Daily Bulletin

The store down under: Aussies manager Heather Fawcett says the new entranceway to the SLC convenience store will make it easier for people to find.

Dust settles down under

"We've had a head-to-toe makeover," says Fawcett, who's been managing both the store and the Federation's ice cream counter, Scoops, since last January. She says the renovations came about largely to increase the visibility of the store. "One of our biggest challenges was that the door for the store was not visible until you came down the stairs and around the corner," explains Fawcett.

With the new entranceway directly at the bottom of the stairs to the lower mall Aussies will be "in the path of the line going into the used book store" which is slated for relocation into its new space sometime later this fall.

The name change came about in part to eliminate confusion -- the "Variety & Post", as Aussies was known, is no longer a postal outlet. "We still sell stamps and we have Expresspost service and a post office box," says Fawcett, "but no postal scale for weighing letters and parcels."

So why Aussies? Fawcett says she was looking for something with a theme. "We're poking fun at our location 'down under' the stairs," she admits, "and it's a fun name. It allows us to be creative and doesn't limit the products we can carry."

Aussies will be keeping all of its popular products in stock this fall and adding some new selections. "In addition to variety store items, we'll have gift shop items, card shop items, balloons and clothing," says Fawcett. "We want to make it worth the trip to the bottom of the stairs."

Aussies will re-open for business on September 5, with an official re-opening celebration slated for the following week.

Fewer full-time profs, says Stats Canada

Says StatsCan: "The number of faculty grew relatively slowly and consistently through the 1970s and 1980s, as student enrolments increased significantly. However, from 1992-93 to 1998-99 the number of full-time faculty steadily declined in a climate of budget constraints, growing reliance on part-time teaching staff and a slight decrease in student enrolment. While full-time faculty shrank 9.7% from 1992-93 to 1998-99, the number of students decreased 1.4% on a full-time-equivalent basis."

In Ontario, the number went down 11.7 per cent during that six-year period. (In Québec, the drop was 9.8 per cent; in British Columbia, 1.6 per cent.)

"Among the provinces," says StatsCan, "only Prince Edward Island did not see a decline in full-time faculty from 1992-93 to 1998-99.

West Nile watch If you find a dead bird -- particularly a blue jay, crow or hawk -- don't touch it. That's the advice of Kevin Stewart, UW director of safety, who requests that any sightings of dead birds be reported to his office at ext. 3587. The reason is West Nile virus, carried by mosquitoes from infected birds and potentially lethal for humans, as well. Plant operations grounds crews have been advised not to handle any such dead birds, he adds, and if found, the birds will be picked up by the Waterloo Region Community Health Unit at the request of the safety office.

"The decline in the number of full-time faculty was not distributed evenly among either ranks or sexes.

"The number of full professors fell 6.2% and the number of associate professors was down 5.3% from 1992-93 to 1998-99. At the same time, the number of assistant professors and lower ranks fell 20.5%. The declines among full-time faculty were concentrated among males, although full-time men continued to make up a majority of faculty at all levels. In 1998-99, there were 24,861 men teaching in universities, down 15.2% from six years earlier. During the same period, the number of women increased 10.8% to 8,804.

"Women made up 13.7% of full professors in 1998-99, up from 9.5% in 1992-93. Similarly, the proportion of women in the ranks of associate professors increased from 21.9% to 29.1% over the same period."

The federal agency says the average salary of professors was $76,284 in 1998-99, down from $77,991 six years earlier. "In constant 1998 dollars, the average salary declined by 2.2% between 1992-93 and 1998-99 . . . compared with a 4.8% increase in the average earnings of all full-time workers in the labour force. A factor in the decline of the salaries of full-time university teachers appears to be the replacement of retiring faculty at the top of their salary scales with newly hired or promoted faculty at or near the bottom of their salary scales. The smaller 1.0% decline for female faculty reflects their increased representation in the higher ranks.

"Despite gains through promotion, the continuing higher concentration of women in the lower ranks is reflected in their lower overall average salaries. In 1998-99, the average salary of women faculty was 85.7% that of men ($67,870 compared with $79,238 for men). Within each rank, however, this gap was smaller; women's salaries varied from 93.9% to 95.6% that of men. Part of this difference may be explained by the over-representation of female faculty among new hires and new promotions. Men on average have spent 60% more time than women at their current rank."

Heading into the weekend

Residence life staff training week begins this weekend, with dons gearing up for the arrival of residents in just over a week.

And a reminder to professors busily preparing for fall courses -- the TRACE website has a number of tip sheets that may be useful resources at the beginning of a new term. TRACE is also planning a series of workshops for faculty throughout the fall:

• Polishing your presentation skills (September 26)
• Designing multiple choice questions (October 26)
• Time management (November 15)
• Understanding the learner (December 5)

Avvey Peters
alpeters@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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