Governments support training in 'strategic skills'

Daily Bulletin

Flu shots start tomorrow Flu vaccinations are available on campus, starting tomorrow, for members of the "healthy population". Here's the schedule: Tuesday -- surnames starting with letters A to F; Wednesday -- G to L; Thursday -- M to R; Friday -- S to Z. All those clinics will be open from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Student Life Centre. Next week, clinics from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday are open to all students, faculty and staff, regardless of the alphabet.

Federal candidates come to campus

K-W is the riding that includes the city of Waterloo and the northern part of Kitchener. The rest of Kitchener is in Kitchener Centre riding; surrounding areas are in Waterloo-Wellington.

Here's the Elections Canada list of candidates for Kitchener-Waterloo:

Riding information Kitchener-Waterloo Kitchener Centre Waterloo-Wellington Cambridge Guelph-Wellington

• Bourke, Brian (Progressive Conservative)
• Cormier, Robert E. (Canadian Action)
• Doig, Joshua (Canadian Alliance)
• Ellis, Frank (No Affiliation)
• MacAulay, Jack (Green Party)
• Nugent, Christine (Marxist-Leninist)
• Telegdi, Andrew (Liberal)
• Walsh-Bowers, Richard (N.D.P.)

Josh Doig, the Alliance candidate in K-W, was vice-president (administration and finance) of UW's Federation of Students last year, and this year is on salary as the Feds' general manager.

Nine months between dental visits

The change is still happening -- as a result of a cost-saving decision, the dental plan will pay for a "recall" visit to the dentist only once every nine months, rather than every five months as has been the case up to now.

But in a November 10 memo, David Dietrich of the human resources department advised individuals to call their dentist and reschedule appointments that were scheduled after January 1, if they were less than nine months since the last visit. That has now changed, says Dietrich in a second memo, dated November 17:

At its meeting on November 14th, the Pension and Benefits Committee decided to allow an extra four months for the transition. Consequently, for the period up to April 30, 2001, the Dental Plan will help to pay for a recall visit provided there has been at least five months since your last visit. From May 1, 2001 onwards, the Plan will help to pay only if there has been at least a nine-month interval since your last visit.

Your recall visit may include x-rays, fifteen minutes (one unit) of preventative scaling, cleaning, polishing, examination and topical fluoride. Your dentist and/or hygienist may provide these recall services. Periodontal scaling in excess of one unit as well as root planing for the treatment of gum disease are not recall services and therefore, are not affected by this change.

You are encouraged to call your dentist as soon as possible in order to ensure you are on a nine-month or longer recall schedule.

Said the memo: "Human Resources is currently in negotiations to increase the number of participants in the University of Waterloo's Preferred Provider Network (PPN) of pharmacies. We will distribute an up-to-date PPN list in early December which will provide the time to decide whether or not you wish to use a PPN pharmacy effective January 1, 2001. Of course, you will continue to have the option of selecting your own pharmacy and paying the difference in dispensing fee yourself."

Senate sees report on tenure

It's the last report on the work of UTAC, which was folded into the new University Tenure and Promotion Advisory Committee when a new tenure policy was adopted earlier this year. The report reveals that Bill Lennox of the civil engineering department, a former dean of engineering, has been named the first chair of the new UTPAC.

The report also indicates that in 1999-2000, 20 UW faculty members were awarded tenure and 8 more were appointed to UW positions with tenure. And 24 faculty members were reappointed to "probationary" positions on their way to consideration for tenure.

There were two university-level tenure appeals, says the report, giving some details. In one case, "TAC's decision that tenure should be granted was based on a careful review and discussion of the documentation considered at the Department, Faculty and University levels, as well as on the Appellant's submissions, and the additional material which was distributed. The Committee requested, and received, clarifying memos and comparative data from the Chair, Faculty Dean and others. In an attempt to clarify issues in dispute, the TAC heard serial testimony from witnesses, in the presence of the Appellant.

