April 19, 2002

Friday, April 19, 2002

Central plant takes the heat
Five join athletics hall of fame
Entrepreneur boot camp next week
Notes as exams come to an end

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Why some of the smartest students are so stupid

[On the arts quad steps]
The arts quadrangle yesterday: photo by Barb Elve
Summer: we mostly love it
The poll in yesterday's Bulletin asked, "How are you enjoying summer?" The answers received up to quitting time yesterday:

Shorts, frisbees, sunglasses, I love it -- 207
It's all very well, but unseasonable weather isn't healthy -- 59
I'm just about dying of the heat -- 47
I don't like it, wasn't tired of winter sports yet -- 10
Weather doesn't matter to me -- 8

Central plant takes the heat -- by Barbara Elve

With temperatures ricocheting between unseasonal lows and record-breaking highs this month, plant operations crews are struggling to provide comfortable working conditions on campus.

After complaining about the chilly spring, UW folks were jolted into mid-summer this week when temperatures soared into the high 20s and humidex readings reached the mid 30s. When air conditioners didn't kick in -- especially in offices with windows that don't open -- people became overheated and cranky.

[Zalagenas] While plant ops support staff fielded distress calls, maintenance workers scrambled to get air conditioning systems up and running. By Thursday morning, nearly half the buildings had some cooling, and work is continuing on the remaining hot spots.

With exams underway, "our priority was areas with the biggest impact on students," explained Rick Zalagenas (left), director of maintenance and utilities. For buildings without air conditioning this week, ventilation systems were switched to 100 per cent outside air.

Unlike home air conditioning, campus crews can't simply flick a switch to activate cooling. Air conditioning coils must be filled with water, and that can't be done "until we can ensure nighttime temperatures don't drop below zero and cause freezing," he said. The process normally takes about four days -- about 300 hours with a full crew.

Plant operations used to set a "magic date" for cooling systems to be activated. For the past few years, the decision has been based solely on weather conditions -- "when nighttime lows are consistently above zero."

Since Zalagenas arrived on campus in 1988, "this is the earliest we've provided cooling. April is not supposed to be 27 degrees."

The forecast for Sunday calls for an overnight low of zero. Zalagenas is keeping his fingers crossed. "If there's a cold snap, we'll lose coils." With most cooling system coils valued at between $10,000 and $20,000, "it's not something you screw around with." Some coils, like those in Needles Hall, cost nearly $40,000 and replacement units would take months to arrive, he added. While some temporary patch work could be done, there are no guarantees air conditioning would not be interrupted.

"Our job is to mitigate the risk. If we do our job well, we're invisible.

"This time, everyone did what they could to reduce the impact on campus. On Monday, people will want heat. We can't switch back and forth at the drop of a hat."

Five join athletics hall of fame -- from athletics and recreational services

On Saturday, April 20, at South Campus Hall, six new members will join the UW Athletics Hall of Fame. The 19th annual induction ceremony will pay tribute to Brent McFarlane (track and field), Darcy and John Brioux (campus recreation), Annette Vieira (women's rugby) and Jerry Lawless (hockey). The 2002 Induction Dinner will be held in the Festival Room starting at 7 p.m.

Both Darcy and John Brioux will be inducted for their leadership and development of UW Campus Recreation program between 1983 and 1986. Their dedication and commitment to Campus Rec through their involvement in recreation programming, instruction and coordination was a key component to the delivery of student recreational services. John currently is working with Moore Sports Tours, specializing in custom tours for sports groups, while Darcy is the manager of leadership development in the faculty of physical education at the University of Toronto.

Jerry Lawless, a native of Kirkland Lake, was the captain of the Warrior hockey team (1964-66), and one of the top student athletes at Waterloo. In his first season with the Warriors (1962-63), he was named the team's Most Valuable Player. In 1966 Lawless was awarded the University of Waterloo Athletics Honour Plaque. Jerry Lawless is currently a professor of statistics.

Long time Warrior track and field coach Brent McFarlane will be honoured for his commitment to the development of track and field, not only as a coach, but as a Warrior track athlete. As a member of the UW outdoor and indoor track and field team in 1968, 1969, and 1970 Brent was on two OUAA championship teams and a member of two varsity record setting relay teams (4x200m, 4x400m relay record, which stood for 20 years, before it was broken in 1989 by a varsity team coached by Brent). McFarlane has been the coach of the track and field team since 1989. He was named coach of the year for UW in 1991 and 1997. In his 12 years as the head coach, student athletes broke 37 varsity records, established over 2000 personal best performances, won 51 medals (OUA), 160 student athletes have competed at the national championships, winning 18 medals and seven individual national championships and one team title.

