Daily Bulletin

A cool look at corporate power

Warriors win at home In their first appearance on home court last night, the basketball Warriors brought their early season record to 5-1 with a 94-66 win over the George Brown College Huskies. Waterloo used their height advantage throughout the game and some good defensive pressure at times to force poor shots. Waterloo took a 42-19 lead to the dressing room at half time and extended that to some 36 points midway through the second half. Next action for Waterloo is Friday night at the Brock Tournament in St. Catharines. Waterloo will play Cape Breton in first round action.

Clarke, the Stanley Knowles visiting professor in Canadian studies this fall, will speak tonight on "Challenging the Corporate Security State: The Search for Democratic Alternatives". The lecture will be given in the Humanities Theatre, Hagey Hall, at 7:30 p.m. Free tickets are available from St. Paul's United College at 885-1460.

As part of the visiting professor program, Clarke is also teaching a Canadian studies course (365K), Issues in Corporate Power and Political Ethics, which is examining the "increasing political power of transnational corporations" and the impact on nation states.

A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Clarke did master's and PhD degrees at the University of Chicago in social ethics and professional ministry, and has worked extensively with churches across Canada in the development of social policy documents and plans of action on national and international justice issues. He is the author of Silent Coup: Confronting the Big Business Takeover of Canada (1997), and founder and director of the Ottawa-based Polaris Institute, "an agency designed to enable citizen movements to rebuild their capacities for democratic social change in an age of increasing economic globalization and corporate rule".

Based at St. Paul's, which administers the Canadian studies program, the visiting professorship was initiated in 1996 to pay tribute to the federal parliamentarian who was an honorary member of the House of Commons. The professorship seeks to continue Knowles's work "to create a better society in Canada, and to extend human rights internationally", by bringing to campus for at least one term each year leaders from government, business, labour, academia, church and the wider community.

Last month, as part of the program's lecture series, Canadian historian Olive Patricia Dickason spoke on "Recognized at Last? Reflections on the Royal Commission of Aboriginal People".

Clarke will also speak next Wednesday, Remembrance Day, at a service from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m. at the Chapel of St. Bede, Renison College.

United Way gift brings a day off

As of yesterday, a total of $117,984 had been raised for the United Way at UW through individual contributions and numerous special events. That's an "impressive" figure, says Sharon Lamont, campaign co-chair, but it's still just 87 per cent of the campaign goal, $135,000. So efforts will continue.

She said nine additional prizes will be awarded on Monday, November 16, for all donors who have used a donation form to make a contribution by Friday, November 13. The prizes are gift certificates valued at $50 from the Bookstore, Food Services, and the University Club.

Templates help creation of web courses -- reported by Barbara Elve

One of "the top ten highlights from various campuses", the North Carolina State site provides course templates "intended to help educators and educational service providers to quickly make course information available on-line via the World Wide Web. . . . "At a time when many innovative faculty are exploring the use of Web-based course materials, and when there is also a great deal of discussion on issues associated with on-line course material (self-paced learning, student-centered instruction, distance education), a set of templates such as these can serve a number of useful purposes:

1. Simplify development of online course materials by the majority of instructors who are interested in exploring the technology but who do not have time or resources to start from scratch.
2. Encourage a program-wide approach to on-line learning resources that reduces duplication of effort, allows speedy development of course-related material, encourages design consistency and simplifies technical support.
3. Minimize problems accessing course materials by specifying the use of standard formats and helper applications, ensuring multi-platform solutions,and providing a large-scale test bed for designs.
4. Develop material in such a way as to facilitate the evolution of lecture-based courses towards distance/time independent approaches, and to encourage a modular approach to course components that is flexible in a fast-changing educational environment.
5. Promote a student-centered approach to learning.
6. Offer a default solution to serve as a basis for discussion and improvement, and to offer a jumping off-point for personal innovation."

Especially helpful, TRACE notes, is a section on Using the Simple Online Interactive Test generator (SOIT).

Although the templates may be used and modified freely, the source must be acknowledged if included in any reviewed publications.

Flexible pensions and other topics

The career development seminar series continues, with one today on "Career Research Package: Self-Assessment Plus Occupational Research Plus Information Interviews Plus Career Decision-Making", which is a title I hope they don't have to put on the blackboard. It starts at 1:30 in Needles Hall room 1020. Tomorrow at 10:30, same place, it's "Resume Writing".

With winter term job interviewing almost at an end, today brings the last in the Chew on This noontime series for employers. Jill Tomasson Goodwin of the drama and speech communication department will talk on "Speaking Your Mind: Designing Effective Speeches".

There are no fewer than three academic talks scheduled for 3:30.

• In statistics and actuarial science, John Neuhaus of the University of California at San Francisco will speak on "Closure of the Class of Binary Generalized Linear Models in Some Nonstandard Settings" (Math and Computer room 5158).
• In the department of physics, Steven Girvin of Indiana University speaks on "Nuclear Physics Meets the Quantum Hall Effect: Skyrmions, NMR, and Giant Nuclear Specific Heat in Quantum Hall Ferromagnets" (Physics room 145).
• In chemical engineering, Qinglin Zhang of the University of Alberta speaks on "Catalytic Oxidation: Applications to Chemical Production and Industrial Wastewater Treatment" (Doug Wright Building, a.k.a. Engineering I, room 2517).

There are Scouts right on campus: a Rover Crew, to be precise, the Scouts Canada organization for people aged 19 to 25. "We participate in camps, hikes, et cetera," says one of the enthusiasts, math student Ryan Jenkins. There's a meeting today at 6 p.m. in Engineering II room 4401; anybody interested is welcome.

A series of "Profiles of Anabaptist Women: Sixteenth-Century Reforming Pioneers" continues at Conrad Grebel College, with a talk at 7:00 tonight (in the Grebel chapel) by Werner Packull and Linda Hubert Hecht. Title: "Compromise or Sacrifice -- Women Recanters and Women Martyrs Among the Anabaptists".

The fall arts and crafts show continues today (and tomorrow) in the Student Life Centre.

Temporary signs on campus this morning suggest that the planning school's Pragma Council is meeting, though I don't have details.

CAR

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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