House links campus to pioneer days

by Susan Fish, Conrad Grebel University College

“They made things well in those days,” says Dorothy Schweitzer Elliott, holding her hands apart to illustrate the sturdiness of the beams of Brubacher House (pictured). “It’s going to stand for another hundred years.”

Elliott is speaking of her family home — now a UW museum operated by the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario and Conrad Grebel — but she could be describing herself. At “101 years and 3 months,” she provides a living link to Waterloo County’s pioneer days.

In May, Elliott visited Brubacher House where she had lived as a young girl, and was able to identify many of the house’s artifacts. These included a wall hanging of the Brubacher family tree she had made from pure wool, imported from Scotland, and two tea-sets which had belonged to John E. Brubacher and his wife Magdalena, her great-grandparents.

Elliott herself was “nearly born in a barn on a Sunday” on June 2, 1907, to a family related to theologian-physician Albert Schweitzer on her father’s side, and to the Brubachers on her mother’s side. Elliott’s Brubacher family came to Canada in 1806 from Pennsylvania.

Her grandmother Anna, known as Nancy, was the third of John E. Brubacher’s daughters. When Dorothy was a little girl, she, her parents, sisters and grandparents lived in the Brubacher House, which had a loghouse addition on the back and which included as many as seven bedrooms.

As a child, she attended the Mennonite Church in Bloomingdale, where she recalls meeting the girl who would be her best friend for 87 years, and also remembers the two of them “being bad” — crawling under the seats during long prayers to pinch the legs of adults, before scurrying back. She played the organ and later the piano at the Bloomingdale church for more than 80 years. She has a special place in her heart for Grebel because, as Dorothy says, “I like my Mennonite roots.”

She and her sister Olive used to dress up in long dresses and give tours of Brubacher House when it first became a UW museum, and they were also among the founders of the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, for which she played the piano for 20 years.

She says it is vitally important for the Brubacher House to keep operating, so that people will understand what life was like for early Mennonites in Waterloo County. She pulls out a letter written by her mother, describing the transformation she had witnessed from times when streetcars were pulled by horses, bears were common and people used stumps for kitchen tables, to twentieth century life.

Today, she has outlived most of her contemporaries and relatives. She lives in a comfortable apartment in Waterloo’s Luther Village, where she knits mittens for children, visits with friends, listens to church services and stock reports on the radio, and remembers. Her mind still sharp and her face alert but peaceful, she says: “When you get to be my age, you don’t need to go out. You have memories. Good memories.”

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A warning about next Wednesday

I would have said that during academic terms Thursdays have more meetings and special events than other days of the week, but perhaps that’s changing. Certainly this coming Wednesday is promising to be one of the busiest days on record, so I thought I’d better give every opportunity for advance planning.

The events scheduled for that day, based on what’s appeared so far for listing in the “When and where” column at right, include some aimed at very specific audiences, such as a meeting for old and new members of the Warrior curling team at 5 p.m. and a similar event for nordic skiers at 7:00, but others are of general campus-wide interest.

The biggest event of the day is surely the lunchtime barbecue that’s being hosted by the recently renamed Faculty of Environment, to celebrate not just its new title but also the launch of its 40th anniversary year. The “faculty of environmental studies”, as UW called it for its first 39 years, came into existence July 1, 1969.

Wednesday’s barbecue will run from 11:30 to 1:30 in the area beside the Environment buildings (that is, behind Modern Languages) and along the ring road. Dean Deep Saini and his colleagues are promising “lunch from local sources” as well as prizes, plus booths and displays about conservation and environmentalism.

For those who prefer a more elegant lunch, even if they have to pay $18 for it, the University Club is holding its “welcome-back luncheon buffet” from 11:30 to 2:00 on Wednesday. On the other hand, those who cook their own (or eat it raw) will presumably be heading home from the food services farm market, which will run from 9:00 to 1:00 in the lower level of the Student Life Centre. That’s a change from the previously announced Thursday market — Heather Kelly of food services says the Elmira Produce Auction Cooperative has changed its schedule, which affects when carrots, tomatoes and berries are available.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the SLC, an “on-campus part-time job fair”, organized by the career services office, will be taking place from 11:00 to 2:00, and Canadian Blood Services will have an information booth in operation (same hours) in advance of the blood donor clinics that will start September 25.

Also on Wednesday, and I know this listing isn’t exhaustive:

• Academic integrity session for international students about academic expectations at UW, 10:30, Needles Hall room 1101.

• Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research seminar: Robert Istepanian, Kingston University, London, “The Role of Emerging Communications and Computing Technologies for Personalized Healthcare Systems,” 12:00 noon, Davis Centre room 1304.

• Free noon concert: Kenneth Hull, “Romantic Piano Music”, 12:30, Conrad Grebel UC chapel.

• Social Innovation Generation dialogue: Al Etmanski, Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network, “Engaging Vulnerable Populations to Strengthen Our Communities”, 4:30, Kitchener Public Library main branch.

