University of Waterloo

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[ President's letter to the UW community, 19 October 1995 ]

Thursday, October 26, 1995

On t'aime, Quebec

That's the message to be delivered at a massive rally in Place du Canada in downtown Montreal tomorrow. With the referendum on Quebec "sovereignty" just five days away, and polls showing the "yes" and "no" sides just about even, Canadians who had previously been neutral, even blase, are getting excited. Not necessarily unanimous, of course: yesterday while the prime minister was talking of "positive change" in the way Canada is structured, other political leaders were outspoken against "special status" for the province that represents the oldest part of Canada.

Many members of Parliament from English-speaking Canada, including Waterloo's Andrew Telegdi, have been helping to organize buses so that people from outside Quebec can show their interest, and their desire for a "No" vote, at tomorrow's rally. Prompted by Telegdi, at least two groups at UW are organizing buses, to leave Waterloo around 4 a.m.:

Or, supporters can call Telegdi's local office at 746-1573 to arrange transportation to Montreal.

What's happening in Manitoba

The faculty and librarians' strike at the University of Manitoba continues. I had this note yesterday from Carolynne Presser, U of M's chief librarian (and thus a member of management), who was formerly the systems librarian at Waterloo:
As far as I am concerned, it is pretty rough going. All 12 libraries are open normal hours, although only 3 of the 45 librarians have crossed the picket lines to work. Reference/information services have been reduced; otherwise it is business as usual. We are waiting the appointment of a mediator, likely out-of-province.
There is indeed a glimmer of hope, according to a statement from the University of Manitoba Faculty Association, which has its own site on the World Wide Web after having been refused access to U of M's central UMinfo. Said an announcement from the union yesterday:
The U of M bargaining team is close to reaching agreement with the Board on the selection of a mediator from outside the province. As soon as a mediator is selected (hopefully later today) the UMFA team will ask for the Board team to start discussions, even before the mediator arrives.
Faculty leaders say they fear the administration is threatening tenure in the name of giving itself more flexibility to cut budgets. A passage from UMFA's releases, about a membership meeting held Sunday night:
Former Dean of Science Charlie Bigelow reminded the Association members that the traditions of academic freedom are not that old in Canada. "I can remember my parents talking about faculty members being fired from universities in the 1930s for their politics or for being divorced. It was only after the veterans came back after the war that university Boards of Governors found themselves confronted with a group of people determined not to be pushed around. We have built up the rights we have over 50 years. We should not part with them lightly."

And on the east coast

Add the Memorial University of Newfoundland to the list of institutions where hard times and political pressure have led to unrest between faculty members and management. The faculty union at MUN is in a legal strike position; MUN officials have said faculty won't be locked out, "thereby preventing themfrom carrying out their teaching, research and community service duties") but doesn't know whether there will be a strike.

High schooler visits chemistry

There's somebody new on campus today: Kerrie Beirnes, a student at Grand River Collegiate. Bev Winkler of the chemistry department reports that Beirnes "approached us a couple of weeks ago with a request to see if she could spend a day in the department and job shadow someone as part of an English project. After discussing this idea with various members of the Chemistry Department I received enough interest from a few people to proceed with the arrangements." The result: faculty member Victor Snieckus "has agreed to have the student in his lab to job shadow a graduate student and/or one of his postdocs".

And some lectures today

Education minister visits

Ontario education minister John Snobelen was on campus last night, to meet with student leaders from across the country at a meeting of the Canadian Campus Business Consortium. It's a network of student groups, including UW's Federation of Students, designed to make the business operations of student government more efficient.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

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