Daily Bulletin, Thursday, October 14
Chris Redmond
[1][University of Waterloo]
DAILY BULLETIN
_________________________________________________________________
[2]Yesterday
[3]Past days
[4]Search
[5]About the DB
Thursday, October 14, 2004
* _The busy season at Waterloo_
* _High marks for UW from the Globe_
* _Ancient oak lives on at Grebel_
* _Current shows in the UW gallery_
Editor: Chris Redmond cred...@uwaterloo.ca
_[6]World Standards Day _
_________________________________________________________________
President's town hall meeting
Staff and faculty members across campus have received an invitation to
attend a "town hall meeting" next week with the president and the
provost. The session is set for Wednesday, October 20, from 4 to 5
p.m. in the Humanities Theatre.
Says the e-mail invitation: "Our faculty and staff provide the
foundation on which UW's excellent reputation is built. We look
forward to this meeting as an occasion to express our gratitude for
the effort and support you provide and to give you an update about
some of the important initiatives happening on campus. There will be
ample opportunity for questions and answers.
"Recognizing the importance of this meeting, we encourage
participation from all faculty and staff members."
_WHEN AND WHERE_
_Imaginus poster sale_, today 9 to 8, tomorrow 9 to 5, Student Life
Centre.
_Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System_ training -- video
and quiz, total 90 minutes, 2 p.m., Davis Centre room 1304.
_Institute for Risk Research_ seminar: Niels Lind, mechanical
engineering (emeritus), "Bayesian Inference in Odds Format", 2:30,
Carl Pollock Hall room 3386.
_'Job search strategies'_ career workshop 3:30, Tatham Centre room
1208.
_German 359 film:_ "La Habanera" (1937), 6:30, Rod Coutts Hall room
308, free to capacity of room.
_Contemporary Issues in Native Communities_ lecture: Lynn Gehl, "The
Intersection of the Gendering of Native Identity and the Land Claim
Process in Canada", 7 p.m., MacKirdy Hall, St. Paul's United College.
_Jewish studies_ public lecture: Stephen Berk, Union College, "The
Longest Hatred, Then and Now", on anti-Semitism, 7:30, Siegfried Hall,
St. Jerome's University. Reception follows.
_DJ Jazzy Jeff_ plays Fed Hall tonight, all ages, $15.
_Dress-down day_ tomorrow for the United Way campaign.
_Border Air Quality Symposium_ hosted by Waterloo Centre for
Atmospheric Sciences, all day Friday, [7]more information online.
_Pension and benefits committee_ Friday 8:30 to 2:15, Needles Hall
room 3004.
_Alumni job search workshop_ Friday 9:00 to 5:30, Tatham Centre,
registration [8]online.
_Tourism lecture series_: Heather Mair, "Global Restructuring and
Local Responses: The Case of Rural Tourism", Friday 9:30, PAS room
1299.
_Technical speaker competition_ for engineering students, sponsored by
Sandford Fleming Foundation, faculty-wide competition Friday 10 a.m.,
Doug Wright Engineering room 2534.
_Centre for International Governance Innovation_ lecture: Wayne
Simpson, U of Manitoba, "Immigrant Integration in the Canadian Labour
Market", Friday 12 noon, 57 Erb Street West.
_'The Psychology of Atheism'_, lecture by Bob Altemeyer, U of
Manitoba, Friday 2:30, Wilfrid Laurier U science building room N1001,
during one-day conference on the psychology of religion and prejudice.
_'Betting on the Ponies'_ outing for engineering alumni, Friday
evening, [9]details online.
_Classical studies_ colloquium, "From Myth to Magus: Hermes in the
Western Tradition", Saturday all day, Davis Centre room 1304, details
ext. 2436.
_Lifeguard competition_ Saturday, PAC pool -- information
pwhittin@fes. Free public swim 10:30 to 12:30 to give competitors an
extra challenge.
The busy season at Waterloo
The listings just get longer and longer, with major campus events
studding the calendar over the next few weeks and niche events
jostling for space in between them. I'll highlight as many as possible
in the Daily Bulletin over the days ahead, and start today by noting
some of the most important dates to bear in mind.
