Daily Bulletin

An oddity indeed: FASS hits stage Rebel forces at UW must prevent Imperial troops from gaining control of a mysterious artifact. The fate of the entire world may hinge on the outcome of their battle. But is their secret war being monitored by a third party? Just what is this artifact anyway? And what will happen if a group of aliens turns up? Perhaps the scenario sounds familiar? Perhaps you've seen "2001: A Space Odyssey"? Well, never mind about that, because today's excitement is "2001: A FASS Oddity", this year's show from the FASS Theatre Company, and you've never seen anything like it. Not since last year's FASS, anyway. The annual "Faculty, Alumni, Staff and Students" show, with ham acting, comedy, music and special effects, hits the Humanities Theatre stage tonight at 8, Friday at 7 and 10, and Saturday at 8. Tickets are $4 for tonight, $8 the other nights, $6 for groups of six or more, from the Humanities box office, 888-4908. Is there anybody who's planning to see the show tonight and would like to write a few words of review in time for tomorrow's Bulletin? Please drop me a note this morning.

First few offers of admission

"We've sent out a handful of offers," Burroughs said yesterday, noting that they went to students in the "non-OSS" category -- those who aren't currently in Ontario high schools. They may be in the world of work, or basing their admission applications on previous study at a community college or another university, and admissions committees were able to pass a verdict on them early.

For the high schoolers who will make up the bulk of next fall's first-year class, admissions decisions can't be made until -- at a minimum -- their fall term marks arrive. Exams are finishing this week in most high schools, and the marks will be along in late February.

Last year, UW had made 900 offers of admission by the end of March, Burroughs said, and the figure this year should be similar. The bulk of the offers are scheduled to go out May 29.

He said it will take "probably 15 days" for electronic transfer of information about 20,000 applicants to reach UW from the Ontario Universities Application Centre, which handles all first-year applications. The data is being delivered to UW's new Student Information System, as the applications module becomes the first part of the new system to go into live operation.

"We've now acknowledged about 3,000 applications," Burroughs said yesterday, adding that while many institutions still use postcards to tell 18-year-olds that their applications have arrived and are being considered, UW's first choice for a means of communication with the students is e-mail.

Guidelines for emergency time off

A memo from the secretariat says the guidelines were developed by the Staff Relations Committee and approved in December. "They were endorsed by the Executive Council on January 24, 2001."

The guidelines are now available on the web. Here's the full text:

In general, emergencies are occasional, sudden and often require immediate attention. While circumstances may make it impossible to obtain prior approval to attend to the emergency, staff must inform their department at the time of their absence from work and communicate with their department head/supervisor during their period of absence.

The department head/supervisor, in discussion with the staff member, will determine the duration, arrangements and compensation of the emergency leave. Although these details should be settled before the time off work begins, circumstances may necessitate delaying the discussion until the staff member returns. The time off work to attend to an emergency may be with pay if the work absence is of short duration. If the time away from work due to the emergency is extensive, the department head/supervisor and staff member could consider the use of vacation, unpaid leave or the continuation of up to full pay where job duties can be fulfilled through evening and week-end work. In these cases, the department head/supervisor or staff member may consult the appropriate Staff Relations Coordinator from Human Resources.

The following example is provided to illustrate the administration of an emergency leave:

A staff member is required to be absent from work due to the sickness/injury of a child, spouse or parent. The staff member misses work for a short time frame and returns after the emergency subsides. No adjustment need be made in the staff member's normal pay. However, if the absence caused by the emergency is extensive, the department head/supervisor would discuss with the staff member the use of vacation, unpaid leave or the continuation of work through a flexible working agreement.

Other examples of emergency include:

• a child's problem at school,
• a fire, flood or other home emergency,
• a family member's vehicle accident.

In situations where there has been repeated use of emergency leave, the department head/supervisor or staff member may seek guidance from the appropriate Staff Relations Coordinator.

Stress buster: Brutus the bear, formerly attached to well-known staff member Carolyn Pierce until she headed for sunny California, now lives in the Daily Bulletin office.

Women talk about joy through play

The session, "Celebrating Play: Sharing the ways we bring joy into our adult lives", is designed to promote a healthy, balanced life of work and play, says optometry professor Marlee Spafford, who will be facilitating the discussion, along with Gretchen Harris, physics, Lorraine Nesbitt, counselling services, and Rose Padacz, services for persons with disabilities.

"Health is a combination of looking after a lot of needs," says Spafford, and with the demands of working for others and themselves, women don't always make time to have fun.

