Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion, speaks in the Humanities Theatre yesterday at the "Visionary Seminar" of the Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills.

Report praises CS, but notes stress

Computer science is one of five departments whose reviews were finished this year and reported to senate by Bruce Mitchell, associate vice-president (academic). He notes that CS is one of UW's largest departments, with more than 50 faculty (and "a goal to have about 60"), more than 2,000 honours students (half of the entire faculty of mathematics), and 154 graduate students.

"Computer Science," he writes, "participates in the provincial ATOP (Access to Opportunities Program), which led to an increase in target intake of 38% over the 1996 level of 437. . . . The quality of the students is excellent. For the fall term 2000, the target intake was 600 grant eligible students, and there were almost three first choice applicants for each position, and, overall, more than six applicants for each position. The cutoff average for admission from high school was close to 88%."

CS offers a large number of service courses, he notes -- including CS 100, taken by more than 1,300 students from outside the math faculty each year -- and is involved in joint programs with other departments in software engineering and bioinformatics.

Mitchell's report is based on a study done by an outside review team, as well as the CS department's own "self-study". He writes: "Computer Science has been successful in recruiting excellent faculty, at a time when competition for faculty is very high. All core faculty hold NSERC operating grants, and many are involved in industrial and government sponsored research projects. The usual teaching load is three courses per academic year, with each faculty member supervising an average of four graduate students."

The outside review team observed that "The Department offers high quality Computer Science programs that attract the top students from across Canada. One of the distinguishing features of the programs is the amount of mathematics included. . . . The Department should be congratulated on attracting high quality faculty" especially "at a time of exceptional market demand for quality computing faculty."

But, the visitors said, something should be done "to reduce the stress felt by junior students. This can be done through more tutoring and remedial instruction. . . . Remedial support also should assist what is viewed to be a high attrition rate (30% to 35% in the first two years)."

Other recommendations included more attention to business and other options focused on application of computer science skills, developing "people" as well as technical skills, attracting more female students, and modernizing tools used in programming courses.

The review team said the math faculty and UW as a whole "need to assess their commitment and capability to provide resources to Computer Science to allow it to maintain the quality of the existing program and to meet the needs of expanding enrolments". Because of ATOP, CS has experienced a rapid increase in enrolment, faster than it could hire faculty members to teach the new students.

Mitchell's report says the CS department and chair generally agree with the recommendations, but think it will take money to implement them -- to hire more faculty members, in particular. He notes that last year a "governance committee" was formed to look at a possible new relationship between the CS department and the math faculty.

Faculty propose policy on grades

The math case, which led to a formal grievance hearing by an outside arbitrator, dealt with a 19-student "advanced" calculus class taught by applied math professor Stan Lipshitz. The dean of math, believing that the marks Lipshitz assigned were too low, officially raised most of them. The arbitrator ruled that the dean did have the right to do that, although the procedure followed wasn't what it should have been.

The faculty association had joined Lipshitz in filing a grievance. "We believed then and continue to believe now," says association president Catherine Schryer in the current issue of the Forum newsletter, "that the decision to change Dr. Lipshitz's course grades was a denial of his rights to academic freedom. We also continue to assert that this decision affected all faculty at the University of Waterloo as it represented an attempt to de-professionalize a central academic activity -- the evaluation of students' performance."

Schryer argues that such a thing would never have happened if UW had had a suitable "policy and procedures to handle such situations. Consequently, the Board has developed a draft policy and a process." Here's what it says:

• The Department/School Chair/Director or Faculty Dean may review the assigned marks in a course with respect to failure rate, class averages, and marks. If the Chair or Dean considers the course marks to be anomalous or possibly inconsistent with University policy, the Chair or Dean may present the basis for that belief to the instructor, and ask the instructor to consider adjusting the marks.
• Following consultation with the instructor, the Chair/Director or Dean may accept the marks as assigned or adjusted by the instructor or may direct the Faculty Examinations and Standings Committee (ESC) or equivalent committee, as approved by Faculty Council, to look into the matter.
• The Faculty ESC or equivalent committee will consider all evidence gathered from the Department/School, Dean and faculty member. The faculty member involved shall have the opportunity to review and respond to any evidence gathered by the committee. The ESC or equivalent committee will attempt to reach a negotiated agreement that satisfies both the faculty member and the Chair/Director and/or Dean.
• If no agreement is reached, the Faculty ESC or equivalent committee shall, within 10 working days after receiving written notice from the Chair/Director or Dean, render a decision on the marks, class average and/or failure rate, with a written justification provided to both parties.
• The decision of the ESC or equivalent committee will be final and binding with respect to marks, class average and failure rate.

"To date, we have not publicized our proposal because it was within the FRC and therefore confidential. Now, however, we need comments and advice from the rest of faculty."

