February 28, 2002

Thursday, February 28, 2002

Senate asks for a plan
Computing courses are offered
Really a job on the fringe
Events today and other notes

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

For the people who don't get a birthday this year

[Dawson]
Lorne Dawson, professor of sociology and religious studies, is a cool researcher. The faculty of arts says so on its web site, describing Dawson's expertise on "cults and the Internet" this month as part of a monthly feature drawing attention to research work in arts.

Senate asks for a plan

Student members of UW's senate were outspoken at this month's meeting, held Monday, as they pressed UW's leadership for "a tentative plan" saying how the university will handle the expected surge in enrolment.

And without visible opposition, the senate passed a three-part motion that asks for statistics, expectations, and new efforts to pay "special attention" to neglected fields of study.

The motions were first presented at the January meeting by Yaacov Iland, president of the Federation of Students. They were sent off to the senate's executive committee for discussion and minor revision, and Iland presented them again at Monday night's meeting.

Right next to the motions in the senate agenda was a copy of last month's "Why UW shall grow" memo from provost Amit Chakma, which contained at least partial answers to some of the questions Iland was raising in his motion: can the university get enough faculty members? What about residence space? What about money? And the memo argues vigorously that if UW doesn't grow in the number of students, it will have to shrink financially, as the likely income simply won't support the current number of faculty and staff.

Besides, Chakma said both in his memo and in remarks to the senate meeting, the university has social obligations to help deal with the "double cohort" crowd of would-be students this year and next. "If you could feel the agony that the students and parents are going through," he said, there could be no doubt that Waterloo has to help provide spaces for those young people to get an education. "For us as a publicly funded institution just to do nothing about the double cohort would not be acceptable."

However, he added that there's "one big assumption" behind all such planning: "That the government will live up to its promise of full funding for the growth." Universities had been counting on so-called "full average funding" for the current year's enrolment increase, but it was bigger than expected and the government didn't change its total allocation. So universities are now saying the funding per new student is only 40 per cent of what they were led to expect.

The first part of the motion passed by senate on Monday asks for annual statistics on enrolment, workload and cost in each academic department. The second part asks that UW "further strive to highlight the achievements of its community members in all disciplines and that special attention is paid to all those disciplines that have not gained sufficient public attention."

And the third part, noting that enrolment growth is "a major challenge" and that many questions have come up about how UW will cope, calls for "a tentative plan for enrolment in 2002-03 and 2003-04" to be presented to senate.

"This plan," says the motion, "should address, as best is possible, the following in terms of accommodating the proposed enrolment growth: Faculty to teach the increased courses; Office, classroom, lab and tutorial space; Residence rooms and off-campus housing; Teaching assistants and other teaching and technical support; Student services, including the Registrar's Office; Co-op jobs; Financial aid; Preparations for the possibility of higher than expected acceptance rates; Whether it is expected that government funding will be different from the 2001-02 situation of 40% funding when 100% funding was expected."

Computing courses are offered

The Information Systems and Technology department (IST) is offering a dozen short courses in March, as it does every month. The following courses are being offered to all faculty, staff, and students:

Creating Web Pages Using HTML and Unix
Introduction to Microsoft Access
Perl Tutorial

The following courses are part of the Skills for the Academic e-Workplace program, and are offered to faculty, grad students, and staff with instructional responsibilities:

Keeping Up With Your Research Literature -- Electronically!
Statistical Analysis with SAS
The SAS DATA Step
Bibliographic Databases with Reference Manager
Theses with Word
Theses with Scientific WorkPlace and LaTeX
Submitting Your Thesis Electronically
Database Management with Access
Data Acquisition
Scientific Graphing with Kaleidagraph

More information and a registration form are available on the web.

Really a job on the fringe -- by Jessica Jones, from the UW Recruiter newsletter for employers

Imagine: eleven days of uncensored performances by over 150 wacky theatre companies plus masses of off-the-wall buskers covering four blocks with half a million spectators. Now imagine trying to co-ordinate all that madness, ensuring that everything goes off without a hitch!

[Johnson] Rachel Johnson (right), a co-op student in the Applied Studies Cultural Management Specialization (CMS), did just that at the Edmonton Fringe Festival in August. She handled all aspects of the event, from scheduling over 1000 performances, to creating an 88-page program guide, to accommodating performers in multiple shows. The co-ordination of the festival was a huge puzzle, says Rachel, admitting, "It was a logistical nightmare!" Rachel responded to the challenge with tact, handling hundreds of small details and complex major events with a fresh perspective. "She embodied the famous co-op student flexibility," says her employer. "As the festival approached, her job changed on a weekly basis, but she never missed a beat."

Rachel recognizes that her employer, Festival Director David Cheoros, went out of his way to contribute to her development over the term. Cheoros, she believes, "really knew what would most benefit me and tried to give me things to do that I could learn the most from and gain as many skills as possible." His wisdom as a co-op employer stems from his own days as a student in the CMS. Cheoros helps to professionally cultivate his students by tailoring the job to their ambitions. He assists his students in producing work reports that are both interesting for them to complete and useful for the organization.

