Homecoming website announces 2007 events

The glittery pair of ruby football shoes at the top of the new Homecoming 2007 website, flanked by the words “There’s no place like Homecoming,” is a clear call for all Dorothys to come home to UW from Oz, or wherever else the winds of time have blown them.

The website went live on August 20, with details of everything slated to happen September 28 and 29 as part of the annual event. It includes a page for registering online — many events require registration, even when they’re free.

The website also includes a fresh “Homecoming Trivia Question” each week, with a chance to win a prize.

Canada’s best-known peacekeeper, retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie, is to deliver the keynote address, entitled “The Media as a Weapon,” in the Humanities Theatre, on September 29, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

A highlight this year is Fifty Years of Campus Journalism, a reunion dinner for “all past and present campus journalists.” It’s hosted by Imprint, as successor to the Cord Weekly, the Coryphaeus, and the Chevron, but the invitation (which sports an inky fingerprint, a nod to pre-digital days) also mentions the Iron Warrior, MathNews, “and the administration’s Gazette.” The registration deadline for this event is September 17.

Events especially although not exclusively for children and families include the Family Carnival hosted by the arts faculty, featuring the television character Dora the Explorer, with “bouncy castles, face painting, obstacle courses, and slides,” as well as a classic car show; the Cake Walk (tour new buildings, pick up cake-eating implements, find cake); dinosaurs at the Earth Sciences Museum; a scavenger hunt in the Peter Russell Rock Garden; and the East Asian Festival Family and Culture Day.

Here’s some of what else is happening at this year’s Homecoming:

• Impact Expo, expected to attract more than 2,000 people, notably “over 60 high-profile industry guests and alumni, including many of Canada's celebrated Top 40 Under 40,” and featuring keynote speakers, workshops, a case study competition and a trade-show exhibition;
• the 13th annual East Asian Festival at Renison College, showcasing the “art, music, flavours, festivities, and culture” of Korea, Japan, and China;
• St. Paul’s fourth annual SUNDANCe Pow Wow;
• the Arts in Academics speaker series;
• a UW historical campus walking tour;
• the 22nd annual AHS Fun Run, plus a crokinole tournament;
• sales in the Bookstore, UW Shop and TechWorx;
• a football game — Warriors vs. Guelph Gryphons;
• alumni reunions, too many to list here;
• and, wrapping it all up, “Homefest” — a late-night party in the Bomber.

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Of Rhodes scholars and the moon's eclipse

Applications are now available for the 2008 Rhodes Scholarship, which supports successful candidates at the University of Oxford for two years or possibly three years. Applications are available in the Graduate Studies Office, Needles Hall room 2072. The memo from the grad office specifies: “The candidates are Canadian citizens or persons domiciled in Canada and are born between October 2, 1983 and October 1, 1989. Candidates may apply either in the province in which they are ordinarily resident or in the province in which they have attended university. Proven intellectual and academic attainment of a high standard is the first quality required of applicants, but they will also be required to show integrity of character, sympathy for and protection of the weak, the ability to lead and the energy to use their talents to the full.” For more information contact Elaine Garner, senior manager, graduate studies financial aid programs, at ext. 32841 or email: egarner@uwaterloo.ca. The grad office application deadline is September 12.

There will be a total eclipse of the full moon tomorrow morning before dawn. “The moon will become totally engulfed by the Earth’s dark shadow for one-and-a-half hours, with an hour-long partial eclipse both preceding and following the total eclipse,” according to an article by Bruce McClure in the online science program, Earth and Sky. “Depending on atmospheric conditions, the totally eclipsed moon can exhibit a coppery colour, or it can look quite dark. The colour comes from sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere onto the face of the moon.” (The photo by Doug Murray shows the lunar eclipse of Oct. 27, 2004.) For viewers in the Eastern Daylight Time zone the event will begin at 4:51 a.m., with the total eclipse beginning at 5:52 a.m. The spectacle will be over at 8:24 a.m.

CPA staff

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