The session -- from noon to 1 p.m. in Student Life Centre rooms 2134 and 2135 -- will include time for participants to talk about what brings joy to their lives, and even to bring a sample of their fun activity.

The result, says Spafford, may be women forging some new connections outside of work, or perhaps seeing another side of their colleagues. "It allows people to feel less isolated, and to find others with a common interest." As well, Spafford hopes the example of women having fun will inspire others to make space in their lives for play.

And the group is happy to share its sandbox. The session is open to both members and non-members. "We don't exclude men."

What's in a name? Consonants I mentioned math student Stephen Skrzydlo twice in yesterday's Bulletin, and managed to get his name wrong in one place but not the other. "I'm used to having it spelled wrong," Skrzydlo notes, "but to see it right and wrong in the same Bulletin just confuses me." And I don't know why my spellchecker let the inconsistency get through. Apologies.

What February will bring us

And all month, a number of UW people will be involved in "Bowl for Kids Sake" in support of Big Brothers. Teams of four or more bowlers collect pledges and do their thing -- which seems to involve eating pizza as well as knocking down the pins -- at an appropriate time this month. The goal is to raise $100,000 by the time February is over. I'm told that teams from athletics, graphics, Ron Eydt Village, the Arts Student Union, the Environmental Studies Society and the AHS student organization are all participating so far. More information: phone 579-3432.

Just so everybody has the dates clear: "winter study period", a.k.a. reading week, will run February 19-23 in four of the six faculties. The break is shorter, February 22 and 23 only, in engineering and mathematics.

Career development workshops in the next couple of days: "Interview skills -- selling your skills" today at 1:30; "Create your own future" today at 3:30; "Making Job Fair work for you" tomorrow at 1:30. The career resource centre in Needles Hall has more information.

The Entrepreneurs' Association of UW presents a talk by Mike Lazaridis, president of Research In Motion, at 5:30 this afternoon in Davis Centre room 1302.

Ruston Panabaker, a UW graduate now working for Microsoft, will give "a tech talk on Microsoft TV" starting at 6:00 tonight in Math and Computer room 2066.

Administrative assistants and similar folks from UW departments have been invited to a meeting tomorrow about the casual payroll and plans for streamlining the procedures involved, now that the human resources department has agreed to keep running it every two weeks. Friday's meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Davis Centre room 1302.

Another event Friday: David Black of communication studies at Wilfrid Laurier University will speak on "Media Criticism in the Public Interest: Ten Things Time-Warner Doesn't Want You to Know". His talk starts at 3 p.m. in the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group office, Student Life Centre room 2139.

And Friday night brings the traditional (in fact, 15th annual) haircutting pub at Renison College. Advance tickets are $3, and plenty of Renison alumni are expected to snap up that offer.

A one-day "February Fit Fest" is scheduled for Saturday in the Physical Activities Complex. I don't have a whole lot of information, but the ad from the campus recreation event says the program is "ideal for personal trainers, fitness leaders and aquafit leaders" and costs "only $35 for the day". More information: ext. 5034.

Conrad Grebel College has a special visitor, who's been on hand the past few days and is staying through this weekend. He is John Bell, music leader of the Scotland-based Iona Community. "John Bell transforms an ambiguous gathering of people and shapes them into one body, one voice, one song," says a flyer explaining the wonders of what he does. Today and tomorrow he'll spend time at a training session for ministers; Saturday he leads a day-long workshop for worship planners and leaders at Grebel. There's more information on the Grebel web site.

Plan ahead, board of governors fans: the board will hold its quarterly meeting next Tuesday, and it'll be a considerably longer session than usual. Sustained by "a light lunch", the board will convene at 12:30 to hear presentations from UW's president and vice-presidents, first about the past year's progress on the "fifth decade plan", then on progress in planning the Fiftieth Anniversary Fund campaign. The board will turn to regular business at 3:00, with attention to building plans, residence fees, the possibility of moving the school of architecture to a site in Cambridge, and considerably more.

Next week: the annual TexMex raffle and bake sale, supporting environment and resource studies students who are heading off for a field trip to Texas and Mexico, will be held Wednesday, February 7, in the Environmental Studies I foyer.

Computing courses for February

• Learning More About Unix
• Introduction to Excel
• Learning More About Word for Preparing Assignments
• Enhancing Your Web Pages

• Preparing Your Thesis with LaTeX
• Preparing Theses and Large Documents with Scientific Workplace
• Using Visual Basic in Excel
• Accessing and Analyzing Data Via the Web
• Creating Web Pages for Your Course
• Creating PowerPoint Presentations for Your Course
• Mathcad for Statistical and Mathematical Instruction

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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