UW extends hand to future students

The traffic-stopper pictured here is UW’s new student recruitment poster, developed by the Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment office (part of the registrar’s office).

Says Julie Hummel, who headed the team that developed it: “Part of a strategy to increase our applicant pool and make UW top of mind when they are applying to universities, the poster is intended to attract the attention of prospective UW students. Our goal was to develop a poster that would stand out in a high school and deliver a clear message about experiential learning.

“It was important that we build on the strong graphic elements of our viewbook and other print materials which we know are distinctive and working in the market. We avoided beautiful campus scenes or happy students which are more traditional and conventional and the way most of our competitors deliver their message.

“The poster was distributed widely across Ontario and selectively throughout the country to high school guidance offices, student activities/council offices and heads of English departments. We anticipate that posters for the next couple of year will evolve into a series through the use of the same concept but with different quotes and a different presentation of the message.”

She adds that anyone on campus who would like to have a poster for the office or classroom can get in touch with the marketing office “and we’ll be happy to send one over.”

Besides Hummel, the team that developed the poster included Julia Mordini and Barb Trotter of marketing and undergrad recruitment, Devon MacDonald of engineering, co-op student May Reimer, and Dianne Keller and Sean Van Koughnett of graphics.

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Applied math professor is mourned

Marita Chidichimo (left), a faculty member in UW's department of applied mathematics, died Sunday at the age of 60. She had been on disability leave for about three years, battling a recurrence of cancer.

At UW she was cross-appointed to the department of physics and astronomy, and did research in broad areas of atomic, molecular and optical physics. For a time she was scientific coordinator of the international IRON Project, which has "the goal of computing, on a large scale, electron excitation cross sections and rates of astrophysical and technological importance, using the most reliable procedures currently available". For two years, 2001-03, she was chair of UW's Women in Mathematics Committee.

Born in Argentina, she earned her licentiate in physics from the University of Buenos Aires (1969), followed by a doctorate from Cambridge University in 1979. After brief stints at McGill and Western, she came to Waterloo in 1987 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor and then full professor. She returned to Cambridge for her last sabbatical leave, working at the department of applied and theoretical physics there and being named a Fellow of one of Cambridge's colleges during her visit.

A newspaper obituary tells more of the story, describing her as "quantum physicist, professor, human rights activist, Karate-Do black belt, Qigong practitioner, equestrian, avid gardener and hiker. She is survived by her four children, Valeria, Pablo, Lara and Ada. Predeceased by her younger brother, Ricardo Dario, a Desaparecido."

Visitation will be today, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m., at the Erb & Good Funeral Home on King Street in central Waterloo. A funeral service will be held in the funeral home chapel at 1 p.m. Friday. Memorial donations to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation are suggested by the family.

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Art exhibits will include war photos

Three new exhibitions open this week at the UW Art Gallery in East Campus Hall, with a reception tonight (5 to 7 p.m.) and shows continuing through November 30. One of them — "Pavo Urban: The Final Sequence" — is curated by the gallery's new overall curator, Andrew Hunter; the others are "By Appearances", curated by Virginia Eichhorn, and "Rob Ring: Greatest Hits", curated by Barb Hobot.

"By Appearances" consists of paintings by Frances Ferdinands (Toronto) and Rob Waldeck (Kitchener) and, the gallery says, "presents work that provokes, challenges and mediates upon the relationship between art and fashion, perception and disguise.

"Ferdinands typically works in series, and the body of work presented here is known as Embodied Ideals. The impetus for this series lies in Ferdinands's longstanding fascination with women’s haute couture fashion and its association with the realm of serious art. Its elevated status became more obvious to her upon discovering advertising for women’s fine clothing and accessories of fine perfume and cosmetics mixed in with art gallery ads in the pages of American fine art journals. These affinities are explored in this series.

"For Waldeck, fashion and disguise becomes means for exploring society’s mechanistic relationship with technology as filtered through the lens of how film, television, the internet, and other forms of media influence social behaviour through the creation of a virtual world. These fabricated environments provide a setting, or a dramatic stage apart from reality, which is designed to allow an individual to explore various identities and scenarios without consequence.

As for the second show, "Rob Ring’s three short videos describe what it feels like to be alive, curious, and floor-licking crazy. His domesticated daredevil moves will push you to the edge of your seat, and make you want to turn your head away. His nail-biting, reason-defying stunts are both uncomfortable to watch, and grossly captivating. Inspired by early performance video by artists such as Vito Acconci, William Wegman, and Bruce Nauman, Rob Ring pays homage to the cerebral, physical, and spiritual nature of body art. By adding his own tongue-in-cheek flare, Ring explores the physicality of our existence, as he tests the limits of his own body.

