Daily Bulletin

Thursday, January 9, 1997

He's James Downey, OC UW president James Downey has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, an honour given to Canadians by the Governor-General for "exemplary merit and achievement". A total of 73 Companions, Officers and Members were named to the Order in this week's semiannual honours list. Downey, president of UW since 1993, was previously president of the University of New Brunswick. A professor of English before going into full-time administration at Carleton University and UNB, he is also a director of Tennis Canada and of Hewlett-Packard Canada, chair of the Council of Ontario Universities and vice-chair of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Downey's predecessor as president, Douglas Wright, is also an Officer of the Order of Canada.

UW buys back 100 acres

The 100-acre parcel, once intended to be the site for a major H-P plant, is still empty farmland. H-P decided to build elsewhere in Waterloo, and in November it opened a new complex at 455 Phillip Street for its Panacom Automation Division. The proximity to UW is no coincidence. "You'll never find a Hewlett-Packard in a city without a major university," said Dan Branda, president of H-P Canada.

But the company decided not to use the Fischer-Hallman site, which at one time was seen as the anchor for a "research park" and other development on the square mile north of Columbia Street.

UW bought the 100 acres back from H-P in November, university secretary Lois Claxton said earlier this week. "The parcel was reacquired according to the terms set out in the rights-of-first-refusal instrument," she said, meaning that UW had the right to buy it back at the original selling price plus simple interest if H-P decided not to use it. The price, she said, was $1,852,000, "or $18,500 per acre for land valued at between $100,000 and $150,000 per acre".

Artist for 40 years

I have just returned from a half-year sabbatical (my last, as I retire in 1999), and on January 11 I will be having a small show to celebrate the 40th anniversary of my first one-man show, held January 1957 at the Greenwich Gallery, later the Isaacs Gallery, in Toronto. It seems I am older (exhibition-wise) than UW! It will have 8-10 works done in Ireland and France this fall, plus about 20 older works chosen from the past four decades.

Department heads are invited

New store opens in SLC

And these other notes

The UW English department, along with the local chapters of the Society for Technical Communication and the International Association of Business Communicators, hosts a session tonight that promises to "give you the skills you need to help prevent career flameouts". The gathering begins with a wine-and-cheese reception at 6:30 in Davis Centre room 1301; at 7:30 management consultant Bill Smith will speak on "fireproofing your career". Everyone is welcome. Information: 748-2462.

In yesterday's Bulletin I mentioned an Economics Society session on careers in economics, and said it was happening "tomorrow", implying today, when in fact it should have said "today", meaning yesterday. I hope nobody was counting on attending today, meaning today -- my apologies to those who were misled.

And in the Bulletin a couple of days ago I asked, apropos of the digging going on at Biology I, whether a steam shovel is still called a steam shovel. Several correspondents have said, variously, yes and no; other names suggested for the equipment include "power shovel", "backhoe", and even "high hoe", which I thought was something the seven dwarfs sang. . . .

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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