Not a drop of rain — the weather's been just about perfect for the physical, break-down-the-inhibitions fun that's a traditional part of orientation week. This group was spotted trying to build a pyramid during Monday afternoon's Play Fair event on the Village green (photo by Michael Strickland).

Orientation takes a Jurassic turn

Every year it's a visual highlight of orientation week: Junkyard Wars, a competition for first-year engineering students (including those in architecture and software engineering). This year's battle runs for most of this morning on the Village green; who knows, there might even be a television crew dropping by to take a look.

In general, orientation today brings a full day of faculty-based programming, with much emphasis on the Pink Tie Guard in mathematics, and an afternoon "mystery bus trip" for those in applied health sciences. A special morning-long session for international students starts at 9:00 in Math and Computer room 2065. All groups will converge on the Student Life Centre tonight for something called "When Extreme Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth", except for science students, who have a "luau" in Federation Hall.

In various groups, new students will be shown the way to the Humanities Theatre to see a performance of "Single and Sexy" — there were three shows yesterday, and the hour-long play continues today and tomorrow at 10:00, 1:00 and 4:00.

Most of them will also write the English Language Proficiency Exam either today or Thursday; a schedule for multiple sessions at the Physical Activities Complex is online. "Students must bring their WatCards and pens or pencils," says Ann Barrett of the UW writing centre, "and should bring time management skills (the ELPE is 50 minutes) and brilliant ideas. Students should note that electronic or paper aids are not permitted at this exam. The answers to all questions about the ELPE, including ones such as 'Why can't I write at a time that is more convenient for me' and 'Why can't I choose my own topic', can be found at this web page. Good luck to all students who will be writing the ELPE."

The question of how many first-year students there actually are may take a little while to answer. Admissions officials said in mid-summer that 5,825 students had accepted offers of admission, which would be 114 per cent of the target for which UW was aiming. However, as they also pointed out at the time, "some attrition" some always happens before September.

At the same time, there are students who aren't brand new this fall but are still registered in first year. The statistic that really matters is the total of students registered on November 1, the date when UW reports enrolment to the provincial government, both continuing students and newcomers. An "enrolment status report" from Mary Soulis of the institutional analysis and planning office estimates that by that date there will be 5,839 first-year students altogether, which would be 6 per cent above the target UW had aimed for. "All faculties are close to or above their targets," she writes. "Domestic students are at 107% of target and international high-fee paying students are at 95% of target."

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Accounting students get head start

Accounting and financial management students entering Year 2 of their program have a busy couple of days ahead of them, even before fall term classes start, with this year’s Professional Futures Conference today and tomorrow.

The two-day interactive event will help build their skills and competencies to better prepare them for the co-op process”, says an announcement from the school of accountancy. A new feature this year is a comprehensive competition with prizes awarded for various events, achievements and overall success. The conference, previously held for students in the arts faculty’s AFM program, will also be welcoming math chartered accountancy students this year to join in the activities.

The goal of the Professional Futures Conference, says the school’s release, “is to introduce our students to the professional competencies that are important in becoming successful accountants and financial managers. . . . To prepare our students for the co-op process and eventually career success, the Professional Futures Conference will include team and individual activities such as business etiquette, mock interviews, presentations to ‘investors’ and business networking. These activities will help create a solid professional foundation by which our students can continually build upon through lifelong learning in their chosen profession.”

It quotes Grant Russell, director of the AFM program: “This year’s format of the Professional Futures Conference will engage students and provide an opportunity for healthy competition in a fun setting. Our students will develop their teamwork, leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills – competencies that are an important part of the learning experience at the University of Waterloo.”

Once the conference is over, it’s time for WatCase, the accountancy school’s annual case competition, which will be launched Friday. It’s described as “an integrated accounting practical case for upper year students, designed to develop case preparation and presentation skills, introduce additional breadth and integration of materials into their senior year of the School’s program, and further develop group work skills”. Students, divided into teams, concentrate on a case from a selected corporation in private industry, and present written reports and oral presentations.

With the arrival of a corporate sponsor, accounting firm BDO Dunwoody, the event becomes the BDO Dunwoody WATCase Competition. James Barnett, director of the accountancy school, calls it “a part of our curriculum that will help prepare our graduates for the rigors of the real world. Practical cases such as this allow students to see the larger scope of an organization, not just the financial aspects. We are excited to be in partnership on such a project with one of the top accounting firms in Canada in BDO Dunwoody.”

