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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Tuesday, August 27, 1996

The last week of summer

I'm back at work, to find a full voicemailbox (is that a word?) and an amazing pile of paper on my desk. It may take me a while to find out exactly what's going on, but I see that we're getting a new dean of environmental studies as of next summer, and I notice that the reconstruction of parking lot H has been started but by no means finished.

I had a good vacation -- thanks for asking -- including two weeks at my beloved Chautauqua. Lovely day to be coming back to the office. . . .

As I face the keyboard once again, I have to start by thanking those who kept the Daily Bulletin going in my absence: Martin Van Nierop and John Morris here in the office of information and public affairs, and (with their Web skills) Kyle McKenzie and Cathy Hale down the hall in the office of research. They've done me, and you too I presume, a great service over the past month.

That's what the sign says

In big letters, outside the continuing education office on the corner of Phillip and Columbia Streets: "Invest in yourself with prof. development courses." Now I suppose what they really mean is the professional development courses being offered this fall by the continuing ed people. But UW is not without "prof development courses" too, and this is the season for them. The teaching resource office holds its annual "Faculty Development Days" on Thursday and Friday of next week, September 5 and 6. Sign of the times: two of the working sessions are about creating and using course home pages on the Web. Among other topics: "Teaching with Data Sets", "Smart Strategies for a Safe and Open Classroom", and the customary panel on "Balancing Teaching, Research and Personal Lives".

Walking the Web at Waterloo (14)

Suppose you wanted to read the text of UW Policy 85, about "Firearms". You probably don't, but say you did; you could start from the UWinfo home page by choosing Documents, then choose "UW Policies", then choose a list of them in "alpha order", and finally click on "Firearms - #85" and within seconds find yourself reading a short-and-sweet text that says you can't have a gun around here. Perhaps in more demand might be such policies as #53 about Tenure, or #18 about Staff Employment.

There's much more in the "Documents" page, which starts with the University of Waterloo Act and moves on to, for instance, "Documents and Directives about Computing", including a page about "Handling Complaints of Misuse". (That page, in turn, has pointers to relevant UW policies, such as #33 about Ethical Behaviour.)

Also in Documents, you'll find the text of the Memorandum of Agreement that governs relations between UW and its faculty members; the procedure on closing the campus in case of severe winter storms; UW's Privacy and Freedom of Information Guidelines; and pointers to documents that have made news in the past, including presidential memos about restructuring and budget-cutting, the famous 1995 report on crosswalks, the Social Contract agreements of 1993, and even the documents in the Valery Fabrikant murder case at Concordia University, with its many ramifications.

Right at the bottom of the page, you can even click to see James Downey's letter to the campus on the day he was appointed president of the university, nearly four years ago.

Other notes I've found so far

My mail includes a tidy brochure from the human resources department, explaining the "compensation program 1996" for UW staff and answering some questions that I've often heard asked. Also in the pile here: And of course I'm looking at the schedule for the beginning of the fall term. Monday, September 2, is Labour Day and a holiday, but one of the busiest days of the year at UW as hundreds of students move in. Registration begins Tuesday, September 3, just a week from today. The English Language Proficiency Exam will be offered Wednesday, September 4. And classes start on September 9!

CAR

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