Pact with Chinese university is renewed

A delegation from China’s Nanjing University of Finance and Economics (right) visited Waterloo earlier this week to renew the agreement under which UW operates an academic program at Nanjing.

The primary purpose of the visit was to renew the Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions which established an innovative 2+2 program in environment and business, says David Wood, director of international programs for UW’s faculty of environment. Under this program, students are recruited by NUFE and spend the first two years studying primarily business courses in China. Students are then admitted to the Faculty of Environment for their final two years and come to Canada to focus on environmental basics and integrated environment-and-business courses. Students graduate with degrees from both UW and NUFE.

Waterloo’s Environment and Business program was the first such initiative of its kind in Canada when it was launched in 2000. Taking it to China in a 2+2 joint program with NUFE established the first Environment and Business program in China, says Wood, “and represents the first fully integrated international co-operative education program for UW, where the students undertake one work term in China and complete their additional work terms in Canada.”

The first cohort of thirty 2+2 students arrived at UW from NUFE in September. Visiting Waterloo this week, NUFE president Xu Congcai took the opportunity to meet with the Chinese students to discuss their experience “and to identify possible adjustments to the program at NUFE to assist the students in their transition to UW,” Wood reports.

“NUFE also has a strong interest in developing a co-operative education program in China on a model similar to UW,” he said. “Consequently, sessions were arranged for the delegation by Co-operative Education and Career Services to provide the group with an overview of our co-op system. NUFE expressed strong interest in arranging for their staff to visit UW in the future to learn more about the operation of our co-op program.”

UW president David Johnston welcomed the delegation for the official signing of the renewed agreement, and hosted a dinner after the ceremony. “At the dinner,” says Wood, “President Xu expressed NUFE’s interest in extending the collaboration between the two institutions to include other innovative joint education and training programs. President Johnston responded that UW values its collaboration with NUFE and is certainly prepared to assist NUFE in the development of co-operative education and to consider new program initiatives that would be mutually beneficial.”

Also this week, the newly established Sustainability Training Institute in the Faculty of Environment hosted a group of 14 senior managers from the Guangxi Water and Electric Power Group for an extended training program and technical mission. GWEP, says Wood, is a consortium of 85 companies providing power and water services in China’s Guangxi Province. It operates 40 power supply companies and 43 power generation companies, among other ventures.

“GWEP recognizes that Canada is rich in hydropower resources,” says Wood. “The trainees, who arrived in Waterloo on November 15, will gain a better understanding of Canadian policy in energy development; learn about Canadian legal and management systems; and understand Canadian management methods in electricity and water supply markets within a market economy.”

The training is provided through an arrangement, started in 2005, between the UW Faculty of Environment and Nanjing University (a neighbouring institution to NUFE) through the Sino-Canadian College. The training group has spent a week at NJU, says Wood, receiving general management training as well as specific training on key Chinese initiatives in the fields of energy and water supply. “In Canada, the trainees will be exposed to Canadian issues, priorities and management approaches to sustainable energy and water supply through a combination of lectures, presentations and site visits.”

Blair Feltmate, faculty member in the new School of Environment, Enterprise & Development, is director of UW’s STI, and is providing the training along with other faculty members and representatives from the Canadian Electricity Association, Ontario Power Generation, the Grand River Conservation Authority and other agencies.

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Emergency procedures test on Monday

The university has implemented a number of emergency warning systems that would be activated in case of a major campus emergency.These warning systems would be activated in concert with response by regional and university police services, and possibly other emergency response teams (fire, ambulance).

What is a major campus emergency? Most people tend to think of a person with a firearm. Other examples might include threat to the campus by a sudden or violent storm, a significant chemical spill, or fire in a building. In most instances a major campus emergency would involve a threat to human life. UW's response to an emergency will be informed by Policy 60, “Emergency Response”.

UW's emergency warning systems include text messaging to cell phones, popup warning message on computer screens across campus, a special home page (that appears only in emergencies), an emergency message to on-campus telephone extensions’ voicemail, and a new toll-free Infoline number (1-866-470-0910) that will also carry an emergency message.

