February 14, 2002

Thursday, February 14, 2002

Salaries, layoffs -- and workloads
Photos open today in gallery
First results from library survey
Happening on a busy campus

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

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Salaries, layoffs -- and workloads

Those were the three big topics at a standing-room-only meeting of staff association members yesterday. About 120 people attended the "town hall" meeting, chaired by association president Ed Chrzanowski and focused mostly on this year's negotiations in the Provost's Advisory Committee on Staff Compensation.

The meeting didn't take any votes, but there were many voices of agreement when one speaker said the association should accept nothing less by way of a May 1 salary increase than what faculty members are getting on the same date. Chrzanowski suggested that translated into staff terms, that would mean a 2.6 per cent scale increase and an average of 1.4 per cent in "merit" pay, for a total of 4 per cent -- plus 0.4 per cent to reflect the same "excellence" that's mentioned in the faculty salary package for this year.

The association's social side
The staff association's social committee still has tickets available for its March 8 outing to see the Kitchener Rangers play the Erie Otters at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. Luanne McGinley (ext. 3497) and Verna Keller (ext. 3857) have tickets for sale until February 27.
The theme of the meeting had been announced as "Pay Increases vs. Job Security", and Chrzanowski made it clear that elimination of staff jobs -- "layoffs" -- is definitely in the cards this year. The best he could say was that "the administration can't guarantee no layoffs, but they will try to keep it minimal."

After the meeting, I had a quick word with provost Amit Chakma -- the administrator chiefly responsible for UW's operating budget -- and he said he has "no clue" at this point what kind of salary package the advisory committee is going to recommend to him. But, he also said, the university is clearly looking at budget cuts, not increases, for the coming year, and it's hardly possible in that situation to raise salaries without some departments having to eliminate jobs. (Estimates of the budget cut for 2002-03 range from 1.8 to 3.5 per cent.)

For that matter, said Chakma, "it would be naive" to think that the university can finish the 2001-02 year, with its 3.5 per cent general budget cut, without some positions being eliminated.

The tone at the noon-hour meeting yesterday was cranky, with one speaker drawing applause when he spoke of "bullying" from UW's administration. Another said staff are tired of living on "Kraft dinner" when faculty members get "prime rib".

Some of the discussion moved away from salaries and onto the topic of how overworked staff members are feeling. The way things are going, there's going to be an epidemic of stress leave across campus, one speaker said. (Speakers weren't asked to identify themselves.)

"What happens if all the staff phone in sick?" one person asked, and a voice across the room answered: "For a week!" There were giggles. Another speaker suggested that staff members force themselves to "come in at 8:30 and leave at 4:30", the official working hours, and abandon the endless overtime they say they're working now. "In the long run you don't do yourself a favour [by working too many hours]," one voice said. "You're not doing those people that were laid off a few years ago any favour." And how should the university react? "If the job is not done, then hire another person to do it!"

The word "union" was mentioned a couple of times, but several speakers said they doubted that a union could really improve things for staff. Towards the end of the meeting, someone asked Chrzanowski how individuals can help him put pressure on UW management in the interests of staff. "E-mail Amit Chakma," said the association president. "E-mail Catharine Scott. E-mail Dennis Huber." Scott is associate provost (human resources and student services), and Huber is vice-president (administration and finance).

Photos open today in gallery

Images from a Catholic boys' school in Hong Kong are the subject of an exhibition of "photo-based work" by Toronto artist Ho Tam which opens today at Gallery I in East Campus Hall.

[Mother and child]
Also from Ho Tam's work -- from an online auction last year.
Imprint's review of the current show

Two bodies of work, "Lessons" and "Passages" form "a moving banquet of images", says curator Carla Garnet of Gallery TPW, Toronto, in the exhibition catalogue notes -- images "that capture a cinematic courtyard filled with school boys in the early morning, in elementary classrooms, receiving lessons, streaming into hallways and down staircases into washrooms and back out again through large doorways to meet the end of the school day,"

In the other gallery
A new show in "Gallery II", also in East Campus Hall, opens today and also offers photographs: selected photos from the UW permanent art collection. The exhibition runs through March 14.
She goes on: "The images presented fall apart and coalesce. We receive the linear fields as technological screens or digital dot matrix replicated in warm sepia tones – collected from remembrance of a childhood past."

To capture the traces of his own childhood at the school, Tam returned to Hong Kong and shot footage of the institution on videotape, then projected it on a television and photographed stills from the screen.

In explaining the relationship between his two bodies of work, Tam notes that, "Like 'Passages', 'Lessons' is doubly mediated, videotaped first and then re-photographed from the television screen. There is a similarity of the video and the human mind that will record and play back certain events. The school and the memory of the school will continue even long after those images are recorded. In a video still, the image is both moving and not moving. The effect is also quite painterly with all the blurriness that crosses between reality and fiction."

And: "Memory is also neither reality nor fiction. It is always altered and never identical to the actual event. In a sense, these doubly mediated images seem to critique themselves."

Tam will speak about his work at 1:30 today in ECH room 1219. The exhibition in the gallery will continue through March 14.

First results from library survey -- from the library's on-line newsletter

Also in the Gazette: health alliance

"An alliance between researchers in the health studies and gerontology department at UW and the private sector has been struck to improve long-term health care," writes Barbara Elve in yesterday's Gazette. She reports on the Canadian MDS Resource Group, which involves John Hirdes and Trevor Smith of the HSG department. They're developing a "data set assessment system" to evaluate the strengths, preferences and needs of older people and people with disabilities. The project was also described in a UW news release a few weeks ago.

What do students and professors expect of their library? How well are those expectations met? In March 2001, the UW Library participated in a major research project designed to develop a survey instrument to help libraries answer these questions. The research, sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and centered at Texas A&M University, focuses on the development of a survey instrument, known as LibQUAL+.