"The TAC was concerned about both procedural errors and the academic merits of the case. Its unanimous decision was that tenure should be granted on both counts. With respect to scholarship, the TAC agreed with the FTC that the Appellant's research record over the last six years met the standards for the granting of tenure. The TAC concluded that the Appellant should be granted tenure on the basis of scholarship, as well as teaching, service and professional conduct. The record shows that he/she is a competent researcher, and that the likelihood of continued scholarly activity after receiving tenure is high."

In the other case, an appeal had been filed in 1999 but then withdrawn. "Approximately one year later, the candidate requested that the 1999 tenure appeal be reopened. UTAC met to deal with this unprecedented situation and decided to hear the request. The outcome of the hearing held on May 24/00 was UTAC's conclusion that there had not been a procedural error . . . nor had there been a violation of Policy 53. UTAC, therefore, decided that there were not sufficient grounds to reopen the case."

Tonight's senate meeting starts at 4:30 in Needles Hall room 3001. Other agenda items will include a report on student appeals and discipline, an outline of admission requirements for UW programs based on the new high school curriculum (starting in 2003), reports from the provost and the vice-president (university research), and a presentation from St. Jerome's University.

Two sessions for staff A staff training session on "Handling Emotions Under Pressure", a module of the Leadership 2000 program, will be offered this Thursday morning, November 23. "If anyone is interested in this session," says Carolyn Vincent of the human resources depratment, "we have limited seating available. "We will also be doing another introductory session for the Personal Retirement Education Program (PREP) on Thursday, November 23, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. If anyone missed attending on November 15 they can attend this session. Once again, there is limited seating." Anyone interested in either program can contact Vincent at ext. 2078.

Another week: here's the lineup

The Monday series at Kitchener Public Library continues; today's noon-hour speaker is Ron McCarville of UW's department of recreation and leisure studies, talking about "Improving Customer Service".

"Can a Computer Think?" asks Jeffrey Shallit of UW's computer science department; he'll speak on that topic at 7:00 tonight at the University of Guelph (Chemistry-Microbiology Building, room 200), sponsored by the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph Humanists and the U of G Humanist Club.

Back in Waterloo, this week will bring the fine arts department's fourth annual miniature art sale and open house. Previews begin tomorrow (Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) in East Campus Hall, and the sale itself runs through the weekend, starting Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. Watch for more publicity later in the week.

Quoth Angelo Graham of the UW safety office: "Government of Ontario legislation requires that all employees of the University be made aware of current Health & Safety legislation and the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System program. To facilitate this, the Safety Office is presenting a WHMIS and safety program describing WHMIS legislation and requirements of the Occupational Health & Safety Act. The session, including a video and brief quiz, runs for approximately 1 hour. All university employees, volunteers, part-time employees and graduate students who have not previously attended a University of Waterloo WHMIS session are required to attend." Sessions will be offered tomorrow at 2 p.m., Friday at 10 a.m., and December 1 at 2 p.m., all in Davis Centre room 1304. For more information, Graham can be reached at ext. 6359.

The annual TexMex bake sale -- a fund-raiser for the Environment and Resource Studies 475T field trip to Texas and Mexico in February -- will feature home-made goodies, a chance to sponsor a bird-a-thon and "guaranteed to win" raffle tickets. The benefit bake sale will be held tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Environmental Studies I foyer.

"A Celebration of 100 Years of Quantum Mechanics" is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, sponsored by the Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute and the Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry. The event will run from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Physics room 145.

The drama department's production of the controversial and beautiful Shakespearean comedy "The Merchant of Venice" runs this week, starting with a by-invitation performance tomorrow night. There are student matinees Wednesday through Friday, and evening performances Wednesday through Saturday in the Theatre of the Arts. The drama department and the Humanities box office (888-4908) have tickets.

The staff associations seventh annual craft sale will be held Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Davis Centre. More than 20 staff members and retirees will be selling their crafts, organizers say, and 10 per cent of the proceeds go to UW scholarships and bursaries.

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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