Daily Bulletin, Thursday, October 7
Chris Redmond
[1][University of Waterloo]
DAILY BULLETIN
_________________________________________________________________
[2]Yesterday
[3]Past days
[4]Search
[5]About the DB
Thursday, October 7, 2004
* _Student gallery opens downtown_
* _First 'Unlimited' session for Grade 10s_
* _The talk of the campus_
Editor: Chris Redmond cred...@uwaterloo.ca
_[6]Jews mark Shemini Atzeret _
_________________________________________________________________
'Digital data' ES lecture tonight
[Hall with camera] "Bridging the Digital Divide" is the title of this
year's Faculty of Environmental Studies Lecture, to be given at 7:30
tonight by Brent Hall _(left)_ of the school of planning. Subtitle for
his talk: "Using Information and Communication Technologies to Assess
School-based Education Quality in Peru".
Hall will talk about how the Internet has had a huge impact, changing
the role and importance of distance in most forms of human
communication. There are, however, "substantial class, cultural and
locational obstacles" affecting information access and use, he says.
The lecture assesses this technology in transforming society, with a
focus of interest on the use of digital information to assess
educational quality and to plan for educational improvement in
state-funded primary schools in Peru.
The lecture will take place in the Theatre of the Arts, Modern
Languages building. Admission is free.
Student gallery opens downtown
A student-run art gallery opens for the first time tonight in downtown
Kitchener, financed by UW's arts faculty and the city of Kitchener and
operated by the student Society Of Fine Arts.
"It's been quite a few years in the making," says fine arts professor
Art Green, who gave credit to SOFA members for "knocking themselves
out" with the work required to make the Artery Gallery into a reality.
Faculty efforts and alumni contributions have also helped, Green said,
but "it's going to be run by the students."
The gallery is a space about 20 feet wide and 80 feet deep (6 metres
by 24) in a city-owned building at 158 King Street West, near
Kitchener city hall. The city helped to pay for building improvements,
including accessibility, he said, and student enthusiasts have carried
out other work to turn the former storefront into a gallery. The
lighting isn't quite complete, he added, but it'll be ready in time
for the second Artery show in a few weeks.
"An exhibit of the very best of student work from past years will be
displayed in this exciting new space," says SOFA vice-president Lauren
Hall. The show will be titled "Antecedents", and shows off former fine
arts student work, "largely drawn from faculty and staff collections",
Green said. Official opening of the show is tonight at 7:00.
Since there aren't a large number of students available to do duty at
the gallery, it will be open only "by appointment", probably one day a
week, Green said. That's not necessarily a bad thing: "Most of the
classiest galleries in the world are by appointment," he laughed.
At the back of the gallery is a space that will be available for Tony
Urquhart, the retired fine arts professor who's serving as Kitchener's
civic artist-in-residence for the coming year. Urquhart has expressed
interest in doing some drawings at the site, Green said.
First 'Unlimited' session for Grade 10s
[7]Waterloo Unlimited, the enrichment program for high school students
"of exceptional potential" that UW [8]announced earlier this year,
will hold its first program in early November, organizers announced
yesterday.
The new program is university-wide and trans-disciplinary, "inviting
participants to the campus during the school year to sample university
life at its richest", a news release says.
"Waterloo Unlimited is the kind of initiative for which the University
of Waterloo has become rightly famous," says provost Amit Chakma in
the release. "It's innovative, unconventional and limited only by our
students' own imaginations. We anticipate that Waterloo Unlimited will
attract the very best and brightest minds from around the region and
the country and that it will become synonymous for academic enrichment
for high schoolers across Canada."
The release goes on to say that "The most distinctive characteristic
of Waterloo Unlimited is its trans-disciplinary content." It quotes
program director Ed Jernigan, of the systems design engineering
department: "This isn't Science Camp, or Art Camp, or Leadership Camp
-- this is Everything Camp."
More from the release: "Most high school students -- no matter how
accomplished -- aren't specialists yet, nor should they have to be.
Waterloo Unlimited exposes participants to cool stuff from all across
campus and challenges them to make the connections. While they're at
UW, they'll work on the skills that transcend disciplinary boundaries,
such as creativity, synthesis, research and communication. That's how
Unlimited students will become self-enriching."
The pilot program is being offered to Grade 10 enrichment students in
Waterloo Region and will run from Sunday, November 7, through Friday,
November 12. The students will be recommended by enrichment teachers
across the region. There is a fee for participation, but bursaries are
available. "The days will be packed with challenging classes,
small-group workshops, public talks, recreation and unprecedented
access to university professors, staff and students," the release
says.
There are plans to run more regional pilot programs later in the
school year, and to open up Waterloo Unlimited to nationwide
applicants for the fall of 2005. "However, UW also hopes to maintain
an annual Grade 10 program exclusively for outstanding local
students."
Student volunteers wanted
Waterloo Unlimited plans to offer participants more than a "prof's-eye
view" of university life, its news release says. The team is looking
for UW student volunteers to become Unlimited mentors and represent
the student's experience. Mentors will speak directly to the Unlimited
participants about their own educations, chat over a meal, and be
available through e-mail to answer questions after the participants go
home.
Undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in becoming
mentors -- this fall or in the future -- can contact Waterloo
Unlimited for more information at 888-4567 ext. 5176, or e-mail
in...@unlimited.uwaterloo.ca.
