February 19, 2002

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Management accountants support UW
More about deans who change marks
The talk of the campus

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

The day of the iron ring
Engineers "take their obligation" today. Late this afternoon, in a closed ceremony (actually multiple closed ceremonies, because there are so many of them), this year's graduating engineers will make a promise and put on an iron ring. The ring, worn on [Ring] "the little finger of the working hand", is a peculiarly Canadian symbol, a token by which to recognize a Canadian engineer who has deliberately taken an "obligation" to his or her new profession. It's a big day indeed for fourth-year engineers -- celebrated, before and after the solemnities, with garish old clothes, on-campus revelry, and finally the long-awaited Iron Ring Stag.

Management accountants support UW

The Society of Certified Management Accountants of Ontario has made a three-year pledge of $85,000 to support UW's school of accountancy and proposed Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (CBET), the university's news bureau announced on Friday.

The funding announced today is for $75,000 over three years for new course development to mount the new undergraduate management accounting streams and courses in the SOA and CBET, and course development for a planned master's of accountancy -- performance measurement and management stream.

In addition, CMA Canada Ontario is providing $10,000 this year to assist with a market survey to support the development of the graduate program and professional development offerings.

The funding will establish a management accounting development fund at UW and may be renewable for a further three years. "The University of Waterloo and CMA Canada Ontario have had a close association that dates back to the 1970s," said Howard Armitage, himself a CMA, the area head of management accounting in the accountancy school and director of the Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology.

"This gift will enable UW's management accounting faculty to develop new courses and offer new programs that will benefit both undergraduate and graduate students as well as professionals currently in practice."

Rick Monk, president of CMA Canada Ontario, added: "We are delighted to be continuing that partnership by investing in the growth of management accounting education at UW. Our objective is to enable a broader range of students to pursue studies and careers in this specialized field."

Representing more than 18,000 CMAs and CMA candidates province-wide, CMA Canada Ontario is a self-governing professional organization that awards the Certified Management Accountant designation to qualified candidates in Ontario. It maintains standards of accreditation and member professionalism in management accounting to protect the public interest.

More about deans who change marks

Discussion was both lively and long, I'm told, when the senate undergraduate council met last Tuesday and discussed the need for regulations about the conditions under which the marks a faculty member assigns to students can be changed (upward or downward) by a dean or other authority.

There was no immediate decision on the issue, which had been referred to undergrad council (and also graduate council) by the provost.

Meanwhile, I have a comment from chemistry professor Fred McCourt, representing the faculty association, about the grievance that brought this issue to the fore. He suggests that my summary of the case, in the Daily Bulletin last week, wasn't entirely accurate:

"I note that you refer to the `unsuccessful' grievance (regarding grade changes made by the Dean of Mathematics in June of 2000. In fact, the Lipshitz grievance was not `unsuccessful': technically, the University lost the Lipshitz grievance, whose main charge was that Professor Lipshitz' academic freedom had been `violated'. The Arbitrator says (see the sentence beginning at the bottom of p.45 of his report) that 'the process that was followed constituted a significant infringement of Professor Lipshitz' academic freedom due to a deficient consultation process, and a failure to make clear that the final grades were being given by the University without Professor Lipshitz' concurrence'. He said additionally that '[T]he issue of remedy was not, in fact, extensively argued at the hearing and if the parties consider it appropriate that anything in addition to this award is required, I would be pleased to receive further submissions on the issue of remedy.' He remained 'seized' in order to deal with further submissions with regard to remedy.

"Although the FAUW and the Administration have continued to discuss issues arising from the Arbitrator's report at the Faculty Relations Committee, they are still not fully resolved and, unfortunately, the matter is not yet closed, as the issue of appropriate remedy is still before us."

It's also worth adding, I think, that the arbitrator did rule that there is such a thing as institutional academic freedom, as well as the freedom enjoyed by individual professors, and that it can sometimes give deans the authority to change marks:

It must be made explicitly clear that the grades in question are being assigned by the University and not by the Professor, and the decision ought to be made only after a full, free, and frank exchange of views. . . .
The change of grades by Dean George was a decision falling within his jurisdiction and authority as Dean of the Faculty within the provisions of the University's policies and procedures. However, such powers must be exercised by the Dean in a manner consistent with the academic freedom entitlements of other members of the Faculty and on the basis of consultation and due process. . . .
The process that was followed constituted a significant infringement of Professor Lipshitz's academic freedom due to a deficient consultation process.

This is the day
Today is job ranking day for co-op students who took part in this term's interview process. Ranking forms will be available in Needles Hall after 10:00, and must be returned by 4 p.m. today.
A "technical overview" of planned standards and guidelines for UW web pages is scheduled for 10:30 today in Math and Computer room 2009. It's a repeat of last week's session for web page creators, which was so popular not everyone could get in.
Bob Bernstein of the University of Ottawa medical school will speak this afternoon under the title "What Can the IT-Enabled Health System Be and Do?" His talk, sponsored by the InfraNet Project and the Education Program for Health Informatics Professionals, starts at 4 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302.
Today's the last day to use the elevator in the Humanities building for quite some time. It'll be out of operation starting tomorrow morning; the scheduled date for a return to service, following an upgrade, is April 12.

