Student returns from land of the six-gun

J.S. Rancourt’s experience on a work term in San Antonio, Texas, involved so much culture shock that the Inside Scoop newsletter, which tells the story, cautions: “It does not represent the experience of all students, [or] the views of all San Antonio citizens,” let alone an official opinion from UW.

What it was, was an eye-opener, student editor Karina Graf writes in the online newsletter. “Although the working atmosphere was light-hearted and Rancourt got along well with his co-workers” at a San Antonio engineering firm, “many of their beliefs were completely opposite to his.”

For example? “Drive a Prius, save the environment? Not according to Rancourt’s truck fanatic co-workers. Many believe the environmental movement is bogus. Rancourt reports that some San Antonians ‘believe that green is a government conspiracy designed to make people feel good. Many think it’s also a way for the government to gain power and control over people by taking their freedom away — their freedom to drive big trucks.’”

More anecdotes from Rancourt, a third-year mechanical engineering student: “Two weeks after I got there, we’re talking about Christmas – this is in January. One employee says she bought her son a gun for Christmas. I’m like, ‘Oh really? How old is he?’ ‘He’s six.’ And I’m totally shocked. She’s taken aback at my surprise, and continues, ‘It’s his third gun. He had one when he was born and he had another when he was two.’

“The office did not recycle paper. When you print something wrong, even 100 pages, it goes into the garbage.” Rancourt had a recycling bin delivered to the office, and although his co-workers did start to use the bin, he says, “They made fun of me,” with a prank that involved decorating the office with paper.

After the jokes subsided, Rancourt found that his contribution made a difference: “I called the office after my co-op term was completed and they still use it, so it helped a little bit. But I’m only talking about one little office.” Somebody also hung a sign on the door: “Recycle. Obamanomics says so.” Says Rancourt: “Most don’t like [president Barack] Obama, in general. They love their country, and Obama is trying to change it. Right? Change. They hate the word.

“The big subject in Texas is Rush Limbaugh. The guys in the office plugged a radio in on my office desk. Every day at 11 a.m. they’d come turn on Limbaugh’s talk show for three hours. I loved it, because he is like Fox News times ten. Listening to Rush Limbaugh for a couple of months opened my eyes to what some Texans really think.”

Despite their differences, Rancourt got along well with his co-workers. “The office atmosphere was continually filled with jokes and belly laughs,” Graf reports. “At the end of his co-op term, the San Antonio crew threw Rancourt a goodbye party, with a card filled with jesting signatures reading, ‘Canada sucks’ and ‘Come back now, y’hear’ – all in good fun, of course.” As souvenirs, the other employees gave Rancourt (photo, above) a cowboy hat, a bandana, a cap gun and, his personal favourite, a Fisher Price Paper Recycling Factory to commemorate his recycling crusade. “Those guys laughed. I loved it.”

Life in Texas forced Rancourt to examine some of his long-held beliefs. “Everybody in Ontario is brainwashed, in a way, because they were raised in a certain way, and everyone in Texas is brainwashed in their way. As an individual I think you have to grab all of the information and find your centre. I learned so much about finding a balance and seeing the opposite, the complete opposite.

“You have to go there with an attitude of ‘I want to learn. I want to learn about your culture and beliefs. And then I might tell you why I disagree.’ It’s respect for where you are and the people with whom you are interacting. That’s why I think travelling is important, and I don’t mean going to Cuba for a week. I mean travelling and living somewhere. I went only 2,000 miles south and it’s just so different.”

Rancourt was profiled on the Keystone Campaign web site last spring as a recipient of the President's Scholarship, an award for first-year students funded by staff and faculty donations to UW. "This scholarship influenced my decision to come to Waterloo," he said then. "Even though other universities offered more in scholarship money, this scholarship helped to balance the inequality in funding. Many strong students don't end up coming to Waterloo because other universities offer so much more money. Additional entrance scholarships would help attract the best students. Upper-year scholarships are also needed."

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Homecoming events are eight days away

Beth Bohnert of the development and alumni affairs office previews next week's Homecoming

Think Homecoming is just for alumni? Think again. If you’re connected to Waterloo, Homecoming is for you. It’s a chance to experience your university in ways you may not have considered. Best of all, it’s fun and it's free.

