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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Thursday, April 11, 1996

Reception for the SERPs

The campus-wide party for the 338 people retiring through the special early retirement program is taking place, as already announced, at Federation Hall on Thursday, April 25, starting at 4 p.m. There will be a cash bar.

A memo went out yesterday inviting all faculty and staff to the event. RSVPs are to be collected by department secretaries (so the organizers know how much free food to provide) and reported by them to the president's office, e-mail president@uwaterloo.ca.

Meanwhile, individual goodbye parties are taking place everywhere -- including a buffet lunch today honouring the 20 people who are retiring under SERP from the staff of the UW library. Last night's surprise party for Florence Thomlison, of the disabilities services office, was quite a success; president James Downey was there, teasing that he'd have to cancel convocation this year if Thomlison wouldn't come out of retirement to be there in her usual indispensable place.

About the bargaining unit

As I noted yesterday, UW management have filed their response to the faculty association application to be certified as a union. The issue now is who exactly should be included in the potential bargaining unit, and able to vote on union certification when the balloting comes (probably next week).

The faculty association's proposal includes full-time and part-time faculty, librarians, and instructors who teach at least two courses a year, among others. Deans would be excluded. Management has countered by proposing a much narrower definition:

All persons employed as regular faculty members at the University of Waterloo in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor and lecturer on definite term, probationary or tenured appointments in accordance with the University's current policy on faculty appointments (Policy 53).
Save and Except:

Associate Deans, Chairs and Directors and persons above the level of Associate Dean, Chair and Director including, but not restricted to, Deans, Associate Provosts, Associate Vice-Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Provost and President;
Members of the Board of Governors;
Persons in the bargaining unit seconded to responsibilities providing confidential advice to the President or the Provost and Vice-President (Academic);
Persons appointed as regular faculty with less than 50% of a full-time appointment.
For purposes of clarity the following are not included in the bargaining unit:

persons employed as librarians;
persons employed by a Federated or Affiliated College;
language and other instructors;
teaching assistants;
post doctoral fellows;
demonstrators;
Persons holding visiting appointments while on leave from another university or comparable institution;
Retired faculty;
Emeritus faculty;
Persons holding research appointments who are not regular faculty;
Persons holding adjunct appointments;
Persons holding sessional appointments who are not regular faculty;
Persons holding special appointments; and
Persons holding part-time appointments who are not regular faculty.

The faculty association agrees with a few of those exclusions, such as visitors from other universities, and faculty at the church colleges.

The April 19 protest

On Friday of next week, UW will be the site of an "education rally" as one feature of the Community Action Day that's being planned for Kitchener-Waterloo as a protest against the social and labour policies of the Ontario government. Flyers are ready now, announcing the rally for 10 a.m. that day in the arts quadrangle. After the rally, participants will walk to downtown Kitchener -- picking up people from other protests along the way -- for the big central rally on King Street.

There will be music at the rally and not too many speeches, says Stan Fogel of St. Jerome's College, who's heading the organizing committee. "We'll probably have a student -- representing, in Snobelen's words, 'the client' -- and either an academic person or somebody related to the education enterprise."

There will be picket lines at the University Avenue entrance to campus that day, and Fogel and his committee are asking people to "respect the picket lines" and use other entrances to campus instead.

I spoke yesterday with Duncan Haslam of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who's coordinating pickets for the day of protest, and he was quite candid in saying that anybody who does try to come in the University Avenue entrance on the 19th will be delayed, although nobody will be absolutely blocked. "We may impose a new speed limit, two kilometres an hour instead of ten!" he laughed.

There were no violent incidents at all during earlier days of protest in London and Hamilton, and there won't be any at this event either, Haslam said. "It's going to be friendly."

UW police chief Al Mackenzie says he may have some advice, as the day grows closer, for people who plan to come to campus on April 19, either to go to work or to attend the rally. There are several ways to get here that don't involve the University Avenue entrance, he pointed out.

A few sunny notes

As the faculty of environmental studies searches for a dean, the student representative on the nominating committee, Jonathan Chung, says he's particularly eager to hear "comments, suggestions and nominations" from undergraduate students. He can be reached by e-mail at j2chung@fes; "there is also a nominations/comments box dedicated specifically to this matter located in the ES coffee shop during operating hours."
Waterloo Showtime presents "Lorne Elliott: The Collected Mistakes" in the Humanities Theatre tonight at 8. Says a flyer: "Combining lightning wit and a wacky performance style, Lorne Elliott takes his audience on a rollicking all-Canadian ride, lampooning human foibles and skewering today's trends on the way." Tickets are $14, students $12, from the Humanities box office (and there are student rush tickets at $6).
Anybody from UW running the Boston Marathon next week? Please drop me a note.

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

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