• Computer Science distinguished lecture: Eric Brewer, Berkeley, “Technology Research for Developing Regions”, 4:45 p.m., Davis Centre room 1351.

• Documentary screening to mark International Car-Free Day: “Bus Riders Union”, sponsored by Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, 5:30 p.m., Math and Computer room 2066.

• Lime Connect corporate recruitment event aimed at students with disabilities, sponsored by Co-op Education and Career Services, 6:00 to 8:00, Federation Hall.

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Other notes, including a barbecue

Winners will be announced today in the BDO Dunwoody WatCase Competition, a beginning-of-term tradition at the School of Accounting and Finance. It's "an integrative and graded competition for accounting and finance students entering their 4B academic term. This annual competition challenges the students to apply the skills they've learned in the classroom and on their co-op terms to a case based on a real-life company, helping to hone the students' practical accounting and finance knowledge, report-writing abilities and presentation proficiencies." This year's competition, "Bringing the iPhone to Canada," challenged students to assess the issues and opportunities facing Rogers Wireless before the launch of the much-publicized hardware, and review launch proposals for it. Finalist presentations and the judges' decisions are expected today.

Renison University College, the Anglican institution affiliated with UW, will be in celebratory mood Sunday as it installs Rt. Rev. D. Ralph Spence, retired bishop of the Niagara diocese, as its 7th Chancellor. The ceremony is scheduled for 3:00 on Sunday at St. George's Forest Hill Anglican Church, "and will be attended," a news release says, "by members of Waterloo’s academic and Anglican communities. Both the Diocese of Huron and Niagara will be represented. As Chancellor, Bishop Spence is ceremonial head of the institution and will play a pivotal role in guiding Renison as it enters its sixth decade. Considered one of the leading visionaries of the Anglican Church, Bishop Spence is highly regarded for his work nationally and internationally." It quotes the interim principal of Renison, Bob Rosehart: "Bishop Spence’s forward-thinking outlook is recognized and acclaimed by the Board of Governors, and we believe that he will be an excellent Chancellor as we look forward to this time of unprecedented growth, revitalization, and redirection in Renison’s history." The ceremony will be followed by a reception at the college.

A group called the Waterloo Mayor's Student Advisory Council will hold its 11th Annual "Welcome Students to the Community” barbecue Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. at 112 Hickory Street West. “This event,” says a news release, “offers an opportunity for the residents of Waterloo to promote a healthy community through fostering communication links with students and other community leaders. This is a free event. Vegetarian options will also be available. Over 400 guests from a variety of organizations are expected at the event, including representatives from non-profit organizations, universities and the community. A number of distinguished guests and community dignitaries are expected to attend the event including Brenda Halloran, Mayor of the City of Waterloo, and regional councillors. Representatives from the Waterloo Regional Police Service, City of Waterloo By-Law Enforcement, Region of Waterloo and the Waterloo Fire Department will be present to answer any questions.” It quotes Allan Babor, president of UW’s Arts Student Union: "The first step in creating a strong community is the collaboration of ideas, wisdom, and optimism, over some delicious food!" MSAC is “a post-secondary student run not-for-profit organization that focuses on engaging students to create social change through education and community involvement”.

Scholar and futurist Thomas Homer-Dixon, who came from the University of Toronto to join UW’s Faculty of Arts earlier this year, is scheduled to speak Monday night as the first attraction in the 2008-09 Signature Lecture Series at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. In his lecture, “Crisis and Resilience: Why the future won’t be anything like the past and what we can do about it,” he will discuss future global stresses and the capacity to exploit these opportunities for reform and renewal, CIGI says. “In coming decades, Canada and the world face an unprecedented convergence of natural, social and economic stresses, such as worsening energy scarcity, changing climate, rapid population growth, mass migration and widening gaps between rich and poor. At some point, these stresses are likely to cause sharp, sudden shifts in world order, including breakdown of economies and political systems. This possibility is not, in itself, bad news. In times of crisis, people often show their greatest capacity to change their institutions and behaviours.” Homer-Dixon holds the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, a joint project of UW and Wilfrid Laurier University. He has led several international research projects studying the links between environmental stress and violence in developing countries. Recently, his research has focused on threats to global security in the 21st century and on how societies adapt to economic, ecological and technological change. His award-winning books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, which won the 2006 National Business Book Award. Monday’s lecture starts at 7 p.m. at CIGI, 57 Erb Street West.

The Department of Rec — ah, make that "the internationally renowned Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies" — is launching celebrations of its 40th anniversary. A web site created for the milestone notes that "The department offered one of the first undergraduate degree programs in Recreation and Leisure Studies including the first co-operative education program, as well as the first MA and PhD programs in Recreation and Leisure Studies in Canada. Our program remains one of the largest leisure programs in Canada. We have over 2,600 graduates, including 18 PhD graduates." A kickoff event for the anniversary is planned during Homecoming, later this month, and shirts and other souvenirs are for sale.

CAR

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