Daily Bulletin

Proposal for 'caps' on fee increases

The tuition fee freeze demonstration continues on the north side of Needles Hall. Nine folks camped out on Wednesday night -- in several tents and a quinzie (a snow hut) -- and about 20 were there last night. By this morning, the site had been developed with landscaping that even includes decorative ferns. By the way, they're "fee protesters", not "free protesters" as I managed to write at the top of yesterday's Bulletin. Photo by Barbara Elve.

The limit would be a 10 per cent increase each year in the fees for "regulated" undergraduate and professional programs, and for doctoral and "research masters" programs. The limit would be 15 per cent a year for "deregulated" undergraduate programs and "other" master's degree programs.

Fees in most programs have been going up about 10 per cent a year lately. Last year the general hike at UW was 9 per cent, although some students encountered a bigger hike than that, as undergraduate fees in engineering, optometry and computer science were "deregulated" by the provincial government and rose by 19 per cent.

The "working group on tuition fee guidelines" included four students, three administrators, and an outside member of the board of governors -- Catherine Coleman, a UW alumnus who was president of the Federation of Students and is now a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario.

Its draft report was presented to the board of governors this week. Provost Jim Kalbfleisch, who chaired the working group, said the final report will be along in April, and won't likely change from the draft unless something unexpected appears when the government makes this year's tuition fee announcement, expected next month.

"The central issue facing the working group," says the report, "is how to reconcile concerns about student accessibility, debt load, and financial planning needs with the University's requirements for revenues to maintain and enhance the quality of its programs and services in an uncertain funding environment. . . .

"Waterloo aspires to be more than an 'average' Ontario university, but it is unreasonable to expect that this can be achieved over the longer term with average Ontario government funding. Further tuition fee increases seem inevitable if Waterloo is to realize its aspirations."

The report recommends the 10 and 15 per cent "caps" on annual increases, noting that they "are expressed in real terms (after inflation, as measured by the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Canada over the previous calendar year) and they apply at an individual program level. The caps should not be regarded as target or minimum increases."

It says the task force talked about setting fees by course, rather than by program, but decided that that wouldn't work. It also rejected the idea of charging different fees for students in different years.

"The most contentious issue addressed", says the report, is the wisdom of "differential" fee increases -- charging different rates in different fields of study, beyond the existing deregulation of fees in a few "professional" programs. "No consensus has emerged."

The report ends with this summary of recommendations:

• Fundraising for student scholarships and bursaries and improvements in the administration of student financial support should continue to be high priority items for the University of Waterloo.
• The Board of Governors should establish caps on annual tuition fee increases, as outlined in the report. The cap system should be reviewed every three or four years, or whenever there is a significant change in government tuition fee policy.
• There are special considerations with respect to graduate tuition fees and support, and there is no a priori reason why graduate and undergraduate fees should increase at the same rate.
• Tuition fees should continue to be set by program rather than by course, and tuition fees should continue to be the same in all years of a program.
• There needs to be good communication with students at the department or Faculty level in relation to differential increases to address local cost and quality improvement issues.

Ontario's minister of training, colleges and universities, Dianne Cunningham, took the occasion of Wednesday's demonstrations about tuition fees to issue a message to the Canadian Federation of Students. "Today, as you rally to put the spotlight on postsecondary education," she wrote, "you are not alone in your demand that Ottawa restore transfer payments to the provinces. Ontario has consistently called on the Federal Government to restore its contributions to postsecondary education. However, despite a drop in federal funding, the Harris government's support for postsecondary education in Ontario will pass the $4 billion mark this year -- its highest level ever. . . ."

A correction: That was Amber Christie, not Heather Frederick, at the bottom of the photo in yesterday's Bulletin. Both women are part of the postcard campaign to call for a tuition fee freeze, but it was Christie whose picture actually appeared.

Now, a word about teaching

"Ontario Universities are going to experience a number of pressures in the next decade. The look of the system in 10 years and Waterloo’ s role and image will be determined, in part at least, by how we respond to these pressures.

"Likely the most serious issue is the predicted increase of about 40% in student numbers. Increases are being driven by basic demographic changes and changes in the Ontario high school system. University-bound students usually complete the current high-school curriculum in five years. The new curriculum is designed to be completed in four years. Students now in Grade 9 are under the new curriculum policy documents. They can graduate in 2003 along with students who did Grade 9 last year under the old system. This creates a 'double cohort' of students seeking admission to universities at the same time. The number of applicants that may materialize in 2003 is not clear. How Ontario universities may respond is even less clear.

"Will the new curriculum prepare students for university work? . . . Once the new curriculum policy documents are final, we will need to examine how the new curriculum relates to what is taught in first year courses and we will need to assess admission requirements in light of the restructured high school curriculum and new high school transcript format. Students from the new system will be a year younger when they come to university which may require a reassessment of how we deal with frosh.

"Teaching resources are not likely to keep pace with increasing numbers. Governments have slashed support to universities. This has already resulted in fewer professors, increased class sizes, and changes in the way courses are run. For example, multiple-choice tests are increasingly used to evaluate large numbers of students in a section. . . .