St. Jerome's University will hold its annual _Feast for Catholic
University Education_ tomorrow evening with a dinner and the
presentation of the Chancellor John Sweeney Award. This year's
recipient is author Margaret Visser, and particular attention will be
paid to her book _The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery and
Meaning in an Ordinary Church_.
Also in a Christian vein, the annual _Pascal Lectures on Christianity
and University_ will be given October 20 and 21, this year by Dennis
Danielson of the University of British Columbia, whose work straddles
physics and English literature. He'll speak both days at 8 p.m. in the
Humanities Theatre, and will also give two daytime seminars.
The grand opening of UW's _new architecture building_ on Melville
Street in Cambridge is set for Friday, October 22, with VIPs and those
directly connected to the school invited to ceremonies at 10:30 a.m.
Then the school will hold an open house from noon to 5 p.m. on
Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24.
The university's _Eighty-Ninth Convocation_ will be held Saturday,
October 23, in two sessions: at 10 a.m. for applied health sciences
and arts, at 2 p.m. for the other faculties.
And _You @ Waterloo Day_ for future students is October 30, and the
_East Asian Festival_ at Renison College runs November 4-6, and
_Homecoming_ is scheduled for November 5 through 7. And the beat goes
on. . . .
High marks for UW from the Globe
Waterloo got some high scores -- including an A for "overall
educational experience" -- from the self-selected sample of
undergraduates who answered this year's University Report Card survey
for the _Globe and Mail_.
Results of the survey, published in yesterday's newspaper, were based
on ratings offered by 27,811 students across Canada who volunteered to
answer "more than 100 questions" about their own universities. Besides
the reports that took up two full pages yesterday morning, the _Globe_
offers additional background information [10]on its web site.
Universities were divided into small, medium and large, with UW just
missing the cutoff of 25,000 students to count as "large". So it's
ranked as medium along with Guelph, McMaster, Queen's, Simon Fraser
and other competitors.
There was rejoicing in the Tatham Centre yesterday at the news that
Waterloo was given an A-minus for "overall career preparation". No
other medium institution, and none of the large ones, scored that
high; there were three A-minuses in the "small" category.
In the academic category, UW was rated A for "faculty members'
knowledge of subjects", A-minus for "availability of faculty outside
classroom hours", B-plus for "quality of teaching" and B for
"effectiveness of teaching methods".
Waterloo's overall ranking for student services was B-plus, with a
B-plus specifically for health services and "recreation and sports", B
for residences and B-minus for "academic support" and food.
There's been no comment from UW or the Council of Ontario Universities
about the _Globe_ survey, which [11]last year was seen as questionable
because of the limited way its data was collected -- not to mention
its rankings of UW's non-existent law and medical schools.
Ancient oak lives on at Grebel
A dedication ceremony will be held Sunday for a new garden at Conrad
Grebel University College that carries on the tradition of a beloved
oak tree 8,000 kilometres away in Ukraine.
Says Grebel's Jennifer Konkle: "Most people of Russian Mennonite
heritage have heard stories of the massive old oak tree in
[12]Khortitsa. The tree was an unofficial gathering place for the
whole community with picnics, weddings, and meetings often taking
place in the cool shade of its leaves. Coined 'Hundert-jaehrig Eiche'
(Hundred Year Old Oak) by early Mennonite settlers, the tree is
estimated to be 700-800 years old."
The oak tree provided an impressive centerpiece for the Mennonite
colony in its "Russian" (Ukrainian) days. Historian N. J. Kroeker
wrote, "No one who had ever walked near the gnarled trunk beneath
those mighty branches which had the power to draw your eyes upward
could help being overcome with a feeling of reverence and peace." One
Ukrainian tradition held that walking around the tree three times
would bring good fortune to newlyweds.
But the ancient tree has been dying for about 15 years now, and only a
few branches bear leaves any more. A hydro-electric dam has raised the
level of the water table, and the ground has been raised around the
tree, both disturbing the tree's roots.
