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| What's happening at Comdex |
Wednesday, November 18, 1998
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Where board members come fromSome members of the UW board of governors are elected to represent students, faculty and staff. Some are named by the Ontario government. And some are chosen by the board itself -- which explains this notice from the university secretariat:"Consistent with the Protocol for the Appointments of External Board Members which was approved by the Board of Governors in April 1994, the Board invites the University community to submit, for consideration, nominations of individuals to serve on the Board. Nominations are to be received in the Secretariat by November 30, 1998 and will be put into a pool of candidates for consideration when appointments are made. "Prospective candidates must be Canadian citizens, experienced at governance at a senior level, with expertise in finance/investment, law, marketing, fund-raising or major construction, and with commitment to and knowledge of UW. They must also be able to make the commitment of time necessary to do the job. "Copies of the Protocol for the Appointment of External Board Members, information about the Board of Governors and nomination forms are available from: Tracy Dietrich, University Secretariat, Needles Hall Room 3060." She can be reached at ext. 6125, e-mail tdietric@secretariat. |
One is brief and technical: a revision to the part of the UW pension plan that deals with the new "flexible" option (something about the way interest is calculated in voluntary contributions).
One is confidential: a report from the dean of arts nominating committee, and presumably the appointment of a new dean, somebody to succeed Brian Hendley when his term ends next June 30. If all goes well, the usual procedure would be an announcement tomorrow morning.
And one is a little more complicated: a set of changes to Policy 40, the UW document that sets out how the chairs of academic departments are chosen. The changes affect staff and student representation on the nominating committees. They've been approved by the faculty relations committee and the senate, and now the board has to give final approval.
Nominating committees are mostly made up of professors -- three to five from within the department and one from outside. The dean of the faculty chairs the committee, and there's also an appointee of the vice-president (academic). The current version of the policy allows for "up to three additional individuals . . . appointed by the Dean", and that's what is now being changed. Instead:
§ "One staff member, elected by and from the regular staff of the department."
§ "One undergraduate student in departments with undergraduate programs, and one graduate student in departments with graduate programs, chosen by the Dean. Normally the Dean shall consult with department or Faculty student organizations where these exist. The Dean shall specify, following consultation with the department concerned, whether the appointees are voting or non-voting members of the committee."
§ "One additional non-voting member (e.g. non-regular faculty or staff) may be appointed by the Dean following appropriate consultation with department members."
The open house is meant specifically for faculty and staff members and for community organizations such as the CNIB, the Ontario March of Dimes, and the Independent Living Centre, says Jane Forgay, the librarian in charge of the accessibility centre.
"We want to show educators and service providers how the Centre's newly-acquired equipment makes it possible for students, faculty, and staff with disabilities to work more independently than ever before," she said. "At this event, people can discover how easily adaptations can be made that result in users accessing information on the spot rather than having to wait for assistance or opting not to access it at all because it's too difficult."
The centre, now in its sixth year of operation, "has been the result of ongoing collaborative efforts between the UW office for persons with disabilities and UW library", Forgay said.. The decision to spend some of UW's annual disabilities funding from the provincial government towards improving access to research materials was made by Florence Thomlison, UW's first coordinator of services for persons with disabilities. "This decision has been wholeheartedly supported by the current coordinator, Rose Padacz, who has continued to see that resources are provided to keep the adaptive equipment in the Centre up-to-date," Forgay said.
The library provides space for the centre on the main floor of the Dana Porter Library, close to the front door of the building. The invitation for this afternoon: "Come watch, listen, and ask questions as students and staff demonstrate, for example, NaturallySpeaking, a dictation program; JAWS, a voice output system; Kurzweil 1000, a scanner that reads text aloud; and ZoomText Xtra, a magnification program."
The book was sent to departments across campus at the end of last week. Says Colette Nevin, marketing manager for graphics: "Initially, we sent 300 copies to all the UW department secretaries. Some received one copy only while others received several to distribute in larger areas. We are asking for further requests in our cover letter. We want to send our Visual Solutions Guides out to key people within areas whether they are staff or faculty and feel that the best route is through the departmental contacts. So keep those requests coming. We'll send out copies while our supplies last."
She said the book "was really a creation out of necessity. Over the last few years our customer base has changed due to all the early retirements and staffing changes on campus. We found that many potential clients didn't know much about us and in some cases didn't even realize that we offer a whole lot more than just photocopying. We wanted to provide samples of our design work, printing possibilities and an overview of all our services in a comprehensive reference guide so we could be sure everyone had full access to our services.
"We offset the cost of this venture with help from many of our vendors. The sponsorship was quite generous! A full list of contributions appears on the back flap of the guide. We could never have hoped to bring this guide to everyone's office without this support."
The book, she said, is meant to be "a general reference to find out about our services. We have many pointers in the guide to our complementary Graphics Web pages where we offer the most current information on our services and changeable information such as printer drivers, new services, prices, etc. Hopefully our Visual Solutions Guide will become a fixture on the resource bookshelf in every UW department and will remain visible for a few years."
Also in the SLC, a blood donor clinic continues today (and tomorrow) from 10 to 4.
The joint health and safety committee meets at 10 a.m. in Needles Hall room 3043. Agenda items include smoking areas, defibrillators (those life-saving machines, and whether UW should keep one on campus), rollerblades, air quality, fire alarms, construction safety, . . .
The Employee Assistance Program presents a noon-hour session optimistically titled "Stress Management Made Simple". The speaker: Elizabeth Miller of Work Place Resolutions. She'll offer "a technique to reduce stress by choosing to focus your efforts where it really counts", at 12 noon in Doug Wright Engineering Building (that's Engineering I) room 1501.
Wednesday concerts continue at Conrad Grebel College. Today at 12:30: Ernie Tollar and John Gzowski present "Arabia Meets India on the World Beat", in the Grebel chapel.
"Globalization, social justice, corporate power, human rights, free trade, freedom of speech, oppression of peoples and student space: these are interconnected," say the folks at the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group. They'll be aired at a forum today in the lower level of the Student Life Centre, starting at 12:30. At the heart of the matter is last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Vancouver, the one at which student protests led to pepper spray. "We cannot afford to be silent, now or in the future," says WPIRG organizer John Wilkinson.
The weekly meeting of the "womyn's collective" will be held at 4:30 in Student Life Centre room 2102, says organizer Christine Cheng. Topic today: women's health.
"Representatives for the Investors Group will be giving a seminar on financial planning and tax tips," writes Robin Stewart, vice-president (education) of the Federation of Students. Topics include investment strategies, debt reduction, tax tips for students, principles of financial planning, and RRSPs and RESPs. "All members of the UW community are invited to attend." The event starts at 5:00 tonight in Biology I room 271.
Looking ahead: Concentration camp survivor Avrum Feigenbaum will be at UW tomorrow to give the annual Spinoza-Meir Lecture in Holocaust and Jewish Studies. His topic: "A Survivor's Account -- The German Persecution and Extermination of the Jews in World War II". Feigenbaum, now 79, lives in Montréal and is active in Holocaust remembrance organizations there. He is a survivor of the Lodz ghetto, where Polish Jews were confined before being sent to death camps, and of the Auschwitz and Gross Rosen camps. He'll speak Thursday at 8 p.m. in Needles Hall room 3001.
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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