Daily Bulletin

White blanket overhead While snow removal crews scurry to clear drifts from walkways and parking lots around campus, other plant operations staff are monitoring the rooftops. Record snowfalls of 97.6 centimetres (more than three feet) fell in December, and the trend is continuing this month. For plant operations building foreperson Peter Fulcher, that means sending the "snow patrol" out on a daily basis to check the amount of snow on roofs, especially those with skylights. Danger signs include drifts curling off the tops of buildings, as well as icicles along the edges of roofs. Winds accompanying snowfalls help prevent accumulation, but crews have already been shoveling snow off the roofs of the Physical Activities Complex, Modern Languages, Matthews Hall and BFGoodrich. It's the most snow Fulcher has seen in at least five years, but not as much as the winter some years ago when workers had to lug snow blowers up to the top of the Physical Activities Complex to lighten the load. There are more flurries in the forecast for this week, with temperatures remaining below freezing.

Co-op staff get peek at building

"MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller, the architects for our new building, will be painting us a picture of our future home," says the announcement of today's event sent to CECS staff members. It gives some background: "MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects has an established reputation as one of Canada's leading designers of community cultural, leisure, recreation and institutional architecture. Formed in 1988 the firm has grown to 19 architects and has an international client base. The philosophy of the firm is to offer the highest quality design while providing the client with a building suited to their unique needs. The firm has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Governor General's Award for Architecture, one of the highest designations of Canadian design."

The building, being largely funded through the Ontario government's SuperBuild program, is planned for a site between South Campus Hall and the Arts Lecture Hall, where it will provide a formal public entrance to campus for employers and other visitors. It is expected to cost about $8.7 million.

Also in today's PD day activities, co-op staff will hear from keynote speaker Anne Perkins of the federal ministry of human resources development. Perkins "will share with us employment trends, where they are going and hot markets to keep an eye on", her audience has been promised. Formerly an employment counsellor in St. Thomas and London, Perkins is now a labour market information analyst for HRDC.

Those two topics will take up the morning; co-op staff will then have lunch together and move into a "getting to know us" session focusing on the executive group who manage the 85 full-time staff in CECS (plus seven part-timers, and eleven co-op students working in the department this term).

Other training sessions planned by the department this week:

• Presentation of "a CECS standard for an effective resume for our students", prepared by Jayne Hayden of the career resource centre, at noontime Tuesday and Wednesday.
• A noontime presentation Thursday from staff of the UW development office, and "a roundtable discussion on how our departments can help each other".

Registration for fitness courses

The emphasis is on "lifetime skills courses", though other parts of the campus rec program include sports that are best played in leagues and by the young and vigorous.

For those who don't fancy step classes three times a week, or Ty-Jitsu every Tuesday and Thursday, or Ak-wa-fit Deep ("a suspended total body workout") day after day, there's even something called the "sanity saver", in which participants try a different fitness activity each week through the term.

Courses are open to campus recreation members, which includes current students at no charge. Off-term co-op students can buy a membership for $26.75; staff, faculty and alumni for $75; outside folks, for $125.

The first step in registration for instructional activities is to pick up a ticket tomorrow (between 8:15 and 11:00) from the "red north" corner of the Physical Activities Complex. Each ticket carries a registration time on Wednesday, and the ticket-holder should show up at that time at PAC room 2039 to register and pay the class fee.

Registration in a few fitness classes specifically for staff members will be tomorrow from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in PAC room 2039.

Fees vary widely: participants will pay $32 for eight squash lessons, $60 for a Bronze Cross lifesaving course, $13 for a one-shot "bouldering" clinic, $45 for many of the three-days-a-week fitness classes or $30 for those that meet twice a week. Full information about registration is available on the web or in the blue "Incredible Guidebook" that the campus rec folks have circulated on campus this term.

Also starting this week are many of the campus rec leagues -- some competitive, some "co-recreational" -- in broomball, volleyball, indoor soccer, basketball and innertube waterpolo. Tournaments are being scheduled in several sports. And clubs dedicated to badminton, table tennis, kendo and other sports are also starting their winter activities.

New Brunswick eyes Ontario students

There's new interest in Ontario students at UNB's two campuses, in Fredericton and Saint John, following a recent review of student recruitment, says UNB's newspaper, Perspectives. "The declining school population in New Brunswick is a significant challenge," says Bob Skillen, director of the UNB alumni association, who headed the recruitment review. "Our review identified the Ontario market as logical to penetrate."

Says Perspectives: "A reconnaissance trip in fall 1999 to the Ontario universities' fair directed at students in the Toronto market revealed competition there as stiff and with significant resources put into impressive recruiting operations. 'To compete, we realized we would have to develop an aggressive targeted campaign,' Mr. Skillen [says]."

UNB held focus groups with Ontario students and guidance counsellors. "We have zeroed in on roughly 100 high schools whose student profile best matched what we offer and whose students would most likely come to UNB," Skillen says. "Our watchwords are friendly, responsive, personalized, a high degree of customer service, and frequent contact."

Perspectives reports that two UNB recruiters "just spent six weeks in Ontario visiting high schools, building relationships with guidance counsellors and getting students to fill out inquiry cards." Some 5,000 UNB alumni living in Ontario have been invited to "be an ambassador to the next generation of UNB students, and pass it on!"

Guidance counsellors were invited to visit UNB during the summer, and Ontario students are being invited to "a familiarization weekend" in Fredericton. "In addition," says Skillen, "we've advertised in key guidance publications and have developed different recruiting pieces plus two UNB posters, one for each campus, that we sent to all Ontario high schools."

Mark the calendar Among major campus events in the coming weeks: Hagey Lecture by Michael Ignatieff, January 24 Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference, January 25-27 Faculty of Arts Lecture by Ann Roberts, January 31 FASS, February 1-3 "How I Learned to Drive", drama department production, February 7-10 and 14-17 Hagey Bonspiel, February 24

Jobs for graduating students, and more

Meanwhile, co-op students who were off campus in the fall term are scheduled for return to campus interviews starting today. Postings of spring term jobs will start next week.

Documentary filmmaker and author Anna Paskal will give an insider's account of a controversial World Bank dam project in Nepal today. She will be reading from her book The Water Gods: The Inside Story of a World Bank Project in Nepal, in Environmental Studies I room 221 from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Water Gods recounts Paskal's voyage as a young undergraduate to Nepal's Arun Valley, site of a proposed $2-billion dam. Grappling with matters both personal and political, Paskal details her trek through the Himalayas with a documentary film crew, interpreters, sherpas, and Cree and Indian activists. The book evokes the often chaotic atmosphere of the trek, the multiple agendas of the participants and the staggering reactions of the Nepalese villagers.

"The Embassy", describing itself as "church . . . campus style", continues to occupy the Humanities Theatre every Monday evening. Showtime, or worship time, is 7:30 tonight. The Embassy had a full-page ad in Friday's Imprint.

It's "winter term welcome week" at the Graduate House, with a number of special events for graduate students, "especially the new ones", says Angela Kyveris, vice-president (student affairs) of the Graduate Student Association. Today and tomorrow are "info days", 1 to 3 p.m. ("don't forget to pick up your pizza coupon"), Thursday night brings a mixer starting at 8:00, and Friday is pub night.

International student orientation for new students beginning their studies this term will be held tomorrow and Wednesday in Davis Centre room 1302. Sessions will be held on getting involved on campus, using the library, cross-cultural living, health and safety, and more. A reception to welcome international students will be held on Wednesday from 4:30 to 7 p.m. in DC room 1301.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Friday's Bulletin
Copyright © 2001 University of Waterloo