"For years," says Konkle, "visitors have been making the pilgrimage
back to Khortitsa to discover their own roots, and while there, to
stand under the oak tree. In 1999, Toronto high school teacher Peter
Rempel participated in a tour through the former USSR to celebrate the
bicentennial year of the founding of the Khortitsa settlement in the
Ukraine.
"Rempel pocketed eight acorns from the old oak tree and planted them
in his back yard. He later donated the tree that grew from that seed
to Conrad Grebel University College."
Thanks to the efforts of Harvey Dyck, John E. Toews, and Victor
Heinrichs, she says, the college has established a Russian Mennonite
Memorial Garden around the oak tree to memorialize and honour the
experiences of Mennonites who suffered and died under Stalin in the
Soviet Union, and as a place on the edge of campus for contemplative
reflection. Marlene Epp, history professor at Conrad Grebel, calls the
tree as symbolic, "as both a celebration of the positive times
Mennonites recall about Russia and also as a memorial to the tragedies
that befell them."
A dedication service will be held on Sunday at 3 p.m. Anyone
interested is invited to come and hear the story of the oak and to
remember and celebrate the Mennonite experience it represents. Music
will be provided by the Conrad Grebel Chapel Choir.
Current shows in the UW gallery _-- by Linda J. Howe_
The exhibition "Source/Derivation #IX: Vasily Fedosenko" by Allan
Harding MacKay is currently on display in UW's [13]art gallery. MacKay
bases his paintings on one photograph on the ousting of [14]president
Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia that appeared in the Toronto _Star_ on
November 30 last year.
[Bright candle dominates] The original photo was taken by Vasily
Fedosenko. MacKay uses parts of Fedosenko's photo in each one of his
paintings _(left)_ and then adds a lit candle in the foreground. The
candlelight dramatically illuminates the paintings with chiaroscuro
reminiscent of Rembrandt or El Greco.
Although MacKay includes various aspects of the photo in his
paintings, he changes the perspective and eliminates some elements.
Together with the dramatic candlelight, the content and meaning in the
photo changes. When all the painting are viewed as a whole, the viewer
will notice the paintings expand on the narrative in the photo, making
the drama appear to be more continuous and more revealing.
Also on display is "Indefinite Space", an exhibition of charcoal
drawings on paper by fine arts professor Bruce Taylor and artist Ron
Suebrook. Taylor bases his work on the folding of paper, or origami,
while Shuebrook bases his on the monkey rope.
Taylor is interested in early industrial history and how easy it's to
reproduce items. Thus he repeats mainly geometric objects from various
points of view. The description to Taylor's drawing "Figure 18" aptly
sums up his work: "I'm trying to create an aesthetic experience
without an object or image while staying true to a mathematical
system. It's the actual process of trying to make this work that
fascinates me."
Shuebrook is interested in the relationship of how image is put
together, in evoking real life gestures and in achieving coherence in
his work. His drawings reflect a scene from the novel _Moby-Dick_ by
Herman Melville. Ishmael, the narrator, and the harpooner are joined
together by rope secured around their waists. Referred to as monkey
rope, it makes them highly dependent on each other. Once secured, the
harpooner flays blubber from the captured mammal's slick back. One
misstep could take both of them overboard.
Both exhibitions continue until October 28. The gallery in East Campus
Hall is open Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Fridays from 12 to 4 p.m.;
Thursdays from 12 to 7 p.m.; and Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m.
CAR
_________________________________________________________________
[15]Communications and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca | [16]Yesterday's Daily Bulletin
Copyright Š 2004 University of Waterloo
References
1. http://www.uwaterloo.ca/
2. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/oct/13we.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://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/wsd/2004wsdindex.html
7. http://www.newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4165
8. https://alumni.uwaterloo.ca/alumni/forms/secure/jsw_15_oct_2004/index.htm
9. http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~eng-alum/chapters/WAC.html
10. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialReportCard.html
11. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/bulletin/2003/oct/16th.html
12. http://www.davidlong.de/zsu/Zaphist/Zaphist_e/body_zaphist_e.html
13. http://www.artgallery.uwaterloo.ca/
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Shevardnadze
15. http://www.communications.uwaterloo.ca/
16. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/oct/13we.html