Daily Bulletin

Jake Willms will raise his baton at 12:15 today -- after telling the crowd in the Modern Languages lobby that bringing friends together is "my Christmas present to myself" -- and the 16th annual faculty of arts carol-sing will be under way. Willms was executive assistant to the dean of arts when he organized the first such carol-sing, in 1985. "Christmas for me is a special time," he says, "and I felt there was something that I could share." Since his retirement four years ago, arts has continued to invite him back each year to lead the singing, which ranges from the old standbys of the season to "Calypso Noel", now something of a tradition in its own right. You don't have to be able to carry a tune to participate -- all are welcome -- but Willms expects everybody to sing at full volume.

Snowy students slog through exams

Tuesday morning's exam for Math 135, with an enrolment of about 1,000 students in some 21 sections, has been officially moved to December 22 along with all the other exams that were scheduled for Tuesday, when UW closed for a day because of the storm.

But the Math 135 instructors, headed by Serge D'Alessio of the dean's office, arranged an alternative for students who didn't want to hang around campus for another nine days waiting: they could write the exam last night, in a cluster of classrooms in the Math and Computer building. The word was spread electronically during the day yesterday.

Students who didn't tackle the exam last night can still write it on the morning of December 22.

Here and there across campus, other faculty members are also making special arrangements for students who would otherwise have to wait for December 22. Ian Rowlands in the department of environment and resource studies, for example, says the 70 students in ERS 219 have the choice of writing the exam either this Sunday morning or at the official time a week from Friday.

The registrar's office stresses that the December 22 date is official and instructors are not required to provide other exam arrangements if they don't think it's appropriate to do so.

Also affected by the exam postponement are the UW residences. Says Gail Clarke, director of housing and residence administration: "Our residence contract states that a student is requires to leave residence 24 hours after the last exam -- so the snow date for yesterday's missed exam definitely impacts when some students will be leaving residence. This means those students affected will be leaving residence on Saturday, December 23." Previously, everybody would have been out by Friday next week.

As the campus copes with the experience of losing a day of regular exam time, and having the exams postponed to the scheduled backup day, I said in yesterday's Bulletin that such a thing had never happened before. And I was right, at least so far as weather is concerned. However, a couple of people have reminded me that the exams originally scheduled for April 19, 1996, were postponed from that Friday to the following Monday, the designated backup day, because of a "day of protest" organized by unions and community groups against the Ontario government. The rescheduling was announced almost a month ahead of time.

Winter term schedules Here's a note from the registrar's office, of interest to students who will be back on campus in January: "Schedules will be mailed until Monday, December 18, for full-time undergraduate co-op students returning to class in winter 2001 after the fall work term. Starting December 19, schedules will be available for pick-up in the Registrar's Office for all students except Engineering degree, Optometry, Renison, and St. Jerome's. Schedules for Independent Studies students and part-time students will be mailed regardless of date produced. Other pick-up locations on campus: Engineering degree students, go to department offices; Engineering exchange students, go to CPH 1320E; Optometry students, check mailboxes; college students, go to college business office." These details are a mite different from what I said more briefly in the Bulletin earlier this week.

What's happening in a cold world

Barry Bisson, who holds a "chair in technology management and entrepreneurship" at the University of New Brunswick, will be at UW today giving a talk in the LT3 learning centre (9:30 a.m., Dana Porter Library room 428).

Health services will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, says a note from supervisor Carole Hea. "Allergy injections will not be given between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m."

A pre-Christmas luncheon for mature students is being held at noon today in South Campus Hall. And no, "mature students" doesn't mean the ones who stick to their study schedules; it means the ones, older than typical "student" age, who are clients of the mature student services office in the Modern Languages building. Last-minute information about today's social event should be available from that office, phone ext. 2429.

Also lunching today, and I don't know where, will be the staff of the co-operative education and career services department, wishing one another the compliments of the season.

The Paradox Theatre Company production of "Top Girls" is starting the second half of its run: tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in "Studio 180" in the Humanities building. Tickets: 729-5495.

Breathe deeply today if you work in East Campus Hall: the ventilation there will be turned off tomorrow and through the weekend, says the plant operations department. The reason: work on installing a new air supply unit.

The Computing Help and Information Place (CHIP) in the Math and Computer building will be closed this Friday from 12 noon to 2:00 p.m. And next week, the CHIP will be closing at 4:00 p.m., Wednesday through Friday. The CHIP, like other UW services, will be closed altogether after December 22 until the new year -- things reopen Tuesday, January 2.

Lithgow scholarships created in arts

The result will be the Charles and Ian Lithgow Entrance Scholarship in Arts, says a letter from James Downey, acting vice-president (university relations), to friends and admirers of Ian Lithgow both inside and outside UW.

Says Downey's letter: "In October, when Ian Lithgow died, the University of Waterloo lost a special colleague and administrator, and many in the academic and corporate communities of Canada lost a special friend. At Waterloo, where Ian was Vice-President, University Relations, as at York University and the Ottawa Civic Hospital where he had held similar positions, Ian distinguished himself as one of a handful of truly successful professional fundraisers in Canada.

"To honour his memory, the University of Waterloo is planning to complete the establishment of a scholarship Ian himself created about a year ago. It had been Ian's intention that there should be a scholarship in English bearing the name of his father, Charles Lithgow, who, like Ian, had valued clear, concise, direct prose. This award has now been re-named The Charles and Ian Lithgow Entrance Scholarship in Arts.

"In the spirit of creating for Ian the sort of memorial that he facilitated for so many others, we are inviting his friends and colleagues to contribute to an endowment that will support entrance awards for promising students in the English program at UW."

His letter adds: "Any contribution you care to make to this award would be gratefully received by Ian's family, the University of Waterloo, and the students who over the years will be assisted by the Lithgow Scholarship."

"While the campus community mailing is to selected people who worked with Ian, certainly anyone who knew him is welcome to donate to the endowment," says Bev Hershey in the development office, who's handling the details. Anyone who wants a pledge card can call her at ext. 6057.

Five steps to virus protection -- by Marj Kohli, site licence coordinator, IST

• have a virus protection program installed
• set the program to monitor for viruses as you are working
• run regular scans of your computer
• carry out live updates

You can check to see what version of the software you have by selecting About Norton from the Norton Help menu.

It is important to understand that just having anti-virus software on your computer is not enough. Without keeping the "definition" files up to date the software will not be of much use. "Definition" files are created for each new virus. They are used by the virus scanning software so that it knows what to look for and what to do about it if it should find a virus. The "definition" files are updated regularly as new viruses are found and they need to be loaded onto your local computer. LiveUpdates is an option in NAV which allows the program to download the new virus "definition" files to your computer. (From home you will have to be connected via modem, or other means, to the Internet in order to obtain the "definition files.")

Although the first four steps will help, a fifth step is still the ultimate virus protector. Never open an attachment if you do not know where it came from. Delete it instead.

More detailed information can be found at an IST web page, "Steps to Virus Protection".

With the season for exchanging greetings upon us, we are being warned to be on the lookout for new computer viruses. Please make sure the people in your area are aware of the consequences of opening attachments sent with an e-mail. Make sure that Norton Anti-Virus software is current and that updates have been made to the virus definition files. If you need assistance in doing this please contact the IST Help Desk at ext. 4357.

For information on the current viruses making the rounds check out ZDNet, and for virus information at any time check out the web site of Sensible Security Solutions.

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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