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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Friday, September 6, 1996

Day of the Frosh Olympics

First-year students from all the faculties will be heading up to Columbia Field this afternoon for the sweat, splashing and laughter of the Frosh Olympics. Cloudy-and-warm isn't the worst weather they could have for such activities, I guess. The annual chariot race around the Dana Porter Library follows, at 3:00.

Much of today is marked off as "down time" for new students who might, by now, be just a little tired of energetic activities. Students in math and applied health sciences who are writing a WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) exam this morning. Tonight, AHS and the church colleges have a scavenger hunt, but the recommended destination for most other first-years is Federation Hall, where the entertainment is The Philosopher Kings and Gypsy Soul.

Orientation events for Saturday: "Spirit Day" in the morning -- work on local environmental and service projects -- and the Waterloo-Windsor football game in the afternoon. The Warriors and Lancers hit the field at 2 p.m. at University Stadium (that's Seagram Stadium to us old-timers) on the Wilfrid Laurier campus. Besides its meaning as the opener of the football season, tomorrow's game offers an opportunity for the Warriors' Tuffy Knight to set a Canadian record of 138 victories in his coaching career.

Saturday night: first-year students grab sheets and head for a toga party, or there's the big-name group The Watchmen (with Blue Meanies) at Federation Hall.

Sunday brings a few final orientation activities (science students have a chance to head for Canada's Wonderland). There are church services both on and off campus.

And need I remind anyone that classes start on Monday?

A vandal in our midst

Gary Marx of UW's school of optometry sends this not very pleasant message:

Three Optometry vehicles parked in lot "O" were vandalized Tuesday evening. Seven tires were slashed, a windshield broken, a rear-view mirror and windshield wiper torn off, gas tanks compromised on all 3 vehicles, and there was some minor body damage to one van.
The vehicles will be out of commission for several days while the UW garage make repairs. It's a real shame because these vehicles are used for among other things, to transport our faculty and students to external clinics and to tow our mobile clinic.
One hates to speculate but being frosh week the obvious comes to mind. UW Police have been contacted and are investigating.

Local volunteers are wanted

A couple of requests from the Volunteer Action Centre:

Personal care helper -- "a female volunteer to help a mother with her daughter, Wednesday evenings 6-8 p.m. and on Sundays 5-8 p.m. This position can be shared by more than one volunteer and involves helping to bathe, dress, feed a 9-year-old and then go for a walk with her." Listing 73-1723.
Assistant treasurer (and treasurer next year) for "an agency that provides support to Alzheimer patients and their families". Listing 128-1724.

The VAC can be reached at 742-8610 for more information.

Last day before late fees

Yep, today is the day both graduate and undergraduate students must register (in Needles Hall and the Physical Activities Complex, respectively) to avoid paying "late fees", which start at $10 on Monday and go up by $3 a day thereafter. The last lawful day for registration at any price is October 31.

A few notes from the fine print:

You can get a WatCard today in the Student Life Centre; after that, it's over to the WatCard office in the General Services Complex, facing the ring road.
"You may use your schedule to correct address and biographical information. Please do so in the appropriate shaded areas either in conjunction with any course changes or separately. You may submit these changes either through your Faculty/Department Advisor or directly to the Registrar's Office." (And the library needs information about address changes, quite separately; the two databases don't talk to one another.)
Undergraduate registration (and pickup of revised schedules, for students who have made course changes) stays at the PAC until late next week, then moves back to Needles Hall.

Other news and announcements

Students, faculty and staff of Conrad Grebel College are away Saturday and Sunday at the annual "All-College Retreat" at Silver Lake Mennonite Camp.

Faculty Development Days continue today in the Davis Centre. There are scheduled panels on such topics as "teaching with data sets" and "teaching in a compressed videoconference classroom", as well as a 10:45 a.m. session about the WatGreen program.

In conjunction with Faculty Development Days, the audio-visual centre will have an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. today in Engineering 2 room 1314. "Here's an excellent opportunity to view the newest and most popular teaching aids and find out how to incorporate them into your classes."

Training for teaching assistants is under way in many departments today -- for example, there's a day-long workshop in the faculty of applied health sciences, organized by the new associate dean (undergraduate studies) there, Fran Allard.

Electrical power, heating, cooling and ventilation will be shut down in the Physical Activities Complex and University Club on Sunday morning from 6:30 to 10:30, the plant operations department warns -- so don't leave your computer on over the weekend if you work in either of those buildings.

What's the best university in the United States? According to US News and World Report, the magazine that ranks American universities each fall, it's no longer Harvard, which has fallen to third place after six years in first. The 1996 leaders: Yale and Princeton. (Duke is fourth, MIT fifth.) Among "National Liberal Arts Colleges", the top score goes to Swarthmore.

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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