![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Fox at UW lectern]](/images/2003/1008fox.gif)
Wayne Fox,
a senior executive of CIBC, is seen as he announces
a $1 million gift
to UW at a ceremony last week. Fox spoke about the value of his arts
degree from UW: "Since then," he said, "in the course of my career, I've made
literally hundreds of hiring decisions. I've seen how those with a liberal
arts education can add depth and breadth -- and a new perspective -- to any
profession they choose to enter." The full text of Fox's speech is reprinted
in today's Gazette.
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"This is a disappointing decision for the team and has come about due to a number of reasons," says a statement on the team's web site. "However, we feel that this is the best decision for the continuation and strength of the project in the longer-term."
Greg Thompson, technical director for Midnight Sun VII, offered an explanation for the decision. "In 2001 the World Solar Challenge was held in November, giving two to three months of time between the end of the American Solar Challenge in July and the World Solar Challenge. This time period is critical to the team to allow for fundraising, team training and vehicle upgrades.
"The World Solar Challenge this year is being held in October. It is extremely difficult to mount a proper challenge with only this short time frame; to re-train the team and compete against other world class teams who did not go to the American Solar Challenge, and who have been preparing for up to two years.
"In the American Solar Challenge we had some reliability problems, especially in our motors, which cost us significant amounts of time on the side of the road. If we were to go to World Solar Challenge, we would not have had a sufficient amount of time to re-establish reliability of these systems.
![[Sharp angle with tall buildings]](/images/2003/1008midsun.gif)
Midnight Sun VII charges its solar array in preparation for the cross-America race this summer. It finished third. |
"Finally, there is a considerable cost to mount a World Solar Challenge campaign, upwards of $50,000, not including airfare which is purchased by each student independently. Although we did receive some generous donations by individuals and sponsors, we were unable to raise the required funds to mount the campaign.
"Although the team is disappointed not to be attending the World Solar Challenge," says Thompson, "we are looking at this as a new opportunity.
"Currently our project is based on a two year cycle, with races being held only in the odd years, 1999, 2001, 2003 etc., so our next race would be in 2005. This creates a significant gap in time between high-level events. This has adverse effects on the project, as some volunteers who give time only in the first year do not get to see the car drive or participate in a race.
"It is our intention to have a significant event next year in 2004, in lieu of attending the World Solar Challenge," he says. "We will be doing a formal launch later once all feasibility aspects of this event have been addressed. However, I can assure you that this event will be a very worthwhile and memorable one." As well, the team is starting development of Midnight Sun VIII to prepare for American Solar Challenge 2005.
An election is also under way to fill a staff position on the committee, and nominations are now being invited for two more faculty seats.
Altogether the nominating committee will have 19 members, and two of them were known from the outset. Under UW's Policy 50, the committee is always chaired by the chancellor of the university. Currently that's Mike Lazaridis, president of Research In Motion. And the committee's vice-chair is always the vice-chair of the UW board of governors -- currently Ian McPhee, a retired executive of Sybase Inc.
The university secretariat reports that nominations for the six faculty senator positions closed on October 1. Five faculty members -- including three of UW's deans -- were acclaimed to seats on the committee:
An election is also taking place among staff members, as three people were nominated for the staff seat on the committee by the time nominations closed on October 1:
Finally, the committee has two seats for "regular faculty members, elected by and from the faculty-at-large of the University", and nominations are now being invited for those.
At least three nominators are required in each case. Nominations open today and will close at 3 p.m. on October 15. Nomination forms are available from the secretariat at ext. 6125 or online, and full details are on the secretariat's web site.
As job interviews continue, the co-op and career services department is running a workshop this morning, "Interview U", for first-time employer interviewers. . . . Visits from faculties of education and teachers' colleges continue -- there's a schedule on the career services web site. . . . The UW retirees' association has a bus outing today to see "The Royal Family" at the Shaw Festival. . . .
![[Carter]](/images/2003/1008carter.gif)
David Carter
of UW's school of accountancy is the guest of honour at a party today
marking his recent retirement. Festivities run from 5 to 7 p.m. at the
University Club.
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Tomorrow, Amy Harvey of the Fulbright exchange programs will visit UW to give a briefing for "faculty, graduate students, and senior undergraduate students whose areas of interest include" everything from public policy to urban planning,ecology, culture, law and health. The presentation starts at 2:30 tomorrow in Humanities room 334.
Also tomorrow, "a special research colloquium for graduate students" is planned by the South Western Ontario Research Data Centre, or SWORDC. "The centre," a flyer notes, "is a computing lab making sophisticated Statistics Canada data sets freely available to approved projects." The session tomorrow starts at 3:30 in PAS (Psychology) room 2030,with an open house at the nearby SWORDC lab following.
And tomorrow night, the Arriscraft lecture series in the school of architecture -- which has been suspended of late -- resumes with a talk by Peter Clewes, a Toronto architect (and UW graduate) with a reputation for innovative residential buildings. He'll speak at 7:00 in Environmental Studies II room 286.
In the same "One Click" listing, I linked to an article from Friday's Imprint and called it 'Opinion on meal plan restrictions'. In fact, the article, by Christine Lourero, was a news story, not an opinion article. I was trying to say that it reported a legal opinion about the tax aspects of meal fees, but it didn't come out quite the way I had in mind.
Finally, on Thursday I had an article about wireless computing, and listed some places on campus where faculty computing offices have created wireless hot spots. I didn't mention (because I didn't know about it) that most of the Environmental Studies complex is wired for wireless, including the ES I courtyard and the Dorney Garden.
On to other things, now. The human resources department sends word that "Get Up & Grow" and Skills for the Electronic Workplace (SEW) brochures will be mailed out at the end of this week, listing training and development opportunities for staff over the coming months. Two new programs will be offered this term in the Get Up & Grow brochure, says Carolyn Vincent of HR:
There's another list of winners in the monthly draw for Keystone Campaign contributors -- "restaurant gift certificates, books, travel vouchers, personal service, and so much more", says Bonnie Oberle in UW's development office. "Fourteen lucky winners were drawn this month," recognizing their contributions towards the campaign's $4.5 million goal as part of Campaign Waterloo. Details of the latest prizes are on the Keystone web site.
CAR