August 30, 1999
Guinness World Record Attempt
Posted August 30, 1999
August 30, 1999
99-08-04-OTHER
Guinness World Record Attempt
Orientation ?99 is going to include a world record attempt of
the Hokey Pokey. This will be held in the Bowl on the
university campus Friday, September 3 starting at 1:00 p.m.
and going to approximately 1:30 p.m. In case of inclement
weather the attempt will be held in Gym 3 Education
Building.
Brad Grass of Hot 93 FM will be hosting the event. The two
official witnesses will be Dr. Vera Pezer, Associate Vice-
President (Student Affairs and Services) and Peggy
McKercher, Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan.
It is not known at this point if such a record exists; however
it is hoped that enough people will get involved to break it if
there is one or to set a new one if one does not exist.
For more information please contact :
Sandra Shpyth - (306) 966-4746 or
Joan Kripki - (306) 966-7269
Student Affairs & Services
University of Saskatchewan
August 19, 1999
Student and Parent Arts and Science Orientation Set for September 6 - 7
Posted August 19, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 20, 1999
99-08-03-AR
Student and Parent Arts and Science Orientation Set for September 6 - 7
With numerous concerns surrounding a young person's first experience at a
post-secondary institution, many parents are looking for reassurance. An
orientation program at the University of Saskatchewan is helping to make
parents feel more comfortable about the transition.
The College of Arts and Science and St. Thomas More College will host a
day-long orientation Monday, September 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for
parents of first year students registered in Arts and Science. Orientation
for the students takes place on Tuesday, September 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30
p.m.
This orientation is designed to give new students and their parents some
insight into the demands of post-secondary education. The goal is to
prepare students in the areas of college programs, policies and regulations,
and for the many personal challenges they will face. Students will spend
the morning in general orientation followed by a campus tour, and the
afternoon in groups with others in their field of study.
Faculty, along with representatives of the students' unions, and student
service groups will be in attendance. "For students, it's an opportunity to
meet other first year students, and some of their future professors", said
Coordinator Donna Bretell.
This is the seventh year that parents have been included in orientation.
Bretell says the College recognizes the important role that some parents can
play in their children's academic success. The parents' session deals with
the personal aspects of parenting a university student, in addition to
providing practical information about the College's policies and
regulations.
For more information, please contact:
Donna C. Bretell
College of Arts and Science
University of Saskatchewan
Phone: (306) 966-4242
August 16, 1999
U of S Orientation kicks off September 2, 1999
Posted August 16, 1999
August 16, 1999
99-08-02-OTHER
Two Day U. of S. Orientation Kicks Off
September 2, 1999
The University of Saskatchewan's Annual Orientation
program will kick off Thursday, September 2, as first
year students are given an introduction to the many
facets of university life.
Orientation '99 is an informative and exciting two day
program designed to give first year students the
necessary survival skills needed to succeed at the
University of Saskatchewan. The program strives to
present the perfect balance between the academic and
non-academic aspects of a student's university career.
New students have the opportunity to take part in an
Issue Awareness Session as well as an Academic Policies
and Procedures Session. There are also a number of
Orientation classes the students can choose, ranging
from "An Analysis of your University Degree", to "A
Survey of Huskie Athletics" or "Money Management".
These courses offer the students valuable information
that can directly be used to ensure their personal and
professional success.
In addition to the academics of Orientation, freshmen
students will attend a barbecue, an Information Fair
with representation from various university and city
groups, a Beach Party, as well as an attempt to break a
Guinness World Record. During the two day event, the
students will also have the opportunity to pay tuition
and get their student cards before classes begin on
September 8.
By attending an orientation program several days before
University begins, first year students are able to
experience campus life in a controlled environment, they
are also able to experience campus a support network
of other first and upper year students.
Students are encouraged to register early to ensure
they get their first choices in the Orientation sessions.
Students can register up until the day of Orientation,
however refunds will not be issued after August 15.
Parent Orientation
Parent Orientation '99 is a comprehensive one day
program designed to give parents and / or guardians of
first year students the necessary information to aid the
transition of parenting the high school student to
parenting the university student.
Information presented by professionals from the
University and from the Saskatoon community will
include Academics and Finances, Issue Awareness and
Student Services, and "Letting Go", a session on family
transition. New this year is a Student Panel Session
where parents in attendance can ask candid questions
about life as a university student. Other events
scheduled for the days include a tour of the beautiful U
of S campus and an Information Fair.
For more information, contact:
Jason King or Andrea Schnell
Student Affairs and Services
(306) 966-5791 or
email: orientation.99@usask.ca
August 09, 1999
U of S professor rejects conventional evolutionary theory as political ideology
Posted August 09, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 6, 1999
99-08-01-AG
U. of S. Professor Rejects
Conventional Evolutionary Theory as
Political Ideology
In an opinion to be published in Environmental
Microbiology later this month, Doug Caldwell dismisses
conventional evolutionary theory as a politically
motivated form of superstition or mythology.
Caldwell's proliferation theory, first published in 1997
with three co-authors, states that a universal
information system or life force resides within all
physical, chemical, and biological objects. He attributes
evolution to the activity of this universal informational
system, rather than to the natural selection of
organisms or DNA molecules. This challenges the central
role of DNA in evolutionary theory. He argues that if
nothing can evolve without DNA, then how could DNA
have originated?
In the Environmental Microbiology opinion Caldwell
states that "Contemporary selection theory requires
that any act of cooperation or altruism must be directly
or indirectly caused by an act of competition or self-
interest. However, if we are guided by scientific
reasoning, then making competition a precondition for
cooperation is an unnecessary complication and thus
must be regarded as superstition rather than science."
He suspects that evolutionary science became immune
to normal standards of scientific scrutiny during the
Cold War and stresses that neither communism
(cooperation) nor individualism (competition) is likely to
be the mechanism of evolution or an underlying law of
nature.
The opinion contains a table with the results of
Caldwell's computer analysis of Charles Darwin's "The
Origin of Species". This reveals that Darwin made
extensive use of words like destruction, killing,
extermination, death, individual, perfection, race,
victory and war while never using any alternatives like
cooperate, cooperation, symbiosis, associate,
association, collaborate, interact, or affiliate. Scientific
reasoning normally requires that hypotheses be
scrutinized by considering logical alternatives, and this
is absent in "The Origin of Species".
The article also points out that the full title of Darwin's
volume was "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the
Struggle for Life" although most ecologists trained
during the past 40 years were unaware of the full title
because it was normally cited as "The Origin of Species
by Means of Natural Selection" or as "The Origin of
Species".
Caldwell was the lead speaker at a meeting of the Gaia
Society held at Oxford University in April . The Gaia
society is a new scientific organization that studies the
Earth as an evolving self-regulating system. Conceiving
of the Earth as an evolving system is an impossibility,
based on current evolutionary theory, because the
Earth has no discrete pool of DNA, does not grow, and
has no competitors to allow evolution by natural
selection.
Caldwell is scheduled to speak at Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York on October 14, and to the Science
Teachers of Saskatchewan in Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan on October 21.
For more information contact:
Prof. Doug Caldwell
Dept. of Microbiology and Food Science
(306) 966-5026 - phone
(306) 966-8898 - fax
CALDWELL@SASK.USASK.CA
