August 29, 2002

Thursday, August 29, 2002

Co-op terms took him to China
Long-time professors will retire
Pixels in the big picture

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Student tells what he'd do as prime minister

[Surrounded by little kids]

Nathan Fox with his students at Shanghai's Fortune Kindergarten

Co-op terms took him to China -- by Stephanie Radcliffe, from the UW Recruiter newsletter for co-op employers

After years of résumés, interviews and cover letters, co-op students are used to selling their skills. However, one of the most important abilities that all co-op students possess often gets overlooked: adaptability. Over the course of their undergraduate education, the typical co-op student adjusts to new cities, jobs and coworkers several times. For a student embarking on a work term in a new country, adapting to their surroundings becomes that much more challenging. There are some UW co-op students, however, who rise to this challenge, and one of those students is Nathan Fox (2B Geography).

In August 2001, Nathan left Canada for a ten-month work term in Shanghai, China. He was matched with a job as a teacher at the privately owned Fortune Kindergarten. Nathan was responsible for two classes of children, serving as both their guardian and English teacher for the day. As Nathan explains, "It was up to me to decide on the curriculum for the students and how to implement the learning activities." After four months at Fortune Kindergarten, Nathan switched to a new job at the prestigious Jiao Tong University. Although he enjoyed teaching children -- and continued to work part-time at another kindergarten, a middle school, and as a private tutor -- Nathan found that his "niche" was teaching adults.

Nathan describes his hectic schedule: "I basically teach every age and all I have to do is to remember to be a foreign clown with the kindergarten students and a serious professor with the [university] students and not to mix it up as they both occur on the same day."

At first, Nathan had trouble adjusting to life in Shanghai, but overall it has been a life-changing experience for him. Separating it from just a vacation, Nathan explains that "when you spend a long amount of time in [a] new country you really get to see the inner workings of how it operates politically, socially, economically, and religiously." Most co-op students never have a chance to experience a work term abroad, since there are few opportunities to work outside of North America. The available jobs are limited; the most viable opportunities exist in the hospitality industry, high-tech sector or teaching English as a second language.

Despite the challenges that Nathan encountered throughout his work term, his ability to adapt to new situations ensured that his time overseas was worthwhile. He declares that his experience in Shanghai "has made me more independent and has taught me how to rely on myself." More impressively, Nathan showed everyone how even an easily overlooked skill -- adaptability in this case -- can be your most valuable asset as a co-op student.

[Pintar in lab]

Long-time professors will retire

Seven faculty members who came to UW during the 1960s are officially retiring as of September 1, the human resources department reports.

From departments in arts, engineering, mathematics and science, they have been at UW for anywhere from 33 to 38 years. One is a former dean, one was the long-time director of teaching resources, and others have been prominent researchers.

Here are the seven whose retirements are effective as September begins:

Milan (Mik) Pintar (pictured at left), department of physics, who joined the faculty August 1, 1967.

Judith Wubnig, department of philosophy, who has been at UW since September 1, 1965.

Patricia Rowe, department of psychology, who also joined the faculty September 1, 1965. She served as acting dean of arts in 1973-74 and was dean of graduate studies 1991-99.

Kirtikumar Shah, department of statistics and actuarial science, who came to UW September 1, 1969.

Robert Hudgins, department of chemical engineering, who joined the faculty July 6, 1964.

Gary Griffin, department of psychology, who came to UW September 1, 1966. He has been director of the office of teaching resources and continuing education, director of independent studies, and vice-presidential advisor on interdisciplinary programs, among other roles over the years.

Keith Eagles, department of history, who came to UW September 1, 1967.

[Two-headed horse]
Ceramic sculpture by Kirsten Abrahamson ("Excerpts from the Gemini Diaries") is part of an exhibition that opened a few days ago at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery on Caroline Street in Waterloo. It's the 10th National Biennial of Ceramics, combining the work of emerging artists with creations by some who are already well known. Ann Roberts, retired from UW's department of fine arts, was one of four regional curators for the show, which runs through December.