To ensure that they receive the emergency text message, students, faculty and staff should register their cell/mobile phone number through MyHRinfo (for staff and faculty), or Quest (for students).

The warning systems are outlined on a special information page that can be found on the university’s web site. The new systems have been tested and implemented by the campus emergency response group, chaired by Lois Claxton, secretary of the university, with advice and assistance from UW police services, information systems and technology, and communications and public affairs.

The next public test of the warning systems will take place this Monday, November 23.

“We know that a communication system, in real time and with redundancies, is one of the most important tools in responding to an emergency,” says Claxton. “UW has implemented a number of important communication tools, in house and by building on its current infrastructure.”

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Needles, and a note from Needles Hall

Clinics to vaccinate “all members of the university community” against the H1N1 influenza are rolling again, with shots available between 10 and 5 today, and between 10 and 4 Monday, in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. I'm told that lineups were “minimal” at yesterday's clinic. Vaccinations should also be available after that, with details appearing, as they're announced, in the Daily Bulletin or on the UW influenza web site. The epidemic may be easing off a little in the last few days, and the situation was discussed the other day by the university’s pandemic steering committee, with special reference to the “self-reporting” mechanisms that are available for both staff and students. Linda Brogden of the occupational health office and Gwen Graper of the registrar's office brought word about the situation so far this term: “They reported,” I am told, “that flu-related illness numbers seem to be in line with what they would expect, and there appears to be no obvious abuse of the reporting mechanisms.”

People are probably aware by now that there will be classes on Saturday, December 5, in order to get one final teaching day into the fall term without spilling over into the second week of the month. And take note that for class scheduling purposes, Saturday will be a Monday. Take note, too, that a similar juggle is planned during the winter term, as explained in an e-mail message from the registrar this week: “The start and end dates for Winter 2010 that were approved last year mean that there are 11 Fridays and 13 Mondays. Since Good Friday is a University Holiday, the last day of classes is scheduled for Monday, April 5. At its meeting on Monday, November 16, Senate was asked to address the imbalance in teaching days created by this situation and approved an amendment to the dates for Winter term 2010 as follows: The last day of classes for winter 2010 continues to be Monday, April 5 but the Friday schedule will be used and thereby address the imbalance in Monday and Friday meets.”

The final two performances of the drama department’s “The Government Inspector” hit the Theatre of the Arts stage tonight and Saturday at 8:00; left, Reid Vanier as Khlestakov kisses Rachel Barna as Maria, the mayor's daughter. Tickets are at the Humanities box office, 519-888-4908. Meanwhile, EngPlay, the once-a-term dramatic product of the Engineering Society, takes place this weekend in the form of “The Brothers Grim Specaculathon”. Showtime is 7:30 tonight, 1:30 and 7:30 tomorrow, in Arts Lecture Hall room 113. Free tickets are available at the EngSoc office in Carl Pollock Hall.

Prizes were awarded Wednesday afternoon in the Tatham Centre in a contest for co-op students’ photographs of their job locations and travels around the world. The winning entries are on the web now, in two groups, pictures taken in the United States and those taken in other countries. “The first three in each file are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers," writes Olaf Naese of co-op and career services, "with the remaining being others submitted.”

An “opening reception, roundtable discussion and video screenings” will be held tomorrow for “Home/land & Security”, an art project commissioned by Render, the UW gallery, which opened a few days ago and runs through mid-February. Saturday’s activities run from 1 to 4 p.m. in East Campus Hall and from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Architecture building in Cambridge. Says a news release: “With ‘Home/land & Security’, artist and curator Jeff Thomas offers a distinct response to the land disputes that have erupted along Ontario’s Grand River valley on land defined as the Haldimand Tract. Initially developed out of a consideration of the ongoing conflict between members of the Six Nations and building developers in the town of Caledonia, Thomas’s project has expanded to embrace broader concepts of home and security and to explore the divisions between native and non-native communities. The project embodies a hybrid artist/curator approach, with Thomas producing a new body of work that forms the basis of a dialogue with other artists. Thomas’s goal is to encourage cross-cultural dialogue and a deeper understanding of the history of the region.” New works by more than a dozen artists are involved. The Daily Bulletin will say more about this project next week.

CAR

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