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Wednesday, August 19, 1998
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500 days leftAlthough UW workers are not government employees -- the group covered by the mandatory portion of the Act -- the university is required to participate because it receives federal funding through programs such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
In a recent review of UW's employment equity program, Norma McGuire, acting manager of workplace equity programs for the federal contractors program, reported that although "goals established four years ago have in some instances been achieved..., with the exception of women the university still does not have a representative workforce. This means that despite the university's commitment to recruit designated group members in order to achieve a representative work force, the university has not succeeded in hiring designated group members in sufficient numbers."
Those groups which lack adequate representation, according to McGuire, are Aboriginal people and persons with disabilities. Based on numbers comparing UW employee data from 1988 with 1995 figures, "the representation of women has increased by 12.4% from 42.0% to 52.4%; the representation of Aboriginal people has increased by 0.4% from 0.3% to 1.7%; the representation of members of visible minorities has increased by 4.4% from 2.9% to 7.3%; and the representation of persons with disabilities has increased by 1.2% from 1.4% to 2.6%."
The data was collected via an employment equity questionnaire distributed to faculty, staff and graduate students. Not only do employees have the right not to complete the questionnaire, disclosure of status in any of the four designated groups is voluntary, explains UW human resources administrator Alfrieda Swainston, the officer responsible for employment equity. "You don't have to say you're a visible minority or disabled."
The problem is that those who can, but choose not to identify with a designated group, create skewed statistics which could jeopardize federal funding for research at UW. "People are not required to disclose, but the university can be penalized if it is not representative," says Swainston.
Although the university has undertaken a number of "special measures programs" to help boost recruiting of persons with disabilities and Aboriginal people, additional programs are needed, according to McGuire. Under the Federal Contractors Program, a further "compliance review" of the university's progress in these areas is scheduled for sometime in 1999. A human resources plan is being prepared in advance of the review, and Swainston is meeting with her counterpart at Wilfrid Laurier University to discuss possible joint initiatives.
The non-selective herbicide is not a soil sterilizer, he adds, and is not being used on lawns. "We have to post the entire campus, but we're not doing all 200 acres."
Postings will be made later this week, and it will probably take a couple of weeks to complete the application, says Galloway. "We do it at this time because the population on campus is at its lowest."
An exhibition of children's art produced in the Art Break program this summer opens today with a reception at 4:30 p.m. at the Waterloo Community Arts Centre, 25 Regina Street South in Waterloo. As part of High on Art sponsored by the Alcohol and Drug Recovery Association of Ontario, local artist Jan May taught classes designed "to help build self-confidence and a feeling of personal success" for some 300 children ages six to 14. The program is "dedicated to encouraging youth to get 'high' on the good things in life such as art, music, drama, and sports instead of drugs or alcohol." Work produced in the classes will be on display from today through Friday, from 4:30 to 8 p.m.
Staff in Annex 2 at 156 Columbia St. are advised to shut down their computers -- particularly UNIX systems -- "in an orderly fashion" today in preparation for a utility shutdown tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. Electrical power, heating, cooling and ventilation will be off to allow Waterloo North Hydro to install fibre cable on the site.
Math student Jason Sanmiya spent a year in Japan, and here's his report -- including notes on Japanese food and fashions, "getting on the train", demigods, fireworks, and "climbing Taro Mountain".
"The style," he says, "is light and mildly informative, with an emphasis on pointing out little cultural peculiarities. I quickly notice that Japan is not the urban-myth that captures our imagination, nor the stuff of anime. Rather, Japan is a great place to party, and a forgiving environment for mishaps both of which I report on copiously." For example:
I have this beautiful Japanese envelope and I was going to mail out a letter in it, but didn't know how to close the thing, so I asked Komiyama-san. She starts laughing! What, what now? Apparently the envelopes are for Japanese weddings only -- you put money in them. "Ichi-mai dake o katta?" (Did you buy only one?) "Eh? A, ichi-mai dake." (Eh? Oh yeah, sure, only one) I bought twelve! Good thing I got them at that hyaku-en-dake type-store (rough translation -- "Just a buck"). So now I have to find another envelope; the post office won't accept these. I was wondering what that "amount of money inside" box was for.Sanmiya continues: "The point of view is that of a 2nd year Pure Math&CS co-op student, stationed in layed-back Ueda city, at a small branch of Epson Software Development. The text is ample but to-the-point, and the pictures are thumb nailed and come with descriptions. The Journal is a running project, and I plan to post some more serious articles on my impressions of Japanese culture before the end of summer."
Barbara Elve
bmelve@nh4.adm.uwaterloo.ca
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
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