The first of the million-dollar days

Today is the first day of the spring term, and if you're teaching or taking classes this term, don't you just know it already. Spring term is the smallest in the yearly cycle: associate registrar Mark Walker said yesterday that there are 7,026 undergraduate students with "enrol status" for this term, meaning that they're signed up to take one or more courses. That would compare with approximately 20,000 undergraduates last fall term and just under 18,500 in the winter term. Another 4,252 students are listed as being on co-op jobs for the spring term. In addition, of course, graduate students by the thousand are on campus this term for courses and research work.

Today's also the first day of the 2007-08 fiscal year for UW. For the first time, the university will be spending more than a million dollars a day — the budgeted total for the operating fund is $376.4 million, compared to $350 million in the year that's just ended. That works out to almost $43,000 every hour, around the clock, for 366 days. And it doesn't include research funding, construction money, or the transactions in UW's business enterprises such as residences and the bookstore, all of which would bring the year's total to around $611 million, according to the provost's estimates.

The new leadership of the Federation of Students, elected in February, takes office today: Kevin Royal as president, Jonah Levine as vice-president (education), Del Pereira as VP (education) and Darcy Higgins as VP (internal). A new executive should also take the reins of office today for the Graduate Student Association, where acclamations are routine, but there has been no announcement from that direction so far.

A number of new associate deans, department chairs and similar officers take on new jobs as of May 1, and I'll be introducing them in Daily Bulletins over the days ahead. Starting today in a brand-new position in Needles Hall is Carolyn Dirks, formerly the librarian at St. Jerome's University, who becomes University Records Manager, in charge of efforts to streamline paperwork. Watch for more about that initiative in the next few days also.

And today's the day that the Centre for Teaching Excellence comes into existence. Announced in February, the CTE is being formed from three existing units: Teaching Resources (TRACE), Learning and Teaching through Technology (LT3), and the Learning Resources and Innovation (LRI) office. It will be headed by English professor Catherine Schryer, who has been the director of TRACE. Donna Ellis, currently associate director of TRACE, and Liwana Bringelson, systems design engineering professor and director of LT3, will be associate directors of the new centre. All three units have been reporting to the associate vice-president (learning resources and innovation), a position that's being held on an interim basis by Gail Cuthbert Brandt (also associate vice-president, academic). The LRI unit, responsible for such activities as the Teaching-Based Research Group, represents the associate VP's office in Needles Hall. TRACE is in the Math and Computer building and LT3 is in the Dana Porter Library, with outposts at the distance and continuing education office on Gage Avenue.

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New month brings new view of UW

As you flip from April to May on your wall calendar, there's a good chance that you're moving from one artistic UW photo to another, at least if you're a Waterloo alumnus or a co-op employer. Two different UW calendars, with similar proportions and styles, are proudly displayed on many a wall both on campus campus and beyond, thanks to cooperation last fall between the alumni affairs office and the co-op education and career services department.

The two departments worked together on a 2007 calendar project, trying to maximize efficiencies by utilizing a common design template and what I'm told is a "similar cutting-edge look" with enough design flexibilities to target their two very different audiences.

The 2007 Alumni Calendar is co-sponsored by the Annual Giving program as well as Alumni Affairs and was sent to alumni celebrating a milestone anniversary in 2007, and to UW leadership donors. It is also being offered to donors who make a monthly gift to UW in support of Campaign Waterloo and UW’s 50th Anniversary. The alumni calendar features a number of striking visual images that represent each of UW’s Faculties and Colleges — from Porcellino to the golden cells that top the Midnight Sun solar car.

The Co-op Calendar was mailed to 6,000 employers as a thank-you for their support of the co-op program and a way of encouraging "top-of-mind awareness" (don't forget Waterloo!) throughout the year. New co-op employers got the calendar just a little late when they came to campus during first-round interviews in February. The calendar features an array of unique images of campus buildings. Each month also highlights one of UW’s students, ready for hire in the month they are profiled.

So if you're an employer, you're flipping the calendar from the Dana Porter Library (April) to the century-old bricks of the Architecture building (May), and if you're an alumnus, you're moving from the Environmental Studies I "green wall" to the sky-reflecting cladding of the Accelerator Centre. You'll also get to read a footnote about the research and technology park, of which the Accelerator Centre is a part, while co-op employers are told about arts-and-business student Bryan Baker.

