Daily Bulletin

Centre's no longer without walls

Gone is a piece of campus history: the kiosk from the University Avenue entrance was taken away by crane and truck yesterday as road repairs and new landscaping got started. The kiosk hasn't been a regular stop for campus visitors since the rebuilding of parking lot H and creation of a new information kiosk there in 1996. (Photo by Barbara Elve.)

"Our space now has a tentative floor layout, composed from old shelving and empty boxes but good enough to allow us to shift components around to insure the space is workable," writes Tom Carey, director of LT3. "We are working closely with the library staff to juggle space on the floor so that everyone's needs are addressed."

Why cardboard boxes? "Virtual reality walkthroughs are still a little beyond us," Carey jokes. "In an hour we built the low-tech mockup."

He says the actual LT3 construction has "gradually risen closer" to the top of the priority list, "so we expect a tender request to go out next week. The optimists are predicting a construction start in September and occupancy in November."

Other developments from LT3, according to a progress report issued by Carey this week:

§ "We are delighted to have attracted a top-quality person to fill the position of Senior Instructional Manager/Knowledge Manager. Vivian Rossner has been the head of the LohnLab for learning technologies in the Centre for Distance Education at Simon Fraser University. She will be moving to Waterloo to take up her position on October 1."

§ "In the meantime, Kevin Harrigan has been seconded from the research side to fill the Senior Instructional Design role -- Kevin has a PhD in curriculum design as well as experience as a faculty member in computer science and in multimedia production in industry."

§ "We have been supporting projects with Paul Malone in Germanic and Slavic Languages, Ross Willard in Pure Math, and will shortly be working with 'Ponnu' Ponnambalam in Systems Design Engineering."

§ "Our first graduate teaching assistant started this summer on a prototype project. Anne Gay from SDE has been working with Kirsten Morris on a course co-listed by Applied Math and SDE. The larger objective is to produce some LT3 web pages with components which can be easily re-used by faculty on their course pages."

§ "LT3 hosted a visit by Industry Canada officials, arranged through David Johnston. We expect to shortly get the go-ahead for a national project which will disseminate some of our IS301a methods to institutions across the country. We are also pursuing with them the possibility of UW partnership in their initiatives with the IEEE's Instructional Management System project to standardize inter-operability of learning technology components. This would be a joint project with the Library."

§ "LT3 is also hosting a visit by CANARIE officials in late August, to discuss their upcoming RFP in educational applications of advanced networks."

§ "We have received a request from Distance Education for help in designing methods for evaluating their web-based courses. Our plan is to advertise this as a GTA opportunity, likely of most interest to grad students in Psychology or a similar area."

§ "LT3 has subscribed to the Flashlight Tools program of the TLT Group, the American Association for Higher Education's technology affiliate. This gives us campus-wide use of their Student Inventory, the upcoming Faculty Inventory, and the Cost Analysis Handbook. One advantage of using these tools on campus is that we can then directly compare data with similar institutions elsewhere. When we have some experience with these tools we will sponsor campus presentations to promote usage."

This week's staff positions

• Administrative Secretary, Co-operative Education and Career Services, grade USG 4: Secretarial and receptionist experience with a working knowledge of Wordperfect required. Proven ability to adapt to and learn new software packages. Excellent oral communication and organizational skills with the ability to handle multiple tasks in a busy environment. Aptitude for accuracy and attention to detail is essential. Ability to work independently and as a team member with good interpersonal skills. Experience with Word, e-mail, Powerpoint and Synchronize would be an asset.
• Secretary/Receptionist, Office of the President, grade USG 4: High school graduate or equivalent education and experience. Several years office experience with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Excellent secretarial and proven computing skills: dictaphone, WordPerfect and Word using both Macintosh and PC. Experience with account reconciliation. Ability to work independently and as part of a team in an environment with constant interruption. Able to multi-task with high degree of accuracy and to work under pressure. Excellent organizational skills essential. Familiarity with University policies and procedures.
• Manager, Client-Server Systems Development and Software, Science Computing, grade USG 10: Bachelors degree in Science or a related discipline. Extensive work experience with software and hardware configuration and support for MS Windows and client/server applications essential. Experience with Waterloo Polaris and UNIX system support. Must be self-motivated and capable of learning quickly and working with minimal supervision, with proven problem solving, communication, organizational and interpersonal skills. Position is contingent upon funding.

For more information, HR can be reached at ext. 2524.

Also happening on campus

Negotiators for UW and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, local 793, talked for four days recently about a new contract for the roughly 300 union members in UW's plant operations and food services department. After that much negotiation without a contract agreement, CUPE has applied for conciliation by the Ontario ministry of labour, says Neil Murray, UW's manager of labour relations. "We have not heard from the ministry yet regarding possible dates."

Three faculty members are scheduled to retire as of September 1, the human resources department reports: Paul Karrow of earth sciences, Geoff Power of biology, and Mike Yovanovich of mechanical engineering. Yovanovich has been on faculty since 1969, Karrow since 1963, and Power almost since the university's beginnings: he arrived September 1, 1957.

"Students were the real winners," says a report from St. Jerome's University about its fifth annual golf tournament, held at Rockway Golf Club in mid-June. "The event raised approximately $10,000 to fund a new scholarship for undergraduates studying English literature." The scholarship will honour Doug Letson, who finished a ten-year term as president of St. Jerome's on June 30 and will return to teaching English at the college after a sabbatical leave. The golf tournament drew 88 faculty, staff, alumni and friends, and next year will be "bigger and better", organizers say.

Here's word that the science undergraduate office will be closed August 16 through 27 -- so students looking for academic counselling should act in the next couple of days or wait until the very end of August. It was announced earlier that undergraduate offices in arts and environmental studies would be closed for the same two-week period.

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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