Daily Bulletin

Thursday, November 13, 1997

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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64 per cent have jobs so far

Monday was the day for matching co-op students with winter term jobs, and the results were a bit more encouraging than what happened this time last year, says Olaf Naese of the co-op and career services department:

As of November 10 there were 4,061 co-op students scheduled to be on the January-April 1998 work term. Following Monday's computer job match, 64.2% of these students have jobs. This represents a 0.7% increase over the same time last year.
While this percentage seems minor, it is important to point out that there were 357 (or 9.64%) more students than last year looking for employment for the winter term. This is mainly due to this year's increase in the number of first year students admitted UW co-op programs.
For those 1,450 co-op students not yet employed, there is still time. We are just easing into the "Continuous" phase of interviews. CECS's 33 field co-ordinators have been busy "pounding the pavement" and there are now approximately 1,000 new jobs in the system. This is on top of the close to 800 positions not filled from the first round of interviews just ended.

Planners talk of the central city

The challenge of improving urban cores, including the fragile downtown of Kitchener, is the focus of the Pragma Council's fall conference to be held today and Friday. The council, based in UW's school of urban and regional planning, will gather together planning experts to discuss the theme "Urban Core Areas Revisited: New Challenges, New Opportunities -- Issues of Equity, Economy and Environment."

The two-day event will be held in Environmental Studies I room 221. The Pragma Council generally meets twice a year to bring the views of top people in the planning profession, for the benefit of each other and of thinkers in the planning school.

Among the experts this time will be David Corks, downtown development consultant, who will talk about "The Kitchener Experience -- Challenges, Opportunities and Responses." His talk begins at 10:30 a.m. today. Later on, at 3:05 p.m., David Hall, manager of operations and development at the Dufferin Mall in Toronto, will discuss his mall's experience in collaborative community problem-solving. On Friday, Windsor's experience in core area challenges will be reviewed by Jim Yanchula, city centre revitalization manager.

The keynote speaker -- Thursday at 7 p.m. -- will be Nancy Brawley, executive director of the Kitchener Downtown Business Association, who will talk on "The Transitional Role of a Business Improvement Area -- The Kitchener Experience." The after-dinner speech takes place in the Laurel Room, South Campus Hall.

Other events today at Waterloo

The toy fair in support of the Hildegard Marsden Day Nursery (and in support of avoiding the Christmas rush at the mall) winds up today, 8:45 to 4:45, in the Davis Centre lounge.

The music department at Conrad Grebel College today brings in David Temperley of the Ohio State University; he'll speak at 3:30 (Grebel room 267) on "An Algorithm for Harmonic Analysis".

Careers in math and computer science, especially for women, are the topic of a panel starting at 4 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1304. The Women in Mathematics Committee is sponsoring the event; seven women who graduated from math (the earliest in 1977, the most recent in 1995) will talk about their careers in insurance, teaching, software development and research and development. All students are welcome.

The 22nd annual Engineering Awards Dinner will be held tonight at the Four Points Hotel in downtown Kitchener (the Valhalla Inn in most people's memories, the Inn of the Black Walnut to real old-timers). Chair for the evening is William Stevens, a 1970 mechanical engineering graduate who's now a division head at Stanley Consulting Group Ltd., and the speaker will be Bob Rosehart, chemical engineering 1967, who is president of Wilfrid Laurier University.

Engineers who aren't receiving awards, I guess, can drown their sorrows and enjoy Tal-Eng tonight at the Bombshelter pub. About five hours of entertainment by engineers is scheduled, with songs ranging from "Colour of My Love" to "Kiss the Girl", not to mention stand-up comedy and some serious drums.

The drama department production of "Oh, What a Lovely War" continues tonight through Saturday at 8, in the Theatre of the Arts.

The talk of the campus

"Effective this Friday," says a note from human resources, "all casual biweekly employee cheques that are normally made available for pickup in financial services in East Campus Hall and at the cashiers' office in Needles Hall will now be available for pickup at the human resources department, located in the General Services Complex, Section A, room 115, on Friday afternoons after 3:00. Scholarship cheques will continue to be distributed, as usual, at the student accounts office in Needles Hall."

It was inevitable: exams are just around the corner. The fall term examination schedule is now available through UWinfo, listing dates of exams December 5 through 19, with the caveat that "In the event that severe weather conditions or general emergency results in a decision to postpone all examinations on a given day or period, the examinations concerned will be held at the same time and location on December 20."

The design and typesetting staff in graphic services won't be available all day tomorrow -- that branch of the department will be closed for a professional development seminar.

The mail is still moving across Canada, but people are still making contingency plans for a postal strike. The human resources department has arrangements coming to avoid disruption in submission and payment of health and dental claims by faculty and staff; stay tuned.

UW's announced decision to phase out Macintosh computers has, not surprisingly, been getting some attention along the Mac grapevine well beyond this campus. The electronic newsletter MacInTouch mentioned it last Thursday, juxtaposing it with a comment from an official at the University of Michigan: "Although some universities are reducing their commitment to Apple and their products, U-M remains committed to offering choice for computing solutions to students, faculty and staff. It is not in the interests of a leading institution to dictate computing platform."

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY November 13, 1968: Protesters against the Vietnam war announce they will burn a dog in the arts quadrangle. When a crowd gathers, out comes a hot dog for roasting. November 13, 1995: In its fifth annual universities issue, Maclean's magazine proclaims UW the "best overall" university in its category -- again.

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