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Friday, October 6, 2000

  • Japanese delegation visits today
  • Construction site in engineering quad
  • 'Not a girl sport': game today
  • What happened to yesterday's Bulletin
  • And now for the Thanksgiving weekend

[Milk in midair]
Chocolate milk doused Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day as he spoke at Kitchener's Conestoga College yesterday, starting to define his platform for the coming federal election. Julian Ichim, a UW independent studies student, was charged with assault. CBC Newsworld photo.

Japanese delegation visits today

Some 70 people from 45 information technology companies in Japan are stopping at UW today as part of a Canadian tour.

"It's my understanding that it's the only university stop" for the delegation, says Drew Knight of UW's international programs office. He said the visitors come from software, hardware and venture capital companies in Japan, and are touring the Canadian computer industry in response to a "Team Canada" visit to Japan last year.

They'll be welcomed by Knight and by Bruce Mitchell, the associate vice-president (academic), and then get an afternoon of briefings on various aspects of information technology at Waterloo:

The briefings will be in English, but translators are coming with the group, says Knight, and speakers' notes will also be translated into Japanese and made available. After the main session, some interviews with UW people will be taped for Japanese television, he added. The session takes place in Davis Centre room 1302, and UW people are welcome to attend.

"Waterloo is becoming a popular destination," said Knight, as his office now hosts 75 to 80 international delegations a year. He said today's group is an unusually large one, with the potential to make many contacts between Waterloo researchers and Japanese firms.

Today's events

The on-campus United Way campaign officially begins today, with a "Dress Down" (or dress up) spirit-building day. Other special events will stud the campaign, which seeks to raise $142,000 by October 20 -- say, $10,000 a day -- for local charities.

The elevator in the Engineering Lecture Hall will be out of commission from 11:00 to 5:00 today for repairs. "Drilling of concrete is required," the plant operations department warns. "There will be noise."

Episode II of "Thwarting the Worry Process", by guest speaker Christine Purdon of UW's psychology department, is scheduled for 12 noon today in Davis Centre room 1302. It's sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program.

The philosophy department will be keeping Humanities room 373 busy all day today. For much of the day, there's a "mini-conference" under the title "Does Contractarianism Commit/Avoid the Naturalistic Fallacy?" Then at 3:30, Joe Ellin of the University of Western Michigan will speak on "The Mind of the Bad Samaritan". He writes: "Bad Samaritan legislation would punish those who fail to help people in need of assistance. Attention needs to be paid to the mens rea problems associated with such legislation."

An exhibition of work by UW architecture students will open tomorrow at the First Canadian Place gallery in downtown Toronto. An opening reception is scheduled for Tuesday evening. Watch for more about "The New City" next week.

Construction site in engineering quad

The beginning of construction activity in the engineering quadrangle is part of an effort to increase classroom space on campus.

The addition to Carl Pollock Hall is just one room, but it will add the capacity for 120 more students to study in a computer classroom environment, says university architect Dan Parent. "It's very similar to the graphics lab they have now," he explains.

Parent says the expansion is part of accommodating a greater number of students as a result of the province's Access to Opportunities Program. ATOP encourages universities to expand their enrolments in computer science and engineering programs, in exchange for the ability to charge higher tuition fees in those programs.

The CPH addition is slated to be wrapped up by next May, in time for the start of classes in the spring 2001 term.

'Not a girl sport': game today

Unladylike but tough, the women's rugby Warriors will play their final home game of the season this afternoon. (I said that in yesterday's Bulletin too, wrongly -- yesterday's game was for the men's team, not the women's.)

"To say rugby is a tough game," which I just did, "would be an understatement," Kerry O'Brien of the athletics department wrote in this week's Gazette. "Gruelling would probably be a better adjective. Arduous? Punishing? Strenuous? All these apply. Which makes you wonder why anyone would want to play it in the first place."

Enter Kate Longpre, a third-year recreation student and co-captain of the Warrior team. "It was the only good women's sport at our school," maintains Longpre, who plays flyhalf -- "sort of like a quarterback who calls plays for the backs", says O'Brien.

And she encourages other women to get in on the ground floor of this burgeoning sport. "Because it's relatively new, there's more opportunity," the co-captain says. "It's not like basketball or soccer, where people have been playing since they were two. It's a recent phenomenon, and everybody's learning the game."

Can't play? Come out and watch the game, Longpre urges. You won't feel crowded, although the team is certainly drawing more fans than it did last year. "We really appreciate the support," she says. "It should be high profile . . . it's very exciting to watch. It's not a usual 'girl sport'."

In 1999 the Warriors won 7 games, lost 1 and tied 1, and ended up with a CIAU (national) bronze medal. This year, "gold is not an unrealistic expectation," O'Brien writes. "They've kicked off their season with three straight blowout wins over Laurier (56-3), Windsor (67-0), and Brock (32-3)."

Tonight's game against Western starts at 4:00 at Columbia Field.

Other sports this weekend: well, there's no home action at all, but several teams are in action elsewhere. The closest opportunity to see Warrior action would be at Wilfrid Laurier, where there are men's and women's soccer games tonight, 6:00 and 8:00 respectively. Also: the women's field hockey team plays Queen's today (in Toronto, for some reason); the golfers are at McMaster today; the hockey Warriors at Western Michigan for an exhibition game today, and at Ferris State for more of the same tomorrow. Also tomorrow, the football Warriors are at Western, for an unusual evening game (7 p.m.).

What happened to yesterday's Bulletin

Yesterday of all days, with the announcement of Jim Kalbfleisch's retirement as UW provost, the Daily Bulletin didn't make it to most people's screens until late morning. It was ready to go -- and actually posted to the newsgroups uw.general and uw.campus-news as usual -- but communication with the central web server was blocked until about 10:45. ("An overnight maintenance job went awry, swamping the machine," says Giles Malet of information systems and technology. "We rebooted, in the end, to clean the slate.")

Yesterday's Bulletin and all previous Daily Bulletins are available on the web for anyone who missed anything.

[Thanksgiving bounty]

And now for the Thanksgiving weekend

Monday, October 9, is Thanksgiving Day and a holiday. UW offices and most services will be closed, and classes will not be held.

The libraries will be closed Monday, but the Davis Centre and Dana Porter Libraries are open Saturday, October 7, and Sunday, October 8, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Circulation desk is open on Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. The Information desk is closed on Saturday but open on Sunday from 1 to 5. The University Map and Design Library is open on Saturday from 1 to 5 and on Sunday from 1 to 6.

Of course some key services continue as always:

And thanks to direct in-dialing, it's possible to reach anybody who happens to be at work, at any hour. The switchboard number is (519) 888-4567.

With the beginning of Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, may we celebrate with moderation and drive with care. The weather forecast is mixed for the weekend; it might be wise to dress in waterproofs for the Oktoberfest parade, which starts at 8:45 Monday morning on King Street.

And may we be, as the old grace says, truly thankful; the sorrows and burdens come easily enough to mind, but still, I say, we have much to be thankful for.

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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