The survey measures satisfaction with library services by asking users to assess three things:

minimum acceptable service levels
desired service levels
the service levels that they perceive their library to be providing

In the project that Waterloo participated in, 56 questions were asked on matters such as access to collections, reliability of services, and "the library as place."

Last winter's survey, conducted at UW and 45 other universities, was phase 2 of a 5-year research project aimed at finding out how well the survey tool works. One outcome already settled is that when the survey is next used, the 56 questions will be reduced to 25, which will please UW respondents who advised us that they found the survey too long.

The web-based survey was completed at UW by 372 undergrads, 384 grads, and 198 faculty. In total, of the 3,300 people initially approached for the survey, 954 completed it, or 29%.

Completed surveys went to researchers at Texas A&M, who provided results to UW. Library staff at Waterloo have done a preliminary review of the data, looking for key findings. For example, we've learned that respondents rank the Library low as "a haven for quiet and solitude." We have known for years that the libraries, especially the Davis Centre, are busy and often noisy places, so this outcome was not surprising. As part of the international LibQUAL+ group, we will now be in a position to find out whether our users are more concerned about noise than those at other universities, and we may find out what other libraries are doing to address the problem.

Since the Library puts a great deal of effort into its web site, we were pleased to find that users gave us high ratings for that service, expressed as "a library website enabling me to locate information on my own."

Users were rather critical about one important point, "accuracy in the catalogue, borrowing, and overdue records." Here, the perceived service from the Library was lower than what users said was the "minimum" level they could accept. We will be working to identify exactly what kinds of accuracy problems users are finding, and to find ways of fixing them.

There is much more to do with the data we have received. For example, we will try to identify which of the library locations respondents were thinking of when they commented on certain services, such as the availability of study space (respondents could not indicate which library they had in mind -- a clear weakness in the instrument for a campus like UW). We also look forward to comparing Waterloo's data with data from other institutions, especially the University of Guelph, since our catalogue records and borrower records are integrated with theirs. (Laurier did not participate in the survey.) There is also a need to determine how statistically significant some of the findings are and to compare expectations and perceptions among the three survey groups, i.e., faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates.

[Heart]

Happening on a busy campus

Yes, it's Valentine's Day, with all the thrills and pressures that implies for those who are in love or those who would like to be. The computer store is giving away red carnations "for each in-store purchase over $5" -- now that's romantic. And Techworx outlets in the Student Life Centre and South Campus Hall are using red and white hearts to mark special sale items today. Other delights for February 14: sweethearts can have a Valentine lunch at the cafeteria in South Campus Hall or (for $11.95) at the University Club, and dinner at the Ron Eydt Village cafeteria or (for $79.95 per couple) at the Club. And, of course, you can test your love at "Temptation Island" at Federation Hall tonight.

At the same time as Valentine's, and sharing the colour red as its theme, is the Chinese New Year celebration. Ground Zero restaurant in the Student Life Centre promises a Chinese luncheon today and tomorrow, emphasizing Boston bluefish (how Chinese can you get?) and fried dumplings, price $5.99.

Note for those who had wanted to buy potted crocuses in South Campus Hall on Tuesday, but couldn't find the promised sales table from the CNIB: I learn that somebody was there selling the plants in the afternoon, and that anybody who missed the opportunity but would still like to buy plants ($4 apiece) can call the CNIB at 742-3536 ext. 46.

The current cycle of co-op job interviews comes to a close tomorrow (extended by a day from the original schedule, thanks to the many bad-weather cancellations on January 31). Today, the first postings go up for architecture student jobs, which are run on a separate cycle.

The statistics and actuarial science department offers a talk today (3:30, Math and Computer room 5158) by Jim Lepkowski of the University of Michigan. Topic: "Telephone Sample Design", which apparently is a lot more complicated than you'd think just from the experience of answering pollsters' calls at dinner time.

The architecture school's year-long lecture series, "24 Academic Positions", continues tonight with a talk by faculty member John McMinn, "Intricate Desires" (7 p.m., Environmental Studies II room 280).

The drama department's three absurdist plays, "Absurd Person Plural", will continue at 8:00 tonight (and Friday and Saturday) in Studio 180 in the Humanities building.

Carolyn Vincent of the human resources department sends a reminder that the March-April brochure for the SEW program (that's Skills for the Electronic Workplace) has been sent out. She writes: "New courses are PC Hardware Update and Communicating with Multiple Recipients Via Email. Those interested in registering for courses can send their registration form to Human Resources, GSC." For more information, Vincent can be reached at ext. 2078.

Tuesday's "technical overview" session about the new UW web page standards drew a lot more people than anybody was expecting, so a new session is being scheduled. "I had no idea so many people would want to attend," writes Carol Vogt of the information systems and technology department. "We had 60 people in attendance, and couldn't squeeze another person into the room." The repeat session will be held next Tuesday (February 19) at 10:30 in Math and Computer room 2009 -- "sure to be big enough this time", Vogt promises.

A couple of events are coming up that have something to do with quality of life, thusly:

"Humour, Not Just for Laughs", a session sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program on Thursday, February 21, at noon. The speaker is retired psychology professor Herb Lefcourt, author of a book about the serious subject of what's funny.
"Eating 101 -- The Choice Challenge", a two-session course sponsored by the health services department. It'll be offered at 4:30 p.m. on February 27 and March 6, and preregistration is essential -- phone ext. 2424.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
February 14, 1963: The first lecture in the new Theatre of the Arts is given by George Grant of McMaster University. February 14, 1975: The staff association announces that it has enrolled more than 50 per cent of eligible staff as members -- enough to give it official recognition by the university.