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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Wednesday, October 23, 1996

Everything is chemistry

[10**23 x 6.02 = One Mole] Chemists, including those in UW's chemistry department, are celebrating Molemorial Day today. It's a lighthearted part of National Chemistry Week, designed to draw attention to the number 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 -- Avogadro's number, or "one mole", defined as the number of atoms in 12 grams of Carbon-12, or roughly the number of runs scored by the Atlanta Braves in post-season play. It's a fundamental figure in chemical calculations, and today's the natural day for celebrating it between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m., since it's most conveniently expressed as 6.02 x 10**23 (10th month and 23rd day -- get it?).

National Science and Technology Week -- it seems to have that name too -- is being observed in the science faculty with a "Super Science Day" program for high school visitors. It includes tours, meals and a student mentoring program. Later in the week come other observations, including a science open house on Saturday, convocation day.

High schoolers are in fact visiting all UW's faculties today, as they will be doing on Wednesdays and Fridays from now through the end of November. "All campus visits begin with a welcoming informal orientation," says Gail Ruetz in the Visitors Centre in South Campus Hall. After that session, visitors can tour campus, sit in on campus, meet with academic advisors, or get a closer look at residences or athletic facilities.

Grad students meet tonight

Withdrawing support for the ombudsperson's office and increasing the salary for the Graduate Student Association president form the agenda for the association's general meeting tonight at 6 p.m. in Needles Hall 3001. "All grad students are begged to attend," says Steve Astels, vice-president (internal) for the GSA.

A motion will be introduced to eliminate GSA funding for the ombudsperson, "since not many grad students use her and the services are duplicated elsewhere anyway," said Astels. Of the $1 per grad student per term that funds the ombudsperson position, the motion proposes redirecting 85 cents to the GSA fee "to help increase services to grad students". Another motion proposes increasing the pay for the GSA president from $9,000 a year to $12,116.16. The net impact of the two motions would be an increase in the GSA fee from $17.60 to $18.45 per term, up 85 cents.

Open meeting for staff

The staff association is holding "an open discussion" tonight, to which all staff are welcome. The topic is the proposed "framework agreement" that would govern relations between UW and its staff.

"A formal meeting is not intended," writes Pat Martin from the association office, "but we are anxious to hear your suggestions, comments and concerns about this staff association working document." If you can't find it on UWinfo, you can get a paper copy from the association office in Davis Centre room 3603.

United Way givings grow

"Bring your loonies and twoonies," says a flyer that just arrived, "and join us on the third floor of Needles Hall." Promised: "coffee and goodies" from 9 to 11 today, with proceeds going to the United Way. The event is organized by the university secretariat. Just down the hall, in NH room 3043, is a book sale today, also in support of the United Way; the office of institutional analysis and planning put that one together. The flyer notes that there's a "well-ventilated smoking lounge adjacent" to these events -- well, some of us would have described it more as "the great outdoors".

Anyway, with such events, and with pledges from staff, faculty and retirees, the United Way fund is growing. "We've received a rather generous donation," campaign chair Helen Kilbride advised me yesterday, without making details known yet. As a result, the campaign has hit $80,000, on the way to its 1996 goal of $145,000 to be raised at UW.

Happening at Waterloo today

Where the campus is burning

Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, is best known as the site for activities like nationally televised beach volleyball. So it somehow doesn't seem incongruous to learn that a fire swept across the campus there yesterday, but nobody was hurt. An excerpt from Pepperdine's Web pages this morning:
Due to the wildfire that hit the Malibu area Monday, there will be no classes on the Malibu campus Tuesday, October 22. The Malibu campus is closed except for essential student services. Update: There were no injuries reported, and on-campus students, faculty, and staff were able to return to campus housing. Aside from the several hundred acres of undeveloped land that were burned in the fire, the University's Malibu campus sustained relatively little damage (however, portions of Pepperdine's stables and a few storage containers were gutted). Information from the surrounding Malibu area is minimal, at best, but recent reports seem to indicate that damage was limited to hillside vegetation and outbuildings. Pacific Coast Highway is closed in all directions, as are Kanan-Dume Road and Malibu Canyon.
Of course it could never happen at Waterloo.

CAR

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