Back on the job as president of the Graduate Student Association, it's Mike Makahnouk, who has been elected to lead the GSA for a year that begins May 1. He headed a field of three presidential candidates, the GSA has announced. Makahnouk was also the association's president in 2005-06, when he was a master's student in chemistry; he's now working on a PhD in earth and environmental sciences. "I am truly blessed to be joined by an executive that has tremendous potential," he said this week. They include Mahdi Safa of civil and environmental engineering, elected vice-president (internal); Joshua J. Armstrong of health studies and gerontology, elected VP (communications); Krista-Lee Mathias, also of HS&G, acclaimed VP (student advocacy); and Hassan Nasir, the 2010-11 president, acclaimed as VP (external).

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Students take refugee rights onstage

a news release from Conrad Grebel University College

For five senior Peace and Conflict Studies students, learning about refugee claimants in Canada is a journey that is leading them from the classroom to the theatre as they prepare to perform their culminating project, “Open? A Story of Refugee Claimants in Canada”, on stage at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts on April 1.

Katie Cowie, Jessica Reesor Rempel, Michelle Van Rassel, and Kimberlee Walker originally developed the play in the fall of 2010 as part of a third-year PACS course. In January, the group decided to expand and develop the performance as their final thesis for their Peace and Conflict Studies degrees, and asked fellow student Rebecca Steiner to come on board as director.

To extend the impact of their work even further, the group offered to perform the play as a fundraiser for the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support, the only organization in Waterloo Region dedicated to serving refugee claimants. To support the event, the use of the Conrad Centre was donated by the KW Symphony.

Reesor Rempel and Walker regularly volunteer with MCRS, and have built relationships with a number of refugee claimants living in the community. “We want our refugee claimant friends to know that we have heard their stories and we are trying hard to understand what they may be thinking, feeling and struggling with as they go through the claimant process,” says Walker.

Reesor Rempel agrees. “Normally, when I am working on a school project, I want to do well so I will earn a certain grade. Here the stakes are so much higher. We want to present this issue in the most accurate and authentic way we can because we feel accountable to our refugee claimant friends.” As Cowie explains it, the play “puts a human face to political debates, and really challenges people to reflect on how their attitudes, and the policies of Canada actually affect individual lives.”

A panel discussion following the performance involves the group’s academic supervisor, immigration history professor Marlene Epp, as well as Kitchener-based refugee lawyer Stephen Schmidt and MCRS executive director Eunice Valenzuela.

The number to call for tickets or information is (519) 571-1912. All proceeds support the work of MCRS.

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Disaster class's gift to Japan; more notes

Days after the fourth largest earthquake in recorded history struck Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami, students in the “Human Dimensions of Natural Hazards” (Geography 206) class have raised a total of $818.70 for Red Cross relief there. Students in the class, which focuses on how humans can increase or decrease their exposure to hazards and disasters, learned that while Japan is a country with sophisticated earthquake and tsunami detection and warning systems, and a population that is highly aware of hazards, the scale of the tsunami simply overwhelmed preparedness efforts. Tsunami wave heights of up to fifteen metres overtopped protective seawalls, and some evacuation centres, built to provide protection for tsunamis of up to five metres, were inundated. Back-up generators designed to provide emergency cooling for the nuclear power plant reactors were located on the ground and therefore damaged by the tsunami, causing the ongoing cooling crisis. Much of the damage was in low-lying coastal areas, where thousands of people had settled prior to Japan’s modern awareness of tsunami risk. On Tuesday, Lynn Kergan of the Waterloo-Wellington Canadian Red Cross office delivered a guest presentation to the class, after which instructor Brent Doberstein presented the donation (left).

