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Scientist's lawsuit against UW dismissed

The case has been "acrimonious", judge Douglas Lissaman noted in his written ruling in the case, released Tuesday. Testimony and arguments before the judge (there was no jury) took almost four weeks in late April and the first half of May this year.

Lipczynska was suing UW for breach of contract and "negligent misrepresentation" related to her employment at the university in the early 1990s. At the same time she was suing the university, earth sciences professor Bob Gillham, and former provost Jim Kalbfleisch for defamation.

The judge dismissed all of Lipczynska's claims, and ordered that she pay the legal costs incurred by UW, Gillham and Kalbfleisch. Lipczynska told the court she will appeal the decision.

The breach of contract case is based on differing stories of what Gillham -- who was then chair of the earth sciences department -- told Lipczynska when he arranged for her to be hired as a research assistant professor, starting November 1, 1992. Her official appointment letter noted "a two-year period" and referred to UW's appointments policy, which said that "a definite term appointment does not imply or guarantee consideration for a further appointment." However, Lipczynska says Gillham told her the two-year term was "only a formality" and "her position could easily be extended to at least five years."

She started working in a groundwater laboratory at UW, and "problems between her and the University began almost immediately," according to the judge's summary of the case. "Putting it mildly, a head on collision took place between the Plaintiff and Dr. Gillham almost from the beginning."

There were several meetings to discuss her unhappiness and her working conditions, and in the spring of 1993 her appointment was changed so that she was attached to the chemistry department as well as earth sciences. In the spring of 1994, Gillham informed Lipczynska that her contract would not be renewed at the end of the two years. "When the Plaintiff asked why," the judge writes, "Dr. Gillham responded that the committee was not happy with the progress of the Plaintiff's research."

Through the efforts of Fred McCourt, then chair of the chemistry department, Lipczynska stayed at UW a little longer, teaching a course in the winter of 1995 as an adjunct professor. "Since this time," the court ruling says, "she has not worked either as a professor or as a scientist."

The ruling says the written document is the only valid contract of employment between Lipczynska and UW, and the two-year term stands, so there was no wrongful dismissal.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 1994 Gillham heard that an American researcher, Lee Wolfe of the Environmental Protection Agency, was angry because an article that Lipczynska had published seemed to trespass on ideas Wolfe had been developing. When he made contact with Wolfe, "he did not claim that there had been misconduct," Gillham said in his testimony, "but clearly he was upset."

Gillham consulted McCourt and later told John Thompson, who was dean of science, and Kalbfleisch, the provost. The UW faculty association and the ethics officer of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council were also drawn into the discussion. In several telephone conversations and a faxed letter, Kalbfleisch gave Wolfe the opportunity to make a definite complaint, but he never did so. In December 1995, Kalbfleisch signed a letter declaring that "there are no allegations to be investigated, and the integrity matter is closed."

Passing the concerns or rumours along to such people as the dean and the provost was entirely legitimate, the judge says. "As the rumour contained allegations of questionable academic behaviour and were of a very serious nature, especially in the academic context, Dr. Gillham had a duty to share this information with the other professors. . . . Dr. Kalbfleisch initiated an investigation into the rumour. This investigation ultimately cleared the Plaintiff of any wrongdoing."

Although he dismisses all Lipczynska's claims, the judge concludes with a note that "the Plaintiff as a person and scientist impressed me even though her claims failed. She leaves this Courtroom as an honourable person with her reputation intact."

English exam set for tomorrow

Here's the official description of the exam:

The ELPE requires a student to write a 4-5 paragraph impromptu expository essay within a fifty minute time limit. The exam is given the week before classes begin in September and after the end of classes, but before the start of exams, in December and April. There is no charge for these sittings of the exam. Students who write the exam at any other time than the three scheduled times pay an administration fee of $150.

The essays are evaluated on a five-point scale by Writing Clinic tutors who have been carefully prepared to subject each essay to three structural tests: overall focus and development, paragraph unity and coherence and sentence logic and clarity.

Each of the six faculties has its own requirement for writing and passing the ELPE. In arts, for example, students need to achieve a grade of at least 60 (that is, 3+) on the exam, unless they're entering UW with a mark of 80 or higher on a grade 13 English course. Engineering requires the same mark, 60, on the ELPE, or else a C-minus or higher in "an approved English course". There's no exemption for engineering students based on their grade 13 marks.

In most faculties, the requirement has to be met by the time a student reaches the end of second year -- but most first-year students will write the test tomorrow in hopes of getting it out of the way now. Details on each faculty's requirement are published in the undergraduate calendar.

Physics chair: Robert Mann became chair of UW's physics department as of September 1. He takes over that role from previous chair Jim Lepock.

Workshops for teaching assistants

Most of the TAs are graduate students who need to balance their own master's or PhD studies with their teaching responsibilities. The two sides of life are both addressed in some of the training sessions -- students in the English department, for example, got "Being a Graduate Student" yesterday followed by "Being a TA or Course Instructor" today.

The most ambitious training program is ExpecTAtions, which takes up all of today and most of Friday for TAs across the faculty of engineering. Cindy Howe in the engineering undergraduate office said it includes an opportunity for each student to present a portion of a lecture and to practice marking papers. There are also briefings on ethics and discrimination and on computing facilities in engineering, as well as a Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System safety test.

Science will hold a half-day safety workshop for TAs later in September. The faculty of math runs a one-day workshop today, with a program that ranges from a briefing on sexual harassment to a practice marking session.

Other TA training activities are planned in applied health sciences, biology, geography, history, psychology, sociology, and the language departments.

Orientation, and other delights

"Single and Sexy" continues: there are performances at 12 noon and 4 p.m. today in the Theatre of the Arts.

Former pure math professor Vladimir Platonov will be in court today as the Crown appeals the sentence that was imposed on him earlier this year for an assault on his wife in 1999. The Platonov case has attracted all sorts of media attention, and national newspapers had the story again a few days ago when it was announced that the professor had retired from UW as of August 31.

At 10:30 this morning, the Institute for Computer Research presents a seminar by Erik Kamsties of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering. He'll speak on "Surfacing Ambiguity in Industrial Requirements Specifications" (Davis Centre room 1304).

A note from Beth Alemany of the UW Shop: "Check out our new faculty T-shirts for engineering, math, arts and architecture!" The shop is in South Campus Hall, just across from the bookstore (which was starting to have beginning-of-term lineups when I checked it out yesterday afternoon).

An organizational meeting for a Weight Watchers group on campus will be held this coming Monday at 12 noon in Humanities room 373. The program will actually start on the following Monday, September 17. "We would allow people to join on that day," a note from WW says, but the decision has to be made before that on whether there are enough people for the program to take place at all. Information about the program is available from Karen Stevenson of WW at 886-3262.

And . . . I said yesterday that the baseball Warriors will play their home games at Waterloo's Bechtel Park. Wrong. The actual location is Jack Couch Park, the stadium at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium complex. The Warriors will host the McMaster Marauders for a double-header on Saturday; first pitch is scheduled for 1:00.

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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