They're expecting 5,000 fans, give or take, for Saturday afternoon's football game against Guelph, plus the official opening of the renovated Warrior Field on the north side of Columbia Street. Ceremonies and cheers will highlight Black and Gold Day, which is held each year on the Saturday of orientation week. The stadium celebration will acknowledge the three partners — the university, Ontario, and the federal government — that made the project possible through the Recreational Infrastructure Canada program, says Bob Copeland, director of athletics and recreational services.

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'Caring' speaker today, toga night tomorrow

Waterloo’s newest students will be linked with the university’s alumni — the tens of thousands of students who came before them — as part of today’s proceedings in the orientation program, which is beginning its most serious day under the label “Cornerstones”.

Things start with a networking breakfast in Federation Hall, followed by a 10 a.m. gathering in the Physical Activities Complex. “It’s a new program this year,” says Pam Charbonneau, director of student experience in the recently formed student success office. “In essence, it’s a university-wide community-building and welcoming event for first-year students.”

The biggest part of the proceedings in the PAC will be words from motivational speaker Andy Thibodeau, whose slogan is “Making Care Contagious” and who promises his listeners “hilarious comedy, inspiring stories and moving messages”. He’ll be followed at the microphone by Kieng Iv, who graduated last spring from the BA program in economics and who addressed a session of June convocation as valedictorian.

Federation of Students president Matt Colphon will also speak, and then, says Charbonneau, “new students will leave the PAC through all four exits, where they will be presented with a UW pin from alumni.”

New students will have lunch on the Matthews Hall green, then spend the afternoon dropping in on a series of “Cornerstones” sessions in several buildings that will give them some grounding in financial matters, academics and social wellbeing. At the same time, a “services fair” in the Student Life Centre will show off what’s offered by departments and agencies across campus, including the library, the women’s centre, athletics, health services and the disabilities office.

Students based at St. Jerome’s University will miss some of today’s proceedings in favour of joining in a Community Service Day, and architecture students will be in Cambridge getting to know the studios that will be such a big part of their life over the next few years. They’ll get a bus to Waterloo in time for tonight’s engineering-math scavenger hunt. Other large-scale recreational events will also be going on: the arts rodeo, the AHS “Olympics”, the environment bonfire and the science luau.

Saturday starts with a brief chance to sleep in, but then comes the Black and Gold Day carnival, starting at 10:00 on Warrior Field on the north campus. That’s followed by the 1 p.m. football game, Waterloo vs. Guelph, with the official opening of the renovated stadium.

There are multiple events on Saturday night, including the iconic toga party (“the World's Largest Gathering of People Wearing Bedsheets”) on the Matthews Hall green. It’s expected to draw thousands (and has received a noise bylaw waiver from the city of Waterloo). Alternatives include video games, improv comedy, a coffee house talent show and a bonfire, at locations ranging from Federation Hall to the firepit beside Laurel Creek.

And on the seventh day they rest. Classes begin Monday morning.

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Two Waterloo profs elected to FRSC honour

Two Waterloo faculty members are among 78 people chosen this year for Canada’s highest academic honour. They have been named Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, the national organization announced this week.

“The newly elected Fellows have diverse backgrounds and disciplines,” an RSC news release said. “They have been elected by their peers in recognition of outstanding scholarly, scientific and artistic achievement. Election to the academies of the Royal Society of Canada is the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the Arts, Humanities and Sciences.”

The new Fellows from  Waterloo are Linda Nazar (right) of the department of chemistry and Douglas Stinson of the school of computer science.

According to citations published by the RSC for the occasion: “A scholar of international stature in solid state electrochemistry, Linda Faye Nazar has distinguished herself as a leading authority on advanced materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Her seminal research on Li-ion and Li-sulfur batteries has been described as ‘ground breaking and transformational’.

“Douglas Robert Stinson (left) is an internationally renowned researcher in the fields of cryptography, combinatorics and then interaction. He is a pioneer in combinatorial cryptography and the author of over 300 research publications.”

Roderick A. Macdonald, president of the RSC, said that "Once again, the Society has received hundreds of excellent nominations, and in 2011 the fellowship has been enriched by these 78 outstanding individuals.”

Founded in 1882, the Royal Society of Canada is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scholars, artists and scientists. “As Canada's National Academy,” its web site explains, “the Royal Society of Canada exists to recognize academic excellence and outstanding contributions to Canadian intellectual culture, to advise governments and organizations, and to promote a culture of knowledge and innovation in Canada. The Society's three academies collectively consist of nearly 2,000 Fellows, men and women who are selected by their peers for outstanding contributions to the natural and social sciences, in the arts and in the humanities.

“This year's new Fellows will be inducted to the RSC during the Induction and Awards Ceremony on Saturday, November 26, at the Ottawa Convention Centre.”

The national society also announced this year’s winners of a dozen medals and awards, including the Sir John William Dawson Medal, this year given to Keith Hipel (right) of Waterloo’s department of systems design engineering, who was named a Fellow of the RSC in 1998.

Hipel, the RSC said, “is globally renowned for his unique interdisciplinary research in systems engineering on the development of conflict resolution, multiple criteria decision analysis, time series analysis and other decision-making methodologies for addressing challenging system of systems problems lying at the confluence of society, science, technology and the environment.”

The news release said the RSC “will prominently recognize" this year's new Fellows and award winners in the Report on Business section of the Globe and Mail today.

CAR

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