Daily
Bulletin

Now six Canada Research Chairs

Five are for professors who were already here -- in earth sciences, systems design engineering, electrical and computer engineering and optometry -- and the sixth is for a new faculty member in E&CE, James Kuo (left), formerly of the National Taiwan University.

Four of the chairholders were mentioned in the Daily Bulletin last week. A fifth had also been approved at that time and a sixth got approval a few days later. "All our applications have been approved to date," says Cathy Hale in UW's office of research. She added that five more UW applications to the CRC program are still pending.

Four of the chairs approved so far are at the senior level of the CRC program, which means they are "renewable indefinitely", and two are at the junior level, funded for five years with a possible renewal. Senior chairs bring in $200,000 a year, to cover the professor's salary plus some expenses for technicians or laboratory operations. Junior chairs bring $100,000 a year. Some of the chairholders will also be receiving research funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ontario Innovation Trust.

Here's a list of the six chairs:

• Edward Sudicky (earth sciences): $200,000 per year for 7 years, renewable indefinitely. He did not submit a request for CFI funding, Hale says.
• En-hui Yang (electrical and computer engineering): $100,000 per year for 5 years, renewable once. He has submitted a request to CFI for infrastructure support. Total CFI project budget is $312,500 (CFI: $125,000; OIT $125,000). CFI approval pending. OIT approval pending.
• James Kuo (electrical and computer engineering): $200,000 per year for 7 years, renewable indefinitely. He has not submitted a request for CFI funding.
• David Blowes (earth sciences): $200,000 per year for 7 years, renewable indefinitely. Total infrastructure request: $641,007. CFI approved $250,000 in funding; OIT has announced a matching award of $250,000.
• Elizabeth Irving (optometry): $100,000 per year for 5 years, renewable once. Total infrastructure request: $165,000. CFI approved $66,000 in funding; OIT has announced a matching award of $66,000.
• Mohamed Kamel (systems design engineering): $200,000 per year for 7 years, renewable indefinitely. Total infrastructure request: $560,502. CFI approved $198,684 in funding; OIT has announced a matching award of $198,684.

StatsCan figures on university income

"Universities collected a record $14.9 billion in total revenue in the academic year 1999/2000," StatsCan said, "a 15.7% jump from 1998/99 in constant dollars. University revenue increased for the third consecutive academic year . . . as the three levels of government injected almost $1.1 billion more, or 15.1%, than they did in the 1998/99 academic year.

"At the same time, students paid $256 million more in tuition and related fees, while alumni and other donors came up with almost $156 million more in bequests, donations and non-government grants and contracts."

Those statements led the Globe and Mail to headline its story, "Universities' revenue up $2-billion," while the National Post wrote of a "revenue record".

The catch is that most of the new revenue isn't money the universities can spend on teaching students, heating buildings and buying books. A large share of the new government funding was earmarked for construction projects, and those "donors" are most often corporations providing funds for specific research projects.

So when StatsCan says that Ontario universities got 10.9 per cent of their funding from "bequests, donations and non-government grants and contracts", there's no indication of how much of the money was actually available to help balance the budget.

StatsCan does indicate that Ontario and Nova Scotia were the only provinces where universities got less than half their funding from "government grants and contracts", which includes both provincial funds for operating and federal grants for research.

More from the StatsCan summary, published July 30:

Government grants and contracts still accounted for 55% of total revenue, unchanged from 1998/99. Student fees accounted for 19%, compared with 20% in 1998/99. These proportions remained relatively stable because of larger increases in other sources of revenue. These other sources included the sale of services and products, up 25.6%, and investment revenue, up 22.9%.

The surge in government funding of universities follows years of cutbacks during the 1980s and 1990s. The largest increase came from provincial governments, which contributed almost $6.8 billion in 1999/2000, up $800 million or 13.5% from 1998/99. This funding was allocated to capital spending to address deferred maintenance on Canada's aging universities, as well as to expand capacity for future growth in student enrolment and faculty.

