1,000 hail Johnston at tonight's dinner

More than a thousand people will sit down to a $150-a-plate dinner tonight honouring David Johnston (above) as he approaches the end of his years as the university's president.

Diane Wiles of the development office, who's the point person for many of the dinner arrangements, said between urgent phone calls yesterday that there were 1,054 registered guests for the dinner. That puts Marshall Hall at Kitchener's Bingeman Centre at capacity, and there's a waiting list of Johnston fans who are still hoping to squeeze in, Wiles said.

Those attending will include "business leaders, representatives of all levels of government, students, people from campus, UW volunteers and friends in the community," she said. The dinner is one of two farewell events in honour of Johnston, whose last day as president is September 30. The next day he takes office as Governor General of Canada.

The dinner is billed as a “Thank You Celebration”, and "will consist of musical entertainment, highlights of UW's progress during David's tenure, a few surprises for the family, and a welcome from RIM, our lead sponsor," Wiles said. The chair of the board of governors, Bob Harding, will be master of ceremonies. Not much is being said in advance about the details of the speeches and tributes, though Wiles did let slip that things are being organized in dramatic form: Prologue, Act I, Act II. "We want it to have an air of mystery!" she said.

"Dan Aykroyd wine and a traditional Amish apple torte are on the menu," she added, "to keep in the barn-raising theme." Johnston, who makes home on a farm northwest of Waterloo, has often used the metaphor of "barn-raising" to represent the collaborative way Waterloo Region is developed and enriched as a community. An annual "barn-raiser" award is now given in his name. (He's also credited with promoting this community as "the knowledge capital of Canada".)

The dinner, which starts at 6:00, is not open to media — rather to the bemusement of some media — but two Waterloo staff members will be energetically livetweeting the highlights. The hashtag, used to find such updates on Twitter, is #ggdj.

The formal event tonight will be followed by a much more informal on-campus Ice Cream Social, to be held Thursday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on the Matthews Hall green (rain location, the Davis Centre). At this event, says the development office, “Waterloo faculty, staff, retirees, and students will gather to express gratitude to David and to wish him well."

Johnston has been president of the university since June 1999. Highlights of his years in office have included the $500 million Campaign Waterloo, and such innovations as the Kitchener health sciences campus, the north campus research and technology park, the Institute for Quantum Computing, and VeloCity.

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Nominations invited for student honours

Nominations for the top student "leadership" and "volunteerism" awards, presented in the name of the President's Circle, are due by September 21, Tuesday of next week.

"The President’s Circle Awards for Volunteerism were established in 1997 to recognize the significant contributions of students in volunteer work within the university and the community at large,” says a memo from interim associate provost Bud Walker. “The awards honour the extracurricular efforts of students in a variety of service areas, some of which may not be highly visible but are nonetheless important to the community. Up to five recipients are selected for awards of $500 each.”

A second set of awards, the President’s Circle Awards for Leadership, was added in 2007 to recognize “students who have left a lasting impression on the university through encouraging student engagement, acting as a role model, or enabling others to become leaders.”

Walker notes that members of the President’s Circle are “a committed group of donors who annually contribute $1,000 or more to the University of Waterloo. They play an important role in the development of the university, not only through their contributions to Waterloo, but also through the example they set for corporations, foundations, alumni and other individuals. It is through their generous support that the President’s Circle Awards have been established.”

He asks department heads and others across campus to spread the word, “and consider nominating some of our extraordinary volunteers and leaders” for the student honours.

The 2009 winners of the leadership awards were Catharine Hay (for service mostly in the Engineering Society), Kieng Iv (accounting and finance, and the residences), Barbara Macdonald (the Federation of Students and the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services), David Pritchard (the Graduate Student Association), and Nick Soave (the Environment Student Society).

Volunteerism award winners were Elissa Cooper (service to Pathways to Education and several health-related charities), Dragana Kukic (Grand River Hospital and the Student Refugee Program), Catharine Lau (Healthy Active Living and a special needs camp), and Erika Murray (Women in Engineering and the Hope Spring Cancer Support Centre).

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And more on the second day of classes

The senate undergraduate council is meeting at noontime today, to review a fat sheaf of items that are on their way to the university senate for approval. Among today's agenda items: an update on the New Student Transition Project, a study that's been going on to review what Waterloo does by way of welcoming new students, orienting them, and helping them succeed in first-year studies. Ron McCarville of the recreation and leisure studies department, who's an associate dean in applied health sciences, and Heather Westmorland of the student life office are presenting today's report. "As we look ahead to a series of recommendations," they write, "it is evident that 3-4 key initiatives will serve as the foundation to the new-student transition program." They'll likely include "pre-arrival" programming, a "parent initiative", "early intervention" for students who might need information or specialized help, and, of course, "communication" — in particular, "a just-enough, just-in-time philosophy where students receive smaller more targeted messages as needed." We're going to be hearing more as the project moves along.

“Want a chance to win a $100 FedS’ card?” asks a memo that was e-mailed to thousands of undergraduate students yesterday. “All you need to do is provide some valuable feedback to the Federation of Students, your student government. A FedS card can be used in the Used Bookstore, the Bombshelter Pub, Federation Hall, FedXpress, and CurryUp/Wasabi! We want to learn about how students use the current space on campus and what students would like to see in a potential student success building. To do this, the Federation of Students has created a short web survey for you to complete. Every student who fills out the survey will not only help to improve the services provided to students, but will also be entered into a daily draw for one of five $100 FedS Cards. To access the survey, please follow the link. As always if you have questions, concerns, or ideas, do not hesitate to contact us. FedS is your student government!”

A display on the main (second) floor of the Dana Porter Library this month presents clippings and ephemera tracing the history of orientation and "the start of the school year" at Waterloo in Septembers past (left). • Preparations are under way for this year's United Way campaign, to be held on campus in October, and some volunteers will be taking part in the "First Annual Day of Caring" promotion being held tomorrow by the United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo. • An update to what was said in this space September 7 about the "Hylozoic Ground" project representing Canada at the Venice Biennale in Architecture: Andrew Hunter, who had been curator of the UW art gallery Render, is no longer involved with the project.

The university's web homepage is featuring a new set of stories that illustrate some of Waterloo's attributes, such as being "innovative, unconventional, collaborative and entrepreneurial". Some of the stories feature happenings that have made recent headlines in the news, such as the arrival of Canada Excellence Research Chair David Cory to the Institute for Quantum Computing. Student achievement figures prominently, such as the recent Games 4 Girls win by a team of computer science students, and an example of the kind of unconventional approach to graduate research taken by Vanier scholarship winner Manjana Milkoreit. The stories load at random each time someone calls up the homepage. Banner photos related to the stories also load at random. The archive of past "Waterloo Quality" stories is now up to 107 entries, with examples of Waterloo achievement from all six faculties, says Kelley Teahen, down the hall from me in Communications and Public Affairs, who manages the feature story project.

Finally, a message from Karlee Hall in the kinesiology department: "Do you have a slow metabolism and have trouble maintaining or losing weight? Individuals who have a slow metabolism may be more prone to diet-induced obesity. Researchers are conducting a study comparing the metabolism of overweight and lean individuals. If you are overweight or have trouble losing weight and are interested in being a participant for this study, you can obtain more information by contacting chall@ uwaterloo.ca or ext. 35791. Participants are asked to come in for a total of four hours over three visits, and will receive $50 in appreciation of their time. This study has been reviewed and received full ethics clearance by the Office of Research Ethics."

CAR

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