Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Monday, November 4, 1996

No changes to dental plan

The staff and faculty dental plan isn't in line for change this year, the pension and benefit committee has announced.

The plan -- which pays 80 per cent of many dental bills for UW employees and their dependents -- has been the focus of two main concerns, one saying that it doesn't pay enough and the other saying that it pays too much:

The plan covers 80 per cent of fees based on the Ontario Dental Association fee schedule of two years ago. Staff and faculty whose dentists charge more up-to-date fees have asked for coverage of the current ODA schedule, if not the actual amount billed by the dentist.
The plan pays for dental checkups every five months; making that a larger interval, such as nine months, would help keep down the cost of the plan, for which premiums are 100 per cent paid by UW as the employer.

The P&B committee has decided not to act in either direction, according to a statement made available by David Dietrich of UW's human resources department. "As part of the overall five year review of all UW benefits," he writes, "the Pension and Benefits Committee commissioned its pension and benefits consultant, William Mercer Ltd. to conduct a Dental Utilization and Plan Design Review. This review concluded that the Plan is doing well and that no design changes are necessary."

Dietrich goes on: "However, some information from the review is noteworthy. Health and Welfare Canada reports that frequent recall examinations (every five or six months) do not necessarily provide any significant improvement in dental health. . . . One of the long term goals of the Committee is to make faculty and staff more informed consumers of all health benefits; obviously by extending recall periods, both faculty and staff and the University would have lower expenses."

Any comments about the dental plan can be directed to Sandie Hurlburt (ext. 6120) or Dietrich (ext. 3911) in the HR department.

Senate executive meets today

A proposal to create a Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies is on the agenda as the executive committee of UW's senate meets this afternoon (Needles Hall room 3004, 3:30 p.m.). The committee sets the agenda for the monthly meeting of senate, scheduled for November 18.

The trenchless technologies centre is already in operation, in fact, headed by Robert McKim of the civil engineering department. Senate action would make it officially a UW "centre".

Also on the agenda for today's meeting is the annual report from the University Committee on Student Appeals. It says the number of cases -- "academic discipline cases and grievances/appeals" -- dealt with in 1995-96 was down from the levels of the two previous years. Cases handled by associate deans and faculty appeals committees this year involved exactly 100 undergraduate students and 7 graduate students, down from 121 and 11 in 1994-95. The cases this year included 38 of "cheating", 28 of "plagiarism", 10 of "misuse of resources", 8 of "misrepresentation", 3 of "harassment/intimidation" and 2 of "mischief"; there were 18 "grievances/appeals".

The report says summaries of individual cases are on file in the university secretariat, but doesn't discuss them in the report, though it does make some recommendations about improving procedures.

Loan money goes unclaimed

Here's an urgent note from Christine Schmidt in the student awards office:

There are many unclaimed OSAP loan documents in the Student Awards Office, 2nd floor, Needles Hall. Don't delay. Pick up your loan documents by November 22, 1996. This is an urgent reminder to students who are not returning to school in January 1997. Unclaimed loans will be cancelled and returned to the Ministry of Education if not picked up.

Other notes on a Waterloo Monday

The director of admissions for the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College will be at UW this morning to give a talk (11:30 a.m., Matthews Hall 1631) about the process of getting into chiropractic college. UW has close and growing links with CMCC, and the kinesiology department here is one of the major sources of students entering chiropractic study.

Representatives of employers will converge on campus today as the Waterloo Advisory Council begins its fall meeting. WAC advises UW -- chiefly the co-op department, but deans and other senior officials as well -- from an industry, business and government point of view, and meets on campus twice a year. The current meeting starts at 6 this evening, then runs all day tomorrow. Keynote speaker tonight will be Gordon Cressy, president of the Learning Partnership and formerly chair of the Greater Toronto United Way and director of development for the University of Toronto.

The Computer Store has lively stuff going on today through Thursday as part of Microsoft's "Play This Tour", a national software gaming tournament. Students will be given an opportunity to play "Microsoft's hot new titles", says Brendan Beasley, marketing coordinator for the retail services department, which embraces the computer store and the bookstore. "Prizes include hats, copies of the games and other bundled software and even personal webspace on the Much Music Website."

Water and other utilities will be turned off in some first-floor rooms of Biology I tomorrow, starting at 8 a.m., for renovation work, the plant operations department advises.

Today begins Waste Reduction Week in Ontario, and among the enthusiasts is UW's waste reduction coordinator, Patti Cook. She draws attention particularly to tours tomorrow at the Waterloo Regional landfill, 925 Erb Street West, starting at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. -- so if you want to see what a really big pile of garbage looks like, and how "We Are Making a Difference" through recycling, now you know where to go.

CAR

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