The talk of the campus

People need a laugh in February, and they know it. They even feel the need to understand more about "the relationship between humour and our physical and mental health" -- which is why a capacity crowd is expected for Thursday's noon-hour talk on that subject. The speaker is Herb Lefcourt of UW's department of psychology, author of Humour: The Psychology of Living Buoyantly, published last year. The talk on Thursday is sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program. Johan Reis of the health services department, one of the organizers, says everybody who has sent in registrations by mail will find a seat, but that pretty much fills the room (Davis Centre 1302). Some standing room at the back should be available for unregistered listeners, he adds. The event will start at 12 noon.

Five of nine students honoured with Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association scholarships this year are pursuing graduate degrees at Waterloo. The winners for 2001-02: Wafeez Ajoor, Dan Busuioc, Amirreza Khajehnasiri, Arash Mirbagheri, and Patrick James Reid. Research by the five was briefly profiled in the Gazette last week.

Late in January, the annual Residence Life Conference was held at McMaster University. Says Pam Charbonneau of UW's residence life office: "This is an opportunity for dons and residence life staff from most Ontario universities and some colleges to get together and discuss issues surrounding residence life and students in residence. Most presentations at the conference are done by dons -- three of our six submissions were accepted. There is an overall award given to the best presentation of the conference, and this year one of our three teams of presenters won this award for their presentation entitled 'Making International Students Feel At Home'. The dons were Mat Pigozzo (4th year engineering) and Melissa Alvares (4th year science), both dons in Wellesley Court at UW Place. They were among 36 student presentations at the conference. This was the first time UW has won this award."

A flyer around campus these days notes that the psychology department clinic "is looking for donations of new or gently used toys to update its playroom. A playroom stocked with engaging toys and activities is essential for the assessment and treatment of children, as many find it easier to express themselves through play than through words. Much of the Clinic's current toys are old, damaged, or missing key pieces. Please help by dropping off any new or gently used toys at the Psychology Clinic, located directly beside the Early Childhood Education Centre (PAS 1031) between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Your help is greatly appreciated." Suggested donations include Fisher-Price playsets (e.g., "Little People"); puppets, dolls, action figures; dress-up clothes; building sets, blocks; games, complete puzzles; cars and trucks; markers,arts and craft supplies; books. Questions? Contact the psychology Clinic at ext. 3842.

It's just been announced that David Kirk, retired professor from UW's sociology department, will give this year's Spinoza-Meir Lecture in Holocaust and Jewish Studies. His topic: "Pierre Van Paassen (1895-1968): Canada's Anti-Nazi Journalist and Champion of the Jewish People". On an unrelated subject, Kirk wrote an interesting letter published in the National Post on February 4, in response to an article about political philosopher Frantz Fanon. Kirk called Fanon "a major theoretical underpinning of the Islamist terror war against the West":

During the late 1960s and into the 1970s, while trying to teach at the University of Waterloo, I had the unpleasant task of dealing with leftist students and faculty for whom Frantz Fanon was both hero and guru. It is the generation of those students, now often faculty at our colleges and universities, who make excuses for the terrorists ("The United States has earned the hate by its neglect of the Third World," etc.) and who bemoan President George W. Bush's hard-line war on terrorism.

Among other distinctions, Kirk was author of a column in the student newspaper The Chevron for a time, under the title "The Swinging Prof". His Spinoza-Meir Lecture will be given February 27 at 8 p.m. in Needles Hall room 3001.

Users of the e-mail service dubbed admmail -- a good many of the staff in UW's non-academic departments -- have been complaining about slow and erratic response from their machine lately. "As financial capabilities allow, we intend to purchase replacement hardware that is more powerful," says a memo from the information systems and technology department. And some software changes are in process that should also help. Meanwhile, IST is urging users to help too: "Limit the size of your inbox," don't send attachments if you don't have to, and use some common sense in sending mass mailings.

Project Ploughshares, based at Conrad Grebel University College, is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and among the celebrations will be a talk by Stephen Lewis, former politician and now United Nations "special envoy" for HIV and AIDS in Africa. Lewis will speak on "The World Is Falling Apart: What Role Civil Society?" The talk is scheduled for Saturday night, March 23, at 7:30 at The Cedars on Beechwood Drive in Waterloo. Free tickets are available from Ploughshares, phone 888-6541 ext. 256 or e-mail wstocker@ploughshares.ca.

Finally, a small correction: the Heimaey volcanic eruption in Iceland took place in 1973, not 1979 as I said in yesterday's Bulletin.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
February 19, 1976: A jazz-rock production of Euripides' "Medea" finishes a four-night run in the Humanities Theatre. February 19, 1997: University leaders welcome a federal budget that includes creation of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.