Annette Vieira, a native of Orillia, Ontario, will be the first ever women's rugby player to be inducted into the Hall. Annette was on the very first Waterloo women's rugby team as a rookie in 1997 and finished as a captain with Waterloo's first OUA gold medal and CIAU bronze in 2000. During her four years she played in four positions -- fullback, centre, prop, then finally scrumhalf. Vieira's many rugby accomplishments include 1997 Rugby Rookie of the Year, OUA all-star (1999 and 2000), CIAU MVP (co-winner), CIAU all-star (1999 and 2000) and CIAU tournament all-star (1999 and 2000). Vieira is now pursuing a massage therapy degree at the Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy and will be graduating in June.

Entrepreneur boot camp next week -- latest news release about the 'boot camp' from the UW news bureau

Two financial and business experts will share their knowledge with budding entrepreneurs from the University of Waterloo community at an innovative Business Start-up Boot Camp to be held April 22-25 on campus.

The experts are Suzanne Hubbard, who has returned to the area after advising start-ups as well as multi-billion dollar technology companies in Silicon Valley, and Martin Kern, an established member of the emerging technologies tax group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

"Canada's Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentives are among the most generous in the world and are a good source of funding for research and development in early stage businesses," Hubbard said.

They will lead discussions on possible funding for research and development and will talk about how to raise funds in a variety of manners ranging from identifying government incentives, to finding angels and approaching venture capitalists.

The boot camp will draw together 30 participants including students and UW alumni for four days of intensive, practical discussions and workshops at the St. Jerome's University Conference Centre. It will give the participants the insights they need to bring their ideas to market.

The event is organized jointly by UW Innovate Inc., a new non-profit UW organization seeking to nurture innovation and entrepreneurial activity within Community and Enterprise Co-op, a division of Waterloo's highly successful co-op program. Through that program, co-op students start their own businesses instead of becoming employees.

"We are pleased to have such a blockbuster line-up of entrepreneurs and business professionals as discussion leaders willing and able to help the 30 enterprising participants at our boot camp," says John Cullen, coordinator of Enterprise Boot Camp.

Besides Hubbard and Kern, the boot camp will bring eight other experienced entrepreneurs, accountants and lawyers to help participants assess technical and business skills and evaluate readiness to start their own ventures.

Notes as exams come to an end

As the last winter term exams are written today and tomorrow, the campus will grow quiet, students will drift away, residences will close, and we can look forward to a few days with different sounds around us. The week between terms is an opportunity for plant operations crews to get minor projects done, staff in offices to catch up on paperwork, and professors to risk splinters scratching their heads over a mountain of marking.

And then the routine all starts again, as the spring term begins on Wednesday, May 1. A few winter students will be back here then; others won't return until September. And thousands will make their next, and maybe last, visit to campus for spring convocation, scheduled for June 12-15.

Speaking of maintenance jobs, the plant operations job is doing repairs on the outside steps on the north side of Environmental Studies I (facing the Modern Languages coffee shop and patio). "Use caution in this area," a memo urges.

Another sign of spring becoming summer, sweet Caroline: spring football camp begins today and runs through next Friday. The fall schedule for coach Chris Triantafilou's Warriors is to be announced some time in May.

At 10:30 today, the LT3 technology centre offers a session aimed at staff members who work with faculty who are using new technology. "Everyone is invited," a memo says, "and this would be a fast way to come up to speed on this new and highly successful method of task-oriented learning." The session is led by Leslie Richards of LT3 and distance education and Diane Salter of LT3. Title: "The T-5 Model: A model for developing and delivering on-line activities".

An exhibition of work by fine arts graduate students Scott Sawtell and Tamara Izsak, hanging in the East Campus Hall galleries for the past couple of weeks, ends today. Work by two more Master of Fine Arts students -- In-Sun Kim and Wojciech Olejnik -- will be on display starting Monday.

[Walk logo] The Super Cities Walk, a national fund-raiser for the battle against multiple sclerosis, is scheduled for this Sunday at many locations. The Kitchener-Waterloo walk leaves from UW's Federation Hall at 10 a.m. on Sunday (there's "pre-check-in" from 11:00 to 2:00 on Saturday) so the neighbourhood will be lively.

In fact it'll be doubly lively, because the St. John Ambulance Marathon and Half-Marathon are also scheduled for Sunday, starting from University Stadium on Seagram Drive.

And "Dance Extravaganza" has the Humanities Theatre booked all day on Sunday.

Advance note from UW Graphics: all the copy centres will be closed until 10:00 Monday morning, on account of a staff meeting.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
April 19, 1976: John Wainwright, David Davies and Horst Leipholz are announced as the first winners of UW's Distinguished Teacher Awards.