"Three new classrooms are now under construction in the MC building and this summer two large classrooms will be created from small classrooms on the second floor of AL. However, not enough new classrooms are planned to speak to the potential increases that would result if Waterloo takes an equitable share of the projected increase in student numbers. The University has applied to the Province's 'Superbuild fund' for other classroom and infrastructure space. Increases in student numbers will also require more faculty, faculty offices, laboratories, student housing, etc.

"Another issue is that the next decade will see large numbers of faculty retirements across North America and at Waterloo. Competition for faculty members will be severe. The role of technology in teaching is another issue and will likely become more prominent. Increasing numbers of faculty members want classrooms equipped with data projectors and installed, networked computers. The equipment is expensive and the University's ability to meet these needs is limited. And many classrooms are poorly designed for technology. Increasingly, students are using the new communication technologies to interact with faculty members. This kind of contact will have to be managed.

"How we deal with these issues will determine what the University of Waterloo will be in 2010."

Classroom problems? Also from the TRACE newsletter: "Do you have problems in your classroom such as burned out lights, no chalk, etc.? If so, call ext. 3793, the 24-hour Plant Operations Service and Maintenance Line, and report the problem. When you report a problem, they will ask for your name and extension. TRACE reported some burned out lights in a classroom, and the problem was fixed within a week. Lecture halls with high ceilings may not be fixed as quickly.

"University classrooms are repainted according to a Plant Operations schedule. Please let Gary Griffin (griffin@watarts) know if you have concerns about the current condition of paint or a classroom colour scheme. Suggestions will be compiled and passed on to Plant Operations."

Glitch in the Federation election

Incorrect mailing labels for the co-op mailout were generated the first time, so many mailouts have been returned to us, or been sent to incorrect addresses. Now that the correct labels can be generated, we're going to send the packages out to co-op students again. We're asking that their ballots be returned no later than March 1, at 4:30 p.m. Students who may have already cast their co-op ballots should do so again -- the new ballots are a different colour than the old, and only the new mail-in ballots will be counted.

Another side effect to the situation is that we will not be releasing the election results until the mailouts are returned. The on-campus vote will still take place on February 15 and 16 as originally scheduled, but ballot counting will take place on March 1 beginning at 5:00 p.m.

We apologize for any inconvenience to co-op students, but we think that by repeating the mailout process the integrity of the election results can be preserved. Any questions or concerns may be directed to the Chief Returning Officer at research@feds.uwaterloo.ca

For president:

• Chris Farley, history
• Steve Kennedy, applied math
• Windy Rader, political science

• Amber Christie, psychology
• Mark Schaan, political science

How UW marks the weekend

The statistics and actuarial science department presents two speakers today. At 11:30, in Math and Computer room 5158, it's Shrikant Joshi on "Estimating Change Points of a Near Bathtub-Shaped Hazard". At 3:30, in MC room 5136, it's Steve Drekic on "Uses of Symbolic Computation in Queueing Theory". Both are visitors to the department this year: Joshi from the Indian Statistical Institute, Drekic from the University of Windsor.

The music department at Conrad Grebel College presents "an Alexander technique workshop" today from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Grebel chapel. "The purpose of the Alexander Technique," a flyer says, "is to learn to take optimal advantage of the skeleton to support voluntary movement." Students enrolled in music courses this term get in free; for others, the fee is $10.

Alan Solheim, director of "optical network architecture" for Nortel Networks, will speak at 1:00 this afternoon in Davis Centre room 1302. Within a year, says Solheim, fibre-optic networks will be able to transmit 1.6 terabits of data per second (gobs and gobs, in other words). "Future systems must allow many Terabits per fiber in order to keep pace with rapidly increasing demand and force down transport costs per bit kilometer." He'll talk about what Nortel is doing to develop such systems. (Solheim was at UW in November as part of a workshop on "The Next Ten Years of Networks".)

The Institute for Computer Research presents a talk later this afternoon by Martin Tompa of the University of Washington. He'll speak at 3:30 (Davis Centre room 1304) on "Finding Short Patterns in Strings, with Applications to the Ribosome Binding Site Problem".

Renison College will hold its long-awaited haircutting pub tonight in the great hall, starting at 8:30. "Enjoy a new and exciting beer tasting event," a flyer promises, and that's in addition to the fun of watching friends humiliate themselves as they're shorn. Proceeds of this 14th annual event go to the Renison building fund; tickets are $3 in advance, $5 at the door.

FASS 2000, "The ProFASSy", hits the Humanities Theatre stage twice tonight -- at 7:00 and 10:30 -- and again Saturday night at 8.

The drama department production of George F. Walker's "Suburban Motel" continues in Studio 180 in the Humanities building, with performances tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. The play resumes next week, Wednesday through Saturday. Tickets are $10, students $8, from the Humanities box office.

"The Whole Kit 'n' Kaboodle" is a session put on by the career services office to cover more than a few things: "self assessment, occupational research, resume and letter writing, work search, networking, employer research and interview skills". It's a busy day, jamming together the content of a number of workshops that are also offered separately, and running all morning and afternoon tomorrow. The career resource centre on the first floor of Needles Hall, phone ext. 4047, can provide more information.

Sports this weekend: there don't seem to be any home events at all. The women's basketball team has two games at Lakehead University, the hockey team is at Toronto tonight and at Guelph tomorrow night, and that's about it. Must be time for midterms.

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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