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  Daily Bulletin



University of Waterloo | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Friday, March 19, 1999

  • More OSS students choose UW first
  • Warrior honoured with national award
  • Election called for senate seat
  • Village 1 eatery name announced
  • As the vernal equinox approaches
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More OSS students choose UW first -- cut-off marks could climb

"We are experiencing an incredible 'boom' in applications," reports UW director of admissions Peter Burroughs after assessing some 95 to 98 per cent of applications to year one programs processed so far by the Ontario Universities' Application Centre.

Ontario Secondary School (OSS) applications to UW for next September are up 22 per cent, compared to a provincial average increase of 20.3 per cent. "More pronounced," he notes, "is the 38.3 per cent increase in non-OSS applications provincially which includes 43.1 per cent at Waterloo.

"As a percentage of institutional totals, Waterloo continues to have the largest proportion of first choice OSS applicants (35.4 per cent). In the non-OSS category, Waterloo is at the provincial average at 33 per cent."

While the OSS applicants are a known quantity, Burroughs is uncertain about the source of the increase in non-OSS applicants. They could be coming from community colleges, transfers from other universities, mature students, or from other provinces or countries. In recent years, he says, UW has increased its efforts to attract students from other provinces.

As yet there is no move to increase the enrolment targets for next September in response to the additional applications, says Burroughs, but such targets are "established fairly early in the admissions cycle and can be modified." While the number of students admitted to co-op programs is not likely to change, "there may be some pressure put on a dean to open up additional spaces" in some regular programs, such as arts and business, which has had a significant increase in applications.

Rather than increasing targets, however, he expects cut-off marks for applicants to be higher, since "we expect to have more high quality students to choose from."

The number of applicants who make UW their first, second or third choices is "up significantly," he notes, adding most who actually accept admission offers tend to be those who selected UW as first or second choice. But choice is not a factor in admissions decisions made by the university. "We treat students regardless of choice equally," he says.

Among the faculties, arts has the biggest increase in applications (both OSS and non-OSS) over last year, up 43 per cent. Applied health sciences and environmental studies are both up 26 per cent; mathematics, 24 per cent; science 21 per cent; and engineering 11 per cent.

Although the current figures represent the bulk of applications for next fall, later deadlines for some programs means the registrar's office "expect a trickle of applications until the end of June." Most offers of admission will be mailed out on May 18, and students will have until June 1 to reply.

Warrior honoured with national award

The 1999 Ken Shields TSN Award was presented last night to UW Warrior basketball point guard Mano Watsa at the Halifax CIAU Final 8 National Championship festivities.

The national award is presented annually to the person who best exhibits outstanding achievement in basketball, academics and community involvement.

For Watsa, the honour caps an extraordinary basketball career at UW, where he has recently completed his fifth and final year of eligibility with the Waterloo Warriors. The fifth year honours recreation student from Harrow, Ontario, will be remembered for his performance both on and off the courts.

"We will miss the sheer joy that Mano brings to the game and the countless spectacular plays that left everyone shaking their heads in amazement," says Warriors' basketball coach Tom Kieswetter. "We have been blessed through his efforts and he will be remembered as one of the Warriors' best."

For three years Watsa was captain and team MVP, and he was named an Academic All-Canadian in 1998-99 for achieving an average over 80 per cent while competing in interuniversity athletics. He was awarded an honourable mention All-Canadian in basketball in 1998-99 (with an injury during the season) and a second team All-Canadian in basketball in 1996-97 and 1997-98. Watsa served as a team representative on the Athletic Council for three years. During his career he has been a tournament MVP five times, an All-Star 13 times, and currently ranks sixth on the Warrior's all-time scoring list.

Among his other contributions to both the UW and larger communities, Watsa was co-founder of Athletes in Action, a Christian organization at UW, was actively involved in Kitchener-Waterloo Big Brothers, served as a speaker with the Team Up school outreach program run by the department of athletics, and director of the Watsa Basketball Camp for youth.

