![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, October 14, 2004
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
President's town hall meetingStaff and faculty members across campus have received an invitation to attend a "town hall meeting" next week with the president and the provost. The session is set for Wednesday, October 20, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre.Says the e-mail invitation: "Our faculty and staff provide the foundation on which UW's excellent reputation is built. We look forward to this meeting as an occasion to express our gratitude for the effort and support you provide and to give you an update about some of the important initiatives happening on campus. There will be ample opportunity for questions and answers. "Recognizing the importance of this meeting, we encourage participation from all faculty and staff members." |
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Imaginus poster sale, today 9 to 8, tomorrow 9 to 5, Student Life
Centre.
Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System training -- video and quiz, total 90 minutes, 2 p.m., Davis Centre room 1304. Institute for Risk Research seminar: Niels Lind, mechanical engineering (emeritus), "Bayesian Inference in Odds Format", 2:30, Carl Pollock Hall room 3386. 'Job search strategies' career workshop 3:30, Tatham Centre room 1208. German 359 film: "La Habanera" (1937), 6:30, Rod Coutts Hall room 308, free to capacity of room. Contemporary Issues in Native Communities lecture: Lynn Gehl, "The Intersection of the Gendering of Native Identity and the Land Claim Process in Canada", 7 p.m., MacKirdy Hall, St. Paul's United College. Jewish studies public lecture: Stephen Berk, Union College, "The Longest Hatred, Then and Now", on anti-Semitism, 7:30, Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University. Reception follows. DJ Jazzy Jeff plays Fed Hall tonight, all ages, $15. Dress-down day tomorrow for the United Way campaign. Border Air Quality Symposium hosted by Waterloo Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, all day Friday, more information online. Pension and benefits committee Friday 8:30 to 2:15, Needles Hall room 3004. Alumni job search workshop Friday 9:00 to 5:30, Tatham Centre, registration online. Tourism lecture series: Heather Mair, "Global Restructuring and Local Responses: The Case of Rural Tourism", Friday 9:30, PAS room 1299. Technical speaker competition for engineering students, sponsored by Sandford Fleming Foundation, faculty-wide competition Friday 10 a.m., Doug Wright Engineering room 2534. Centre for International Governance Innovation lecture: Wayne Simpson, U of Manitoba, "Immigrant Integration in the Canadian Labour Market", Friday 12 noon, 57 Erb Street West. 'The Psychology of Atheism', lecture by Bob Altemeyer, U of Manitoba, Friday 2:30, Wilfrid Laurier U science building room N1001, during one-day conference on the psychology of religion and prejudice. 'Betting on the Ponies' outing for engineering alumni, Friday evening, details online. Classical studies colloquium, "From Myth to Magus: Hermes in the Western Tradition", Saturday all day, Davis Centre room 1304, details ext. 2436. Lifeguard competition Saturday, PAC pool -- information pwhittin@fes. Free public swim 10:30 to 12:30 to give competitors an extra challenge. |
St. Jerome's University will hold its annual Feast for Catholic University Education tomorrow evening with a dinner and the presentation of the Chancellor John Sweeney Award. This year's recipient is author Margaret Visser, and particular attention will be paid to her book The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery and Meaning in an Ordinary Church.
Also in a Christian vein, the annual Pascal Lectures on Christianity and University will be given October 20 and 21, this year by Dennis Danielson of the University of British Columbia, whose work straddles physics and English literature. He'll speak both days at 8 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre, and will also give two daytime seminars.
The grand opening of UW's new architecture building on Melville Street in Cambridge is set for Friday, October 22, with VIPs and those directly connected to the school invited to ceremonies at 10:30 a.m. Then the school will hold an open house from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24.
The university's Eighty-Ninth Convocation will be held Saturday, October 23, in two sessions: at 10 a.m. for applied health sciences and arts, at 2 p.m. for the other faculties.
And You @ Waterloo Day for future students is October 30, and the East Asian Festival at Renison College runs November 4-6, and Homecoming is scheduled for November 5 through 7. And the beat goes on. . . .
Results of the survey, published in yesterday's newspaper, were based on ratings offered by 27,811 students across Canada who volunteered to answer "more than 100 questions" about their own universities. Besides the reports that took up two full pages yesterday morning, the Globe offers additional background information on its web site.
Universities were divided into small, medium and large, with UW just missing the cutoff of 25,000 students to count as "large". So it's ranked as medium along with Guelph, McMaster, Queen's, Simon Fraser and other competitors.
There was rejoicing in the Tatham Centre yesterday at the news that Waterloo was given an A-minus for "overall career preparation". No other medium institution, and none of the large ones, scored that high; there were three A-minuses in the "small" category.