The CMS's work terms in heritage, culture, and arts organizations are invaluable training for the next stage of life. Combined with a breadth of academics that includes computing, accounting, and management courses, the prestigious program attracts some of the keenest students on campus. For instance, Rachel chose a volunteer job in the art world over the offer of a paying job on her first term.

Rachel says that her experience at the Edmonton Fringe Festival was truly rewarding, and in no small part to her employer's commitment. Despite her numerous work term accomplishments, she believes that her biggest triumph was just making it through the frenzied term -- "surviving the Fringe Festival was the greatest accomplishment."

Events today and other notes

The faculty association offers the last of its open meetings to brief faculty members on proposed new articles in the Memorandum of Agreement, covering program closings, "financial exigency" and faculty layoffs. Ratification voting on the proposal is already under way. Today's open meeting starts at 4 p.m. in Humanities room 280.

The Entrepreneurs Association presents a talk today by Jim Davidson of iWheels Logistics (5:30 p.m., Davis Centre room 1302). Topic: "How to Build and Manage a Winning Team During the Startup Phase".

Seems to me Mardi Gras was a couple of weeks ago, but UW's food services isn't letting the spirit go -- there's a Mardi Gras dinner (chicken jambalaya, pork 'n' pepper stirfry and corn-and-pepper quiche) tonight in Mudie's cafeteria in Village I.

Faculty member Robert Jan van Pelt is today's speaker in the weekly architecture lecture series, at 7 p.m. in Environmental Studies room 280. He'll talk about his internationally known research on the construction of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Tonight, the student newspaper Imprint presents a free showing of the documentary "The Frank Truth", about "the most-hated and often-read publication in Canadian politics and media", at 7 p.m. in Physics room 145.

The women's basketball Warriors won their playoff game Tuesday night over Guelph's Gryphons (the score was 66-61), so they're off to Hamilton tonight to play the McMaster Marauders in a semifinal game. If they win -- when they win -- they'll face either Western or Brock tomorrow night.

Not to be missed: tonight brings TalEng, the once-a-term evening of performance by engineering students ("interpretive dancing, human contortion, stand-up comedy, vocal or instrumental music, feats of strength, any combination of these"). The show takes place, of course, in the Bombshelter pub in the Student Life Centre.

Of course you'll have to miss TalEng if, instead, you head to the Graduate House to watch the first episode of "Survivor 4" on the big-screen TV set. The show comes on at 8:00.

President David Johnston and other UW VIPs are on the west coast this week, and will meet alumni at two events:

A reception for Vancouver-area alumni, tonight from 6 to 8 at the Segal Centre, Simon Fraser University.
A luncheon in Victoria tomorrow, 11:30 at the Hotel Grand Pacific.

Also partying on the west coast tonight, but without Johnston, will be Seattle-area alumni, 7:30 p.m. at the Sideline Sportsbar in Bellevue.

The heating will be turned off in part of Matthews Hall -- the "first addition" or middle wing -- tomorrow from 8 a.m. to noon, the plant operations department advises.

There's something rather special at Renison College tomorrow -- a workshop on "self-care". Let me quote an explanation provided by social work student Jude Billard:

It is a large event, with over 50 participants registered and an availability of possibly 20 more spaces. We are having three workshops in the morning of which participants can choose two, then lunch (free, provided in part by Subway) and the afternoon will consist of a key note speaker, Christopher Ross, from WLU. The event begins at 10:00, with registration open at 9:30. There is a door prize, raffle tickets for participants and the theme of the workshop is "Who Helps the Helper" referring to social workers and their self-care. This event is being hosted in full by the Bachelor of Social Work class of 2002, and we will be graded on the event. The funds raised are to cover the cost of the workshop with any excess possibly going to a bursary for Renison Bachelor of Social Work students in the coming year.

Registration for the day, she notes, is $10 -- call 747-9120.

St. Jerome's University also has something rather special tomorrow: a lecture (8 p.m.) by former president Doug Letson, under the title "Power and Peril: The Perils of Writing about the Power of the Church". I'll say more about this occasion in tomorrow's Bulletin.

And tomorrow will be the annual "Two for Blue Day" in support of juvenile arthritis -- or rather, in support of the campaign against juvenile arthritis. "And you thought because I was on maternity leave, I wouldn't be bugging you!" writes Michelle Banic of the office of institutional analysis and planning, whose six-year-old daughter, Amanda, has JA. "We raised close to $700 last year," she writes. "People are encouraged to wear blue for JA," and to make $2 donations to the cause: call the Arthritis Society at 743-2820.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
February 28, 1990: Pat Robertson ends his UW career, in which he's held titles ranging from "assistant to the dean of arts" to "director of academic services" and eventually vice-president.