On the road to Academic City — photo by Brian McMorrow.

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New campus in Dubai, not Abu Dhabi

UW’s presence in the United Arab Emirates — a necklace of tiny, wealthy states on the Arabian peninsula — is going to start in Dubai, not the previously expected site of Abu Dhabi, UW’s senate was told on Monday.

Provost Amit Chakma and acting dean of engineering Leo Rothenburg gave an update on the progress of what’s now being called the UW-UAE Campus, starting with an announcement that engineering will be admitting its first students to programs in the UAE next year, with mathematics following in 2010 if all goes well. Chakma noted that the initial class of engineering students in the UAE may be closer to 20 than to the figure of 50 that was originally suggested, with enrolment growing in later years.

Reporting on his most recent trip to that part of the world, Rothenburg said he and other UW representatives were looking at such issues as location, campus infrastructure and residence facilities, and the complications of licensing and accreditation that have hung over the project almost since its beginning two years ago.

That’s when he gave senators the big news: the most promising location for a UW campus in the short term seems to be not in Abu Dhabi, as previously suggested, but in Dubai, a 90-minute drive away, in the heart of its newly developed “academic city”. Located about 20 minutes from downtown Dubai, the area is home to several universities, including other western institutions that are making inroads into the Emirates.

The facilities there seem preferable to the more limited facilities that would be available in Abu Dhabi, said Rothenburg, mentioning residence space and gymnasiums (separate for men and women) available for students and staff.

The idea is for the campus infrastructure to be provided by a local quasi-government agency, while UW will provide the academic programs: Chemical and Civil Engineering and Financial Analysis, Risk Management and IT Management.

While the engineering programs would likely move to the originally planned Abu Dhabi site within a few years, there’s a chance that math programs would stay in Dubai permanently, Rothenburg said after the meeting. Dubai — the largest and most developed of the Emirates — is a centre for finance, while Abu Dhabi is a developing hub for construction, energy and other industries.

“We will have to start recruiting students almost immediately,” he observed, warning that “there is still paperwork for us to do” before the project can definitely move ahead.

Students will spend their first two years at the UAE campus, then come to Waterloo to finish their degrees, Rothenburg explained to senate at an earlier briefing last spring. The first group of engineering students would be joining their Canadian counterparts in time for academic term 3A in winter 2012. The first math students will then arrive at UW for 3A in the fall term of 2012.

In last spring’s briefing, the dean said the UAE will eventually be providing 800-plus international students at a time, an increase of 3 per cent overall in UW’s enrolment and a source of $20 million a year in new tuition revenues. He also said UW will have seven engineering faculty members and five to seven math professors at the UAE campus, working on one or two-term assignments.

At this week’s meeting, a few senators voiced their concern over the proposed move to Dubai, raising questions about human rights and the level of social freedom there. They reminded Rothenburg that he had originally said Abu Dhabi had a more “live and let live” environment. In response, he commented that “live and let live” applies to the UAE as a whole, the country is relaxing its restrictions on labour unions, and it has the intention of being part of an international community where human rights are respected.

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Fungi greet the ENV celebration

Pedestrians along the creek side of the ring road, between Environment II and the Minota Hagey Residence, have been reporting strange sightings of bizarre fungi. Thanks to the wet weather, reports Larry Lamb, manager of the Ecology Lab, “mushrooms have gone nuts.” Most unusual are a selection of stinkhorns, a foul-scented, phallus-shaped mushroom. The most vivid of the stinky fungi, Mutinus caninus, is a bright orange (left). Nearby are Phallus ravenelii and Dictyophora duplicata. “They develop from little jellied eggs that can erupt in a half an hour. The tips are covered with slimy, brownish-black, spore-containing liquid which attract flies that spread the spore. I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says Lamb, of the three species of fungi occurring within such a close proximity of each other. What could it mean? “Perhaps a fertile beginning for the new Faculty of Environment,” he quips. Today’s the day to celebrate that event, with a campus-wide picnic from 11:30 to 1:30 beside the Environment buildings. (Don't expect fungi on the menu.)

