Daily Bulletin

Thursday, February 5, 1998

UW president James Downey confers with FASS producer Angela Chambers about the possibility that he'll play a cameo role in one performance of the show this weekend. A decision hadn't been reached as this Bulletin went airborne.

You can play it for me

The show's producer, alumnus Angela Chambers, says the show tells the story of a prince from an obscure European country who comes to UW in search of a wife. Why he chose UW is beyond my understanding, and it's also not too clear what makes the FASS people think they've borrowed their plot from a certain classic film. Anyway, hilarity and bad puns abound. Characters entwined in the story include a group of students trying to earn money writing romance novels, Napoleon Bonaparte, and a very hirsute princess. And people wonder why it takes eight months to write the show.

She adds: "You will recognize many of the faces on stage, especially the famous FASS cameo. Every year, a role is written so that someone who can't spend three weeks rehearsing can take their turn to walk onto the stage and become a FASS star." Performing tonight will be Lara Wolfson of the statistics department; Friday at the early show, Paul Schellenberg, associate dean of math; Friday at the late show, Phil Eastman, science ham now retired from the physics department; and Saturday night, Donna Strickland of physics. "We can't tell you what exactly they're going to do," Chambers maintains; to find out, you'll have to see FASSablanca. Tickets are $9 each, available at the box office in Hagey Hall.

New leaders for graduate students

President of the GSA will be Peter Wood of pure mathematics; vice-president (operations), Daniel Piche of applied mathematics, serving another term; VP (communications), Lara Varpio of English; corporate secretary, Jason McLean of optometry. At-large members of the GSA board will be Vlad Bantseev of optometry, Duane Cronin of mechanical engineering, David Kribs of pure math, Alison Luke of sociology, and Lori Vallis of kinesiology.

Nobody filed nomination forms for the remaining position, VP (internal), so it remains vacant at least until the annual general meeting of the GSA, scheduled for March 25.

. . . and for undergraduates, soon

Candidates' forums continue: today at 12:30 at Carl Pollock Hall, tonight at 6 at Renison College, Monday at 12:30 in the Math and Computer comfy lounge.

Members of students' council -- the larger Federation governing body -- were also originally supposed to be chosen at this election. But things have been delayed (for lack of candidates, I think); and nominations are now due no later than tomorrow, at the Federation office in the SLC.

Water all around the bridge

When a water main broke near the health services pond dam recently, contractors initially planned to dig up the creek bed to replace the water main. However, aside from an excavation near the Ring Road, trenchless technology has been used to install a new larger-diameter pipe under the creek.

In the meantime, a bypass system has been hooked up to maintain water to Health Services. Work is expected to be completed by next week, reports Philip Simpson, mechanical section foreman for plant operations. "We usually repair a couple of water main breaks per year," he said, noting that we work on an aging campus. Another break occurred this week at Carl Pollock Hall, and has already been repaired.

Performance appraisals for staff

The information contained in annual reviews should not come as a surprise to staff members, but rather should be a confirmation of informal feedback received throughout the year.

Although there are many similarities to the previous appraisal form, the new form provices more flexibility in selecting criteria appropriate to the variety of positions on campus. . . . Another feature of the new form is the provision for past and future goals and objectives to be discussed and identified as factors in performance management.

The rating grid has been "simplified". Ratings can now range from 1 ("significantly below job requirements in several important areas") through 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, and 4.5 up to 5 ("exceptional . . . recognized throughout the individual's unit or broadly throughout the University"). Finer gradations such as 3.6 aren't allowed.

Events of today and tomorrow

To mark National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, the Federation today sponsors a workshop called "How to Cope and Still Eat Chocolate". It features Linda Barton, nutritionist working with health services, speaking about eating for energy and the truth about fat; Linda Brogden, a nurse with health services, speaking about drinking as a coping mechanism; Adrienne Gilbert, a professor in recreation and leisure studies, speaking about keeping balance in your life by taking part in recreation; and Heather Calder from the Federation, leading a T-shirt making session and talking about keeping the emphasis off appearances. "Participants will take home a free T-shirt and lots of good information!" The event starts at noon in Student Life Centre room 2134.

"Affluenza" is today's offering in the Films for Awareness series at Conrad Grebel College. A 57-minute look at "one of the greatest social, economic and environmental sicknesses of our time, materialism", it starts at 12 noon in Grebel room 267. In a related event, there will be a brown-bag lunch tomorrow at Grebel in which peace and conflict studies intern Kathleen Manion "will share some of her experiences as a kindergarten teacher working in the Galapagos Islands". Both events are sponsored by the peace and conflict studies program.

An open house tomorrow will show what's happening with the the ASI Project, aimed at introducing a new computer system for UW's co-op department within a year. The new system will "allow students to enter their resume, view and apply to jobs via the World Wide Web," explains Jan Willwerth of the information systems and technology department. "These same tools will allow employers to use the Web to post jobs, view applicants and set interview schedules. With a theme of CECS improvement, the presentation will look at the need for change, the blueprint and the construction to date." The open house starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Davis Centre room 1304.

And a note from me

Besides that, much of what people in higher education seemed to be talking about had to do with the University of Phoenix, which has more than 40,000 students on 17 campuses in Arizona, California and other parts of the United States -- and which is operated for a profit. Are privately owned, profit-making institutions a big threat to traditional universities and colleges? Perhaps not, a couple of university presidents told the conference, but nevertheless we have lots to learn from them about meeting continuing education needs at the right time and place.

So I get back to Waterloo to find that my Macintosh can stick around for a while, that UW's oldest academic building is getting a new name, and that the Village I renovations are going to cost $3,826,380, just a hair less than the budget, which was $3,852,007. That's cutting it fine: a margin of 0.66 per cent.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
Comments to the editor | About the Bulletin | Yesterday's Bulletin
Copyright © 1998 University of Waterloo