Wearing her hood as a brand-new Master of Accounting is Abby Man Yee Lee, who received her MAcc at the Saturday morning ceremony. She is the daughter of Danny Lee, a well known staff member in UW's food services.

With the degrees come the honours

Jennifer Van Acker-Barlow of Aylmer, Ontario, is this year's winner of the coveted J. D. Leslie Award for the top distance education student graduating from UW. She was honoured during Saturday's Convocation ceremonies, even though she was unable to attend for the award presentation.

The J. D. Leslie Award is given to a graduate who achieves first-class standing and earns at least half of the degree credits through the distance education program. Van Acker-Barlow, who began her studies in the winter term of 2001, finished her last course in the fall of 2007. She completed 28 of her 30 courses at home. Her three-year general arts degree in French Studies was conferred at last spring's Convocation.

The award is named in honour of James D. Leslie, who conceived and initiated the distance education. Leslie, a UW a professor of physics, introduced the teaching of science courses through audiotaped lectures. He served as the first director of what was initially the "correspondence" program, and developed it into one of the largest university distance education programs in Canada.

Among other honours that were presented during Saturday's two ceremonies, both part of the Ninety-Seventh Convocation, in the Physical Activities Complex:

• The Alumni Award for Excellence in Accounting, to Sharon Hennig, receiving a Master of Accounting degree.

• The Applied Health Sciences Alumni Achievement Award to Victor Cheng, a 1979 graduate who is now president of his own consulting firm, iLogic Inc., and creator of the not-for-profit Lifestyle Information Network.

• The AHS Young Alumni Award to Mano Watsa, a 1999 graduate who has developed a series of basketball training programs and inspirational programs for young people, and has coached Warrior men's and women's basketball.

• The Arts Alumni Achievement Award to Eric Friesen, a 1967 graduate who has had a long career in broadcasting and production for CBC radio, American Public Radio and other media.

• The K. D. Fryer Gold Medal for academic standing in mathematics together with good student citizenship, to Nancy Soontiens, who received her BMath degree in applied mathematics and physics at the June Convocation.

As announced earlier, two Alumni Gold Medals were presented: to Evan Risko (psychology) as the year's leading PhD student, and Mark Zschocke (management sciences) as the top master's degree graduate.

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Honorary graduate expects dessert

by Martin Van Nierop

"Keep your fork." It would seem an odd thing to say to approximately 600 graduands at a university convocation, but that was exactly part of the advice that commencement speaker Ronald Zernicke gave UW's morning graduation ceremony on Saturday.

"My mother always told me, 'keep your fork', because the best is yet to come," Zernicke said smiling. "She meant dessert."

The director of the Musculoskeletal and Sports Injury Prevention Center at the University of Michigan and professor of orthopaedic surgery, biomedical engineering and kinesiology was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree and then spoke to the approximately 5,000 graduates, parents and friends.

Zernicke (left) included the "keep your fork" homespun tip as part of four points of advice to the arts, applied health sciences and social work graduands. "The first is dream big, and just do it," he said, noting that if you think small and ponder things too long it can be daunting and stop you in your tracks. "Just do it," he repeated, using the phrase many have come to know from the athletic apparel company with the swoosh symbol.

His second tip was that "learning is a lifelong" activity, so keep your mind open to ideas, and "be humble and learn from others." The third point was "to grow you need to change," because life is an open journey that challenges people's ability to adapt new knowledge. And finally there was "keep your fork," because dessert, in one form or another, could be just around the corner.

Zernicke, a world leader in his field of biomechanics, was instrumental in developing the field of kinesiology in North America. But he took a moment to give high praise to UW for developing the first kinesiology program, one that was the model followed by UCLA when he was a young professor.

At the afternoon convocation, Axel Meisen, an acclaimed academic and former president of Memorial University of Newfoundland, received a Doctor of Engineering degree during the ceremony for graduating students in the faculties of engineering, environment, mathematics and science. In his pioneering research on fine aerosol-type particles, Meisen contributed to a better understanding of the capture of these particles from air. At the same ceremony, Paul Seymour, widely acknowledged as the world's leading graph theorist, was awarded a Doctor of Mathematics degree.

Three retired professors were awarded the title of distinguished professor emeritus: Phil Merikle, of psychology; James Reimer, of religious studies; and John Lenard, of mechanical
engineering. Retired staff members Jeff Weller, former executive assistant to the dean of engineering, and Roger Watt, who served as director of network services, were recognized as honorary members of the university.

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Statements show a billion in assets

The university’s assets — buildings, computers, money in the bank — have gone past $1 billion for the first time, according to the 2007-08 financial statements that UW’s board of governors will review today.

The statement shows that assets as of April 30, 2008, were $1,001,460,000, up from $827,066,000 a year earlier. The total can be roughly divided into three parts: one-third in “capital assets” including land, buildings, equipment and library books, one-third in long-term investments, and one-third in “cash and cash equivalents” and short-term investments.

“The University is subject to market risk, foreign currency risk and interest rate price risk with respect to its investment portfolio,” says a note in the financial statements, which were prepared by UW’s finance office and audited by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young. They’ll be presented to the board of governors this afternoon by the board’s audit committee, made up of outside board members, and vice-president (finance and administration) Dennis Huber.

The statement doesn’t go into detail about the short-term investments, but does break down the long-term investments — some bank deposits, big holdings in government and corporate bonds, and (as of April 30) $132 million worth of Canadian, American and international stocks. Investment income brought the university $18.8 million during 2007-08, or about 3 per cent of the budget.

Set against the assets are liabilities of various kinds: $220 million in unspent research funds and donations, $204 million set aside for construction projects, $213 million in untouchable endowment funds, $246 million in unspent budget allocations, and so on. The balance sheet actually shows a “deficit” of $115 million, because accounting rules say the statements must show an allocation of $111 million for health benefits that will have to be paid some day to retired employees.

The financial statement is a document for accountants rather than ordinary readers interested in how the university’s money was spent to support its work. For example, it doesn’t separate research funds from the “operating” funds used for teaching and general expenses. But some overview figures are available: for example, the university spent a total of $604.9 million in the past year, including $403.1 million in the general “operating fund”.

“Cash and investments increased by $100 million,” the audit committee’s report to the board says, “and include two large donations to trust ($25 million and $12 million) and a $42-million (25%) increase in endowment contributions. . . . Three was an $83-million increase in capital asset additions, mostly due to building construction.”

The university’s total income was $634 million, the financial statement shows. That’s up by 3.3 per cent from 2006-07.

Scholarships and bursaries for undergraduate and graduate students were some $50 million in the past year, “an increase of 18% over the prior year”, the audit committee points out. Another big expense was utility bills of some $10.7 million.

Turnover during the year was $16.6 million in retail services, $24.5 million in the residences, and $2.0 million in parking.

CAR

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