Pixels in the big picture

Here's a note from the new issue of the mature student services newsletter: "Two enterprising students, both suffering from the loneliness of the long distance learner, have organized an electronic coffee shop for students wanting to get together over a hot keyboard. With the help of UW's IST, Barb McLean and Joyce Morgan set up a listserv for distance education students last November and now, with a membership of over 50 grateful students, they are wondering if any of our readers would be interested in joining. You don't have to be taking your courses by distance education to be eligible. Any mature student with needs and responsibilities very different from those of the younger students are invited to join. To find out more, contact Barb at McLeanB2001@aol.com or Joyce at jtwmorgan@hotmail.com."

Gary Waller, the associate provost (academic and student affairs), says the advisory committee that's looking for UW's next university librarian is now complete and getting to work. (Murray Shepherd, university librarian since 1973, will be retiring next summer.) Waller himself will chair the committee. Other members are Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services); Geoff McBoyle, dean of environmental studies; faculty members Geoff Hayes (history), Jim Sloan (chemistry) and Gary Draper (St. Jerome's); Brenda Slomka of the Federation of Students; Matthew Bunch of the Graduate Student Association; librarians Christine Jewell, Shabiran Rahman and Jackie Stapleton; and library staff Sharon Lamont and Charles Woods.

There were some problems with campus computer networks yesterday. Bill Ince of the math faculty computing facility explained in a newsgroup posting: "The main network switch (exsw01) that connects a large number of networks to the main campus router has suffered a hardware failure. As a result, networking in the DC and the machine room is dead. It's a memory problem, requiring that the chassis be replaced. We're picking a (smaller) replacement up from the Toronto sales office. . . . When the real replacement part arrives, we'll have to have some more downtime, but at least that can be scheduled."

There may disagreement in the Progressive Conservative Party about whether to merge, or even cooperate, with the Canadian Alliance -- forming the so-called "unite the right" movement -- but members of UW's PC association aren't in any doubt. The group last week launched a campaign to tell the national PCs and Alliance members "to stop their respective political posturing and begin a dialogue", a news release announces. "The campus group," said president Aaron Lee-Wudrick and vice-president Raymond Gillis, "is encouraging both parties to begin negotiations on ways that the groups can co-operate so that their respective memberships will eventually unite to form one viable, credible alternative to the governing Liberal Party." The group says it is "the largest campus political organization" at UW.

Football training camp is under way this week, with several hours a day of sweating and grunting on the north campus practice field -- there may be bulldozers all around, but football Warriors are more than a match for those. Practice runs pretty much all day, except for a break tomorrow morning when players move out of their temporary Village I accommodation and into wherever they'll be living for the fall term. Full practice is scheduled Saturday morning and Saturday night, there are two "light practice" sessions on Sunday, and then comes Monday, with just one item on the team schedule: "8:00 p.m. Beat Laurier."

A note from the registrar's office: "This is a reminder to all instructors who will be using electronic classrooms in the fall term. If you are not sure how to use the equipment in an electronic classroom you've been assigned, please contact your faculty's computer support office or IST to make arrangements for training."

Cold water will be shut off in Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall this morning; the plant operations department wants to repair a leak. And tomorrow morning, compressed air will be shut off in Earth Sciences and Chemistry from 8 to 10 a.m. for maintenance work.

David McVicar, instructor in UW's physics department, will be remembered today, with visitation from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Edward R. Good Funeral Home on King Street. The funeral will be held there Friday at 1 p.m. McVicar died Monday at University Hospital in London.

A PhD oral defence is scheduled for tomorrow in the school of accountancy. The candidate is Thomas Matthews, whose supervisor was Kenneth Klassen. Thesis topic: "Does Home Country Taxation of Foreign Earnings Affect Cross-Jurisdictional Income Shifting?" The thesis is on deposit in the faculty of arts graduate office, and the oral defence will be held Friday at 9 a.m. in Humanities room 138.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
August 29, 1994: Leo Jabs completes his last shift after 28 years as a stationary engineer in UW's central plant.