Daily Bulletin, Monday, March 28, 1994

MONEY MATTERS:  UW officials are starting to look at the university's
budget for 1994-95, after last week's announcement from Queen's Park, and
this bulletin from the provost has just been handed to me. . . .
     
     To:  Department Chairs and Heads, etc.
     
     Re:  Budget Outlook for 1994-95.
     
     Last Wednesday the government announced grant and tuition
     levels for 1994-95.  In view of the government's serious
     financial problems, we were braced for additional bad news.
     It came as a great relief when no new grant reductions were
     announced.
     
     Although there were no new announcements of grant
     reductions, operating grants for the Ontario Universities
     will still decline significantly in 1994-95 owing to
     previously announced reductions.  These include the removal
     of $13.4 million under the Expenditure Control Program, the
     removal of $9 million in temporary corridor funding, and a
     further $24 million grant reduction.  In addition, the
     Minister's Special Purposes grant envelope is to be
     increased, thereby decreasing the amount available for
     general distribution.
     
     Operations Analysis estimates the reduction in UW's
     operating grants over 1993-94 levels to be about $3.9
     million.  The precise amount will not be known until OCUA
     has decided how to distribute the reduction across the
     various grant envelopes.
     
     The Minister also announced a 10% increase in tuition fees,
     which should raise UW's tuition income by about $3.7 million
     in 1994-95.  Thus, total grant and tuition revenue will
     likely be just slightly lower than in 1993-94.
     
     We still face significant budget difficulties.  About $5
     million in temporary savings from unpaid days, pension
     contribution reductions, etc, will need to be replaced with
     ongoing savings or additional revenues by the end of the
     Social Contract period, and there are cost increases for
     utilities, benefits, etc., to be met.  Nevertheless, we can
     be grateful that the recent funding announcement has not
     made matters worse.
     
     We are now proceeding to develop the 1994-95 budget, and the
     Senate Finance Committee will be meeting on Wednesday.  The
     largest remaining uncertainty is the pension contribution
     level, and this will be decided by the Pension and Benefits
     Committee on April 19th.  Thus, there will be a delay of
     several weeks in finalizing budgets for the fiscal year
     starting May 1.

BLACKOUTS POSSIBLE:  As Ontario Hydro and its union battle down to a
strike deadline this week, "rotating blackouts" are a possibility -- brief
periods when the power goes off, one city or region at a time.  Such
blackouts would probably last 15 to 30 minutes, says David Churchill of
UW's plant operations department.  He said Hydro expects to be able to
give advance warning (perhaps an hour or several hours).  If warning of a
blackout is received, the word will be spread on campus by telephone,
and will also be announced through the "Flash" facility on UWinfo.
UW has backup power for emergency lighting, sump pumps, some elevators and
some "critical experiments", but not for computer systems, Churchill says.

RECYCLING WINNERS:  The winners of the recent on-campus recycling contest
are to be announced today, says Patti Cook, the waste management coordinator.
See them at 4 p.m. in the Environmental Studies 1 courtyard.

COMPUTER LECTURE:  UW's Institute for Computer Research presents an evening 
lecture tonight, on "The Prodigal Returns, or the Revival of Formal-Language 
and Machine Theory".  The speaker: Derick Wood of the University of Western 
Ontario, adjunct professor in UW's computer science department.  It's the 
last of the ICR Public Lecture series for this term, and it starts at 8 p.m. 
in Davis Centre room 1302.

A partial explanation, from Wood's abstract: "The study of theoretical 
underpinnings of the brain, computers, and natural  languages in the 1950s 
gave rise to the area of formal-language and machine theory.  It was, however, 
the development of higher-level programming languages in the 1960s that
provided a rich interchange between  practice  and  formal-language  
and machine theory.  This successful marriage of theory and practice was 
short-lived.  By the early 1980s,the fall of formal-language and machine 
theory was witnessed.  Theory moved away from practice and, consequently, 
practice began to ignore theory.  In the last five years there has been a 
revival of interest in formal-language  and machine theory, both generally 
and personally.  This revival will be examined from a number of different 
practical viewpoints."

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
888-4567 ext. 3004      credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca