Stephen Lewis, orator and HIV/AIDS ambassador, chats with Archna Gupta, the Waterloo alumnus who introduced him when he appeared in the Humanities Theatre as this year's Homecoming keynote speaker. A reception in the Humanities grad lounge preceded the Saturday night lecture. (Photo by Neil Trotter, fotobistro.) The parade of prominent speakers to campus includes Margaret Visser, due next Wednesday to give the Pascal Lecture on Christianity and the University, and former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, coming November 9 to talk about her new book.

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Programs stress employee 'wellness'

A "wellness challenge" is coming to campus this fall, and while we don't know the details of the challenge yet, we do know it'll be launched with a staff and faculty talent show in the Humanities Theatre on October 25.

The project is sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program, which is expanding its range of wellness promotion activities fall, as well as continuing the core function of helping individual employees find professional help — with issues like alcoholism, money management or family crisis — when they need it.

The EAP will also be doing a brief survey of faculty and staff, asking whether they have used EAP services as individuals or have attended seminars and other events sponsored by the program. It's based in the health services, counselling services and human resources departments and managed by a committee with administration and employee representatives.

Some new EAP resources are coming out this fall in paper form, including a "Recreational Resource List for the Waterloo-Kitchener Region", a "Runner's Guide to Achieving Wellness", and a 2007 "Wellness Calendar", produced in cooperation with the applied health sciences faculty, with tips on eating, sleeping and exercise. In addition, the quarterly magazine Moods will be appearing in staff and faculty members' mailboxes through an arrangement that provides it to UW at a token cost.

Face-to-face programs for this fall include a repeat of last summer's noon-hour sessions on relaxation, starting November 8 with a session on "Empowered Breathing". (More information about EAP services of all kinds will be available on its web site.)

As for the talent event and "Wellness Challenge Kickoff", a flyer distributed across campus notes the application deadline as October 6 — this Friday — although word is that it may be extended to October 13. "Singles, duets, groups and family entries are welcome to showcase your talent," the flyer says. "We are looking for a wide range of talent. Show your UW spirit and join in the fun. A prize will be awarded for the best amateur talent gig." Auditions will be held later this month, and the show itself starts at 7:00 on October 25.

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Historian's research looks north

“Some historians spend their days rooting through libraries and dusting off old tomes,” says an article in the latest issue of the Arts Research Update newsletter. “Not Whitney Lackenbauer. Instead, he dusts snow off his parka, then heads out on arctic expeditions with the Canadian Rangers.”

Lackenbauer — a faculty member in history at St. Jerome’s University — studies “sovereignty, security and community enhancement in the North”, says the article. For example: “The Distant Early Warning or DEW Line was the most significant of the numerous arctic initiatives resulting from the bipolarity of the Cold War. Together with University of Toronto geographer Matt Farish, Lackenbauer is currently engaged in a SSHRC-funded history of this radar network, which stretched from Alaska to Greenland along the seventieth parallel and dramatically altered the military, logistical, and socio-economic characteristics of the territorial North.”

Says Lackenbauer: “Given the significance of the DEW Line to Northern Canada, it is surprising that there is no comprehensive history tracing its intellectual origins, planning, construction, and use. While scholars frequently allude to the impacts of the Line on Northern communities, they have yet to assess the network’s cumulative effects on a regional scale, across the spatial and temporal breadth of the Cold War.”

The DEW Line also left a toxic legacy, he notes, as more than a decade of cleanup efforts demonstrate. They hope their study will increase awareness of the impact that large-scale military projects have on Northern peoples and delicate ecosystems.

“Our interest in the military north should not be confined to mega-projects,” says Lackenbauer, whose research has also addressed the role of the Canadian Rangers in the north. He is currently finishing a book-length history of the Canadian Rangers, a component of the Canadian Forces Reserves who have served as the military’s eyes and ears in isolated northern and coastal communities since 1947. This unorthodox group of community volunteers, whose contributions are rooted in local skills and diversity rather than traditional benchmarks of military assimilation and indoctrination, have thrived over the last decade. They are extremely inexpensive, costing a tiny fraction of a battalion in southern Canada, because they are expected to be largely self-sufficient and to serve unpaid for most of the year. Furthermore, Lackenbauer explains, more than two-thirds of the Rangers are of Aboriginal descent, making them a strong example of partnership and cooperation in an era when land claim agreements and the creation of new governments have changed northern jurisdictions.

His field research into their living history has taken him far beyond the walls of libraries and archives. “The strength of the Rangers lies in its members and their stories, not in aggregate statistics or bureaucratic notes,” he says. “To do justice to their service, I have had to go to the source and meet the people in their local environments.” He has participated in Ranger patrols and training activities across the country, from the magnetic north pole, to south-central Yukon, coastal BC, and northern Labrador.

“From time to time, I have caught myself humming the Indiana Jones theme song while being tossed around on a snowmobile with the Rangers in dense forest or on the frozen sea,” he remarks. “Some of my most memorable interviews have been conducted in tents with Rangers swapping stories about polar bear encounters, around a bonfire on an isolated beach on Nootka Island, and pulling snowmachines out of the bush in Labrador.”

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Four news notes and a flight plan

The director of housing and residence administration, Gail Clarke, writes with news of "some changes we have made regarding short-term accommodation. Effective October 1, Pam DeLeo, Ron Eydt Village, will be coordinating our short-term accommodation service. We offer two accommodation options for visiting faculty and researchers. The Visitor's Apartment is located on campus above Health Services. It is fully furnished and available to rent for a period not to exceed two weeks. We also offer one- or two-bedroom fully furnished apartments for longer stays. These are located at Beacon Tower on Westmount Road, approximately five minutes' walk to the university." There's more information on the housing web site, she notes. I have to confess I hadn't been aware of the Beacon Tower arrangement, which Clarke says has been available for some half-dozen years. Another source of short-term accommodation, mentioned on the web site, is the Graduate Apartments at St. Paul's College, which has some rooms for rent by the night.

The faculty of engineering held its awards dinner last week, and presented Alumni Achievement Medals to three distinguished graduates. Says Adel Sedra, dean of engineering. "This year's three deserving medal recipients are excellent examples of the successes shared by many Waterloo engineering graduates who continue to advance our reputation in Canada and throughout the world." One winner is Stephen Burns (civil engineering, 1973, MASc 1989), president of B. M. Ross and Associates Ltd., Goderich, a key figure in the search for the cause of the Walkerton water contamination in 2000. The second is Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe (PhD 1976, civil), vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, Nigeria. And the third is Vivienne Ojala (systems 1984), CEO of Brock Solutions, Kitchener, and president of the local YMCA.

"Campus Rec is proud to present indoor cycling classes," writes Kate Shippey from the Physical Activities Complex. "Starting October 9, watch the Campus Rec web site for schedules. Students will be able to register for an eight-week class or purchase a cycling pass which grants you access to all classes and use of bikes when the studios are free. Cost of the class is $25, and the cycling pass is $45 for an eight-week program. Registration for these classes will take place in the PAC athletics office."

“Not only did he win a SSHRC Standard Research Grant in the latest competition,” says the latest Arts Research Newsletter, “but John North (English Language and Literature) was also recently awarded a prestigious 2006 SHARP Award for Distinguished Achievement for his Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900. The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) grants this award biannually for collaborative work, publications or research tools (electronic or paper) that have served the study of book history exceptionally well. In their award announcement, SHARP noted, quoting their nomination letter, that the Waterloo Directory is ‘one of the great feats of humanities scholarship in modern times, an essential reference to which anyone who works on the history of the printed word in the nineteenth century turns time and time again. John North and a revolving team of fortunate graduate students have taught us that the volume of periodicals in the Victorian period is about 10 times [actually, about 100 times, notes Professor North] as large as that of printed books for the same period, and have made their resources available by patient indexing.'" And more from SHARP: “The Waterloo Directory has been described as taking its place among the distinguished company of great reference books.” It began in print form in 1976, and in addition to 20 print volumes, it is now published in searchable electronic form.

Finally . . . as the United Way campaign continues, it's not all pledge forms and chequebooks. Special events are in full swing, with electronic bingo numbers on sale in the development office and a draw for some theatre tickets in the psychology department today. And civil and environmental engineering is having its long-awaited silent auction tomorrow, as well as a draw for a special prize: a fall colour flight over the gorgeous Beaver Valley, piloted by civil eng professor Bill Annable. Tickets are $2 apiece, or three for $5, with the draw to be made at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon while the auction is in progress in Engineering II room 2336.

CAR

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