University of Waterloo

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Friday, June 2, 1995

Well, it's Waterloo's wet weekend

Alumni are rolling in from all over to attend reunion activities today through Sunday. The stars of Waterloo Weekend are the graduates of 1965 and 1970, who will be the guests of honour at a reception hosted by the president, Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. in the new Student Life Centre.

There's a special reunion for the first graduates of the management sciences department, which is marking its 25th anniversary. A forum on "Management Sciences in the Next 25 Years" is being held this afternoon, and a banquet tonight at which UW president James Downey and dean of engineering David Burns will speak. the events are also open to today's students, faculty and staff.

The optometry school presents its annual M. Emerson Woodruff Lecture tonight: "Video Grand Rounds of Retinal Detachment", by William M. Jones of the Veterans Administration Medical Centre, New Mexico. Tomorrow, there's a day-long continuing education program for optometrists.

Among other Saturday events are various reunions and luncheons, and a "barbecue and beer garden" at Federation Hall, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Tickets are $8, children $4.) At 3:00, the graduating class of 1970 will dedicate its tree in Alumni Lane, near Matthews Hall. At 3:30 p.m., the arts faculty will dedicate a plaque for Porcellino, the boar sculpture, outside the Modern Languages building.

Saturday night's biggest planned event has had to be cancelled for lack of ticket sales -- a "pig roast extravaganza" at Fed Hall. (No doubt Porcellino is relieved.) Last-minute information about other Waterloo Weekend activities comes from the alumni affairs office at ext. 5422.

Announcements from here and there

There are still spaces available, for children aged 7 to 12, in the Arts Computer Experience day camp this summer. The camp runs in four sessions (July 4-14, July 17-28, July 31 through August 11, and August 14-25) and offers computing, swimming, art, drama and music. Mary Downey, the co-op student who's acting as ACE coordinator, is at ext. 2005 to provide more information.
The help desk advisors in the computing services Customer Support Centre have new hours for the summer. They'll be available Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Outside these hours, users can still get in contact with the advisors through voice mail (ext. 4839) or electronic mail (helpdesk@watserv1).
Electrical power, heating, cooling and ventilation will be shut off in the Dana Porter Library from 6 to 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday. Computing equipment should be shut down in an orderly fashion ahead of time, the plant operations department advises.

Orientation week survey

A survey of first-year students, asking about their experience of orientation last September, has found that "in general, students did not feel as though they were treated with dignity and respect throughout the week." A report on the survey says there were many mentions of "unfriendly leaders", "excessive alcohol" and "sexual atmosphere", and certain events such as the "clothesline" game that made nearly everybody feel uncomfortable (and left many people nude or nearly so).

"When asked what the best part of orientation was, a high proportion of the respondents said, meeting people," the report notes. It has recommendations on subjects that range from public chanting (less of it) to training of leaders (more of it). The survey was done for the Federation of Students, and Federation president Jane Pak was to attend a meeting of the Student Affairs Network Group yesterday to report on it.

What else is happening

A Math Grad Committee bus trip to Canada's Wonderland is taking place today -- nice damp day they've got for it.

A conference marking the 75th anniversary of the Mennonite Central Committee, a respected social service agency, runs Sunday through Tuesday at Conrad Grebel College.

The second annual Children's Groundwater Festival runs through this weekend at the Ontario Agricultural Museum in Milton, with much support from UW's earth sciences department and Centre for Groundwater Research.

And I see that it's "wet and wild" night for science students at the Bombshelter pub.

Afterword on the picnic

"The 1995 UW Community Campaign Picnic this year was sensational!" says Suzanne Poole of the development office. She reports on yesterday's event under the generous sun: "All 1,500 hotdogs were eaten and $1,200 was raised to contirbute to scholarships! A big thank you to all those who came out making the University of Waterloo 'More than a place to work'!"

I was partly right in my predictions of who'd be making speeches, between the juggling and the line dancing. Roger Downer didn't speak, but the president did, and so did Peter Woolstencroft, co-chair of the Community Campaign, who told the crowd that the faculty, staff and retiree branch of Campaign Waterloo has now reached 94 per cent of its $3 million goal, with more than a year to go.

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

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