A big bike for big hearts

On Tuesday, June 18, members of the Professional Development Program, or WatPD, took part in the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Big Bike Event.

"25 WatPD staff got to cycle around UpTown Waterloo on an enormous red bike," writes Instructional Support Coordinator Amy Fernandes. "It was so much fun."

The WatPD team raised $2,892, which made them the second top fundraising team at the annual event.

"Our top fundraiser was one of our co-op students, Sara Scanlon, who raised $475," Fernandes writes.

Well done, WatPD!

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How a new residence was born

by Sabrina Hutchison, Housing & Residences.

Every year, the department of Housing and Residences, in conjunction with St. Paul’s, St. Jerome’s, and Renison University Colleges, offers a 100% residence guarantee to incoming first-year students. This year, uWaterloo exceeded enrollment projections which led to a corresponding increase in residence applications.

This means that Waterloo Residences must ensure that all students who met the first-year residence deadline have a place to live in the fall term. Sometimes this situation means creative solutions! In the past we have placed 3 students into double rooms and we have leased off-campus buildings. This year, we have been able to secure a new residence community on the eastern edge of campus: Waterloo Central Place (WCP).

WCP is a residence community being rented from Wilfrid Laurier University for a period of eight months. It will accommodate approximately 280 first-year students for fall 2013 and winter 2014. The community offers a variety of suite-style spaces including townhouse, apartment, and maisonette styles. Students living in WCP will have a traditional Waterloo Residences experience including living with all uWaterloo students and a Don, academic support and programming, and access to two community centres.

WCP got its name from its central and convenient location. Located off University on Sunview Street, just past Lester, it’s just as close to the centre of campus as Ron Eydt Village and less than a ten minute walk to everything that UpTown Waterloo has to offer. Students will also enjoy all of the green space at WCP as it has been described as a park-like setting in the midst of a quickly growing city.

Although WCP won’t be part of uWaterloo permanently, we are excited to be able to offer this option to our incoming first-year students for fall 2013. Waterloo Residences is committed to ensuring students placed in this community receive every benefit of other residence communities, and we are confident they will enjoy everything WCP has to offer!

Photograph courtesy of Waterloo Residences.

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Tuesday's notes

Professor Larry Smith will ask "What's Your Problem?" at a lecture on Thursday, July 11 in B1-271. The event gets underway at 4:30 with check-in, networking and pizza, with the lecture taking place from 5:00 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. The event, which is now at capacity, is sponsored by Co-operative Education and Career Action (CECA). This lecture is the first part of a larger project aimed at showing students how to find and solve ‘killer’ problems in their workplace.

Human Resources is reporting that the following retirees have died:

Susan Porter died June 16. Susan began working at the University in October 1988 and served as the Assignments and Exams Assistant in Distance Education (now the Centre for Extended Learning). She retired in March 1999. Susan is survived by her husband, David.

Maria Nikolica died June 19. She started at the university in January 1979 and worked as a Custodian in Plant Operations, retiring in December 1990. She was predeceased by her husband George and her son, George Jr.

Elizabeth Krech died June 29. She started working at the university in December 1969 as Cashier in the Bookstore. At the time of her retirement in June 1991, she held the position of Accounting Clerk in the Bookstore. She is survived by her husband, Karl.

And in a final note, University of Waterloo alumna and "Godmother" of UNIX systems Evi Nemeth was one of those aboard the schooner Nina, which disappeared during a storm off the coast of New Zealand around June 4. The official search was called off Friday, with Nemeth and six other members of the sailing ship's crew presumed lost at sea. Nemeth, who "wrote the book" on UNIX systems as a longtime author of the system administration handbooks for Unix and Linux, received her PhD from the University of Waterloo in 1971. She was an associate professor in computer science at the University of Colorado - Boulder from 1980 to 2001, when she retired. Nemeth was also an experienced sailor, and sent the final communications from the missing ship from her satellite phone.

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