Daily Bulletin, Wednesday, February 23, 1994

BACK TO CLASS for math and engineering students today, and back to the
shovels for all those who live at ground level.  It's a good day for a
reminder that there are bins of sand in all UW's parking lots, equipped
with scoops, and you're welcome to use some if you need help with
traction when it's icy.

T-4 SLIPS for staff and faculty members are out today, ahead of the 
February 28 deadline -- they reached this office this morning, anyway.
Now we can get on with filing our 1993 income tax returns.

UNDERGRAD CALENDARS:  The 1994-95 undergraduate calendar is available
starting today, from the registrar's office in Needles Hall and from 
the central office of each faculty.  That gorgeous panoramic photo of the
campus (left to right: Davis, Math, Porter) is used on the cover again,
with the background colour (navy last year, grey the year before) changed
to a rich terra-cotta red.

Students will want to consult the calendar before preregistering for next
year's courses.  March 7-11 are the preregistration dates for courses in
the spring, summer (yes, there are a few summer courses) and fall 1994
terms and winter 1995.  They'll also need the course offerings list, which
can be consulted at department and faculty offices.

WET AND WILD:  We learn that there was more than one little disaster on
campus over the weekend.  Yesterday we mentioned the Sunday morning power
outage, but let's also take note of the flood on the second floor of the
Optometry building on Monday.  A mistake was made during preventive
maintenance, a valve in a lab was left on.  Result: water on the floor in 
several rooms, damage to the floors and to the first-floor ceiling, but 
nothing dreadfully expensive to repair, says Dave Churchill of plant 
operations.

SENATE MEETING:  It was short and reasonably sweet last night as UW's
senate dealt with routine business and got a chance to criticize the
provincial government.  A motion was passed deploring the latest cut to
operating grants ($58 million supposedly intended for "additional 
qualifications" courses for teachers, which is being recovered from all 
the universities because there seems to be no other way to find the money).

Discussion of the provincial "framework regarding prevention of harassment
and discrimination" was brief, especially after it was pointed out that
this document -- controversial in the past couple of weeks -- has been
around for months, and was reported at length at the October 18 senate
meeting.  A proposed response from UW was read out.  It tells the government
that everybody's in favour of stopping discrimination and harassment, but
that a blanket document like the "framework", which some people can read
as threatening academic freedom, is likely to make it harder for universities 
to develop and enforce their own policies (such as UW's Policy 33 on Ethical 
Behaviour).

FEDERAL BUDGET:  Finance minister Paul Martin didn't introduce a new tax
on employer-paid health benefits in yesterday's federal budget, as it was
rumoured he might do.  That will come as good news to the members of the
UW pension and benefits committee, which tried to mount a last-minute
lobby against taxing health plans.  Martin did announce in the budget that
Ottawa is continuing its freeze on transfer payments to the provinces.
Those transfer payments are the major source of money for higher education,
as well as health and welfare, and Ontario treasurer Floyd Laughren had been
saying he hoped the five-year freeze (introduced by the previous Tory
government) would be lifted.

Among spending cuts in the budget is the closing of two little post-secondary
institutions: Royal Roads Military College in Victoria and College Militaire
Royale in Saint-Jean, Quebec.  The Royal Military College of Canada, at 
Kingston, is not affected.

SEASON'S OVER:  The hockey Warriors lost 5-2 to Laurier's Golden Hawks last
night.  It was a sudden-death playoff game, so that's the end of the 
1993-94 season for the Warriors, who finished third in the OUAA's "far
west" division to squeak into the playoffs.

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