"Rob Ring: Greatest Hits is the first in a new program featuring video-based art, documentary work and vintage film to be screened on an ongoing basis at the UWAG. Upcoming projects will feature the works of Allan Harding MacKay, David Poolman, Walid Raad and Paula Jean Cowen."

The Pavo Urban show, "Final Sequence", curated by Hunter in collaboration with Antun Maracic of the Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik, is the first in a new and ongoing "Witness Project" series that focuses on artistic engagements with conflict and change. The installation (in the gallery and entrance hall) features the young Croatian artist’s final photographs — two sets of images found on the cameras he was shooting with when he was killed. Urban had extensively photographed the shelling of Dubrovnik and on the morning of December 6, 1991, he was setting up in the Ploce Gate, looking down the Stradun (Dubrovnik’s main street) to the Pile Gate. He shot seven colour images first and then began to shoot the Church of St. Blaise and the statue that stands in the centre of the square. As is evident from these haunting black and white images, Urban was gradually stepping out from the shelter of the Ploce gate when he was struck by a shell fragment.

Says Maracic: “Pavo was no professional who, at sober distance and with a suitable concern for his own safety, exploited catastrophes, extracting attractive pieces of material from them. He was driven by the passion of the artist, not that of the photo-journalist, hence the phrase War-Art which he used for his work.”

The gallery will be open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m., Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m., and by appointment during these three shows.

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Academic integrity and other notes

"Academic integrity" is clearly this year's buzzword on campus, thanks to the work of a high-level committee that's looking at ways to address issues of plagiarism, cheating, research credit and the like. An online survey of students and faculty has just been completed (no word yet on how many of them responded, though I understand the number was not small). And today Ranjana Bird, the dean of graduate studies, will host a pair of workshops on "academic integrity in graduate education and research", open to all graduate students. The two-hour events will start at 10:30 and 2:00 in the Humanities Theatre. Says Bird: "Academic integrity is at the heart of learning, research, and scholarship in the university. The purpose of the workshop is to enhance awareness of academic integrity issues. This workshop will include a presentation on our guiding principles, an overview of sample cases, academic offences and outcomes, followed by a question/answer period. Note that this is a non-ticketed event, and no reply is necessary."

Tomorrow being the last Friday in October, it'll be the last official "dress-down day" for the United Way campaign, which is scheduled to achieve this year's $165,000 goal by the end of the month. At least, it'll be a dress-down day everywhere except in the office of development and alumni affairs, where John Heckbert reports that things are being reversed: "Instead of dressing down, we're asking everyone to dress up! You can wear the most business-formal attire that you'll feel comfortable in. For gents, this would mean suits and ties; for ladies, well, I'm not exactly sure, but it probably would involve fancy shoes. It's time to strut our professional stuff!" The department will have a speaker during an office-wide coffee break tomorrow morning — someone from one of the fifty-some agencies, from the Interfaith Community Counselling Centre to the YMCA, that receive support from the local United Way.

James D. Cross, a former member of UW’s department of electrical and computer engineering, died Monday in Nova Scotia, where he was living following his retirement in 1995. He was 69. The family describes him as “avid cyclist, keen sailor, musician, inventor, Renaissance man”, as well as twin brother, husband, and father of five. “The first in his family to attend university, James excelled in academia and went on to become a professor of Electrical Engineering. In addition to his university teaching and research James was also an inventor. His power engineering and power supply systems, including the Cross Power Supply, are in use internationally. Plastic perforation technology developed by James is also being used in manufacturing.” He also circumnavigated the globe in his 22-foot sailboat, played the pipes and kept bees. Cross joined the UW faculty in 1970, and served as an adjunct professor after his retirement until 2002. He was one of the founders of the high-voltage laboratory, made a major impression on the field of insulation engineering, and gained national publicity when he led the development of a compact one-million-volt power supply in 1996. A celebration in his memory will be held Saturday afternoon at St. Margaret’s Sailing Club in French Village, Nova Scotia, and memorial donations to the Victorian Order of Nurses are invited.

Apparently there was one job that didn't make it into this week's Positions Available list as issued by the human resources department and published in yesterday's Daily Bulletin. The university secretariat is looking for an Administrative/Secretarial Assistant, at a USG 5/6 level. That position has been added to HR's online list for this week.

The registrar's office sends word that the schedule for December final exams, which are racing towards us, is now available online. . . . The names of this year's recipients of the Special Recognition Program awards for staff members are to be announced next Wednesday. . . . Tomorrow's Daily Bulletin will have much to say about the conference on Aboriginal Education in the 21st Century that's being hosted Saturday by St. Paul's College, with speakers including James Bartleman and Stan McKay. . . .

CAR

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