Daily Bulletin

UW 'turned a corner' last year

The statement goes to the board of governors for approval tomorrow. It shows that in last year's operations, UW took in $288,063,000 and spent $284,850,000. That means "excess income" of $3.2 million -- but without "donations" of $6.8 million, in the final year of Campaign Waterloo, that surplus would have been a deficit.

The financial statement, which is much shorter than previous years' versions, doesn't say how much of the $288 million in income can be credited to the "operating" budget, which pays for academic, support, administrative and physical plant costs. It does say the expenses from the operating budget were $173 million, up from $167 million in 1996-97.

Ancillary enterprises (the bookstore, residences and so on) accounted for about $40 million of UW's cash flow. The rest of the $288 million includes research, capital funds, and trust funds such as donations.

Says Downey in his foreword: "Over the past several years of unprecedented fiscal constraint Waterloo has taken measures to ensure that it remained financially sound while beginning the process of academic and administrative renewal. In 1997-98 there were many indications that renewal had begun, with new faculty and staff, new funds for research, and new opportunities. . . . Labour relations at UW continue to be characterized by the thoughtful and diligent approach of its employee groups."

$52 million in research money

Licence fees and royalties showed the biggest increase, more than 20 per cent, but make up the smallest share of total research income, just $728,000 in the past year. There were two main reasons for the increase, the report says. "One is the new license fee revenue realized form the commercialization of the Waterloo Fast Pyrolysis Process ($76K) and the other is increased royalties received from Supelco re sales of the G. C. Sampling Device (up by $55K)."

Grants were up by 6.3 per cent (to $30.8 million) and contracts by 1.8 per cent (to $16.7 million). "Special research" funds dropped by 1.3 per cent to $4.2 million. There were a total of 1,823 "activities", including 1,133 research grants, 394 contracts and 296 other separate research transactions.

The biggest single source of research money at UW is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council -- some $16.7 million last year. The Ontario Centres of Excellence accounted for $5.2 million.

The department bringing in the most research grants was chemistry ($3.3 million), with earth sciences, optometry and computer science close behind. The department with the most contracts was earth sciences ($4.0 million), with electrical and computer engineering a distant second.

Payroll moves to its new system

"We will be going live on October 30," says David Dietrich in the human resources department -- one of a large, and now pretty tired, team of people from HR and other departments who have been preparing for the massive new system. "All of the information in the old system has to be moved to the new system on that date," he says. "In addition, October 30 is the date we will begin inputting employment, payroll and pension and benefit information into the new system." Information about some 15,000 people -- staff, faculty, bursary recipients -- is in the system somewhere, says Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services). "We have to be certain that everything that is attached to everyone on those records is foolproof."

The result, she said, has been an enormous amount of work and long overtime hours for staff from HR, information systems and technology, and the finance office, who have been taken away from their regular work to get HRMS running. "We've got programmers working literally around the clock this last week!"

Said Scott: "The devotion and commitment of this team is incredible, but the toll it takes on their other life, back in their real jobs in HR and at home, is incredible." She said regular work in the HR department is being slowed down, "if not at an almost standstill, and the pressure on the staff back at the office is enormous as they attempt to cope with five members missing. . . . We need the community to know what is going on, because the level of service will be affected at least until mid-December."

A bulletin sent out by the HR department last week promises that "After we go live, we expect service to gradually return to normal. An improvement in future service is planned, given the new functionality that the new system offers."

HRMS is based on software from the firm PeopleSoft, but with local modifications. Besides payroll, it includes records on everything from staff members' starting dates to pensions.

Sports scores and other news

The football Warriors are on a roll too: they crushed Windsor 53-7 on Saturday. Next weekend, UW will host the University of Toronto's Varsity Blues, who lost to York 15-9 on Saturday in the last game that will ever be played at Varsity Stadium. The 100-year-old Bloor Street landmark is to be torn down before next season.

There's a meeting this afternoon to give the facts about an exchange program that can send UW arts students to spend their third year in Ireland, one term or two, at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Today's meeting is at 4:30 in Humanities room 373. Jim Walker in the history department (phone ext. 3706) can provide more information.

The Federation of Students sends a reminder that the annual general meeting of the Federation -- that's all undergraduate students, more or less -- will be held this Wednesday, October 28, at 7 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre.

News from Israel: "Hundreds of students blocked roads and clashed with police at the nation's campuses yesterday," the Jerusalem Post reports, "as a student strike aimed at cutting tuition in half kept some 175,000 university and college students from classes." There were scuffles and arrests in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. "Student leaders said undercover police and special police forces burst through the windows and doors of the national strike headquarters, disconnected loudspeakers being used for a demonstration, and made arrests, charging those detained with incitement. As a result, student leaders said the struggle would now be not only over the tuition issue, but also over freedom of expression."

The United Way campaign is rolling right along. As of Friday, which was the halfway point in the two-week effort, a total of $88,197 in pledges had been received, says campaign secretary Carolyn Schill. That's 65.3 per cent of the goal. "With only one week to go, we're optimistic we will reach our target of $135,000," she writes. If you can't seem to lay your hand on your pledge form, or if you need more information, I'm sure a call to the campaign office at ext. 3840 will get you what you lack.

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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