Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Wednesday, January 22, 1997

The team takes the ice

We could all use skates today, with a light coating of ice over the ground. A week of serious cold has ended with a night of freezing rain, and now it's just plain rain. Maybe we'll get a few clear moments before the colder temperatures return. You know what the judge told the fellow whom he sentenced to pay $100 and spend a day in jail: fine today, cooler tomorrow.

The state of the budget

The senate finance committee meets tomorrow -- 8:30 a.m., Needles Hall room 3001 -- to get an update on UW's budget for the current year, which runs until April 30. Income this year is now calculated at $174,409,000 -- almost a million dollars less than the previous estimate -- and the provost has imposed a 1.5 per cent budget cut which brings spending down to $175,094,000. In other words, there's still a deficit of almost $700,000.

Besides that, of course, UW is still carrying some $18 million in temporary deficits, mostly caused by the special early retirement program; that money is being paid off over four years, including $4.5 million in the current year. This year UW will spend some 75 per cent of its operating budget on salaries and another 11 per cent on benefits.

Searching for three deans

Three of UW's deans will be ending their terms soon -- David Burns of engineering, Jack Kalbfleisch of mathematics, and John Thompson of science -- and the wheels are starting to turn to set up nominating committees. The topic came up at Monday night's meeting of the UW senate, when the provost of the university, Jim Kalbfleisch, asked for approval of two variations to the rules in Policy 45 about the selection of deans.

One was simple enough: usually the provost chairs the nominating committees, but the committee for dean of mathematics will be chaired instead by Gary Waller, associate provost (academic and student affairs), to avoid any personal conflict: the incumbent dean is the provost's brother.

The other was more complicated, and after a few minutes of discussion, senate turned down Kalbfleisch's proposal to limit the search for all three deans to "internal" candidates, people already at UW. Members of senate didn't agree with the suggestion that financial restraint justified that change, apparently feeling the positions are too important to restrict the pool of candidates. Asked what the cost of the search was, Kalbfleisch said it's a "significant investment", including advertising, bringing candidates in, hotels, and so on. The general rationale for looking at both outside and inside candidates is that "the best possible" person for the job will be found, but someone at senate raised the possibility of looking inside first, deciding there isn't a qualified candidate, expanding the search to "external" and ending up with a worse crop of candidates.

Also at Monday night's senate meeting, there were brief comments about the dropping enrolment in distance education and part-time studies. One faculty member said his department can no longer afford to have him teach those courses -- in a time of limited resources, it can only support on-campus teaching.

And the provost confirmed that the long-awaited draft report of the commission on institutional planning is about to appear. It will be tabled Monday at a meeting of the senate long-range planning committee.

Everybody's getting physical

Rebecca Boyd of the campus recreation program writes thus: "The Campus Recreation staff would like to thank all the staff and students who braved lineups and Mother Nature to register in CR programs last week. More students were registered on the first evening of registration in the winter term than were registered in the first evening of the fall term!"

There are still spaces available in some courses, she adds; anyone interested can register in Physical Activities Complex room 2039. All campus rec programs start this week.

Boyd also has news about something called the Guard Club, "for those UW students interested in competing in the Ontario Interuniversity Lifeguard Championships, or for keeping their lifeguarding skills up to date". Sessions are held Saturdays at 4:30 in the PAC pool. More information is available from Chris Neale, caneale@science.

By the way, if you did skate to campus today -- and I actually saw a young woman clutching her skates as she walked into the Modern Languages coffee shop, though I can't swear she'd been using them -- you might want to know that a skate sharpening machine is available at the Columbia Recreational Complex on the north campus.

Nominations sought for senate

A notice has gone out calling for nominations to fill twelve seats on UW's senate. The full text is in today's Gazette and available on UWinfo under Secretariat.

Positions to be filled right now include seven for faculty members with a three-year term; two others for faculty members for shorter terms; and three for graduate students. Nominations in all cases are due by Wednesday, February 5. The secretariat at ext. 6125 can provide more information.

In memory of Gary Buckley

The registrar's office invites all UW faculty, staff and retirees to a memorial service for Gary Buckley, former assistant registrar for engineering and applied health sciences, who died September 19 after a long battle with cancer. This memorial service to commemorate and celebrate his life will be held Friday, January 31, at 3:30 p.m. in Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's College.

A memorial fund has been established in memory of Gary Buckley, and donations can be sent to the development and alumni affairs office in South Campus Hall. Cheques should be payable to the University of Waterloo "in memory of Gary Buckley". A tree will also be planted in his memory in the spring -- details will follow later.

More information is available from Pat Kalyn in the registrar's office, phone ext. 2264, e-mail pkalyn@nh1adm.

Pursuant to information received . . .

Yesterday's Bulletin mentioned the two candidates for the position of vice-president (education) of the Federation of Students. One is Jeff Gardner, a student in arts; the other is Chris Buchanan, whom I identified as a student in science. In fact, he's in mathematics.

Peter Russell of the earth sciences department wrote to comment on my mention of the "new" environmental studies van, which is painted an elegant burgundy. "That burgundy van is an earth sciences one and was purchased second-hand," he writes, "accounting for the wonderful colour change. If purchased new, it would have been snow white like the rest of them!" Not that the snow is all that white today, what's left of it.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
January 22, 1995: Helga Kutz-Harder (soon to change her name to Mills) is installed as principal of St. Paul's United College.

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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Copyright 1997 University of Waterloo