BDO has been involved with the competition in previous years, a news release notes, “and once again, BDO Dunwoody professionals who are also UW alumni will be part of the external panel judging the presentations.” Keith Farlinger, BDO Dunwoody Toronto Region managing partner and Chair of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, comments: “As an alumnus of the University of Waterloo, it gives me great pleasure for BDO Dunwoody to be involved working closely with UW School of Accountancy students. This sponsorship allows BDO to show support for the program and the school, and allows us to help students develop their knowledge and an appreciation for the accounting profession through practical casework.”

Just a week after the case is introduced in Friday’s online posting, the finalist presentations and the naming of the overall winner of the competition will occur during a reception on September 14.

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Other news (but no smoke signals)

Here’s a reminder that new and more stringent anti-smoking rules went into effect September 1, with a revised version of Policy 29, proposed by the UW Joint Health and Safety Committee and approved by the university president on August 7. No more will smokers be able to cluster immediately outside selected doorways, as the new policy (described by signs that were posted late in the summer) say they must withdraw to a minimum of ten metres away from any building before lighting up. In compliance with the Smoke Free Ontario Act, Policy 29 also bans smoking inside university buildings and vehicles, but allows it for “research or for traditional aboriginal cultural or spiritual purposes.” One more provision of the new rules is yet to go into effect: starting next April 30, no tobacco products will be “sold or promoted” anywhere on campus. There are "smoke-free guidelines" on the UW safety office's web site.

There's been a delay in the opening of "Neutrinos They Are Very Small", this season's first offering from Render, the UW art gallery. The opening reception, originally scheduled for tomorrow, will now be held September 13, and the show itself will run from this Saturday through October 20. The gallery is in East Campus Hall. As for the show itself, a publicity release says this: " A playful yet thoughtful and informative engagement with the complexities of contemporary physics, this exhibition reflects Render’s philosophy of developing a program that is cross disciplinary and engages issues and ideas of direct interest and relevance to the University of Waterloo and the surrounding community. Artists Rebecca Diederichs, Gordon Hicks and Sally McKay, along with curator Corinna Ghaznavi, descended the Creighton Mine shaft to visit the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), a renowned research facility in northern Ontario. Here they learned more about neutrinos, sub-atomic particles that emit from the sun in the millions of billions and pass through the universe in a constant stream, rarely interacting with other matter. Neutrinos They Are Very Small takes the SNO project as a metaphor for observation, experimentation, and the passion to discover and understand the universe."

UW’s Federation of Students echoes a lament from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance in a statement issued this week. Says Jonah Levine, vice-president (education) of the Feds: “University of Waterloo undergraduate students are asking the provincial government to implement sensible, educated solutions to address gaps in the existing Ontario financial assistance system. The policy recommendations, stemming from a previously released OUSA report, are aimed at improving access for all willing and qualified students in the province and ensuring that attending post-secondary education in Ontario is dependent on your brains rather than your wallet.” Among the suggestions: “The assessment of student need must be changed to better reflect the actual costs of attending post-secondary institutions in Ontario. . . . Tax-credits must be replaced with up-front grants. Tax-credits do nothing to improve access for low-income individuals.” Says Levine: “Steps taken at the University of Waterloo to establish a system of financial aid for students will not succeed unless fundamental problems that exist within the current system are corrected at the provincial level. With a new school year starting, and an election looming in Ontario, it is time for the leaders of all parties to step up and address the pressing issues of accessibility and affordability In Ontario’s universities and colleges.”

And . . . maybe it's not "news" exactly, but August was another hot month. "It was 1.2 degrees above average," says Frank Seglenieks of the UW weather station in his usual end-of-month summary. "However, once again there were no extended periods of really hot weather. The high temperature for the month (which is also the current high temperature for the year) was on August 1 when it hit 33.1 Celsius. Then there was the strange case of August 21, when the temperature for the entire day varied less than a degree between 16.4 and 15.4." As for the wet stuff, whether August's 62.6 mm of rain was "average" depends on whether you look at the 30-year average from Waterloo-Wellington Airport (87.0 mm) or the 9-year average from UW's own station (40.6 mm). More than half the month's precipitation, Seglenieks notes, fell in a single day, August 7. "Looking at the precipitation for the year, we would expect 594.3 mm at the end of August but so far have only seen 417.1 mm. It will take a very wet fall to get us up to average by the end of the year."

CAR

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