Monday, November 8, 1993

WE'RE NUMBER 2:  The annual "universities" issue of Maclean's magazine
is out this morning, including the controversial "ranking" of institutions.
Waterloo is ranked second this year in the "comprehensive universities"
category, behind Simon Fraser University of Burnaby, British Columbia.
Last year UW was first and SFU was second.  

McGill was first again among "medical/doctoral universities", and
Mount Allison was first again among "primarily undergraduate universities",
with Wilfrid Laurier sixth (last year it was fourth).

UW was ranked high in the "reputational" category, which Maclean's based
on the number of alumni gifts to a university and to the opinions of
"senior university officials and chief executive officers of major 
corporations across Canada".  In the reputational survey, UW came first
in "most innovative", "leaders of tomorrow", and "best overall", fifth
in "highest quality".

UW president James Downey was interviewed by the K-W Record late yesterday,
saying what he thinks of the rankings and of the Maclean's coverage in
general.  UW officials are likely to take the attitude that it's great to
be considered among Canada's finest universities, but that exact rankings
are somewhat arbitrary and artificial.  "It's good to have this sort of
attention on universities," says Martin Van Nierop, UW's director of
information and public affairs.

Besides the rankings, the Maclean's issue has some 40 pages of material
about Canada's universities, ranging from a profile of Simon Fraser (whose
president, John Stubbs, is a former Waterloo historian and administrator)
to a general look at the issues.  "Struggling to serve a lot more with a
lot less, universities are also being asked to become more accountable,"
writes Maclean's staffer Victor Dwyer.

PARKING UP NORTH:  The new north campus parking lot has a name -- lot X
-- and the days are limited for free parking there.  Gates have now been
installed, and the electricity should be connected shortly, says Phil
McKay of the UW parking office.  Once it is, probably starting next week,
it will cost 50 cents per entry to park in X.  Find it by turning north,
rather than south onto the main campus, at the Columbia Street traffic
lights.

TEAMS RANK HIGH:  UW's "A" team came in first in the student programming
contest held here on the weekend, sponsored by the Association for
Computing Machinery.  A University of Michigan team was second; UW's
"B" team was eighth among the dozens of teams competing, some of which
scored no points at all.  The top-scoring teams will now be on their way
to the continent-wide ACM championships.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs
credmond@watserv1    ext. 3004