UW just marked its 90th birthday

The seminary survives as an affiliate of Wilfrid Laurier University, the direct descendant of Waterloo College. WLU now spreads around the site of the original seminary house, which survived until 1963. And WLU does count its history from the 1911 founding date.

"No festivities are being held," said a full-page article in Laurier News last week, recalling the humble beginnings of the seminary and tracing developments since then: the "Old Main" building in 1914, a high school program in 1915, a faculty of arts in 1924, Waterloo College (affiliated with the University of Western Ontario) in 1925, creation of Waterloo Lutheran University in 1959 and the new WLU name in 1973.

Curiously, the Laurier News article doesn't say a word about Waterloo College Associate Faculties, created in 1957 and renamed University of Waterloo two years later.

It's a busy day at Waterloo

As an exhibition of paintings by Robert Houle and John Abrams continues in the East Campus Hall art gallery, under the title "Landmark", the two artists will be at UW today. "For Abrams and Houle," says a text about the show, "the landscape of Canada has been defined through political associations. Issues of identity are solidified through place and history, yet the concepts have been altered." Which means what? They'll explain today, giving a talk about their work starting at 1:30 p.m. in ECH room 1219.

Tonight brings an American launch for an already well-reviewed book by Phelim Boyle of UW's accountancy school, together with his son, Feidhlim Boyle. Derivatives: The Tools That Changed Finance drew good comment the other day from the "Working Knowledge" web site of Harvard Business School: "Using analogies of tennis matches, hanging chads, and walks in the woods, the authors bring the concept of derivatives down to earth. If your company uses derivatives to manage risk, or you just want to know what they are all about, you'll get a great education with this small investment." Tonight's launch is at 6:00 at the Cornell Club on East 44 Street in New York.

Two events today are sponsored by Christian groups:

• "Top Three Questions for God", 12:30 p.m., Davis Centre room 1351, from the Campus Crusade for Christ.
• "Where's God When Life Sucks?", 5:30 p.m., Arts Lecture Hall room 211, sponsored by the Navigators.

The school of architecture continues with its series "24 Academic Positions": tonight at 7:00, Terri Meyer-Boake speaks on "Somewhere Between Lobsters and Red Hot Chilis", in Environmental Studies II room 280.

The fine arts film society series of Korean films continues tonight with the 1993 movie "Spoyonje", at 7 p.m. in East Campus Hall room 1220.

Away from UW, the local Holocaust Remembrance Week winds up with a talk tonight by Martin Maxwell, who was a teenager in Vienna during the horrors of Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. He'll speak at 7:30 p.m. in Science building room N1002 at Wilfrid Laurier University.

The talk of the campus

UW's senate is scheduled to meet November 19, and agenda items will include a proposed PhD program in actuarial science. In fact, act sci graduate students can already earn a PhD, but it has to be called "statistics" and follow the rules for a stats doctorate, because that's the only PhD offered by the single department of "statistics and actuarial science". "The Statistics PhD," says a memo coming to the senate, "requires students to have a deeper than necessary knowledge of some areas of Statistics not relevant to Actuarial Science."

Former faculty member John Theberge -- now retired and living in British Columbia -- was in the news again this week, achieving a considerable success in his long-time campaign to protect the wolves living in and around Algonquin Park. Theberge and his wife and co-worker, Mary, received a standing ovation, news reports say, at the annual general meeting of the World Wildlife Fund Canada, held in Toronto. The occasion: provincial minister of natural resources John Snobelen visited to announce a 30-month moratorium on killing wolves in the area around the park. The government measure goes even further than what was recommended by a provincial task force that Theberge chaired last year.

UW's computing networks suffered several "denial-of-service" attacks early this week, according to memos from Doug Payne of the information systems and technology department. In one case, "we were fortunate enough to capture sufficient evidence to find the source," Payne writes. "It was a fairly standard distributed denial-of-service attack using spoofed IP source addresses to direct many thousands of packets per second at an external destination." In other words, somebody outside is using UW computers to do mischief. "We have identified more sources than in the original investigation," Payne also writes, "so it seems likely that there will be more attacks until we've found and fixed all the sources."

Another note on the campus effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the war that's resulted: it occurred to me that students might be rethinking their plans to take part in overseas exchange programs. Doesn't seem that way, says Cindy Howe of the engineering undergraduate office, who deals with engineers interested in going abroad. "The interest level is about the same now as it was," she writes. "I think the parents are more anxious than the students are!"

Here's another offer from the local Volunteer Action Centre: "Help students succeed by sharing your patience and knowledge. The new Homework Centre at the Kitchener Public Library will be opening in January of 2002 and volunteers will be involved as homework assistants and tutors. They will help students complete homework assignments, serve as mentors, link them to the library's services and resources and provide a positive and welcoming atmosphere. Spend just two hours, once a week, in the evening or on the weekend, and share in a student's success." For more information, the VAC is at 742-8610.

CAR