Counselling director is retiring

Williams has been in counselling for 33 years, and held the director's job for most of that time. He's given me some good advice more than once, and since his office is directly underneath mine, I imagine he knows when I stamp or pace -- and I know he'll be missed. His retirement reception will be held at the University Club today from 4:00 to 6:30.

He earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from the University of Alberta, and his PhD from the University of Missouri. In September 1968, shortly after completing his PhD, he came to work in counselling at UW, and in June 1979 he became director after the retirement of one of Waterloo's pioneers, Bill Dick.

Says a colleague: "During his 33 years of work and service, Jack has made enormous contributions to the counselling profession, program development, leadership, teaching and supervision. In addition to counselling and directing, he has taught courses at OISE for 21 years, the University of Waterloo for 30 years and he has supervised more than 50 graduate students from various fields of practice. Jack has also been an active member of professional organizations throughout his career.

"Jack is a jazz aficionado, a loving father and husband and, at the age of retirement, he still regularly goes for 100 kilometer bike rides on weekends!"

His last big project before retiring was to be chair for a conference of American (and a few Canadian) counselling directors, held in Toronto in early October -- a triumph of optimism and organization over the post-terrorism travel crisis this fall. The event, the annual conference of the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors, eventually drew 275 people.

Says Mary Bolin-Reece of the University of Kentucky, who is public relations director for the AUCCCD: "Because counselling centres at many U.S. universities were so busy responding to students affected (both directly and via 'radiated distress') by the tragic events of September 11 in New York and Washington, last-minute questions were raised about the viability of the conference. The association's executive decided to go ahead, and were proven correct in their view of the need for this conference."

She notes that the opening address was delivered by Mark Kingwell of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. He challenged delegates with thoughts about the nature of consciousness, and how consciousnesses (people) relate to each other -- a matter of obvious relevance to counsellors. "In his comments, Dr. Kingwell focused on the concepts of happiness and community, two topics he has recently addressed in book form. His humorous yet thoughtful presentation about issues that underlie much of what counsellors do was a welcome tonic for an audience so recently inundated with the needs of distressed students and staffs back home."

A second keynote address was provided by UW's own Donald Meichenbaum, professor emeritus of psychology and one of the world's leading behaviourists. He described characteristics of successful counsellors and listed 12 components that research suggests are related to counselling success. In a conversation hour following his presentation, he discussed issues of crisis intervention and anger management.

Without the NH elevator With the elevator in Needles Hall shut down for repairs during the next three weeks, arrangements are being made to minimize the inconvenience for students, faculty, staff and visitors for whom the stairs pose problems. Students with mobility difficulties were contacted prior to work beginning on the elevator, said Rose Padacz, director of the office for students with disabilities. Those who need alternative accommodations to write final exams are being redirected from spaces normally used in Needles Hall to rooms in the Adaptive Technology Centre in the Dana Porter Library. As well, a room on the first floor of Needles Hall has been made available in the co-op and career services department as an alternative meeting location during the elevator repairs. The room can be booked at the co-op reception desk or by phoning the office for students with disabilities at ext. 5082 or 4635.

We're waiting for a federal budget

The budget was brought forward to December from its usual February date because of the country's economic troubles and the likelihood that Ottawa will want to spend more on "security" than previously planned, in the wake of the terrorist crisis. The annual ritual isn't quite the same thing as a "budget" presented for an organization like the university -- a calculation of income and expenditures for the coming year -- but it's an opportunity for the finance minister to announce major spending plans and tax changes.

The political angle: Today's Globe

The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that the budget "will have billions of dollars for security and university research but nothing much for the national high-speed Internet network that Industry Minister Brian Tobin has advocated furiously. . . . While the government is not against the broadband idea per se, Mr. Martin has led the charge among those who believe now is not the time for such a big expenditure. Instead, avoiding a deficit should be the government's top priority, Mr. Martin's supporters say. However, the budget will provide money for other Industry Canada projects, including the money for university research, perhaps allowing the Industry Minister to save face."

Universities say their top priority is funding for "overhead" costs of research. UW president David Johnston, for one, keeps pointing out that the more successful a university is in getting research grants, the poorer it gets, because the grant pays only for direct costs. Meanwhile, the university is out the funds for utilities, paperwork, and the salary of the professor who's devoting time to doing the research. Those costs are roughly estimated at 40 per cent of the total grant.

AUCC wrote to the prime minister last month insisting that security and the new reality aren't a good excuse for not spending money on research. Says the AUCC letter: "September 11 did not change the conditions that made the innovation agenda a necessity. Other countries will doubtless continue to invest to enhance their competitiveness. As a recent Conference Board of Canada report confirms, Canada still has a long way to go if we are to improve our competitive standing in the world. Universities are eager to help achieve that goal."

The House of Commons standing committee on finance this week issued a report with its public recommendations to the government for the budget, including "a strong commitment" to funding for indirect (overhead) costs. It also called for a review of Ottawa's "student debt relief" programs to see whether they're generous enough.

