Daily Bulletin

Time to nominate top teachers

UW has been giving the awards since 1976 to recognize "intellectual vigour and communication skills in the interpretation and presentation of subject matter. The teacher's human quality and concern for and sensitivity to the needs of students is an obvious criterion. The Selection Committee will look for a clear indication that the nominee has favourable and lasting influence on students. Evidence of successful innovation in teaching would support a nomination, but it is also clear that excellence in teaching does not necessarily require innovation."

Nominations need a lot more than just a list of signatures, says the detailed information available about the Distinguished Teacher Awards:

In order for a teacher to be considered for the Distinguished Teacher Award, her/his file must include ten or more signatures, of these, at least five should be from present or former students. The following is a list of other items that are often included in successful nominations. They are presented here as suggestions if these types of resources are available to you. You should also feel free to submit other materials that are not included on this list.

• The nominee's teaching approaches (e.g. lecture, small group discussion) and special strengths (e.g. student advising, supervision). Letters from individual students and alumni describing the candidate's teaching and its impact on student learning and development would speak to this.
• A listing of the courses taught by the candidate over the past five years (including correspondence, graduate, and undergraduate courses), information on course enrolments, and the length of time the nominee has been at UW. This information is most easily obtained from the chair of the candidate's department. A detailed curriculum vitae with a complete list of publications, research grants, etc. is not normally of interest to the committee.
• Samples of excellent or innovative teaching materials, such as course handouts, project descriptions, assignments.
• Evidence of major contribution to curriculum development. * Summaries of course evaluations for the past several years (original course evaluation forms are usually inappropriate because of the volume of material).
• Evidence of success of former students that can be traced back to the influence of the candidate (e.g. student projects or theses submitted for publication, prizes and honours awarded to students, examples of excellent student work).
• Letters from colleagues providing they have direct knowledge of the candidate's teaching abilities and achievements.
• Honours and awards for teaching, for example from student societies or professional organizations.
• Descriptions of teaching innovations, if possible with evidence of their success in promoting better student learning.
• Evidence of work with colleagues to promote better teaching (e.g. presenting seminars on teaching, acting as a mentor to new faculty, organizing workshops for teaching assistants).

Waterloo 32, Laurier 10

In the much-hyped Battle of Waterloo, the big name for the Warriors was Mike Bradley, who had 24 carries for a total of 158 yards and scored one of the touchdowns.

Beating Laurier was one thing; beating the Mustangs, who have been rated #1 in the country this fall, may be quite another -- even though it was Waterloo 30, Western 10, when they met for the same trophy last year. "I can't wait to take it away," Mustang wide receiver Dan Disley told the London Free Press on Saturday night. "They came in here and beat the crap out of us in our own building in front of our fans. That is not going to happen this year." It was Western that handed the Warriors their only defeat this season, a 44-20 loss on October 3.

The Yates Cup winner will move on to face the winner of the Ontario-Québec league's Dunsmore Cup in the Churchill Bowl game November 21. Still in the running for the Dunsmore are Concordia and Laval. Beyond that is the Vanier Cup, the national championship, on November 28.

Meanwhile, the basketball Warriors took the championship title at the Brock Tournament in St. Catharines in the weekend. On Friday night, Waterloo used bench strength and second half offence to defeat the Cape Breton Capers 101-74. In the title game on Saturday, Waterloo turned to strong defence and defeated the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 67-35. Mano Watsa, Waterloo's All-Canadian point guard, was named tournament MVP. Dan Schipper and Woody Kwiatkowski were named tournament all-stars. Next action for Waterloo is the highlight of the fall schedule, the 31st Annual Naismith Classic this weekend.

America debates affirmative action

The speaker is William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University, who wrote The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions jointly with another high-profile executive, Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University.

A Michigan news release says the book, published by Princeton University Press, "has been called by the Chronicle of Higher Education perhaps the most comprehensive look ever at how students have benefited both during and after college from the use of race as a factor in selective admissions. The book is based on an extensive study of 45,000 students who entered 28 selective colleges in either the fall of 1976 or 1989. It shows that race-sensitive admissions policies have achieved institutional goals of providing promising careers for African American students and promoting positive interactions among races on campus."

Here's how the Press describes the new book:

Americans are deeply divided over the use of race in admitting students to universities. . . . Bowen and Bok argue that we can pass an informed judgment on the wisdom of race-sensitive admissions only if we understand in detail the college careers and the subsequent lives of students--or, to use a metaphor they take from Mark Twain, if we learn the shape of the entire river. The heart of the book is thus an unprecedented study of the academic, employment, and personal histories of more than 45,000 students of all races. . . .

The study reveals how much race-sensitive admissions increase the likelihood that blacks will be admitted to selective universities and demonstrates what effect the termination of these policies would have on the number of minority students at different kinds of selective institutions. The authors go on to determine how well black students have performed academically in comparison to their white classmates, what success they have had in their subsequent careers, and how actively they have participated in civic and community affairs.

U of M is currently defending lawsuits by two white plaintiffs who say they were discriminated against when they applied to enter law school and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at U of M. "Most of the major candidates stopped short of saying whether a different political makeup on the board could alter the University's defense of the lawsuits," the Michigan Daily reported on election day, but "if the two Republican candidates . . . win the seats, the board could face a 4-4 deadlock on political issues. . . .

"Democratic candidate Kathy White said the University should rethink its philosophy on an admissions process that overemphasizes grade point averages and standardized test scores. 'I think diversity's incredibly important,' White said. 'What my big concern is often we look at grades and standardized test scores as objective factors. I think that premise is a mistake. We know standardized test scores are not very good predictors of preference for minority students,' White said. 'They tend to outperform the (tests') predictions.'"

When polls closed, White was elected, along with one Republican. An incumbent Democrat was defeated and an incumbent Republican did not run for re-election. The result: a continued 5-3 majority for the Democrats on the board of one of America's biggest public universities.

Events of another busy week

It's Children's Book Week in Canada, the bookstore reports, "and to help celebrate, the store will be offering 15 per cent off children's books. The week will be capped by having Clifford the Big Red Dog come for a visit on Saturday the 14th, as part of the Kids' Club Event for Homecoming."

The career development seminar series continues. Tuesday at 9:30: "Networking". Tuesday at 10:30: "Job-Work Search Strategies". Wednesday at 10:30: "Gain the Competitive Edge, Know the Employer". Wednesday at 1:30: "Successfully Negotiating Job Offers". Thursday at 10:30: "Interview Skills, Preparing for Questions". All the seminars take place in Needles Hall room 1020.

This Wednesday (November 11) and again on November 18, health services will be offering limited services only, because of staff in-service training, a memo advises. On those two Wednesdays there will be no allergy injections, no immunization injections, no birth control pill dispensing. In addition, this Wednesday there will be no laboratory services.

Big events in the days ahead:

Tuesday: The Faculty of Science Foundation annual awards banquet.

Wednesday: Remembrance Day services at the Renison College chapel (10:45) and in the foyer of Carl Pollock Hall (11:00).

Thursday: A talk by Jane Stewart, federal minister of Indian affairs and northern development (4:30); the opening of a new automated call centre in UW's development office (open house 5:30).

Friday: Beginning of Homecoming weekend and the Naismith basketball tournament.

Saturday: Homecoming continues with basketball, the morning fun run, a family skating party, and entertainment by Riverworks; the Yates Cup football game; the national cross-country championships, hosted by UW on the north campus; "The Waltonsteins" at the Humanities Theatre (7:30).

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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