UW student wins co-op awards at three levels

from UW Media Relations

UW will celebrate the achievements of six top co-op students next week, including one who will also receive provincial and national awards. Kate Gardiner (left), a fourth-year science and business student, will be given national, provincial and UW co-op student awards during a ceremony on Wednesday, March 19 at 2 p.m. in the Tatham Centre, room 2218.

Gardiner, who spent an eight-month co-op term as a research analyst on palliative care at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, will receive student-of-the-year awards from both the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education and Education at Work Ontario. She will also receive UW's Faculty of Science student-of-the-year award. At Sunnybrook, she assessed new methods of pain treatment, proposing research ideas on how to improve the quality of life among cancer patients.

As well, Gardiner is an active member of UW's community volunteer program. A residential don, Gardiner has organized many events benefiting the campus food bank. One weekend a month, she volunteers in her hometown of Mississauga at the Peel Region distress hotline.

"We are delighted that, for the third year in a row, the University of Waterloo has been recognized both provincially and nationally for the high calibre of our co-op students," says Peggy Jarvie, executive director of Co-operative Education & Career Services. "This is the second time that the award has been granted to the same person in both categories."

UW's co-operative education department will present co-op student-of-the-year awards to top representatives from UW's six faculties. The awards, which include a cash prize, recognize the students' contributions to work-term employers and co-op education, along with academic achievements and volunteer activities.

The other recipients of the UW co-op student-of-the-year awards are: applied health sciences, Amanda Hird, third-year health studies; arts, Carolyn Fitton, third-year arts and business; environmental studies, Tegan Renner, fourth-year environment and resource studies; mathematics, Anton Markov, third-year computer science; and engineering, Ray Cao, third-year systems design engineering. For more details see the full press release.

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Master plan sparks discussion on and off campus

An article in the Waterloo Region Record of March 13, “Historic house may go as UW expands,” has attracted comment from the university’s Graduate Student Association (GSA). The article describes “alarm bells” set off by possible plans to redevelop the land at the centre of campus, and raises concerns about the fate of the Grad House (the former Schweitzer farmhouse, below). The piece quotes students and faculty who wish to preserve the historic building.

Ian MacKinnon, GSA president, points out that members of the GSA executive were not interviewed for the Record article, and he says their views represent a different perspective. "While grad students don’t have any particular desire to tear down the Schweitzer farmhouse, our primary concern is ensuring that there will always be a grad-run facility on campus,” he said in an email message. “Given the recent grad growth and the focus on food service rather than alcohol [at Grad House], the farmhouse no longer meets our needs. If we can’t build a new facility on that green, we need to perform massive renovations that heritage status would hinder." A March 7 post on MacKinnon’s blog discusses the issues in depth.

The Record article mentions a “visioning session and workshop” about the plan to be held in Environmental Studies today. It is, however, not an open meeting. The session “is intended as an opportunity for information exchange between Urban Strategies (the consulting team that is leading the preparation of the Campus Master Plan) and members of the Faculty of Environmental Studies,” says planning professor Karen Hammond. “It is one of many opportunities for stakeholder feedback that will be organized across campus over the next few weeks.” The next open meeting on the Campus Master Plan is scheduled for late March. Details will be announced closer to the date.

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Notes as the days lengthen and the light grows

It’s come down to the wire for Robert Jan van Pelt (right). The cultural history professor in UW’s School of Architecture was chosen one of ten finalists in TVO’s Big Ideas 2008 Best Lecturer competition. A pre-recorded lecture by van Pelt on “Architecture After Auschwitz” will be aired on Saturday at 5 p.m. on the Big Ideas program (it repeats Sunday at the same time); the lecture covers, among other things, the origins of the cultural history curriculum at Waterloo. After the talk viewers may cast their votes, judging the speakers’ clarity and coherence, energy and performance, and confidence and authority. The winner’s institution wins a $10,000 TD Monnex scholarship. The series will wind up on March 30.

Online registration begins on Monday for the inaugural “2 Days for You” staff conference that’s to take place April 8 and 9. A colourful poster is already circulating; staff will soon be receiving a postcard invitation, says Katrina Di Gravio, director of Organizational and Human Development, the UW office behind the event. She adds: “Volunteer opportunities are available for staff who would like to help out with the conference.” Visit the event’s website and click on “Volunteers.” In a March 14 letter sent to all staff, President David Johnston supports the conference. “It is fitting that as we enter our Sixth Decade, we offer all UW staff an opportunity to focus directly on their development needs and interests,” he writes. “2 Days for You has been scheduled during exams so that as many staff as possible will be able to attend at least one of the [days] …. Departments that can spare their staff for two days are encouraged to do so.” Di Gravio adds that each day, the morning conference sessions will run again in the afternoon, making it easier for staff to attend.

The University Secretariat requests nominations for the following seats on the UW Senate: one faculty representative from each faculty; seven faculty-at-large representatives; one Renison College faculty member; one St. Jerome's University faculty member; two graduate students. Details and nomination forms are available online or from the Secretariat (ext. 36125, Needles Hall, Room 3060.) At least five nominators are required in each case. Nominations should be sent to the Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3 p.m., Friday, March 28. Elections will follow if necessary.

And, this just in: graduate students have elected Craig Sloss (combinatorics & optimization) as their next president and Michael Kani (biology) their next vice-president, student affairs, with 8.1 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively of eligible voters casting their votes. Their terms begin May 1. Returning officer Douglas Stebila reports that “the GSA website received 10 times its normal traffic on the first day of voting; almost 80 per cent of votes cast were cast on the first day of voting. No complaints or campaign violations occurred. David Pritchard (combinatorics & optimization) was acclaimed to the position of vice-president, communications and organization. Nominations for the vice president, operations and finance, and at-large positions on the board of directors remain open and are due Tuesday, March 18, at 4:30 p.m.; elections will take place at the GSA annual general meeting on Wednesday, March 19, at 6 p.m.” More information is online.

A note from biology professor Owen Ward refers readers to an article by Kate Gardiner (the multiple co-op award winner featured at the top of today's Bulletin) in the February 29 online Imprint. With a group of other students, all in UW t-shirts, she travelled to California in Reading Week to appear on the television show The Price is Right. The show will be aired this morning at 10:30.

And there’s a piece in the Toronto Star on the continuing recovery of Michelle (Smith) Senayah, the 2007 UW architecture graduate who was critically injured in a road accident in late February in Togo, West Africa. Michelle Senayah is now in a London, U.K. hospital where neurosurgeons are “cautiously optimistic” about her prognosis and “making plans for her rehab.”

CPA Staff

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