Both calendars promote Ken McLaughlin’s book honouring UW’s 50th Anniversary, Out of the Shadow of Orthodoxy: Waterloo @ 50, with a collage showing Canada Day fireworks high above the engineering buildings and the Dana Porter Library.

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Men in the kitchen, and other notes

As announced over the last couple of days, the UW 50th Anniversary Dance at Federation Hall, scheduled for Saturday, has been rescheduled to the previous night — Friday, May 4. Organizers say that those who had bought tickets can either return them to the box office for a full refund, or turn up at the door Friday night, join the dance and receive a $10 refund. Friday’s party is a joint event between UW and the Lutherwood Foundation, celebrating Children's Mental Health Week. The event starts at 8:00 and tickets are $10. The entertainment will be The Lost Faculties, a band based at the UW School of Optometry that started six years ago after a challenge from optometry students for their professors to join in the annual skit night. They played their first gig in January 2001 and the high-energy set electrified the audience, who were thrilled to see their previously mild-mannered instructors transformed into rock stars with attitude. The Lost Faculties now regularly play at charity and optometry events in Canada, and have raised more than $50,000 for good causes over the past five years. For Friday night, then, here’s their offer: “Grab some friends and come along to listen to some classic rock tunes and dance the night away, while raising some money for a very worthy event. There are some fabulous door prizes to be won and the band will be giving away various Lost Faculties merchandise on the evening for the best dancers!”

Real Men Can Cook, a novelty fund-raising event over the weekend boasted, and the mentors of UW's Warriors decided to demonstrate that Football Coaches Are Real Men. The result: head coach Dennis McPhee and colleagues Joe Paopao and Marshall Bingeman were out there among the 50 celebrity men helping attract both donations and publicity for the KidsAbility Centre for Child Development. McPhee presented Grandma McPhee's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies, Bingeman presented Warrior Sunday Afternoon Beef Stew, and Paopao topped everyone by winning the critics' choice award for best dessert for his Warrior "Skore" Cake.

Speaking of cake, colleagues have let it be known Kelly Wilker-Draves (right) of the registrar's office is celebrating a landmark birthday today. • OSAP loans, Canada and Ontario Student Loans, and some other government loans will be available to eligible students from the student awards and financial aid office in Needles Hall starting today. • Today's the opening day for online bingo organized in the dean of engineering office as an advance fund-raiser for the United Way.

A contingent of students and others will board a plane for England tonight, heading off on the 18-day trip organized by UW's fine arts department and the music department at Conrad Grebel University College. A dozen music students and twice that number of fine arts students are participating, says Ken Hull of Grebel, who will lead the trip along with Joan Coutu of fine arts. The two groups will have some joint activities but also split up for a while, with the artists heading for Yorkshire (good sketching at Fountains Abbey) while the music folks stay in the south — London, Oxford, Brighton. They'll hear everything from a harpsichord recital at the Handel House to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Dvorak, and a performance at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

And . . . “Render”, otherwise known as the UW art gallery, has just announced “two unique projects engaging the artist's creative process”, both appearing this week and next in the Modern Languages building gallery (open noon to 4 p.m.). Curator Andrew Hunter describes the first one: “Recent UW fine arts graduate Jenn Yeates' ambitious series of monumental wall drawings executed in the winter term at the request of Render. A playful and engaging exploration of ambidexterity and the process of "learning" to be an artist.” And the other one: “The Notebook Project, a multi-media collaboration between Isabella Stefanescu, Rob Gorbet and Nick Storring, with technical support from Robert McNair, Sandra Dunn & Stephen White and Anuta Skrypnychenko. The genesis for The Notebook Project began in Isabella Stefanescu's studio with KWAG curator Allan MacKay and discussions regarding the particular content and significance of notebooks to the artist's practice. An interface was developed that allows the notebook to become an architectural space whose narrative sequence and sound is controlled and influenced by the viewer. The intimate notebook page becomes a wall and the sense of touch is replaced by the awareness of the viewer's presence in architectural space. This collaborative image, sound and interactive project has invented a creative context which reveals the often private mark making and notations of the artist and provides a window into the artistic process.”

CAR

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