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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Wednesday, January 8, 1997

Departments face budget cut

Provost Jim Kalbfleisch said yesterday that UW departments are about to be told to cut their spending by 1.5 per cent in the 1996-97 fiscal year, which is already two-thirds over.

"We have a lot of red ink," said the provost, who's preparing a budget update for the early February meeting of UW's board of governors. He blamed two developments in recent weeks:

Fall enrolment was lower than expected, and so revenue from tuition fees was down by some $800,000.
Salary increases for staff, faculty and teaching assistants cost the university about $3 million in the current year.

"Those things more than wipe out the small cushion that we had in the budget," Kalbfleisch said.

The 1.5 per cent cut in the current year's spending is officially a "one-time" reduction, meaning that departments can make their savings through temporary measures such as leaving vacant positions unfilled for a while. He said he knows that the savings "will be tough for some people to find".

And unless something extraordinary happens, there will be a permanent cut of at least that much, and likely more, in the 1997-98 budget, the provost said. Prospects for the coming year's budget depend mainly on two things: a government announcement about tuition fee levels (expected by the end of January) and the 1997 level of pay increases.

About the 1996 salary increases, by the way . . . people have been asking how the faculty salary settlement (no scale adjustment, but a return to progress-through-the-ranks increases) compares to the staff salary settlement (1.0 per cent scale increase, individual increases based on merit). Here's an answer from Karen LeDrew, president of the staff association:

The staff increase worked out to about 2.5% on average and the faculty increase works out to 2.25% for PTR and 0.25% for professional allowance increase, so also a 2.5% overall increase (just achieved in different ways). The UWSA is satisfied that fairness has been achieved.

The week's positions available

There's no issue of the Gazette today -- look for it next on January 15 -- so here are the staff Positions Available listings from the human resources department:

Administrative Secretary, Anthropology/Classical Studies, USG 4. Part-time position 28 hours per week for mid-August to mid-June annually.
Operations Assistant, Co-operative Education & Career Services, USG 4. Part-time position (35 hours per week) for January, February, March, May, June, July, September, October and November.
Co-ordinator, Co-operative Education & Career Services, USG 11. Membership in the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) required. Residency and prime responsibility will be Mississauga.
Records Assistant, Office of Development & Alumni Affairs, USG 3. Position is contingent upon funding.
Senior Chemical Engineering Laboratory Technician, Chemical Engineering, USG 7.

The standard fine print: "The university welcomes and encourages applications from the designated employment equity groups: visible minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and aboriginal people." More information: call ext. 2524.

Fit for heart, next month

Here's a message from Rebecca Boyd in the campus recreation program

Looking for a fitness event to remember? Join in the excitement at "Fit for Heart" February 8, 1997, at the Columbia Recreation Complex Gym. Fit for Heart, a fundraising event for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, offers you a chance to have fun, socialize and take on a fitness challenge. Fit for Heart promotes cardiovascular health and fitness, while raising money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. The event is open to people of all ages, and promises to be fun for all! Get involved today by picking up a pledge form from PAC 2039. Registration for the event will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the event beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Anyone interested in sponsoring a participant or donating a prize can contact Boyd at ext. 5034.

The campus rec "guidebook" for the winter term is out, of course, and announces that registration for instructional programs -- "fitness, racquets, aquatics, healthy living" -- begins next Wednesday, January 15.

If it snows and we close

The sun is peeking out today, but it's still winter (hence the red UW-branded long johns in the window of the UW Shop). One of these days there will come a major snowstorm, and then people will wonder whether the university is closing. So please take note now of the storm closing procedure, which you can find on UWinfo under "Documents", and which includes these key paragraphs:

UW will close automatically if the Waterloo County Board of Education closes all its schools for the day. If the school board closes rural schools only, or cancels school buses but does not close schools, UW is not closed.
UW follows the school board's lead in these cases because the board has a longstanding system for evaluating weather conditions and announcing its decision. UW classes -- including those in the evening -- will be cancelled along with all non-essential services. Non-essential staff will not be expected to come to work.
Examinations that are scheduled on the day or the evening of a closing because of bad weather will be cancelled and rescheduled. Deadlines for assignments, job applications and other requirements are postponed to the same time on the next working day.
Radio stations that can be expected to carry announcements include CKGL (570), CKKW (1090), CHYM (96.7) and KOOL-FM (105.3), as well as UW's own student station, CKMS (100.3 FM). The university's news bureau will try to arrange to have UW mentioned explicitly, but staff, faculty and students can assume that if a complete closing of Board of Education schools is announced, UW has also closed.

"Essential" services are defined as food service in the residences, policing, the central plant (powerhouse), snow removal (grounds crew), emergency repair and maintenance, animal care. "No department can designate any other services as 'essential' or require staff to work during a 'closed' period without approval from the Provost or delegate."

A couple of final notes

The Economics Society, with several co-sponsors, presents a session tomorrow on careers in economics. Speakers come from the Ontario teachers' superannuation fund, the provincial ministry of finance, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The gathering starts at 5:30 in Arts Lecture Hall room 124. A pub evening follows. Other news from the Econ Society: "our plans to start a student chapter" of the Canadian Association for Business Economics.

Questions without answers: Why does the illuminated events board in the Arts Lecture Hall still think it's October? Does the A in FASS stand for "Administrators", as director Anita Kilgour said in yesterday's Bulletin, or for "Alumni"?

Also in yesterday's Bulletin, I said that FASS would be taking place in the Theatre of the Arts. In fact, the venue will be the Humanities Theatre, and performance dates are February 6-8. Auditions start tonight in Humanities room 336.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
January 8, 1993: A memorial service is held in the Theatre of the Arts for graduate student David Zaharchuk, murdered in a corridor of Engineering I on New Year's Day.

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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