The celebration on Saturday, September 26, includes cultural events, family-friendly activities and football. You’ll also have the chance to meet two very special Waterloo alumni: Alyson Woloshyn (BA 2000) and Chamath Palihapitiya (BASc 1999).

This year, the Faculty of Applied Health Science will hold its annual Fun Run in Woloshyn’s honour. The former student leader, community volunteer and UW employee is using her own battle with a malignant tumour to spark fundraising efforts in support of brain cancer research. This free event is open to everyone; the race starts at 10:15 a.m.

Interested in social media and the future of technology? Then you’ll want to meet Chamath Palihapitiya (BASc 1999), vice-president of user growth, mobile and international expansion at Facebook. Chamath, an electrical engineering grad, will speak on risk-taking, entrepreneurship and technical excellence. Catch him at Hagey Hall at 4 p.m.

Up on the north campus, the focus is on fun and football. The Family Carnival runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and small visitors hoping for giant slides, face painting and a bouncy castle won’t be disappointed. Special guests Brother and Sister of the Berenstain Bears will be on hand to shake paws and there’s a free book available to the first 200 families. Student entertainers The Waterboys, Nafoyo and the WATSA Dance Team will perform throughout the morning.

At 1 p.m., head over to Warrior Field where our football squad will take on the Windsor Lancers. Paid seating is available in the grandstand, or bring your lawn chair and watch for free.

For those more interested in culture than competition, the East Asian Festival and St. Paul’s Pow Wow introduce you to communities you might not have experienced before. Enjoy traditional music, dancing, food and more!

These are just some of the activities waiting for you at Homecoming 2009. The complete schedule of events and reunions is available online.

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Faculty on sabbatical as of September 1

Here’s another list of UW faculty members who are now on sabbatical leaves that started September 1. The project descriptions are as submitted to the university’s board of governors, which has to give approval for all sabbaticals.

Riemer Faber, classical studies (12 months): “Preparing for publication of the English edition of Erasmus’ Annotations on the Epistles to Galatians and Ephesians for the Collected Works of Erasmus series; co-editing the proceedings on the conference, Belonging and Isolation in the Hellenistic World; preparing for publication of several articles on ancient Greek and Latin poetry.”

Mike Hudson, physics and astronomy (12 months): “I will spend my sabbatical year at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, a joint laboratory of the French CNRS and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, where I will work on two research projects. The first, in collaboration with Yannick Mellier and his group at the IAP, is the study of the gravitational lensing signal due to the dark matter haloes around galaxies. The second project, in collaboration with Roya Mohayaee and Stephane Colombi of the IAP, is the study of the large-scale cosmic flows in the nearby Universe.”

David Johnston, mechanical and mechatronics engineering (6 months): “During my sabbatical, I plan to stay in Canada for the majority of the time period: on campus with current projects; working toward the remote Northern wind energy project and interacting with other researchers of the NSERC Wind Energy Strategic Network, with trips to conferences and other labs, as visiting researcher.This will allow me to further wind energy research here at UW and to continue to supervise my numerous graduate students.”

Krisharasagar Naik, electrical and computer engineering (12 months): “I want to execute the following tasks during my leave: (i) complete the book tentatively titled Software Evolution: Processes and Models (with Dr. Piyu Tripathy at NEC Labs, USA; (ii) write a research proposal entitled “myNet: A Framework for Collaboration of Devices on and around an Individual User”; (iii) develop application-level broadcast and multicast protocols with the SIP protocol; and (iv) visit research institutions in India, Japan, and Taiwan.”

Barbara Moffatt, biology (12 months): “I will spend the year carrying out research at several German universities. I will be primarily based at the University of Hamburg. My research will involve studies of plant genetics, genomics and metabolism.”

Ashwin Nayak, combinatorics and optimization (6 months): “I intend visiting Rutgers University and the Center for Intractability, NJ, USA, from September 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009. Thereafter, I will visit LRI, Orsay, France, and CQT, Singapore, during January and February 2010. I plan to work with my collaborators at these institutions on classical and quantum computing. My visits will be partially supported by my hosts and by my CIFAR grant.”

Liang-Liang Xie, electrical and computer engineering: “I’ll spend this period of time focusing on research. Most of the time, I’ll stay at the University of Waterloo, working on three funded projects, except travelling to some conferences or short visits. I expect to make significant progress on these projects with my students.”

CAR

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