Daily Bulletin

Wednesday, December 11, 1996

Song of angel train It will come upon the noon-hour today, that glorious song of old, as the twelfth annual Christmas carol sing led by Jake Willms takes place in the Modern Languages lobby. Willms retired this summer, but he wouldn't let a little thing like that keep him from coming back to conduct "Joy to the World" and "Calypso Noel". And many of us wouldn't let a Christmas season go by without taking part in this UW tradition, sticking around for "O Come All Ye Faithful" as the finale, with (surely again this year) timbits and hot cider to follow. All are welcome -- the music starts at 12:15.

Man arrested in assaults

Walter Sanchez, who lives in Kitchener and works part-time at a restaurant near campus, was arrested "after sexually assaulting an undercover police officer", the Regionals said. An investigation, including the use of decoy victims in areas around the park, was carried on by Regional and UW police after a rash of incidents including two on a single day, November 26. Typically, women walking alone on isolated pathways were grabbed; no one has been seriously injured.

"A search warrant was executed at his residence," the police statement yesterday said, "where several items (bicycles, clothing) were seized involved in these incidents."

All the charges against Sanchez have to do with incidents in the past few weeks. Another man, Edgardo Esparza, was arrested at the beginning of November and charged in connection with several similar assaults that took place in August and September.

Living long on UW pensions

It's been another good year for pension investments, provost Jim Kalbfleisch told the meeting. Year-to-year returns from September 1995 to September 1996 were about 17 per cent, and the fund now stands at more than $500 million and has a "healthy" surplus even after some money was taken out to help fund the special early retirement program

Kalbfleisch reminded the meeting that in UW's "defined benefit" pension plan, the size and growth of the fund don't determine an individual's pension. That depends on a formula involving the individual's final salary and how long he or she worked at UW and contributed to the pension plan. Some staff and faculty at yesterday's meeting asked pointed questions about whether everybody might be better off with a "defined contribution" plan, to take advantage of that healthy growth in the fund. Not necessarily, said Kalbfleisch and other members of the pension and benefits committee: that would be great when interest rates are high, not so great for someone who retired at a time of low rates.

Someone asked what will happen to UW pensions if there are big cuts in the federal Canada Pension Plan over the coming years. Kirti Shah of the statistics department, another member of the P&B committee, had a confident answer: "The committee would make it a very high priority to make good the difference."

60 years after the abdication

• A used book sale in the South Campus Hall concourse today, organized by the development and alumni affairs office as a fund-raiser for the Mary's Place shelter, will run from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• The registrar's office will be closed tomorrow (Thursday) morning for a staff meeting; it'll open at 12 noon.
• Ventilation is being shut down in the Math and Computer "red room", the big central area where the computers live, tomorrow morning from 6 to 10, for preventive maintenance. Computer systems and networks shouldn't be affected, says Steve Breen of information systems and technology: "We hope to keep everything running," except for some administrative systems whose users have already been notified.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004 Comments to the editor | About the Bulletin | Yesterday's Bulletin Copyright 1996 University of Waterloo