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Rev. Dr. Marc Jerry is Renison's next president
A message from Renison University College.
Renison University College’s Board of Governors is proud to announce the selection of Renison’s 12th president and vice-chancellor, the Rev. Dr. Marc Jerry.
Dr. Jerry comes to Renison with 25 years of post-secondary teaching, research and administrative experience, most recently as president of Luther College, a federated college of the University of Regina. He holds two degrees in economics, specializing in econometrics and quantitative methods, as well as two graduate degrees in theology. In addition to his academic experience, Dr. Jerry has specialized not for profit board governance training through the Institute of Corporate Directors and holds the public sector governance designation through the Johnson Shoyama School of Governance at the University of Regina.
Read the full story on the Renison University College website.
The talk of the operating budget town hall
More than 1,500 people tuned in via livestream on Tuesday to hear President Vivek Goel, Vice-President, Academic and Provost Jim Rush, and Vice-President, Administration and Finance Jacinda Reitsma talk dollars and sense at the 2024 Operating Budget Town Hall in Needles Hall 3407.
President Goel began the event by providing context for the various financial pressures impacting University finances in recent years, including the provincial government's tuition freeze, which has been in effect for several years and will continue for several more, declining operating grants over the last two decades, funding caps on domestic international students, and more recently significant geopolitical tensions in regions where Waterloo recruits large numbers of international students, exacerbated by the recently-announced international student study permit caps and the redistribution of permits across the country.
"We recognize with operating revenue under pressure, that we need to be efficient in our spending and to improve our planning and processes," President Goel said. "I know that this kind of news brings a lot of uncertainty and a lot of stress...Our vision for Waterloo at 100 has given our community clarity about where we're going and what our priorities are, and in the next few months we'll be taking to the board for endorsement our institutional values, which I think will help guide us in the decisions that we have to make."
Following the president were Vice-President, Academic and Provost James Rush and Vice-President, Administration and Finance Jacinda Reitsma, who provided details around budget challenges and proposed strategies around cost containment and revenue generation.
"The bottom line for us of all of these challenges coming together at this point in time is that we're left with a projected $75 million gap in between our projected revenues and our projected expenses for the coming year," Provost Rush said. The provost then outlined various measures put into place to reduce that deficit for 2024/2025, which he described as "multi-modal," including a 4 per cent budget reduction to the Faculties and Academic Support Units (ASUs), some funding from the provincial government distributed across the post-secondary education sector (Waterloo's share is about $7M next year), sustainable and strategic enrolment management and ongoing cost containment initiatives as the University seeks efficiencies in its operations.
"This isn't a one-year issue," added Vice-President, Administration and Finance Jacinda Reitsma. "This is something that is a trend and something we need to think about...One of the things we've put in place is a workforce planning process and restricted hiring program. This is very different than a hiring freeze, because we want to ensure that we have a process in place to identify key positions, to make sure that we continue to move forward when those positions become vacant, but also that we're looking at this across the University to ensure where there are positions that can be shared with other groups."
"I do want to highlight that due to the limited hiring program, we will be relying on each other," Vice-President Reitsma continued. "So, when we streamline work, we need to think about our shared responsibilities and how we can work more closely with other units."
Audio issues prevented some of the senior leaders' remarks from being heard by the online audience, but a technical solution was quickly found so that the livestream event could continue.
After the opening remarks, the Q&A session got underway, with questions posed from the floor in NH 3407, questions submitted online during registration, and questions asked in the moderated livestream chat.
Questions included the potential effect of the limited hiring program on employee workload and burnout, considerations about the University becoming leaner at the top, revenue-generating strategies and the possibility of implementing additional cost-recovery programs at the University, the impact of budget cuts on undergraduate students, and next steps following the town hall meeting.
On the question of limited hiring and workload, President Goel emphasized that finding efficiencies is not the same thing as reducing headcount - new planning processes to reduce unnecessary task duplication and efforts will help alleviate potential employee burnout.
President Goel concluded the event by thanking those who attended in-person and who persevered online during the technical difficulties.
Resources have been added to an Operating Budget Town Hall Meeting page on the Provost's website that include a video of the event, a transcript of the available audio, the presentations from the Vice-President, Academic and Provost and Vice-President, Administration and Finance, and the answers to the first set of questions posed to the University's administration, with more to be added in the near future.
Faculty members named University Professors
The University of Waterloo has announced that three faculty members have received the University Professor designation in 2024. Vice-President, Academic and Provost James Rush made the announced at last week's meeting of the University's Board of Governors.
The 2024 University Professor designations are Raouf Boutaba (Cheriton School of Computer Science), Philippe Van Cappellen (Earth & Environmental Sciences), and En-hui Yang (Electrical and Computer Engineering).
Professor Raouf Boutaba is Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. Dr. Boutaba is a prolific researcher known internationally for his pioneering contributions to automated management, which led directly to the trend toward autonomous networking, and for his ground-breaking work on network virtualization and network softwarization that are revolutionizing the way communication networks are designed, operated and managed. The research papers he, his students and collaborators have published have been cited more than 36,000 times with an h-index of 77 according to Google Scholar as of April 2024.
Read the School of Computer Science's full story on Dr. Boutaba's appointment.
Professor Philippe Van Cappellen is a Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department and Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Ecohydrology. Dr. Van Cappellen’s research combines experimental studies with field observations and theoretical developments to unravel the coupled processes that regulate water quality in soils, lakes, rivers, and groundwater. His impact is demonstrated not only by his extensive publication record, but also by the translation of his advances to guide environmnetal management; his contributions to professional service and community leadership; and his significant efforts to train and develop the next generation of diverse, interdisciplinary environmental scientists.
Professor En-Hui Yang is a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Leitch-University of Waterloo Multimedia Communications lab. He is also the co-founder of SlipStream Data Inc. (now a subsidiary of BlackBerry Inc.), and a past associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. Professor Yang holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Information Theory and Multimedia Data Compression. He has served as an Executive Council Member of China Overseas Friendship Association, an Expert Advisor for the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of China, a Board Trustee of Huaqiao University, a member of IEEE Founders Medal Committee, and advisors for other national and provincial bodies. With over 230 papers and more than 230 patents/patent applications worldwide, his research work has benefited people over 170 countries through commercialized products, video coding open sources, and video coding standards. In 2011, he was selected for inclusion in Canadian Who’s Who.
"The University of Waterloo owes much of its international reputation and stature to the quality of its eminent professors," Vice-President, Academic and Provost James Rush wrote in a report to the University of Waterloo's Board of Governors on April 16. "The University of Waterloo recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence through the designation “University Professor”. Once appointed, a faculty member retains the designation until retirement."
Since 2004, Waterloo has awarded this distinction to 35 other individuals. Please visit the Provost's website for a complete list of designations.
Flags lowered for day of mourning this weekend, other notes
Flags on the University of Waterloo campus will be lowered on Sunday to mark the National Day of Mourning, which is recognized annually on April 28 to remember workers who have suffered disability, disease and death on the job.
"Did your spouse or partner accompany you to Waterloo?" asks Nancy Matthews, UWaterloo Int'l Spouses coordinator. "Then check out UWaterloo Int'l Spouses! We offer walks, potluck meals, networking advice, family activities, seasonal baking, and an opportunity to meet other international spouses and get to know your new community. In addition, we provide information about English Conversation Circles, job fairs, local cultural events, and more! Join our email list by visiting our website. You can also become a friend on Facebook by checking out University of Waterloo International Spouses.
Information Systems & Technology (IST) has published the latest in the Atlassian blog post series. The blog entry is entitled Jira Software: View blocking issue work suggestions in Jira.