with his brother Craig of Me to We: Turning Self-Help on Its Head, will deliver his address during the 90-minute welcome session, which begins at 9 a.m. in the Physical Activities Complex. His youth-driven charity has already changed the lives of more than a million children worldwide and earned three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"We're very excited to welcome Marc Kielburger to UW Day because he embodies the type of student that we're looking for at UW — smart, motivated leaders," says Julie Kalbfleisch, UW's assistant director of marketing and undergraduate recruitment. "We hope that after hearing him, students will leave energized, inspired and empowered to take action. For many of them, university will be a place to learn about the world and their own place in it."

Students who like the looks of Waterloo at the fall open house will likely be back during March break, when the university holds the traditional Campus Day open house (Tuesday, March 13) aimed at those who are applying for admission in September 2007.

More visitors will be on campus tomorrow as children and their parents can gain hands-on experience of the world of science at the annual science open house. The free event offers activities and demonstrations geared to children from kindergarten to Grade 8, as well as their families. "Open house is child friendly with something to offer for all ages," says Peter Russell, curator of the earth sciences museum. "Once a year, volunteers from UW's faculty of science come together to share their love of science with the community."

Most of the events will be held between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Centre for Environmental and Information Technology. Activities include soapstone carving, turning pennies into gold, breaking glass with sound, piloting a remote-controlled airship, chemistry and physics experiments, along with hands-on demonstrations offered by the engineering science quest team.

The Earth Sciences Museum, in the CEIT lobby, will also be the site of the annual gem and mineral show, to be held Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. "Carved in Stone" is this year's theme, Russell said. The show will feature displays on carvings from Gallery Indigena, of Stratford, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Mineral and gem dealers will be on hand with natural crystals and jewellery.

The show continues Sunday from 10 to 5, with demonstrations by Iroquois stone carver Roy Henry of Six Nations in Brantford and Sandy Cline of Lindsay. Jim Essary will help children and parents create their own soapstone carvings. Other hands-on activities include a fossil fish dig. The Mining Matters program of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada will display a mineral identification table. Quintin and Willow Wight of Ottawa will give a presentation on Sunday at 2:30 p.m., entitled Gem and Mineral Trails in China.

The popular chemistry magic show will take place at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Science Society's Carbon Grill snack bar will offer lunch for visitors. Parking is free on Saturday and $3 on Sunday.

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Alzheimer event in Toronto Sunday

"Fight to win, and no matter how hard it becomes, never give up." This empowering message, "from one person with dementia to another", will be the focus of a one-day forum in Toronto on Sunday, a unique event sponsored by UW and organized "by people with dementia, for people with dementia".

Through workshops, keynote speakers and interactive panel discussions, "A Changing Melody: A Learning and Sharing Forum for Persons with Early-stage Dementia and their Partners in Care" will give people the opportunity to learn how to become strong self-advocates, as well as gain knowledge to actively improve their quality of life, says an announcement from UW's Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program.

“Memory loss makes each day a challenge, but I have realized that if I don’t give up, I will always conquer, I will always be able to fight,” says forum planning committee member Elaine Smith, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2003. Smith, who attended the first "Changing Melody" forum shortly after her diagnosis, credits this event with providing the motivation she needed to fight back against the disease. The former registered nurse encourages anyone with early stage dementia and their partners in care to attend: "Together we are a family, and we learn coping skills from each other.”

Program highlights of the one-day forum include presentations by people living with early-stage dementia, including the keynote address on "Fighting Together to Win"; a workshop on enhancing abilities through meaningful activities; and an interactive panel discussion on rising above misconceptions.

Dementia is a progressive condition characterized by a decline in mental abilities and changes in personality and behaviour. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, accounts for about 64 per cent of those diagnosed with dementia. Currently, an estimated 420,000 Canadians over 65 years have Alzheimer’s or a related dementia. In Ontario, there are 155,000 individuals affected, and that figure is expected to more than double by 2020, MAREP says.

The forum, being held at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, is organized by MAREP — a division of the RBJ Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging in the faculty of applied health sciences — in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Canada, the Alzheimer Society of Ontario and the Dementia Advocacy and Support Network International.

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Notes out of a clear blue sky

"Last year," says a memo from Tracy Penny Light of the Learning Resources and Innovation office, "the Teaching Excellence Council piloted Open Classroom events, and we are offering such events again this year. These events consist of the observation of a lecture by a professor, and then a post-observation discussion of the event and what was
observed. Participant observers last year noted that the most valuable part of the experience for them was the discussion of teaching strategies that occurred during the post-sessions and being able to observe a good teacher in action. Two more events will happen on Tuesday, November 7, with Doris Jakobsh of Religious Studies and Thursday, November 16, with Ron McCarville of Recreation and Leisure Studies. Any instructor who would like to participate can register on our website." (Another such event took place yesterday, in fact, starring Bob Sproule of the school of accountancy.)

Off to the Gulf region is Virginia McLellan of UW's marketing and undergraduate recruitment office, as one of a group of Canadians who will visit high schools, education fairs and other events in the United Arab Emirates over the next few days. "This will be the first time that UW has participated in recruitment events in this country," she notes. "However, this trip follows discussions that UW has had with the Centre for Education and Research Training in Abu Dhabi. We already have a small population of students from the UAE studying on campus, and there are 33 student names from our JPICS system who have requested brochures from the Visitors Centre this year," so the market seems promising.

A group from Columbia Lake Village is going to watch the Kitchener Rangers hockey team play London tonight, and a fast visit to the CLV community centre might procure one of the few tickets that remain ($18, kids $14). . . . The Technology Transfer and Licensing Office in UW's office of research has been renamed the Intellectual Property Management Group. . . . Ladan Tahvildari of the electrical and computer engineering department will co-chair the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance in Paris next year. . . .

There's a new line of merchandise in the UW bookstore these days: music CDs. Don't look for Pink, Prince or Fergie, but buyer Susan Parsons says there's quite a variety of classical albums, jazz and rock and roll, at one-digit prices. "Where else," adds colleague Iain Dmitrienko, "would you see Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller on the same shelf beside Hank Williams and Bob Marley?" CDs are stocked near the cashiers at the front of the store, facing the South Campus Hall concourse.

The final figure is in for the Plummers' Pledge, gifts to the university by last spring's graduating engineering class, and the total is $102,305. . . . The continuing education office will offer a one-day course, "Coaching for Success", on November 23. . . . A "cultural excursion" to England sponsored by UW's fine arts and music departments, scheduled for May 1-19, 2007, still has a few spaces available, says Joan Coutu of fine arts. . . .

“I am currently a student in the Master’s of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program,” writes Al Lalani. “A group of students including myself are starting a new UW entrepreneurship magazine called Catalyst Magazine, which is overlooked by the Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology. We are currently looking for funding in return for advertisement space. Catalyst is a top-tier publication that will showcase the innovative activities and initiatives of students, faculty and alumni associated with the University of Waterloo. Content and distribution will come from our e-council which is composed of the following: the Science and Business Student Association, DECA, UW ACE and CBET. All the above are student related groups with a focus on entrepreneurship. Distribution will consist of 1,000 printed copies and an electronic version. As DECA and ACE are national organizations, electronic copies will be mailed to their entire member base from coast to coast. The 1,000 printed copies will be distributed to students through member lists and local events. Our first issue is scheduled to come out in November 2006 and will focus on leadership.” More information is available on the magazine’s new web site.

CAR

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