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Tuesday, February 17, 1998
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Hockey silver medal
It takes the form of a letter to the president of the university from the "labour standard and workplace equity" office in Human Resources Canada. Approval from HRC is important to the university because it's a requirement under the "Federal Contractors Program"; without it, the university couldn't receive grants and contracts from Ottawa.
"The goals established four years ago have in some instances been achieved," the HRC letter says. "An overall assessment indicated that the University has addressed its employment equity goals in a positive manner and that it has increased the representation of designated group members even though it has lost employees during the period under review. Also we have been informed that the university has re-surveyed its workforce in 1995. As a result the present workforce data shows an increase in the representation of designated group members even though the total number of representation has decreased."
It goes on:
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% [sic]; 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%.Another review is scheduled for 1999.Nevertheless, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that 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.
We are prepared to accept your amended numerical goals to improve the representation especially for Aboriginal people and persons with disabilities. This will, of course, require the institution of a special measures program in order to achieve some progress. . . . The University's readiness to initiate changes as they are required illustrates good faith effort in meeting its employment equity goals.
So the question is, what can the university do to attract more aboriginal people, in particular, to jobs here? "I think," says Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services), "we will continue to build a relationship with local groups, including aboriginal groups in the area, and make sure they see our ads and know that we have an employment equity plan." She's also hoping to get "some good ideas" from other large employers that have to meet the government's standards.
Undergraduates must be a little more competitive, as there were elections for three seats, with a fourth one pending. Elected in balloting earlier this month were Alia Lachana representing undergraduate students at large, Charis Farley representing students in arts, and Albert Nazareth representing students in science. All three terms run through 2000.
An election is in process for a seat representing applied health sciences undergraduates. There are three candidates -- Helen Hsu, Chetana Kulkarni, Hans Oh -- whose statements will appear in tomorrow's Gazette and can be seen on the secretariat web site.
The course brochure from information systems and technology for March-April is now available. Many of the popular courses are being repeated, and there are a number of new topics. There are three new courses to help people with Microsoft Access. They include "Microsoft Access Queries", "Forms Design in Microsoft Access", and "Generating Reports in Microsoft Access". There are also a number of new instructional technology courses for UW faculty.
In the Bulletin a couple of days ago I mentioned the test web page for Trellis, the new library system, and reported that while the web interface is visible, there's no database behind it yet. "You must have tried it on a day the database was taken down for some planned hardware configuration and backup work," says Linda Teather, coordinator of systems support services in the UW library. Sure 'nuff, I've just had another look, and there does seem to be a massive listing of books and other items -- "a test version", says Teather, "of the full combined Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier and Waterloo database, over 3 million records".
The co-op department's "Chew on This" noontime series for employer interviewers is continuing. Offering some nourishment today is Rich Hughson of the kinesiology department. His topic: "Space Travel Is Great for Couch Potatoes". On Thursday, Faye Abrams of the library's Industrial and Business Information Service will talk on "Research for and about Your Company".
That was an interesting letter in yesterday's Star from Sheldon Levy, president of Sheridan College in Oakville, arguing vehemently that Ontario's community colleges should be allowed to grant degrees. "Sheridan programs in animation are acknowledged to be among the very best in the world, at the very least comparable in academic rigour and content to animation programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels elsewhere," he wrote. "Yet, the Ontario monopoly that permits degree-granting only to universities, enshrined in government policy and provincial law, prevents our granting the credential associated with the work our students legitimately accomplish. . . . It is time that the Ontario government, which is fast becoming one of the last holdouts in the area of applied and associate degrees, brought its degree-granting legislation up to date."
CAR
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information
and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
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(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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