The School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, within the Faculty of Medicine, has received an endowment of $75,000 from the Rotary Club of Vancouver in memory of Rotarian Syd Welsh.

The donation will support research and teaching activities in Prof. David Stapell's Human Auditory Physiology Laboratory (HAPLAB). Studies include assessments of hearing in infants and children and investigation of the brain processes underlying the perception of sound.

Welsh had a personal interest in hearing issues. The Rotary Club of Vancouver has chosen hearing as its special field of interest and will also make two annual awards of $750 each to practicum students in Audiology.

The Rotary Club/Syd Welsh Endowment Fund will be matched with UBC funding.

The committee from the Faculty of Arts judging this year's UBC Essay Competition in English had a difficult time picking a winner so they gave the top prize to three high school students. The subject was "competition."

First place went to Meaghan Buckley-Pearson of Magee Secondary in Vancouver, Barbara Moss of Prince of Wales Secondary and Chandra Murdock of Vancouver Technical Secondary.

In awarding each student the top $1,000 essay prize, the committee ranked them as equal, saying each showed some real strengths. Twenty-two other high school students received a distinguished performance rating along with a $50 UBC Bookstore gift certificate. Eight others got honorable mentions.

More than 2,400 Grade 12 English students at 121 schools throughout B.C. submitted entries. The students had three hours to compose their essays.