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University of Waterloo | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Thursday, March 11, 1999

  • Recruitment moves to campus
  • Co-op releases winter stats
  • Career services seeks volunteers
  • Open house, seminar, forum, etc.
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Recruitment moves to campus

A growing number of companies are coming to campus to recruit UW students through employer information sessions -- informal opportunities for students and employers to get acquainted. While such sessions have been held in the past, UW co-operative education and career services began coordinating the visits last year, and there has been a surge of interest among employers.

In 1998, co-op organized 93 employer information sessions on campus, arranging the venue, advertising, audio-visual needs and catering. As well, co-op staff meet with visitors before and during the event to discuss the presentation, as well as recruiting needs, and ways in which companies can support the university through scholarships, awards, and event sponsorships.

The events are usually held late afternoon or early evening as informal receptions, complete with refreshments ranging from wine and cheese to pizza and beer. "Despite the relaxed, easy-going atmosphere that is evident, companies take information sessions very seriously judging by the number of their CEOs or presidents often in attendance," notes Olaf Naese, communications and public relations administrator for co-op.

Feedback from employers has been positive, citing the opportunity to meet well-qualified and enthusiastic candidates. Students especially like having a chance to speak with recent graduates and former co-op students employed with the company to find out what kind of work experience to expect.

Employer information sessions have broader benefits, as well, with some $85,000 in revenues from goods and services earned by UW departments through the visits last year. Among the beneficiaries were the Federation of Students (42 per cent), food services (17 per cent), the co-op department (12 per cent), University Club (nine per cent) and audio visual (seven per cent), as well as various amounts to the Institute for Computer Research, graphic services, and the mail room.

Co-op releases winter stats

Just over 3,900 students, 98.16 per cent of those scheduled to work in the winter co-op term, have found employment -- "a tribute to both the students and the employers," says co-op and career services director Bruce Lumsden. "As we begin to enter an expansion phase in the University it is critical that we maintain and increase our co-op employer base."

The figure is up marginally over the same period last year, when 98.09 per cent of co-op students had jobs. Achieving 100 per cent employment this term were the 56 teaching students, followed by a 99.73 rate for students in accounting, 99.63 for arts, and 99.28 for engineering.

In math, 96.36 per cent of students found jobs, 96.47 in applied health sciences, 97.15 in science (up from 90.52 at this time last year), 97.94 in ERS, geography and planning, and 98.54 in architecture.

Career services needs volunteers

Career services is seeking students to fill a variety of volunteer positions in the career resource centre. Openings are available for career assistants, career information assistants and marketing assistants.

Depending on the position, students will gain experience in job search, marketing, and/or career-related skills by promoting events and services or by helping other students in their career planning and job search.

The positions are open to regular and co-op students who are creative and possess strong interpersonal and communication skills. Volunteer positions start next September and include a three-day training program during orientation week.

Students are asked to make a commitment to work four hours per week for a total of eight months. Applications are available in the career resource centre, Needles Hall room 1115, or on the centre's web page. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 26.

Open house, seminar, forum, etc.

Everyone is invited to an open house at 10:30 this morning in the Theatre of the Arts, Modern Languages, to receive an update on progress being made with the new PeopleSoft Student Administration System. After a year of testing UW's business practices using the new software system, the student information system project team will demonstrate how SAS may be used "to move an individual student through standard processes from recruitment to graduation." Plans for this year include developing a UW prototype of the new system and reviewing it with users around campus.

Renovations start today to the main reception area of Health Services. Although the work is expected to last two to three weeks and may entail some inconvenience, the department will be open for regular office hours -- 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday -- and all services will be as usual.

Starting today and running through April 25 is Finale: Selections from the permanent collection in the Modern Languages Gallery. Hours are Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Co-op coordinators have a full day of meetings scheduled with engineering coordinators meeting from 9 to 10:30 a.m., arts and math coordinators from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., and AHS, ES and science coordinators from 1:30 to 3 p.m., all in Needles Hall room 3004. Acceptance of employment meetings are also being held in co-op today, and continuous phase posting #3 will be available by noon.

UW chemistry professor Peter Bernath will speak at 3 p.m. on "Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere: The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) Project" in Davis Centre room 1304. Sponsored by the Waterloo Centre for Materials Technology, the seminar is open to all.

An Open Forum on Urban Environmental Management is being held at 3:30 p.m. in Environmental Studies 1 room 221. Interested in attending? Contact Beth Dempster, project coordinator, at mbldemps@fes.uwaterloo.ca.

Creator2, a new multi-page layout and draw program for the Mac platform, will be the focus of the WatRMUG meeting tonight at 7 at the New Dawn School on Fairfield Ave. (across from the Dutch Boy near Margaret and Union). Richard Crispin at rcrispin@watarts.uwaterloo.ca or ext. 5669 has more details.

For the second year in a row, Frederic Latour has won the Bernoulli Trials competition held last Saturday in the math faculty. "For his fine effort, Frederic received 100 toonies from the Dean of Math," reports contest organizer Christopher Small, a statistics and actuarial science professor. "Second place went to Dennis The, who received the Dean's traditional award of 100 loonies for the runner-up. Derek Kisman gave another strong showing by ranking 3rd-4th, tied with Byung Kyu Chun. Each received 80 quarters. The final prize of 40 quarters was awarded to Sabin Cautis for his fifth place ranking."

And a note from human resources, which has "received some inquiries lately about the dates on reports from the PeopleSoft system. People who receive these reports should note that the date convention used in PeopleSoft is MM/DD/YY (rather than YYMMDD as it was in our legacy system)," explains Sandra Hurlburt, assistant director of information support systems. "For example, December 1, 1998 is displayed as 12/01/98 on the new reports." She also sends reminders that payroll cutoff and pay dates are on the human resources website, and that new employees who are paid monthly through direct deposit must sign up in human resources before their pay can be processed.

The registrar's office (on the second floor of Needles Hall) and the graduate studies office (on the third floor) will be closed today between 10 a.m. and noon to allow staff to attend a meeting.

Barbara Elve
bmelve@uwaterloo.ca


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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