Daily Bulletin

Fans at November's Yates Cup championship game -- are they missing out on the best football because top athletes are opting for the Blue Bonnet Bowl instead?

A vote on athletic scholarships

Judy McCrae (right), UW's director of athletics, is at the CIAU gathering and says she'll vote no. "We have no change in position," said McCrae recently. Waterloo was among the universities that voted no when the CIAU last considered the scholarship issue two years ago. The result was a 24-24 tie; changing the CIAU rules would have taken a two-thirds majority.

Ontario universities mostly oppose a change that would allow scholarships beyond the minuscule level that's now permitted. Universities in western Canada are generally in favour of a change. Québec and the Atlantic provinces are split. The issue was discussed again at a special meeting last fall, and the CIAU is now ready for a vote.

Says a statement from the national organization:

"Currently, the CIAU only permits awards to entering students who have a minimum average of 80% in High School or CEGEP. Athletic awards of $1,500 can also be given to continuing students. . . .

"The CIAU believes national championships in its seventeen sport programmes to be important to Canadian student athletes. In an effort to forge the common ground which fair competition in sport requires, delegates agreed to examine issues in terms of respect for institutional differences in philosophy and in circumstance.

"The process has been one of give-and-take for both sides of the athletic awards issue. The group outlined tentative guidelines with respect to gender equity, academic requirements and the size and number of awards. 'We have to develop a policy within which each institution can maintain and grow a program which represents its own value differences that are tolerable,' noted CIAU President Wendy Bedingfield. "In sport we work to level the playing field, then we work to win the game.' . . .

"'We are pleased with the work we have done. It was hard work. No one is completely satisfied, but that is the nature of compromise. If we want to have national championships, we have each got to give a little and that is what we have done,' said Bedingfield." Writing in the K-W Record over the weekend, reporter Christine Rivet -- considered one of the best-informed observers of university sports in Canada -- said she calculated the scholarship proposal "will be shot down" again, based on the number of Ontario votes on the no side.

From a report last month in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

In the United States, thousands of students receive athletics scholarships each year. In Canada, however, universities in the nation's largest college-sports association cannot offer incoming students scholarships based explicitly on athletic ability. The policy is designed to discourage recruiting on the basis of athletic talent alone.

Advocates of the Canadian system say it helps keep the focus on academics, and the playing field level for all teams. But those who would like to see the rules loosened say they fear a "brawn drain" to the United States on a par with Canada's perceived "brain drain." About 1,700 Canadian athletes are on scholarship at American colleges in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, which regulates 11 sports involving 12,000 athletes. Hundreds more may receive awards from American community colleges or four-year institutions in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. . . .

Some Canadian coaches feel that they have gnashed their teeth over lost recruits long enough.

Architects show their Rome work

The Galleria at BCE Place in downtown Toronto will be the site of an innovative exhibition of architectural drawings, entitled "Roma XX: The Lesson of Rome", which runs through June 24.

Twentieth anniversary celebrations started with an exhibition and symposium on campus last fall.

A gala opening for the Toronto exhibition is scheduled for tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. Admission is free. "The installation has been specially designed to run the entire length of the magnificent gallery space," says Eric Haldenby, director of the school of architecture. "Outstanding works by some of the over 800 graduates of the program will share the stage with original drawings contributed to the show by outstanding Italian architects and designers."

The exhibit follows the main themes of the design work of the Waterloo program and provides a record of the changes in architectural thought and style over the past two decades.

In the fall of 1979, the UW architecture school set up a program of studies for its fourth-year class. Students spend a four-month term studying architectural design and history in what Haldenby describes as one of the richest and most challenging urban environments in the world. The students carry a full academic course load and visit sites in Rome and elsewhere in Italy.

"The student design projects address problems of wide interest to the local community and specific to the condition of contemporary Rome -- the treatment of archaeological sites, the creation of cultural institutions and the development of new public spaces," Haldenby said.

As a result of this intense engagement with the community, the program has become a fixture in the architectural scene in Rome, exhibiting its work each year and supporting active programs of teaching, research and design in collaboration with academic, government and private organizations. The Waterloo Studio, located on historic Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere (at left in the photo), has been called "the most creative centre in Rome" by the director of urban design for the City of Rome.

The Roma XX exhibition is sponsored by EdperBrascan/Brookfield Management Services Inc., Arriscraft International, the Italian Cultural Institute Toronto and UW.

What keeps Waterloo people busy

The teaching resources and continuing education will run a workshop today on "Writing as a Learning Tool", led by TRACE staff members Donna Cooper and Donna Ellis. "In particular," their abstract says, "this session offers ideas to instructors who wish to move beyond the term paper, the most common writing assignment in many disciplines, though not necessarily the most effective or efficient." The event runs from 12:00 to 1:30 today in Math and Computer room 5158.

UW president David Johnston gives a lot of speeches, and will add one more to the list today in Toronto. He'll speak to Toronto-area alumni at a luncheon in the Toronto Board of Trade on the fourth floor of First Canadian Place.

Some of UW's honorary degree recipients are expected to sing for their supper -- such as Dirk Pette of German's University of Konstanz, who will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Science degree on Friday. He's on campus already, visiting the biology department, and today will give a talk on "The Adaptive Range of Skeletal Muscle". The event is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Matthews Hall room 1621 (the Clarica Auditorium).

Nine top students in this year's Canadian Mathematical Olympiad will be guests of honour at a banquet at UW tonight. A total of 100 top students from Canadian high schools were invited to write the three-hour CMO exam in April, and these are the winners. Six of them will be off to Seoul, Korea, next month for the World Mathematical Olympiad. The CMO is sponsored by corporations, governments and universities across the country, including UW's Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing.

Watch for news from the University of Guelph: the U of G board of governors is meeting today and is expected to make a decision about the controversial idea of selling Cruickston Park Farm in Cambridge. The land, where the Grand River meets the Speed, is a lovely piece of undeveloped nature; it's also a lovely source of gravel, an estimated 20 million tons. Environmentalists, developers and miners are all interested in the 913-acre property, which was given to Guelph in 1968. And with money in short supply, the university has said it will sell the property to create an endowment fund. But to whom?

The career development workshop series continues with two events tomorrow: "Letter Writing" at 9:30 and "Résumé Preparation" at 10:30, both in Needles Hall room 1020.

Users of Carl Pollock Hall will find the hot water turned off tomorrow from 8 a.m. to noon, so that plant operations staff can replace a broken valve.

"I am planning a presentation-workshop on XML," writes Christine Jewell from the Dana Porter Library. The date is Friday, June 23, mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and she tells more about the plans: "We're bringing Geoffrey Rockwell, the director of the Humanities Computing Centre at McMaster. . . . What is XML and how does it differ from SGML and HTML? How will XML enhance access to electronic texts? What is the potential of XML for textual analysis and searching? How is XML being used today and what can we expect from XML in the future?" She'd like to hear from people who want to take part -- if there aren't any, the event will be cancelled. Jewell can be reached by e-mail, cjewell@library.

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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