Daily Bulletin

Towers of textbooks:"This year, we're literally piling them to the ceiling," says Jason MacIntyre of retail services.

No rest for retail services

"This is a crazy time of year for us," says MacIntyre, the manager of communication and electronic marketing for retail services on campus. He says the month of August is "truly our busiest time of year, next to the first two weeks of September."

Earlier this month, retail services was busy preparing for Student Life 101 -- they outfitted an entire model residence room with posters, a computer, UW wear, textbooks and other items to show visitors how homey residence can be. "We like to provide service to the students before they get here," MacIntyre explains.

Now that Student Life 101 is over, retail services is concentrating on the arrival of all new and returning students. Bookstore staff are trying to find shelf space for textbooks and filling ExpressBooks orders for those who order their course materials online before August 27. MacIntyre says students find the big advantages to the ExpressBooks service are that they won't have to endure lineups at the beginning of term, and they'll enjoy a 10% discount off the in-store price of course materials. For some, the best part is that the Bookstore will deliver orders right to residence. "We do the work," says MacIntyre, "so [students] don't have to lug their books."

Retail services staff are also working on other back-to-school promotions. Techworx will hold its second "Gear up for Fall" promotion where prizes include, among other things, a bicycle. The Computer Store is planning a series of demonstration days for the fall, once computer companies release their new product lines, and MacIntyre says there will be a series of brown bag lunch seminars offered to faculty and staff, to give them a chance to speak directly with computer company representatives.

The UWShop is bringing in new merchandise for the fall, including a line of Midnight Sun wear -- a portion of the proceeds from these clothes and book-bags will go directly to the team. To launch these new products, the Midnight Sun race car will be on display in the concourse of South Campus Hall on September 12.

MacIntyre says all back-to-school promotions need to be carefully orchestrated, and mirrored on the retail services website. He says the staff will be extremely busy for at least another month, before things get back to normal. "In the last week of September we all breathe a sigh of relief!"

SJU president joins IFCU board -- from a St. Jerome's University news release

Membership in the IFCU includes over 200 Catholic post-secondary institutions from every continent, including eight Canadian universities. Higgins is one of three North American councillors elected to the 17-person board and will serve a three-year term.

Higgins emphasizes the benefits to all Catholic universities of a global, values-based perspective. "To be a Catholic university entails more than the pursuit of knowledge; it involves the struggle to be fully human," he says. "It must be about the whole business of learning and not just the acquisition of information, the cultivation of skills, the ownership of intellectual property."

Meeting peers from the developing world can also help re-frame priorities, Higgins observes, recalling the passionate plea to the IFCU assembly of the president of an African university: "He said simply 'My country is dying.' All chatter ended. The assembly was quite simply stunned by the eloquent brevity, which spoke of the unspeakable ravages of AIDS, military invasions, and malnutrition."

Higgins says these sorts of concerns are central to the function of a university. "Universities have a duty to educate for employment, but they also have the divine duty to educate to wholeness, both personal and social."

IFCU was established by a decree of the Holy See in 1948 and was recognized in 1967 by UNESCO as an associate non-governmental organization. Its stated mission is to "work for the constant progress of knowledge and for the development of a more just and human world in the light of the Christian faith and the Gospel."

Other notes for a Wednesday

And effective today, the following positions are being advertised by UW's human resources department, with full postings on the HR web site:

• Food & beverage manager (Federation Hall), federation of students, grade USG 8
• Customer service assistant, distance & continuing education, grade USG 4
• Buyer's assistant, purchasing, grade USG 3

Avvey Peters
alpeters@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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