Aboriginal activist speaks tonight

"She will inform and challenge our views of native and non-native relations," says Graham Brown, principal of St. Paul's, where the professorship is based, and acting director of the Canadian Studies program.

Maracle has taught creative writing and held a visiting professorship with the women's studies program at the University of Toronto. She is currently the traditional cultural director for the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and the Aboriginal Mentor in the Transitional Year Program at the University of Toronto, where she also teaches a course in English composition.

Her publications include the novels Ravensong; Sundogs; and Daughters Are Forever, a book of short stories entitled Sojourner's Truth, a book of poetry, Bent Box, a sociological text, I Am Woman, and the autobiographical novel Bobbi Lee. She has edited or co-edited several anthologies.

As well, Maracle is an award-winning writer and teacher, and an occasional editor, film story editor, dramaturge and stage actor.

This term she is teaching a Canadian studies course on Discovering Indigenous People. The Stanley Knowles professorship seeks "to enrich the educational experience of graduate and undergraduate students by bringing to the UW campus people who possess a diversity of views and backgrounds, and who may hold differing and controversial commitments to Canada".

The sources of UW's revenue: a graph from a fact sheet being distributed with the preliminary Campaign Waterloo brochure. The figures, based on 1999-2000, may be updated after UW's 2000-01 financial statements are made public at next week's meeting of the university board of governors.

Universities hope to influence budget

Excerpts from what Robert J. Giroux, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, told the finance committee:

"We have all been preoccupied in recent weeks with the tragic events in the United States. These events will undoubtedly impact Canada's priorities and its fiscal situation as policy-makers continue to assess their domestic and international implications. We recognize the need to be both realistic and flexible. We will all need to await Minister Martin's fiscal and economic update to assess the full implications of these events for the government's agenda.

"In the meantime, as the Minister indicated in the House of Commons on September 18, it is important to continue to address the priorities already identified by the government, including investments in "research and development." For its part, AUCC remains committed to its role in achieving the federal government's innovation agenda of moving Canada from 15th to 5th place in terms of our relative investment in R&D. We applaud the government's recognition of the direct links between education, R&D and innovation, and the future economic and social well-being of all Canadians.

"Clearly, however, if Canada is to reap the benefits associated with university education, research, development and innovation, government must significantly enhance the health of the university environment. To become one of the most innovative countries in the world and indeed even to maintain our current standing, Canada will need to have more researchers doing more research in more research institutions. We will need a deeper pool of university-educated graduates who have the kind of skills required to excel in a knowledge-based economy. We will also need more faculty members who can teach a growing number of students and mentor them as they develop skills that have the potential to dramatically alter the way we think and live.

"To meet these objectives, let me outline four key measures that are essential. First, on the issue of indirect costs, the need is urgent. The non-payment of the indirect costs of research on federally sponsored research is forcing universities to divert significant sums of money from teaching and maintenance to support the growing research enterprise. It is creating unproductive tensions between teaching and research and is a major reason why universities are losing ground in their efforts to remain internationally competitive. These negative repercussions have been building over many years and must be redressed if the government is to deliver on the promises of its national innovation agenda. We estimate that the payment of indirect costs will require an annual investment of up to $400 million.

"Second, smaller universities will require additional assistance to further develop sustainable research capacity. Given the importance of ensuring that institutions from all parts of the country contribute fully to the innovation agenda, AUCC believes that a federal research capacity building initiative is essential. We estimate that such a program, based on research excellence, will require an investment of $20 to $30 million a year over ten years.

"Third, to meet the objective of moving from 15th to 5th, we believe that the government will need to significantly increase support for the direct costs of research by more than doubling the combined budgets of the three federal granting agencies by 2010 with particular attention paid to redressing the funding imbalance in social science and humanities research.

"Fourth, we recognize that the depth and breadth of knowledge workers needed to realize the innovation agenda will require government to significantly enhance direct support for master's and PhD students. Taken together, these four measures will go a long way towards achieving our collective goal of making Canada one of the most innovative countries in the world.

"Finally, we draw the committee's attention to a further challenge that has its roots in the period of fiscal restraint of the 1990s. I am speaking here of the need to address universities' accumulated deferred maintenance bill. Crumbling campus infrastructure is a major impediment to universities' efforts to recruit the 30,000 new faculty members needed over the next decade. Addressing accumulated deferred maintenance will require a national effort in which the federal government could play a leadership role. We would suggest a one-time dedicated fund, in partnership with the provinces and, assuming a university contribution, that would address accumulated deferred maintenance on core educational and related facilities and be drawn down over several years. We estimate that the federal investment to this one-time dedicated fund would be in the range of $1.2 billion.

