Souvenir for the donor: George Labahn, acting director of the computer science school (left), presents David Cheriton with a collage of memorabilia from his days as a UW student. Cheriton was on campus Friday for a ceremony in the Davis Centre thanking him for a $25 million gift to what's now the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. Photo by Chris Hughes, UW Graphics Photo Imaging.

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Trench on the east side of campus

A couple of days ago I walked over to East Campus Hall (hey, do you suppose UW will ever have an "east campus"?) and observed that, yes indeed, construction crews have been up and down the edge of the main campus, along the CN railway line, digging a mighty hole in the ground. It's an extension of the project that was done in Waterloo Park, and between Seagram Drive and University Avenue, in late summer, to install a large sewer line to serve the Research and Technology Park and other neighbourhoods in north Waterloo.

Tom Galloway, UW's director of custodial and grounds services, notes that while the digging was going on anyway, the university arranged to have the stub of a "lateral" sewer line put in, in case it's needed in the future to meet the growing production of waste substances from the main campus.

Various staff and faculty members have commented on the obstacle course that they feel they're now traversing between main campus buildings and parking lot B, which lies on the other side of the trench, between the railway track and Phillip Street. "They've caused a great deal of stress," one staff member told me by e-mail, "not providing us with any notice that pathways were being blocked, which means we have to walk much further down the ring road to designated access points."

Galloway says the inconvenience is unfortunate, but it's pretty hard to install a sewer line without digging from the ground down. He says there are three pedestrian crossings from the campus to the parking lot, "no more than a couple of hundred feet apart", and the city crew has promised not to close more than one of them at a time. (There are also two crossings to the University Plaza just south of UW's parking lot.) As for announcing in advance which one will be closed, that's not possible, he said, because progress on the job is affected by weather and by the vagaries of what's found underground with each yard of new excavation.

The job will go on for about six weeks, Galloway estimated.

On the way back from ECH last week, I strolled through the Centre for Environmental and Information Technology, which now has gilded signs on each door, picturing a duo of friendly dinosaurs, to indicate that its lobby areas house the Earth Sciences Museum. Displays on the second floor include a buffalo skeleton, with an information sheet tracing the remarkable story of Alberta's Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

The museum will be an attraction as part of the Doors Open Waterloo Region open house, welcoming visitors to local heritage buildings and points of interest, this Saturday.

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Longer service hours in the library

Fall term classes begin today, students will soon have reason to head for the UW libraries — and when they do, they'll find that services are available later into the night than they've been in the past. "Starting this month," an announcement says, "the Library is extending the hours of two of its services on a trial basis for the fall 2006 term."

Starting today, it says, the Circulation Desk at the Davis Centre Library will open earlier and close later than in previous years. The Circulation Desk’s service hours will be from 8 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, and 11 a.m. to midnight on weekends. "During the trial, students and faculty will have increased flexibility with borrowing and returning library material, obtaining course reserves, and receiving assistance with other items handled at the Circulation Desk."

Then beginning on September 23 and running until December 16, the Dana Porter Library will open its Information Desk for service on Saturdays between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. "This trial will allow the Porter Information Desk to be open seven days a week for the fall term, providing students and faculty with an additional day to receive research assistance in person and/or by telephone."

The announcement says the Library "will review the benefits and issues pertaining to both service extensions during and after their respective trial periods. The review process will determine if these services will be continued and/or offered at other library service locations in 2007."

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The party's over and classes begin

Haven't heard any first-hand reports yet about the great orientation toga party, although I did hear the music echoing through the land around 11:00 Saturday night (and I live more than two miles from campus). I do, however, have the photo at right, thanks to optometry student Adam Hill, who glanced up at the Dana Porter Library very early Sunday morning and saw that it spelled out, well, you guessed it. ("You might have to squint a bit," he suggests.) And in the shadow of Dana Porter, Porcellino the bronze boar has been wearing a very natty toga and wreath for the past few days.

Earlier on Saturday, a good crowd of first-year students turned out for the Black and Gold Day pep rally and the men's rugby game against Toronto. Three mediaeval folk were also on hand, encouraging partisan spirit and promoting the Royal Medieval Faire that will hit town in a couple of weeks. The Warriors gave local fans a fine show, defeating the Varsity Blues by a convincing 66-7 score. Elsewhere on the weekend, the football Warriors fell to McMaster 60-9 and the baseball squad dropped a pair of games to Guelph, 4-3 and 7-4.

The human resources department sent out word Friday that it has appointed a new staff relations coordinator, Vera Cardoso. Says Neil Murray, director of staff and labour relations: "Vera brings many years of Human Resource experience in the areas of recruitment and selection, salary administration, conflict management and training and development." She becomes one of four staff relations coordinators, each assigned to groups of departments; the others are Katrina DiGravio, Sandra Hayes and Teresa Walker.

Ratko Terzic retired September 1, after working since 1997 as a custodian in UW's plant operations department. . . . Jean Andrey of UW's department of geography has been elected to the board of governors of St. Jerome's University as a "community" representative. . . . Dana Evans, who's been a colleague of mine in Communications & Public Affairs for the past year and a half, starts a new job today as coordinator of international marketing and recruitment in UW's undergraduate recruitment office. . . .

Pat Lafranier of the information systems and technology department sends a “friendly reminder from the Web Operations Team”, urging people across campus to update their web pages to reflect the 5-digit extension numbers that now apply to telephones across the university. “In addition,” she writes, “there's a few new web-related courses being offered through the SEW program (that’s Skills for the Electronic Workplace) for UW employees: DreamWeaver Tips and Techniques and Writing for the Web.”

CAR

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