That was good news to the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, which includes UW's Federation of Students, and which has been pressing for a change to the federal policy on student aid.

Says a CASA news release: "CASA has lobbied the government to change their relief program to an Income Contingent Loan Remission program. If you are unable to pay back your loan due to your low income, the government would forgive part of your loan, in fact making it a remission program. It would encourage former students to pay back what they can but not be burdened for years with student debt. . . . The current program isn't working as well as it should. Only 44 borrowers were helped by the program in 1999 and it only cost the government $177,581. The remission program will help many more former students."

Changes in staff recognition

The 1998 group photo of ten-year veterans

The HR department administers the program -- an annual picture-taking for staff members, both non-union and unionized, who have been at the university for ten years, and a congratulatory letter from the president for those who reach a 20th anniversary.

"However," says Murray, "since its inception, the participation rate in the ten-year anniversary photograph has decreased each year to approximately a third of those eligible. As a result, the Staff Relations Committee reviewed the program and has recommended the following changes. Effective this coming year, the ten year photograph will be eliminated and the President will now send a letter of congratulations on the occasion of a staff member's fifteen year anniversary.

"The next formal recognition would come at the 25-Year Club reception, which is a popular event held annually to celebrate the significant contributions of all university employees.

"For those employees who have service of greater than 15 years but less than twenty, the President will continue to send out a letter of congratulations when they reach the twenty-year anniversary.

"In addition to the above, the committee also encourages department/unit heads to continue with their own forms of recognition to celebrate five, ten and twenty year milestones of service to the institution."

A full day of activities

Today is the annual Customer Appreciation Day for the stores of the retail services department. The bookstore promises a 25 per cent discount on just about all "general" books (ones that aren't textbooks); there will be 25 per cent off almost everything in the UWShop; TechWorx is offering 25 per cent off all crested stationery products and select architecture supplies in the South Campus Hall location; and the computer store is running a "Santa on Campus Sale" in the SCH concourse. Bookends café inside the bookstore will remain open to serve customers until 7:00 tonight.

A professional development seminar for computing support staff is being held this morning, even as I write these words, to give a preview of a new piece of software, Astra Scheduler. "It has a realtime interface to the PeopleSoft Student Administration System," writes Bob Hicks of information systems and technology. "It is currently being used by the registrar's office to optimize and book course rooms. It is also being used by the event booking office to book events, and will be deployed in the new year across campus for other departments to book events in their own space."

End-of-term recitals continue in the music department at Conrad Grebel University College. Today, there's music by Janay Babuin (flute), Sarah Fong (piano), Jennifer Gemmiti (flute), Rebecca Leung (piano), Nancy Sui (piano), Mark Coffey (piano), and Cherith Tse (trumpet), several of them accompanied by pianist Sandra Mogensen. The concert is free, and the music starts at 12:30 in the Grebel chapel.

Ah, so this is what deans do when they're not exercising power. Alan George, the dean of mathematics, is today's speaker in the statistics and actuarial science seminar series. He'll address "Numerical Solution of Large Sparse Linear Least Squares Problems", at 3:30 in Math and Computer room 5158.

There is, as I said in yesterday's Bulletin, a Waterloo student pub in Toronto tonight. But I suggested that all co-op students there in the Middle-Sized Apple were welcome. In fact, "the night out is for math grads of 2002," says a note from organizer Laura Atkinson, who's currently, if I'm reading this right, on a work term at Scotiabank. She'd appreciate reservations by e-mail (leatkins@student.math.uwaterloo.ca), and tonight's event starts at 6:30 at the Peel Pub, corner of King and Duncan.

It's East Indian dinner night at Mudie's cafeteria in Village I -- chicken curry, beef vindaloo, chicken tandoori and aloo mattar are on the menu, 4:30 to 7 p.m. The basic price is $6.95 cash, or half that if you're paying with residence WatCard money.

The school of architecture lecture series continues tonight with Reinhold Schuster, of the civil engineering department and the architecture school, under the title "Cold Formed Steel in Residential Construction" (7 p.m., Environmental Studies II room 280).

The Korean film series also continues tonight, with "Black Republic", a 1990 classic (politics, prostitution and the coal industry). The showing starts at 7 p.m. in East Campus Hall room 1220.

The Spiritual Heritage Education Network and UW's Waterloo-India Linkage tonight present a lecture by hospital chaplain Jack Paleczny (7:00, Math and Computer room 4021). He'll talk about "Noticing Spirituality", based on his chaplaincy experiences: "As he noticed personal qualities, connections and questions, he reflected them back to the people who generally appreciated being understood. Consequent spiritual assessment enabled Jack to develop a plan of spiritual care, which he shared with other caregivers."

Members of the International Student Association will be partying at the Graduate House tonight, starting with a Christmas dinner at 8:00.

CAR