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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Monday, July 8, 1996

Psychology prof is mourned

Psychology professor Kenneth S. Bowers died on Thursday, aged 58. He had been suffering from brain cancer for about a year; his death came just days after he officially took early retirement from UW.

After completing his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Illinois, Bowers joined the faculty in August 1964. He worked for a time in the counselling services department as well as proceeding with his academic career. Bowers was best known for his research in altered states of consciousness, and his publications included works on hypnosis, creativity and intuition. He was promoted to professor in 1974, and served as a visiting scholar at Stanford and Harvard Universities.

"We in the department feel a profound sense of loss," says psychology department chair Mike Ross. "A superb psychologist and a good friend, Ken contributed a great deal to the department and university throughout his professional career."

Bowers is survived by his wife, Patricia (Greig) Bowers, also a psychology professor, and by his mother, Blanche, his brother, Kriss, three sons, Jeffrey, Peter and Kevin, and a grandson. A private family service will be followed by cremation. Memorial donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or to the charity of one's choice.

The future of higher education

The Globe and Mail reported Friday that it has learned who's going to be conducting the long-awaited review of post-secondary education for the Ontario government. "An official announcement" from the education minister "is expected as early as next week", the Globe said.

The five committee members, as listed by the newspaper, are former education minister Bette Stephenson; David Smith, economist and former principal of Queen's University; Catherine Henderson, president of Centennial College in Toronto; David Cameron, political scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax; and Fred Gorbet, a senior vice-president of Manulife Financial and former deputy minister of finance.

The Globe repeated earlier reports that the government has gone through "about 20 drafts" of a discussion paper that is intended to provide the background for the committee's study of universities and colleges in Ontario.

Contract crunch at WLU

Negotiations between faculty and management at Wilfrid Laurier University apparently aren't going well. "Strike-lockout looms," said a headline in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record on Friday; the article said that professors could go on strike, or WLU management could lock them out, on July 20 if a contract agreement isn't reached. Over the weekend, WLU's office of university advancement issued a brief statement noting that talks will take place again July 18 and 19 with the help of a provincial labour mediator:

Since negotiations began on February 2, there have been 26 meetings between the two negotiating teams, and the parties have addressed and resolved more than 90 percent of the issues on the table. Except for a very few non-monetary matters, the balance of the issues remaining to be negotiated are monetary. The University Administration is optimistic that a settlement will be reached.

"A lot of progress was made" in the latest round of talks a few days ago, said Luke Fusco, president of the WLU faculty association, as quoted in the Record.

In other news, briefly

All three of UW's main summer programs for children are in operation this week. Arts Computer Experience and Engineering Science Quest, which began last week, are joined as of today by the Environmental Experience Camp, sponsored by the Heritage Resources Centre and offering four week-long sessions for children entering grades 2 and 3.

Oh yes: after Friday's Bulletin appeared, quoting David Wang about Charity Fest ("I'm pretty sure I'm the only faculty member at UW doing concert promotion") I received a note from one of my favourite gadflies. It said succinctly: "Narveson doesn't count?"

CAR

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