Daily Bulletin

Towards a student grievance policy

A new combined policy has been in the works for more than a year, but "had been suspended, temporarily, because of the possibility of efficiencies being effected in grievance and appeal procedures across UW, generally", says the University Committee on Student Appeals in its annual report. UCSA says work has now resumed, and "the expectation is that a draft will be distributed, within the next month or two, to solicit wider comment". In the past year the Ethics Committee -- seen as a complicating factor in some grievance cases -- has been abolished, a new faculty grievance procedure has been introduced, and the staff grievance policy is under review.

The UCSA annual report says there has been "relatively little activity" in the way of student discipline cases and grievances, "when considered in the light of the total UW student population". A table shows a total of 99 undergraduate students and five graduate students involved in cases in 1997-98; that compares to 81 and 12 in 1996-97, and 100 and 7 in 1995-96.

Just about half the cases (50 undergraduates and one graduate) involved cheating; 18 more, all undergraduates, involved plagiarism. The rest are in the categories of "misrepresentation", "harassment and discrimination", "misuse of resources", "mischief", and "grade reassessments etc.".

There were four cases (involving eight students) at the final appeal level this year, the report says: "One graduate (misrepresentation) was expelled for falsifying a transcript; five undergrads (mischief/orientation event) appealed suspension for the remainder of the playing season (suspension upheld); one graduate appealed admission to a 3- rather than 2-year PhD program (the admission decision was upheld); and an undergrad appealed a Required to Withdraw decision, but did not result in a hearing (the decision stands)."

Summaries of individual cases dealt with by the UCSA and by the appeals committees in the six faculties are posted to the Web each year. "Any inconsistencies in penalties," the UCSA report says, "will be more apparent than real; that is, there could be extenuating or exacerbating circumstances which affect a penalty."

The committee is recommending some minor changes in procedures and rules. For example: "Instructors and UW administrators cannot rely on or expect students to know or have read the Graduate Studies and Undergraduate Calendars (the main documents describing the relationship between the student and the University) or policies." It suggests that instructors, especially in first-year classes, discuss "accepted academic practices, levels of tolerance, the standards of the discipline, define plagiarism, etc.", and that material about "the responsibilities and privileges of being a member of a university community" be provided at Student Life 101 and in orientation.

It also has this note: "The convenience of administrators should become a secondary consideration, particularly in matters where students can be expelled, suspended or be required to withdraw. Administrators are exhorted to deal with such matters expeditiously. The same should hold true in day-to-day dealings with students."

Magazine's all about jobs

Brought home from one of the piles last week is issue #1 of a new magazine, Realm, subtitled "Creating Work You Want". It's 48 pages of the kind of graphic design that confuses my middle-aged brain, all white-on-purple or black-on-patterns, multiple typefaces and fragments of pictures, and lots and lots and lots of energy.

Soundbytes from some of the articles in this premiere issue:

• "Instead of viewing a job as something you get to fund the life you want to be living, the new mindset is to look at the big picture -- to look at career/life as one entity. That means we spend less time dividing up what we like and what we're good at and what we want and start finding the common threads among all of those things."
• "Our enjoyment of a task depends on its increasing complexity, so to induce flow, we need to constantly hone our skills. A flow experience occurs at the boundary between boredom and anxiety: with too difficult a challenge, we'll feel anxious; with one too easy, we'll be bored."
• "One of the biggest misconceptions is that the only way to be entrepreneurial is to start and run a business. But consider the story of Njeri Campbell, an entrepreneurial spirit who has been creating opportunities for herself since she was 15 years old."
• "It became apparent throughout our discussion that most members of the group felt the cultural makeup of Generation X strongly impacts our collective morality. We are heavily influenced by our families, communities and culture. In addition, many in the group felt that the difference between Gen Xers and Boomers, as far as the question of morality is concerned, is really a moot point, because most of Canada's growing population is made up of immigrants who contribute very different values and ideals stemming from ties with their original homelands."
• "The same forces that are destroying jobs in our traditional industries are creating tons of jobs in entertainment, and computers, and special effects, and publishing and telecommunications and on and on."

Next chance to be a lottery winner

"About 300 tickets have been sold to date," she says, "so the odds of winning are great." Tomorrow's prize is the "Early Bird" pot of $2,000. "Every ticket is eligible for all twelve draws," McGinnis adds -- the Early Bird, the first prize for $2,500 to be drawn in January, and monthly $1,000 prizes February through November 1999.

Tickets cost $60, and only 1,200 are to be sold, organizers say. They can be purchased by cash, cheque, Visa. MasterCard, or American Express, from the development office (phone ext. 2562). An instalment plan is available.

"There are a number of departments that have purchased group tickets," says McGinnis. "Raffle tickets make great Christmas gifts! And of course, the proceeds of the raffle support a critical need on campus -- UW scholarship funds."

The talk of the campus

UW's distance education program got a big publicity boost on Saturday with a "Focus" report in the Globe and Mail about Don Boudria, government leader in the House of Commons, who's finishing his years of study and will shortly be receiving a BA in history from Waterloo. Boudria left school as a teenager "out of necessity", the Globe said, wound up working in the House of Commons cafeteria, and began to see that people with degrees were getting somewhere in life. A sister who is a teacher, and was earning her BA through correspondence, "showed him the way", and for the past 11 years, while serving as Member of Parliament for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell in eastern Ontario, Boudria has been "holing himself up at home every weekend morning to listen to university courses on tape".

"I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams," the song says, but the dreams aren't always good ones. Tomorrow at noontime, in a brown-bag session sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program, psychologist John Theis will speak on "The Holidays and Family Dynamics" (and the word "stress" quickly turns up in what he's planning to talk about). The event will start at 12 noon Wednesday in Davis Centre room 1302.

On Thursday, from 8:45 am to 9:45 am, the FACCUS (FACulty Computing User Support) group will meet for a discussion and tour of the computing support and computing facilities in the faculty of engineeringh Hazel Austin will be the speaker. "We will meet in E2-1310," says organizer Bob Hicks. "Everyone is welcome to attend."

Seasonal notes: A staff member says she encountered a fox behind the Modern Languages building yesterday morning. . . . A faculty member reports seeing two dozen cedar waxwings in a campus tree late last week. . . . And a prominent administrator says he spent a few minutes on Sunday (that would be December 13) finally putting away his patio furniture. Forecast high today: in the double digits.

CAR

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