Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Yesterday's Bulletin | Previous days | UWevents | UWinfo home page

Wednesday, December 4, 1996

100 per cent plus 15

That's the bottom line on the registrar's office report of first-year enrolment. As of November 1, the official count date, there were 3,717 full-time first-year students, which is just a hair above the target of 3,702.

That result (100.4 per cent of target) masks considerable variations among the six faculties. At one extreme, applied health sciences has 119.9 per cent of its first-year target, 320 students rather than the intended 267, mostly thanks to a boom in kinesiology. At the other extreme, arts has just 90.7 per cent of its target, 879 compared to 969. In between: science is at 106.5 per cent, math at 106.0 per cent, engineering at 98.0 per cent, environmental studies at 91.1 per cent.

General meetings are today

The staff association and the faculty association will both hold general meetings today: the staff group at 11:45 (Davis Centre room 1302) and the faculty group at 2:30 (Biology I room 271).

The faculty association meeting is expected to deal chiefly with salary negotiations. The staff association's annual general meeting will hear reports and financial statements, and will vote on changes to the group's constitution, including a proposal to allow proxy voting. Bring your information package and your yellow voting card, says association president Mark Walker. And the 1997 executive will be introduced.

I have to report an embarrassing error that appears both in today's Gazette and in yesterday's Daily Bulletin. I said the new president-elect of the staff association was "Charlene Schmidt"; she's really Charlene Schumm, of the registrar's office.

High schoolers run the country

Local high school students descend on campus today to discuss a variety of major issues facing Canada. They're participating in the annual UW federal-provincial conference simulation, playing the roles of politicians and the media. The two-day event begins at 9:00 in the Theatre of the Arts, with opening statements from each of the first ministers. Real-life MP Paul DeVillers, parliamentary secretary to Stephane Dion, minister of intergovernmental affairs, will deliver the banquet keynote address tonight in the Festival Room, South Campus Hall.

Under the chairmanship of "prime minister" Brett McDermott, a student from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, the conference will feature students from 13 area high schools. Waterloo Collegiate will assume the role of the federal government, while students from other schools will represent the provinces and territories as well as news media. The students have set their own agenda for the conference, covering finance, health, heritage and culture, justice, intergovernmental affairs and economic development and human resources.

Conference debates and discussions conclude Thursday at 3:30 p.m., when the John Boulden Plaque will be presented to the first minister who best represents his or her school and the government. The conference simulation is sponsored by UW's department of political science and the History Heads Association of the Waterloo County Board of Education, as well as by participating schools, the Waterloo County Board of Education and the UW Faculty of arts.

More about winter storms

As the Daily Bulletin noted a couple of days ago, UW has a procedure about winter storms which says that on your average weekday morning, UW will close because of severe snow and ice if, and only if, the Waterloo County Board of Education closes all its schools. People should listen to the radio for an announcement and should know that if the schools are closed (not just some of them, not just the buses, but all of them), so is the university.

By request, let me point out a few other features of the winter storm policy:

If there's a storm on a day when the schools aren't in operation -- such as the "professional development" days tomorrow and Friday, or during March break -- a decision on closing UW will be made by the provost and announced on the radio.
UW will close during a working day "only in extreme circumstances"; such a decision will be made by the provost and announced on UWinfo and through a telephone chain that reaches all departments.
If a storm seems to make it necessary to close the university during the evening, or on a weekend day or holiday, the decision will be made by the director of security. The security department will notify "a designated person in each department that is known to have activities scheduled or staff on duty". Every department that has evening or weekend staff or activities is supposed to tell the security department, ahead of time, how to get in touch with such a representative in case of emergency.
"Department heads are responsible for applying this procedure in an equitable way. . . . Weather conditions can sometimes be intimidating even though the university does not officially close," and people can be allowed to take time off in various ways.

And what's happening today

There's both music and food at the bookstore today. The melodies come from a trio (flute, violin and French horn) from the UW music department that will be performing in the South Campus Hall concourse from 12:30 to 1:30. The food comes from Make a Mix, the holiday book being featured by the store; store staff have tried out some of its 306 recipes for treats, and will be handing out samples all day today.

As the anti-violence week continues, there are speakers this afternoon in the Student Life Centre: visitors from Mary's Place and Anselma House talking about family violence at 2:00, a speaker on sexual harassment at 3:30.

The mechanical engineering department will be awarding its Paul Niessen-Cominco Medal in a ceremony at 11:45 in Engineering II room 4404.

A sale of Christmas treats and crafts runs all day today, tomorrow and Friday in the Davis Centre lounge, as a fundraiser for the Hildegard Marsden Co-operative Day Nursery on the north campus.

Looking ahead to tomorrow: the annual music department concert in the Davis Centre great hall will start at 12:15.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
Comments to the editor | About the Bulletin | Yesterday's Bulletin
Copyright 1996 University of Waterloo