Two dozen students crowded into the spectators’ chairs at the Monday night meeting of UW’s senate, and watched with satisfaction as a proposed change to exam regulations was turned down. Associate vice-president Geoff McBoyle explained the proposal that had been placed on the agenda for a change to rules about “relief” when a student has too many exams scheduled too close together. Every term, he said, more than 1,000 students are notified that they are eligible for relief in the form of a rescheduled exam, but typically no more than 100 accept the offer — an average of 7 per cent of those eligible, said registrar Ken Lavigne. Officials were proposing to replace the “relief” rules with a commitment to minimize back-to-back exam scheduling. “This isn’t easy, withdrawing something that in principle is worthwhile,” said the registrar, calling the change a matter of efficiency. Federation of Students president Justin Williams spoke against the motion, arguing that students valued the system, and student senator Sam Andrey warned of the inequity that would develop if students didn’t have the relief rule and instead had to negotiate with their professors for changes to a difficult schedule. Graduate student Craig Sloss noted that the relief rule was an important selling point of a package of exam reforms brought forward some time ago. “Relief accommodations were a key compromise for those who were opposed,” he said. Other senators were concerned with how few students are accepting the rescheduling offer, wondering whether the opportunity was not being well advertised, or whether what amounts to an extra hour of down time between back-to-back exams was simply not worth the hassle of trying to arrange. At the conclusion of the discussion, the proposed change was soundly defeated.

Students entering Year 2 of several UW accounting programs arrived on campus early this term to participate in the Professional Futures Conference. The annual two-day conference involved more than 200 students who are about to apply for their first co-op jobs. This year’s PFC, with a theme of “Developing Professional Responsibility”, allowed the students to participate in various events and workshops, including a team-building session, simulated interviews, a networking “mocktail” reception, a presentation from a professional life coach and a business-attire fashion show. “This year’s conference was a great success,” says Grant Russell, director of programs at the School of Accounting and Finance, in a news release from the school. “Students were given the chance to showcase their skills and develop their professional image in an atmosphere of healthy competition. It was an excellent learning experience and a lot of fun for everyone involved.” Prizes were awarded to ten teams of students, with awards including leadership training at Chicopee; lunch with UW president David Johnston; lunch with Toronto Argonauts CEO “Pinball” Clemens; breakfast with RIM executives; lunch at the Canadian Club in Toronto with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario; and a lunch and tour with the CEO of Chartered Management Accountants of Ontario, Merv Hillier.

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Prof expects immediate ozone hole

from the UW media relations office

A UW scientist says that cosmic rays are a key cause for expanding the hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole — and predicts the largest ozone hole will occur in one or two weeks.

Qing-Bin Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy who studies ozone depletion, says that it was generally accepted for more than two decades that the Earth's ozone layer is depleted by chlorine atoms produced by sunlight-induced destruction of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere. But more and more evidence now points to a new theory that the cosmic rays (energy particles that originate in space) play a major role.

The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere that contains high concentrations of ozone. It absorbs almost all of the sun's high-frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to life on Earth and causes diseases such as skin cancer and cataracts. The Antarctic ozone hole can be larger than the size of North America.

Lu says that data from several sources, including NASA satellites, show a strong correlation between cosmic ray intensity and ozone depletion. Lab measurements demonstrate a mechanism by which cosmic rays cause drastic reactions of ozone-depleting chlorine inside polar clouds.

Satellite data in the period of 1980-2007, covering two full 11-year solar cycles, demonstrate the significant correlation between cosmic rays and ozone depletion.

"This finding, combined with laboratory measurements, provides strong evidence of the role of cosmic-ray driven reactions in causing the ozone hole and resolves the mystery why a large discrepancy between the sunlight-related photochemical model and the observed ozone depletion exists," Lu says.

For example, the most recent scientific assessments of ozone depletion by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, which use photochemical models, predict ozone will increase by 1 to 2.5 per cent between 2000 and 2020, while Antarctic springtime ozone is projected to increase by 5 to 10 per cent between 2000 and 2020.

In sharp contrast, Lu says his study predicts the severest ozone loss — resulting in the largest ozone hole — will occur over the South Pole this month. The study also predicts another large hole will probably occur around 2019.

CAR

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