_WHEN AND WHERE_
_Faculty of education talks_, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tatham Centre room
2218 (videos of yesterday's and today's sessions available by October
25 at career services).
_Playwright Tomson Highway_ speaks in the Silversides Theatre Artists
Series, 12 noon, UW bookstore, South Campus Hall.
_Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System_ training for staff,
faculty and grad students, 2 p.m., Davis Centre room 1304. Video and
quiz run about 90 minutes. Information, ext. 5613.
_Entrepreneur Week event:_ "Chapter 2: How to Survive Building a Tech
Company", 3 to 7 p.m., 57 Erb Street West, [9]details online.
_'Accessing Statistics Canada Data Sets'_ presentation by Southwestern
Ontario Research Data Centre, 3:30 p.m., PAS room 2030, mostly for
graduate students and new faculty in the social sciences.
_'Business Etiquette'_, career workshop 4:30, Tatham Centre room 1208.
_Community litter clean-up_ with participation from UW Sustainability
Project: meet at 5:30, Waterloo Park, picnic shelter near Westmount
Road entrance.
_German 359 film:_ "Hangmen Also Die" (1943), 6:30, Rod Coutts Hall
room 308, all welcome.
_Staff association_ open meeting to discuss the association's future,
7 p.m., Rod Coutts Hall room 302.
_Issues in Native Communities_ speaker series: Rene Meshake,
"Nenabozho, Ojibway Oral Tradition", 8 p.m., MacKirdy Hall, St. Paul's
United College.
_Tourism lecture series:_ Jack Contin, "Sustainable Aboriginal Tourism
in Canada", Friday 9:30 a.m., PAS room 1229.
_School of architecture_ official opening of new Cambridge building,
October 22, 10:30 a.m.
_You@Waterloo Day_ open house for future students, Saturday, October
30, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., [10]information online.
[Elias tonight at Fed Hall]
The talk of the campus
I reported yesterday that the Federation of Students had suspended the
privileges of _the Embassy Student Association_, which sponsors a
heavily-attended church service each week in Federation Hall. The Feds
say the Embassy Church, although involving many students, is
essentially an outside organization, not a UW group. Last night I
received a statement from the ESA executive, saying that the
association "has conducted itself with the highest level of integrity
in its dealings as a Federation of Students club. Any mistakes made by
the ESA have been minor and honest mistakes. ESA is confident that
when all of the details surrounding this situation are fully made
known it will be recognized as beyond reproach in all of its actions."
We can expect to hear more about the controversy.
Reaction is coming in to _Tuesday afternoon's throne speech_, in which
the federal minority government set out its intentions for the new
session of Parliament. The speech "commits to elevating our country's
economic performance, investing in people and in our ability to
generate and apply new ideas," said one eager observer, Claire Morris,
president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
"Universities are crucial to all of these priorities, playing a
central role in creating knowledge and enhancing innovation in
Canada." [11]AUCC said the speech "highlights the strong foundation
that Canada has built in research over the past few years, with the
government affirming it will continue to build on this strength. . . .
AUCC welcomes the Throne Speech's recognition of the importance of
improving access to postsecondary education."
The September 20 meeting of UW's senate heard a report about various
"mentoring and support initiatives" offered at UW for faculty members
and students, and the written presentation included a few words about
what are called Chairs' Forums, gatherings for the people who head the
academic departments and schools. It said in part: "The purpose is to
_bring new and experienced Chairs together_ so that they can share
experience, and hear perspectives from others in the university
community. Luncheon sessions are organized in the fall and winter
terms. There were 8 sessions in 2002-03 and 6 sessions in 2003-04. The
intent now is to have 6 sessions per year. About 20 to 25 Chairs have
attended each session. Sessions have addressed the following topics:
annual performance evaluation, budgeting, capital campaign, co-op
education, faculty and staff workloads, faculty retention program
(WatPort), hiring, human resources, mentoring new faculty, risk
management, staff recognition award program, teaching portfolios, and
tenure and promotion. Topics scheduled for the fall 2004 term are
academic unit self-appraisal related to the Sixth Decade Plan,
initiatives to enhance research intensity at UW, and the new ACE
course support system."
The _Computer Help and Information Place_ will close early today, at 4
p.m., as the department holds a retirement party for long-time
technician Mak Kassa. . . . Tracey Cote has taken over as _manager of
graduate studies marketing and recruitment_, as the previous manager,
Amy Aldous, has moved to the Institute for Quantitative Finance and
Insurance. . . . _Two Warrior teams_ are in action today, the
cross-country squad and the golf team, both in invitational
tournaments at Western. . . . Tomorrow and every Friday in October
_will be a dress-down day_ for staff and faculty in support of the
United Way campaign. . . .
CAR
_________________________________________________________________
[12]Communications and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca | [13]Yesterday's Daily Bulletin
Copyright © 2004 University of Waterloo
References
1. http://www.uwaterloo.ca/
2. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/oct/06we.html
3. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/previous.html
4. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/bulsearch.html
5. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/aboutus.html
6. http://snipurl.com/9ku6
7. http://www.unlimited.uwaterloo.ca/
8. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/bulletin/2004/feb/13fr.html
9. http://www.communitech.org/
10. http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/visitus/
11. http://www.aucc.ca/publications/media/2004/10_05_e.html
12. http://www.communications.uwaterloo.ca/
13. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/oct/06we.html