Meanwhile, members of the Konnichiwa Japan Club will be in "vendor alley" of the Student Life Centre for a second day today, collecting donations for the same cause. "We will be folding origami cranes (right) and distributing pins created by Let Us Volunteer for everyone who has donated," says Mamiko Noguchi, one of the organizers. The club has raised more than $1,000 already, she said. Meanwhile, Ed Chrzanowski of the Computer Science Computing Facility says he's also been involved in an effort to support the Red Cross's work in Japan: "I have been cutting out Japanese cranes from aromatic cedar, basically since I still need more practice folding cranes from paper, and giving them to people who make donations."

Michelle Burlock of the marketing and undergraduate recruitment office is in the air today, en route from Colombia to Ecuador as part of a two-week Latin American tour for people from 17 Canadian universities. “We will be visiting five countries,” she says, mentioning the other three as Costa Rica, Peru and Brazil. “The tour involves individual school visits, college fairs, counsellor workshops and Embassy networking events.” Burlock also sends an update on the "Skills Identification and Resumé Building" workshop that recruitment staff tried out last month in the Caribbean. “We facilitated the 90 minute workshop at one high school in Trinidad and at two high schools in Barbados,” she says. “The response was very positive from both the students and the school administrators. Many of the students commented on their feedback form that they thought that the workshop should be longer, which I always see as a good thing.”

Yes, that's the title of the year-end show of work by fourth-year fine arts students, opening tonight in the East Campus Hall art gallery. The reception runs from 5 to 8 p.m.; the exhibition continues through April 9. "Selected by Ivan Jurakic," the fine arts department says, "the artworks in the exhibition represent a broad spectrum of themes, materials and media representing the range and diversity of work produced by students completing the fine arts undergraduate program."

Chemistry and biochemistry students from across Ontario will gather at Waterloo's campus on Saturday for the Southern Ontario Undergraduate Student Chemistry Conference. "This annual event brings 150 students from different universities together to discuss their fourth-year research projects," says Amanda Bongers, president of Chem Club and one of the organizers for SOUSCC 2011. The day begins at 9 a.m. with opening remarks from Terry McMahon, dean of science, and John Honek, chair of the chemistry department. The students will then spend much of the day presenting their projects to adjudicators who will be judging their work. Adjudicators include faculty members, chemistry alumni, and representatives from industry. The conference will be followed by a banquet at the University Club with remarks by chemistry professor Jean Duhamel and awards for exceptional presentations. “The Canadian Society of Chemistry has generously provided monetary awards for some of our prize winners," says Bongers. "Each winner will also receive a certificate that includes an image of an element from the Chem13 News Periodic Table Project in celebration of the International Year of Chemistry.”

Earth Day is coming in late April, as it always does, but the university’s food services is getting a head start. “In support of Earth Day,” writes marketing coordinator Heather Kelly, “we are running a promotion in all our outlets to encourage everyone on campus to use a ‘lug-a-mug’ for their hot beverages. From March 21 to April 21, lug your mug to any Food Services outlet on campus for an extra 5-cent discount — add that to the usual discount of 10 cents for a total of 15 cents off your favourite hot beverage. This is an easy way to reduce waste in our landfills and show that our campus cares about sustainable practices. Additionally, we are randomly giving away our branded lug-a-mugs during this time to show our support of re-usable mug use and to encourage more people to take advantage of the discount after this promotion is over!”

And finally a word from Joshua Joseph, who heads the “Active and Community Transportation” arm of the student-run University of Waterloo Sustainability Project: "A current student-led initiative, interesting in bringing a bicycle share system to the University of Waterloo, has already received attention from City of Waterloo mayor Brenda Halloran, The Record, and over 600 students, faculty, and staff. The aim is simple: to educate people about the many benefits of cycling, and to call for the university to explore the feasibility of implementing a bicycle share system, while collaborating with other stakeholders who might have an interest in this project. There are a variety of ways you can support this initiative. As a student, please consider signing their petition (faculty, staff, and the general public can sign too). As a UW staff or faculty member, please consider expressing your support in a formal letter. As Canada’s most innovative university, it is crucial that Waterloo provides sustainable transportation choices to students, staff, and faculty while setting a precedent for sustainability across the globe.”

CAR

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