University of Waterloo

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Tuesday, July 11, 1995

Student killed at SkyDome

The man who died in a fall at Toronto's SkyDome on Sunday has been identified as Chad Cronkwright, who was a UW anthropology student and a keen participant in stage activities at Waterloo, including FASS. Cronkwright was 26. He was working for Christie Lites Ltd., installing lighting for a trade show at the Dome, when he fell from a steel scaffold onto the Dome's concrete floor. He died from head and internal injuries. A large, heavy man, "He had five years' experience and he had the (safety) harness," a source from Christie told the Toronto Star.

Business people come to UW

The monthly networking get-together "Business After 5", sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Kitchener and Waterloo, is being held at UW this month: specifically, tonight from 5 to 7 at the Optometry building. Participants (typically more than 100 people) nibble refreshments, look over exhibit tables, chat and trade business cards. Tonight there will also be a chance to tour the school of optometry clinics and labs, and the dean of science, John Thompson, will bring the university's greetings.

The chain letter is back

"It has been around the world nine times," says the chain letter that has surfaced on campus again in recent days. (Wonder who's keeping count?) It's the same letter that has been here from time to time over the years, complete with promises of riches if you copy it and pass it on, threats of bad luck or death if you don't, and mentions of "George Welch" in the Philippines who lost his wife but gained $7 million.

Copying chain letters isn't an appropriate use of UW staff time or university photocopiers -- that seems fairly obvious -- and distributing them is a waste of time and effort for the university's mail carriers, says the manager of central stores, Al Lawrence.

And since the letter invokes God, "faith" and St. Jude, I thought I'd ask for a comment from one of the campus chaplains. I reached John Fast, the Mennonite chaplain, who called it "amazing" how many people see God as "a kind of magician". He said about the chain letter: "In all senses it's pagan -- there's nothing Christian about it."

The computing directions statement

As yesterday's Daily Bulletin noted, UW's Computing Directions Statement is under review. The University Computing Committee is doing the job, for the Commission on Institutional Planning. The UCC's announcement of the review will appear in full in tomorrow's Gazette is and is now available on UWinfo.

The trail through Waterloo

The lead story in yesterday's Kitchener-Waterloo Record was an announcement of the "Laurel Trail", some four miles of walking and cycling pathway being constructed through most of the city of Waterloo. As the Record noted, one section of the trail is already complete: it runs from Columbia Street north to Beaver Creek Road, across UW's north campus, along the east side of Laurel Creek. Coincidentally, I was checking out the trail just a few days ago, along with the much rougher hiking trail that parallels it on the west bank of the creek: both are real assets to campus and community.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

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