Daily Bulletin

They're finding ES2 'different'

Don McKay, who was in charge of the school's move to the new building from its Phillip Street location, said he's heard complaints about the facility, which cost almost $2 million. It's UW's first new building since Optometry and Psychology were opened in 1973.

"Some people say it's too big, others say it's too small," said McKay, a lecturer at the architecture school. "There are others who have complained about the colour." (ES2 is made of salmon-pink brick.) "It's just different. We'll have to get used to it."

He said it will take time to find out how faculty, staff and students feel about the building. The school's move to the new location, which was staged over six weeks, has just ended.

"I have a feeling it was underfinanced," said Larry Cummings, another architecture professor. "Many things seem too small, and done on the cheap. There's not enough room to get students into the space provided." He said the faculty offices are "minuscule". (The physical planning department has confirmed that ES2 actually does have less space than the school's former home on Phillip Street.)

McKay said it will take some time for architecture students to get used to being on campus, after their years away. "It's like we've moved to a new city -- there are lots of faces around you don't recognize."

Politicians jockey over funding

A secret federal document, obtained by reporters Friday, suggests that Ottawa cut all its contributions to post-secondary education if the provinces don't increase their share of education costs. The federal discussion paper, submitted to the Liberal cabinet, proposes that federal transfer payments to the provinces be cut by as much as $11 billion in the next six years.

Ottawa's payments to the provinces and territories for the current 1981-82 fiscal year are expected to reach $18.8 billion in cash grants and transferred tax collecting authority.

Ontario's Progressive Conservative treasurer, Frank Miller, said he realizes Ottawa has the authority to make such a decision, but he warned that cuts to federal transfers will come "at great political risk. What is at stake here, whether it is in education, health or other social programs, is the ability of our government to meet the needs of our citizens."

Federal officials said the proposal was no more than a discussion paper, and they denied reports that it had been endorsed by justice minister Jean Chrétien. A source said the federal government is looking for ways to put pressure on Ontario to spend more on its universities.

Curators meet to see 'one big museum'

"The whole region is a museum, because of the Mennonite culture here and the number of small museums within it," says recreation professor Elliott Avedon, the founder of one of those museums -- the UW games museum in Matthews Hall.

"We are going to load the delegates onto chartered buses," said Avedon, "and spend five hours touring the region." History professor Ken McLaughlin will give a lecture on the German and Pennsylvania background of Waterloo Country settlers before the tour begins.

The overall theme for the conference will be meeting the museum guidelines being established by the Ontario ministry of culture and recreation. "In the mid to late 1970s," he said, "the thrust was to create more public museums. The push in the 80s is for more quality in the museums."

TV-related games, chess sets, and "alignment games" are among the current exhibits at the games museum. Avedon explains that alignment games are ones -- such as tic-tac-toe -- that involve getting counters or tokens lined up. Also on display this month is a 3,500-year-old senet board on loan from the Royal Ontario Museum.

The talk of the campus

The Graduate Student Association has asked the board of governors to approve an increase in its fee, to $10 a term from $7.50. More than two-thirds of the grads who voted in a referendum this summer were in favour of the increase, which is to help pay for expansion of the Graduate House, says Alex Kostiw, past president of the GSA.

Full-time university enrolment in Canada is expected to peak in the 1982-83 academic year and then fall steadily until the mid-1990s, a federal study says. But that decrease is likely to be offset by a rise in the number of adults, the 24-plus age group, seeking part-time university training, the study adds.

A small plaza on University Avenue, close to Phillip Street, is expected to open within the next few weeks, the developer says. Major tenants for the plaza are expected to be Riordans Ski & Sport Centres and a family restaurant to be called McGinnis.

The postal strike this summer kept an estimated 10,000 magazines, newspapers and journals from arriving at the UW library when they should have, says Boris Bruder, head of the library's serials department. "Hopefully," he says in a library newsletter announcement, "the majority of serials will be on the shelf within the next four weeks." Most serials come by third-class mail and won't arrive until the post office clears up the backlog of first-class mail that accumulated during the 42-day strike, Bruder said.

A campaign by the Federation of Students has resulted in improved lighting in Waterloo Park, and Federation president Wim Simonis couldn't be happier. "It's nice to see," was Simonis's comment after city of Waterloo officials put up even more light standards than the Feds had proposed. The campaign was launched after two indecent assaults on women in the park earlier this year.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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