Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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

Friday, February 2, 1996

Small furry animals rule

Yes, it's Groundhog Day! Waterloo Waldo hopped out of his hole near Laurel Creek a little before 8 this morning, looked around briefly in the pale winter sunshine, and dived back underground again. Six more weeks of winter, folks.

"It wasn't just seeing my shadow that scared me back," Waldo said in a statement issued a few minutes later on his behalf. "I found out that the University of Waterloo had killed a gopher on Wednesday, and I wasn't taking any chances."

Other groundhogs are at work today in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (the photo at top shows Punxsutawney Phil) and, of course, Wiarton, Ontario.

February 2 is also Candlemas -- in fact, Candlemas was considered a day for weather predictions long before anybody had discovered the predilections of groundhogs. It's also a birthday for Derek Besner of UW's psychology department.

Last call for distinguished teachers

And today is the deadline for nominations for Distinguished Teacher Awards, 1996. Last-minute information is available from the teaching resources office (Math and Computer room 4055, phone ext. 3132).

The senate guidelines state that the Distinguished Teacher Awards are open to all those who teach students at the University of Waterloo and its federated and affiliated colleges. This includes, for example, lab instructors, clinical associates, graduate teaching assistants and correspondence tutor-markers, as well as professors. In addition, one of the four annual awards is set aside for "non-regular" instructors, such as part-time faculty, full-time and part-time support staff who teach courses, adjunct instructors, etc. The nominee must have a record of excellent teaching at UW over an extended period, usually five years or more for the regular instructor category. Nominees in the non-regular category are considered with shorter periods of service.

Grade reports for grad students

Graduate student grade reports from the fall term will be available today. Full-time students can pick up their grades in their academic department offices; part-time grads will be getting theirs in the mail.

Computing forum is announced

Bill Wilson, chair of the university computing committee, writes that "We have now set the date for the Open Forum for feedback on the draft 'computing directions' statement. It is Monday, February 26, 1996, at 1:30 p.m., in DC 1302."

Chair in Canadian studies

The Stanley Knowles Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies, being created at St. Paul's College, is to be launched later this month, the UW news bureau announced yesterday. The ceremonies will be happening in Ottawa, in the West Block of the Parliament Buildings, at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 13.

The news release says that Knowles himself, "one of Canada's most legendary politicians", will be at the reception for "friends, colleagues and business leaders from across Canada". Prime minister Jean Chretien has been invited to speak.

The new professorship "will attract high-profile people who are or have been involved in important Canadian issues. It will make it possible to bring to campus leaders from government, business, labor, academia and national community groups that are playing increasingly important roles in our multicultural society. Holders of the professorship will deliver Canadian Themes Lectures, which will also be held off campus in cities such as Toronto and Ottawa. They will address heritage and cultural issues including Canadian unity and social, political, economic and other considerations relevant to crucial public policy problems and their solutions."

The weekend's events, briefly

"Paradoxes of Welfare Consciousness: A Cultural View of the Welfare State" is a talk at 3:30 today by Manfred Prisching of Karl-Franzens Universitat Graz, in Austria, and Harvard University. He'll speak in Humanities room 334.
At Wilfrid Laurier University, ceremonies at 4:00 this afternoon mark the official opening of the expanded Student Union Building, a $3 million project.
The Ontario Fitness Council holds a workshop tomorrow on "new exercises for strengthening and body sculpting". Information is available from the athletics department.
The Computer Science Club holds "an ACM-style programming contest" tomorrow starting at 10:30. The CSC office (Math and Computer room 3036) has more information.
"The Banff Festival of Mountain Films" is presented in the Humanities Theatre at 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $11 in advance, $13 at the door.

And, I need hardly add, FASS continues tonight and Saturday night in the Humanities Theatre. I haven't heard from anybody who was at opening night last night, but producer Adam Parker has been promising "the wit, humour, and bad puns of our great writing staff", and I see no reason to doubt him. The Humanities box office has tickets.

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

The URL of this Daily Bulletin is
Mail comments to the editor

Getting information into the Daily Bulletin