"The measures we propose will renew the partnership on education, R&D, and innovation that has been established among the federal government, the provinces and the universities. They will provide the means to universities to support and spur innovation and to continue to invest in people and ideas. We believe that this is a sound long-term economic and social investment for all Canadians."

Launch of the East Asian festival

Born in Vancouver, Kogawa is a second-generation Japanese Canadian best known for her first novel, Obasan. It tells, through the eyes of a child, the story of the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Other titles include Itsuka and her latest, The Rain Ascends. She is also a member of the Order of Canada.

In a survey of Canadian literature at 29 Canadian universities, Kogawa's Obasan was taught in 13 courses, the second highest of any author, just behind Thomas King's Green Grass, Running Water in 15 courses.

The East Asian festival continues through Saturday, with these events scheduled:

• Today, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Academic Showcase of programs, exchanges and employment opportunities in East Asia. Student Life Centre.
• Today, 1:30 p.m., lecture by physiotherapist David Slover, "Uses of Eastern Healing Practices in Western Culture". Renison College, Chapel Lounge.
• Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Business Day Seminar. Topic: "Doing Business in and with East Asia." Panel discussions on forging alliances and keys to success. Noon: Luncheon with keynote speaker David Crane, economics editor, Toronto Star. Renison College, Chapel Lounge and Great Hall.
• Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Cultural Day celebration, featuring demonstrations of traditional dances, martial arts, music, costumes and crafts. Cameron Heights Secondary School, Charles Street, Kitchener.

Art exhibitions open, and more

mark their sense of location with paintings that suggest the lack of synchronicity in a post-modern temporality; the dissolution of territorial and spatial co-ordinates in the present era; and the confusion in locating cultural memory when the traditional axes of nation, race, language and national history are multiple.

The civil engineering department will hold a silent auction today and tomorrow, with proceeds going to the campus United Way campaign. "We have about 25 items to auction off," writes Sandra Machan, department secretary in civil, "and they are being displayed in the main office all week." Bidding runs from 12 noon today until the same hour tomorrow. The department is also running a 50-50 draw, with tickets at $1 apiece and the winning name to be drawn tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, faculty, staff and retiree donors are bringing the United Way closer to its $150,000 goal; as of yesterday afternoon, the total in hand was $127,722.

Tomorrow brings what's clearly the novelty event of the year in the United Way campaign: "Wacky Hair Day", organized by the university secretariat and involving good sports from all over campus. The idea is that celebrities will get a new coiffure, and that people will pay for the privilege of seeing the results, with funds going to the United Way. Prominent campus people from president David Johnston to former engineering dean Bill Lennox -- who, frankly, doesn't have that much hair to work with -- have agreed to submit, between 11:30 and 1:30 tomorrow. (A full schedule is available on the web.) "Donations are pouring in," says Trenny Canning of the university secretariat.

Tom Lee and Jacques Carette of Waterloo Maple will be on campus today to speak on "A Pragmatic Vision for Deploying Mathematical Knowledge on the Web", an event sponsored by the LT3 learning centre. "This seminar," says an abstract, "offers Waterloo Maple's interpretation of the current landscape and the technology proposal for institutions to reconcile the challenges and the opportunities. Mathematics is a uniquely fertile context for the general discussion as it is at the heart of many current socio-political debates on education and it remains one of the last frontiers for Web-based information interchange." Their talk will start at 1:30 this afternoon in Math and Computer room 5158.

The architecture school's weekly series, "24 Academic Positions", continues with a talk tonight by professor emeritus Fred Thompson, who promises "a manifesto" under the title "Boundaries: Festivals of Uchiko". The talk starts at 7 p.m. in Environmental Studies II room 280.

Finally . . . tomorrow and Saturday will bring to campus a "teach-in on racism and war". Things begin with a forum at 4:30 at St. Jerome's University, followed by a lecture at 7:30 by Senator Douglas Roche. On Saturday, there will be a "peace ceremony" at 10:30, followed by several panel discussions. I'll say more about these activities in tomorrow's Bulletin.

CAR