In the academic category, UW was rated A for "faculty members' knowledge of subjects", A-minus for "availability of faculty outside classroom hours", B-plus for "quality of teaching" and B for "effectiveness of teaching methods".
Waterloo's overall ranking for student services was B-plus, with a B-plus specifically for health services and "recreation and sports", B for residences and B-minus for "academic support" and food.
There's been no comment from UW or the Council of Ontario Universities about the Globe survey, which last year was seen as questionable because of the limited way its data was collected -- not to mention its rankings of UW's non-existent law and medical schools.
Says Grebel's Jennifer Konkle: "Most people of Russian Mennonite heritage have heard stories of the massive old oak tree in Khortitsa. The tree was an unofficial gathering place for the whole community with picnics, weddings, and meetings often taking place in the cool shade of its leaves. Coined 'Hundert-jaehrig Eiche' (Hundred Year Old Oak) by early Mennonite settlers, the tree is estimated to be 700-800 years old."
The oak tree provided an impressive centerpiece for the Mennonite colony in its "Russian" (Ukrainian) days. Historian N. J. Kroeker wrote, "No one who had ever walked near the gnarled trunk beneath those mighty branches which had the power to draw your eyes upward could help being overcome with a feeling of reverence and peace." One Ukrainian tradition held that walking around the tree three times would bring good fortune to newlyweds.
But the ancient tree has been dying for about 15 years now, and only a few branches bear leaves any more. A hydro-electric dam has raised the level of the water table, and the ground has been raised around the tree, both disturbing the tree's roots.
"For years," says Konkle, "visitors have been making the pilgrimage back to Khortitsa to discover their own roots, and while there, to stand under the oak tree. In 1999, Toronto high school teacher Peter Rempel participated in a tour through the former USSR to celebrate the bicentennial year of the founding of the Khortitsa settlement in the Ukraine.
"Rempel pocketed eight acorns from the old oak tree and planted them in his back yard. He later donated the tree that grew from that seed to Conrad Grebel University College."
Thanks to the efforts of Harvey Dyck, John E. Toews, and Victor Heinrichs, she says, the college has established a Russian Mennonite Memorial Garden around the oak tree to memorialize and honour the experiences of Mennonites who suffered and died under Stalin in the Soviet Union, and as a place on the edge of campus for contemplative reflection. Marlene Epp, history professor at Conrad Grebel, calls the tree as symbolic, "as both a celebration of the positive times Mennonites recall about Russia and also as a memorial to the tragedies that befell them."
A dedication service will be held on Sunday at 3 p.m. Anyone interested is invited to come and hear the story of the oak and to remember and celebrate the Mennonite experience it represents. Music will be provided by the Conrad Grebel Chapel Choir.
![[Bright candle dominates]](/images/2004/1014art.gif)
The original photo was taken by Vasily
Fedosenko. MacKay uses parts of Fedosenko's photo in
each one of his paintings (left) and then adds a lit candle in the
foreground. The candlelight dramatically illuminates the
paintings with chiaroscuro reminiscent of Rembrandt or El Greco.
Although MacKay includes various aspects of the photo in his paintings, he changes the perspective and eliminates some elements. Together with the dramatic candlelight, the content and meaning in the photo changes. When all the painting are viewed as a whole, the viewer will notice the paintings expand on the narrative in the photo, making the drama appear to be more continuous and more revealing.
Also on display is "Indefinite Space", an exhibition of charcoal drawings on paper by fine arts professor Bruce Taylor and artist Ron Suebrook. Taylor bases his work on the folding of paper, or origami, while Shuebrook bases his on the monkey rope.
Taylor is interested in early industrial history and how easy it's to reproduce items. Thus he repeats mainly geometric objects from various points of view. The description to Taylor's drawing "Figure 18" aptly sums up his work: "I'm trying to create an aesthetic experience without an object or image while staying true to a mathematical system. It's the actual process of trying to make this work that fascinates me."
Shuebrook is interested in the relationship of how image is put together, in evoking real life gestures and in achieving coherence in his work. His drawings reflect a scene from the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Ishmael, the narrator, and the harpooner are joined together by rope secured around their waists. Referred to as monkey rope, it makes them highly dependent on each other. Once secured, the harpooner flays blubber from the captured mammal's slick back. One misstep could take both of them overboard.
Both exhibitions continue until October 28. The gallery in East Campus Hall is open Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Fridays from 12 to 4 p.m.; Thursdays from 12 to 7 p.m.; and Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m.
CAR