Turning the August Corner

The AGP is turning the August corner, getting ready for another semester and Orientation Week for incoming and returning Planning students at the University of Waterloo. We intend to make it an enjoyable time for everyone who attend, meeting and greeting and drinking and slee…OK, enough riming.

Inspiration

If looking for inspiration to prepare your mind for studies waiting in the horizon, design is more and more a central driver for public policy. If you for instance where to talk with neighborhood associations and concerned residents opposing standard condominium towers, you may feel an obligation to let them know that today the developers offer more alternatives to a market that require more alternatives. 144 Park Uptown Waterloo is one example of such:

Enjoy the sunshine!

Clarence Woudsma wants you to take action

Clarence Woudsma, the Director of the School of Planning, is encouraging staff and students to take action on a political issue: “In a nutshell: without consultation, the Government (via the Industry Minister who has control over Statistics Canada) has decided to scrap the Long Form (the source of our most detailed census data) from the 2011 census and replace it with a voluntary form.  This will be a disaster for social scientists, policy researchers, and planning practitioners who rely on the rich socio economic data source that comes from the long form.   One of the key aspects will be the loss of temporal integrity as we try and compare and contrast from previous census years to the 2011 census.”

A couple of news stories on it may help fill in the blanks.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/municipal-social-planners-caught-off-guard-by-census-slash-97514599.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-srap-mandatory-long-form-census/article1623458/?cmpid=rss1

Take action

It is critical that you take a few minutes to add your voice to the call to have this unilateral decision overturned  – either via a message to your MP or other vehicles such as this online petition –

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-the-canadian-census-long-form.html

The AGP has taken action by signing the petition and sending a letter to Peter Braid and Tony Clement.

March Madness

Bus Pass

Seems like there were enough votes in support of including a bus pass for graduate students in the tuition fee, like the current situation for the undergraduate students. This will begin next semester (May 1st), so no need to hold on to bus tickets for much longer.

Charity Ball

Good times in store (Wednesday March 10) for Faculty of Environment graduate students, faculty and staff with social antennas. Something to enjoy in the heat of completing projects and papers and all the good stuff soon due.

Take the social out of planning, and you must wonder why plan at all, right?!