Now they're a part of Waterloo

Michael Strickland of the Communications and Public Affairs office was on campus yesterday to check out the university's newest students as they arrived in residence, shopped for textbooks and met orientation leaders. Here are a few of the digital images he collected.

UW police greeted arriving parents and helped them find the correct residence; orientation volunteers unloaded the vital belongings; there was even time for a bite to eat in one of the Village cafeterias.

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New students 1 per cent over target

As new first-year students flood onto campus too fast to count, Mary (Thompson) Soulis of UW's institutional analysis and planning office is trying to answer the important question: how many of them will be here on November 1?

That's the day when universities officially count their enrolment for the fall term, and compare the totals with the "targets" they set half a year ago. In UW's case, the target is 5,467, which includes both beginning students and those who started in a previous term but are still classified as being in first year this fall.

Her estimate, according to figures issued by the IA&P office on Friday, is that enrolment will total 5,528, or just 1 per cent above target. "The faculties vary," Soulis notes in a memo, "from a low of 83% for Environmental Studies to a high of 110% for AHS." Arts is at 103 per cent, engineering 106, math 95, science 102. Her memo also notes that the number of "Canadian fee-paying" first-year students is expected to be 5,093, or 102 per cent of the target for that group, while "international fee-paying" students will total 435, or 94 per cent of the target for that group.

The November estimates are based on a count of students who have not only confirmed that they're coming to UW, but actually gone onto Quest to pick classes. "Registrations are estimated based on historical show rates," Soulis adds.

Most brand-new students are taking part in an orientation program this week, as anybody can guess who checks out the sea of T-shirts on campus or listens for the good-natured shouting. The week-long orientation program offers "a balanced mix of academic information and social activities", according to Heather FitzGerald, director of the student life office. “Our goal during orientation week is to introduce first-year students to a range of new things, academic or otherwise, that will help them as they adjust to a new environment, new expectations — in many ways a whole new world,” she says. “It’s also an opportunity for the university and its Federation of Students to showcase their services. And it’s a tremendous leadership experience for the more than 1,000 leaders.”

Today's programming features meet-the-dean sessions in both engineering and arts, the Science Olympics for science students, a "survival guide" for math students, and other faculty-based activities until late afternoon. Tonight the emphasis shifts to the residences, with "Village Variety Night", a carnival at St. Jerome's University, and activities in the Student Life Centre for those newcomers under the auspices of the Off-Campus Dons.

Most members of the first-year class are unambiguously in one of the six faculties, although an in-between group of "software engineering" students was added a few years ago. As of this September, there's a second such special group, the first intake of students for the Computing and Financial Management program, which spans the math and arts faculties.

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The new year dawns overcast

I've always maintained that the Tuesday after Labour Day — that's today — is really New Year's Day, as all things begin again (and there might even be a few balloons or noisemakers). Suffering a bit of a New Year's hangover, then, would be the Warrior football team, who faced Windsor yesterday at University Stadium and lost by a score of 42-2. "I'm totally disappointed," coach Chris Triantafilou told the Record. The team will play McMaster in Hamilton on Saturday.

Dig they must, along the eastern edge of the main campus, continuing the sewer construction that the City of Waterloo recently completed in the Waterloo Park and Seagram Drive area. Kevin Stewart, UW's director of safety, sends a warning that "The project has now reached the stage where there will be many construction vehicles operating along the section of the Laurel Trail/railway line from Columbia Street to University Avenue. For the Fall Term much of this area will be a construction hazard zone. Members of the university community are advised to exercise extra caution in this area as walkways may be closed or surfaces uneven. Be aware that access beyond the construction
fencing/barriers is prohibited. Follow the signage and instructions of construction signal persons." Plans are to keep a pedestrian crossing open to parking lot B, on the east side of the tracks, throughout the job.

Voting begins today — online for non-union staff, through paper ballots for union members — to fill one of two staff seats on the university's board of governors. This one has been vacant since Catherine Fry of the conflict management and human rights office finished her term in April (the other staff seat is held by Mark Walker of the registrar's office). Six candidates are vying for the position. Voting will end September 18.

James Van Evra (left), a faculty member in UW's department of philosophy since 1965, officially retired on September 1. A graduate of Valparaiso University and Michigan State, he has specialized in such areas as mathematical logic and the philosophy of social science. "Articles of his," the philosophy department's web site notes, "have appeared in Inquiry, Theory and Decision, Analysis, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, History and Philosophy of Logic, Journal of Theoretical Medicine, and in two recent anthologies. He is also co-editor of a volume of papers in the Philosophy of Science."

Auditions start today for the various performing groups sponsored by the department of music at Conrad Grebel University College (and you don't have to be a student in music to take part, although academic credit can be available if you are). Details are listed online, but briefly: the Chapel Choir meets Monday and Wednesday at 3:30, the Chamber Choir meets Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00, the University Choir meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. (starting next week), the Stage Band meets Monday at 7 p.m., and instrumental chamber ensembles "meet at different times during the week to fit students' schedule". More information: call ext. 2-4226.

All the food services outlets across campus are back in operation as of today, with the exception of Pastry Plus in Matthews Hall, which will open next week. . . . The key control office in plant operations will stay open over the noon hour (making its schedule 8:30 to 4:30 daily) to meet the expected heavy demand this week and next. . . . OSAP student loans, and loans from various other plans, will be available from the student awards and financial aid office on the second floor of Needles Hall, as of today. . . .

CAR

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