Election called for senate seat

Three candidates have been nominated for the vacant engineering undergraduate senate seat, and an election has been called for March 30. The candidates and their statements:

Ballots will be mailed to off-campus co-op students on March 22 (to be returned by 3 p.m., April 9); on-campus voting will take place on March 30, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the foyer of Carl Pollock Hall.

Village 1 eatery name announced

"The search is over," proclaims food services after an exhaustive effort to choose a name for the newly renovated Village 1 eatery.

It will be known as Mudie's (pronounced moodys) in honour of the late Bob Mudie, first director of food services at UW. He served as director until his retirement in 1991.

Winners of the Village 1 Name Contest are Dave Reynolds, conference manager of the UW Conference Centre, and Jeannie Watt, food services administrative manager. A draw for the $200 reward was held, with Watt the winner.

As the vernal equinox approaches

Heritage, Tourism and Tourism Research is the topic of a talk by University of Groningen (the Netherlands) professor Gregory Ashworth today at 9:30 a.m. as part of the Contemporary Perspectives on Tourism lecture series. The talk takes place in the Mutual Auditorium, Burt Matthew Hall.

Today is the deadline for co-op students to hand in 15 copies of their resume package along with a completed Continuous Phase Registration form to the paging desk in Needles Hall. If students don't submit the form and resumes by today, their status will change to "On Own-Self Imposed" unless they obtain employment by April 23. Architecture continuous phase posting #1 expires at 8 p.m.

Writing Research Proposals will be the focus of a TRACE TA brown bag workshop today from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Math and Computer room 5158. The event is open to all UW graduate students, but pre-registration (ext. 3132) is required.

Alan Cairns, an adjunct political science faculty member, will address Searching for Multinational Canada: The Rhetoric of Confusion today at 2:30 p.m. in Hagey Hall room 334. The colloquium is sponsored by the political science department.

The computer science and electrical and computer engineering graduate student associations bring to campus today University of Toronto computer science professor Stephen Cook, as part of their Celebrity Lecture Series. The subject of his talk will be The Complexity of the Satisfiability Problem. The event will take place at 3 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302. All are welcome.

Monika Hellwig, a prominent Catholic writer and scholar, will speak on Catholic Education: A Venerable Tradition with New Challenges tonight at 7:30 at Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University. Presented by St. Jerome's Centre for Catholic Experience, the talk is free and open to all.

There'll be a whole lot of sweeping going on Saturday at the 29th annual Hagey Funspiel, which starts at 9 a.m. in the Ayr Curling Club. Those who haven't signed up to curl are welcome to come out and watch. Prizes will be awarded at a dinner following the event.

Working nine to five on Saturday are the Federation of Students, hosting an academic roundtable on "Performance Indicators on the Quality of Teaching" in the Student Life Centre multipurpose room. "The purpose of the roundtable is to have some dialogue regarding the central issues in measuring quality of teaching," says Feds vice-president (education) Robin Stewart. Speakers will include Jim Kalbfleisch, UW vice-president (academic) and provost; Gary Griffin, director of Teaching Resources and Continuing Education; Fred McCourt, president of the UW faculty association, and Milan Konopek, a representative from Queen's University. Everyone in the campus community is invited, and free coffee and lunch will be provided.

A South African wine tasting dinner will be held Saturday evening at the University Club. On the menu (for $39 plus tax and tip): Calso de Camarao, Avocado and Smoked Fish Salad, Akotonshi, Jollof, and Konafa, each with a wine to complement the dish. To reserve, phone ext. 4088.

The Cheryl Prime Dance Project presents Dances in the Round, informal studio performances of modern dance, on Sunday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Studio B, East Campus Hall. For more information or to reserve tickets, phone 827-1335.

Peace and conflict studies is sponsoring a Peace Speech Contest on Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Conrad Grebel College chapel. To find out more, call Karin Kliewer at 885-0220, ext. 254.

UW senate will meet Monday at a revised time -- 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. -- in Needles Hall room 3001. On the agenda are reports on budget development, distinguished teacher awards and honorary degrees.

The Volunteer Action Centre has opportunities for volunteers to help the A.R. Goudie Eventide Home, the John Howard Society, and the Alzheimer Society. For more information, phone 742-8610.

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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Copyright © 1999 University of Waterloo