Monday, February 8, 2016

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• Waterloo welcomes the Year of the Monkey
• Nominations open for senate positions
• Books in vending machines and God's Busted Knee
• Monday's notes

Waterloo welcomes the Year of the Monkey

Anna Beard, communications officer in the Faculty of Mathematics, created this Lunar New Year graphic.

The Year of the Monkey is here.

Today is a day of celebration of the Lunar New Year as most East Asian cultures mark what’s sometimes called the “spring festival” and there are a number of events taking place this week to mark the occasion.

The conventional cry is the Chinese words for a happy new year — “Gung hai fat choi!” — but the festival isn't just a Chinese one. The lunar new year (so called because it’s signaled by the phases of the moon) is observed by overlapping communities that include Chinese (themselves speakers of two main languages, Mandarin and Cantonese) and a dozen or more other groups.

Renison University College is hosting a Chinese New Year tea party on Tuesday, February 8 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the atrium that will feature Chinese food and tea (natch), a Kung fu demonstration, paper cutting and other displays.

The seventh annual Chinese New Year Spring Festival Gala, hosted by the University of Waterloo Chinese Students and Scholar Association (UWCSSA), is set for Friday, February 12 in the Humanities Theatre. The event includes vocal and dance performances, a magic and fashion show, as well as comedy and dramatic performances, all performed by University students.

So, why is it the Year of the Monkey? The lunar new year brings with it a new creature from the Chinese Zodiac 12-cycle horoscope: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (or ram), rooster, dog, boar and monkey. The last Year of the Monkey was celebrated in 2004, and will return in 2028.

Nominations open for senate positions

The Secretariat & Office of General Counsel has issued a call for nominations for positions on the University Senate.

Faculty Members

• One faculty representative to be elected by/from the members of faculty of each Faculty of the University, terms 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2019 (six total);
• Eight faculty-at-large representatives to be elected by/from the members of faculty of the University, terms 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2019;
• One faculty representative to be elected by/from the members of faculty of St. Jerome's University, term 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2019; and
• One faculty representative to be elected by/from the members of faculty of Conrad Grebel University College, term 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2019.

Graduate Students 

• One graduate student of the University to be elected by/from the full- and part-time graduate students of the University, term 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2017.
• Two graduate students of the University to be elected by/from the full- and part-time graduate students of the University, terms 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2018.

Faculty Undergraduate Students

• One undergraduate student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts, term 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2018.

Completed nomination forms, which require at least five nominators, should be submitted to the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., on Monday, February 29. Elections will follow if necessary. Candidates should include a brief statement of no more than 100 words to appear with the online ballot.

Any questions relating to any of the nominations listed above may be directed to Emily Schroeder at extension 32749.

Books in vending machines and God's Busted Knee

by Lori Straus

Even though you don’t know him, you may already feel a type of familiarity with author Marc Degens: he writes with a self-deprecating humour common in Canada, and he would also fit right in with our local startup culture.

An accomplished writer, Degens has published four novels, numerous other books, and had regular columns in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (The New York Times of the German-speaking world).

In 1995, Degens co-founded SuKuLTuR Verlag (SuKuLTuR Publishing), which focuses primarily on contemporary literature. In 2003, he and his partners came up with a new idea: selling chapbooks via vending machines placed at light rail transit stations throughout Berlin. The books had only 12 to 24 pages, and prices started at 1 Euro. In 2004, they expanded to other cities in Germany, including Hamburg and Dortmund. By fall of last year, they had sold over 100,000 books via vending machines alone.

Degens will be reading from several works on Tuesday, February 23 at 4:00 p.m. in EV3-3406: God’s Busted Knee, The SuKuLTuR Years, and Dorsten. He’ll read in both English and German, with English translations projected for German texts. A discussion in English will follow. Knowledge of German isn’t necessary.

This event is organized by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies and the Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies.

Monday's notes

Updates will be made to the campus firewall early Tuesday morning, according to an announcement from Information Systems and Technology (IST). Updated firmware will be applied on Tuesday, February 9 between 6:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. "There will be multiple short outages to the wired network service," says the note from IST. "Active sessions will need to be re-established during this time."

Anyone with questions or concerns should contact the IST Service Desk by sending an e-mail to helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca or by calling extension 44357.

Polls have opened for the 2016 University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) president-elect vote, and staff association members have until 4:30 p.m. on February 18 to cast their electronic ballot.

Candidate information, voting instructions, and online ballots are located on the UWSA website.