Daily Bulletin

The new perennial garden on the island between Dana Porter Library and the biology greenhouses is in full bloom, attracting migrating monarch butterflies.

Inspections ensure campus safety

"We've found some dillies," says Angelo Graham, safety/WHMIS coordinator, who, with Patti Cook, the current worker representative on the UW joint health and safety committee has just completed another round of campus workplace inspections required by the provincial occupational health and safety act.

Their job is to ensure compliance with the health and safety act, as well as with electrical, fire, and building codes and university standards. In the process, they see the entire campus each year, from public spaces to the hidden nooks and crannies where equipment or grad students are kept.

"Could people get out of their offices if necessary?" is one of the questions inspectors ask themselves, says Cook, when encountering bikes parked in offices, wires strewn across floors and other obstacles.

Then there are the grey areas, which could be hazardous but don't represent clear violations of standards. Problems with ergonomics are common, including poorly adjusted work stations which pose a potential health threat to the user. As well, workers often voice environmental concerns, says Graham, about air quality, noise, and the impact of office equipment on their health.

While there may be situations in which inspectors have to intervene with "Stop that, now!," says Cook, most obvious infractions of the health and safety act are dealt with through a process that includes verbal and written notices requesting remedial action as soon as possible. In other cases, a notice may be sent to a department requiring a response in 21 days.

In areas of dispute, "some issues may take time to resolve," adds Graham. Most are ironed out before being brought to the attention of the joint health and safety committee, which deals with the more contentious concerns. "After some debate, if general agreement is reached funding can usually be found" to solve the problem, he said.

One area in which he has seen a dramatic improvement over the years is in lab safety, especially with the installation of eye wash stations. "It's looking a lot better these days." Cook is encouraged by the greening of campus offices. "There's been a great increase in plants," she notes, which have a positive impact on air quality, as well as the aesthetics of office life.

LabVIEW training scheduled

Twice a winner Wednesday's Dollars for Scholars draw was won by Liz Vinnicombe, manager of research ethics and grants, office of research. She managed to have her ticket drawn in last year's raffle, as well, taking home $1,000 each time.

A "graphical programming language for data acquisition and control, data analysis, and data presentation," LabVIEW provides "the flexibility of a powerful programming language without the associated difficulty and complexity because its graphical programming methodology is inherently intuitive to scientists and engineers."

Not only is the software used extensively in engineering, but it's becoming a common tool in chemistry, physics and kinesiology, as well, says says Hazel Austin, research projects manager for engineering computing.

"Open to everyone across campus," the hands-on program has been offered twice earlier this year, and includes three levels of instruction:

• LabVIEW 101, Enhanced Introduction to LabVIEW (for novice users), offers nine four-hour classes from August 31 to October 19;
• LabVIEW 201, Application Development in LabVIEW (demonstrating use with a project), runs from September 2 to October 21 with eight four-hour classes;
• LabVIEW 301, Data Acquisition LabVIEW (for experienced users), has eight four-hour classes from December 6 to December 22.

The crisis of the universities

Says Blaney, pictured below:

Harvard economist and competition expert Michael Porter, speaking recently in Davos, made it abundantly clear that if the U.S. wants to maintain its competitive, economic and productivity leadership, it will need to raid other countries for talent.

High on his list was Canada -- a country with talented faculty, students, and graduates, many of whom will be attracted by greater research funding and more disposable income. Of course universities are not alone in this war for talent, but I believe they are particularly vulnerable because diminished academic quality has no clear-cut counterpart index to the corporation's bottom line or to crowded emergency rooms.

In last year's budget, the federal government moved to mitigate this impending crisis by establishing the Canadian Fund for Innovation and the Millennium Scholarship Fund.

Now, Paul Martin's 1999-2000 budget includes additional funds for research and innovation. Martin certainly needs to be encouraged in these efforts -- but we need to do much more. Canada's research granting councils need a major boost, with funds allocated to cover the cost of research overhead.

More important yet is that university core funding, which has deteriorated badly in the last decade, needs to be restored. And quickly. Because we are lagging far behind our key U.S. competitors in the war for talent. The universities themselves must assume major responsibility for this impending crisis. Whether real or not, Canadian universities are often perceived as inflexible, arrogant or aloof to community concerns.

As former Harvard president Derek Bok exhorted his constituents 10 years ago, the universities' agenda must be much more visibly aligned with the public agenda. Universities need to become more visible and active partners in their communities so that their role and values can be better understood and utilized. We cannot take public support for granted. Many Canadians have only a faint knowledge of what goes on in our universities. And that is the fault of the universities. Americans do a much better job of integrating their universities into the hopes and dreams of citizens, and a better job of securing both public and private support for universities. . . .

We need to earn greater public support. This, of course, does not mean compromising or abandoning our integrity or intellectual freedoms. In fact, it means the converse: demonstrating the value of intellectual freedom and discovery to the communities we serve.

More than ever, Canada today needs to nurture and support its home-grown talent. If we do not, others will simply buy it, as they now are doing.

Barbara Elve
bmelve@uwaterloo.ca

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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