Direct federal funding rose for the second consecutive year to just over $1.3 billion in 1999/2000, in support of sponsored research activities. This was a 23.8% annual rise, compared with a 14.3% advance in 1998/99.

Students continued to pay more for university education. Revenue from student fees rose 9.8% to nearly $2.9 billion in 1999/2000, compared with a 7.9% increase in 1998/99. Student fees accounted for almost 26% of university revenue in Nova Scotia, the highest proportion among the provinces, followed by 24% in Ontario. Universities in these two provinces have relied far less on revenue from government grants and contracts than have other provinces. Despite this, revenues from government grants and contracts were up 9.4% in Nova Scotia and 24.0% in Ontario.

Tuition fees for credit courses represented 84% of student fees at the national level. However, revenue from ancillary charges such as athletic and student association fees was also a factor. This revenue increased 18.3%, or nearly double the 9.8% increase in tuition fee revenues during 1999/2000.

Spending on salaries and benefits rose 5.0% to $8.3 billion. However, salaries and benefits accounted for 58% of total spending, down from about 65% in 1994/95.

During the 1990s, universities increased their spending on scholarships and bursaries. In 1999/2000, the value of scholarships and bursaries approached $469 million, up $90 million, or 23.9% over 1998/99 -- and almost double the amount in 1994/95.

And a little of this and that

The arts copy centre in the Humanities building will be closed all this week, the graphics department says.

Here's an interesting note from the summer issue of the faculty association's Forum newsletter, following up the recent dispute over marks in a UW math course that were changed by the dean without the instructor's approval. Catherine Schryer, president of the association, is writing:

We are also still pursuing the issue of defining the meaning of academic freedom and separating academic freedom from issues related to management rights. On that issue, one senior academic administrator called the notion of "institutional academic freedom" a "red herring." We are hoping that everyone at Waterloo will realize that we do not need the concept of "institutional academic freedom" here in Canada (it is a concept taken from American law) and that it is indeed a "red herring." In order to ensure that we have a complete discussion of the meaning of academic freedom we have asked the arbitrator in the original grievance case to continue to remain "seized" or involved with the case to give us enough time to develop remedies suitable for the University of Waterloo.

I had an inquiry late last week from a student who's been looking at her fall schedule and noticed one class meeting in a room in "RCH" building. What the heck is that, she asked? There's no sign of it on the campus map. It took me some deep thinking, but I was able to answer the question: RCH is Rod Coutts Hall, formerly the Engineering Lecture Hall. The construction project is expected to be far enough advanced by September that classes can be held again in the two underground levels, while work continues on the new space above ground.

The Record reported recently that Vladimir Platonov is "still on the payroll" at UW. Platonov is the professor of pure mathematics who was convicted in January on charges resulting from an attack on his wife. "The university hasn't taken any disciplinary action against the 61-year-old professor," the paper reported, saying that he was on "extended leave". The case is formally "under investigation" by the dean of mathematics -- and likely to stay that way until after a court hearing, scheduled for September 6, about an appeal of Platonov's conditional sentence.

The Kitchener Public Library and city of Kitchener are looking for volunteers to help with the KidSpark festival this Saturday in Victoria Park downtown. "Last year," a memo says, "over 7,000 people enjoyed a day of activities for children of all ages. KidSpark 2001 will feature live entertainment, rides, crafts, water play, costumed characters and much more. Lots of volunteers are needed." The local Volunteer Action Centre, at 742-8610, has more information.

Finally . . . there "seems to be a shortage of inter-office envelopes", says Avril McVicar, administrative assistant at UW's Kitchener campus (more officially known as the office of part-time studies). "No one has any to spare," she complains. "I hate to order new ones if there is a stash somewhere." Got envelopes? Call McVicar at ext. 2002.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Friday's Bulletin
Copyright © 2001 University of Waterloo