November 21, 2002

Thursday, November 21, 2002

Most job offers go to Canadians
Prof recalls UW's first fund-raising
Bank predicts costs will keep rising
Hagey Lecture tonight; other events

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

David Crane on this week's Innovation Summit

[Cake]
Cake at noon in the SLC
Today's the day for a celebration of UW's "best overall" placing in the recent Maclean's rankings.
The party starts at 12 noon in the Student Life Centre and will run about an hour. Brief remarks from UW president David Johnston and others will be followed by cake and other refreshments provided by the food services department. Everybody's invited.

Most job offers go to Canadians

The University Appointments Review Committee says it looked at 71 proposed hirings of UW faculty members last year, and 54 of them, or more than three-quarters, involved Canadian citizens and permanent residents of the country.

It was the first year that, following a change in Canadian government rules, universities could advertise faculty jobs outside Canada without first looking for a Canadian candidate. "Canadians and permanent residents who meet the qualifications for a position must continue to be given priority," UARC notes in its annual report. "And the statement endorsed by HRDC about Canadians/landed immigrants being considered first must be included in advertisements.

"The federal government will review this new policy in 2004-05."

The UARC report notes that not all of the 71 proposals it reviewed led to hirings. "A review may have led to an offer which was refused, and several reviews may be done before an appointment is made."

And in fact the year saw a total of 45 faculty hires, the report says: one in applied health sciences, 10 in arts, 21 in engineering, 11 in mathematics and two in science. There were none in environmental studies.

The report says 18 of the 71 proposals reviewed were for women candidates; 13 of the 54 faculty hired were women.

The committee's job is to give a quick okay before a job offer is made to a potential faculty member. Twice this year it said no, according to the report, "because the proposed hirings were at a rank higher than that advertised."

The report also notes that "in exceptional circumstances, with the approval of the Vice-President Academic & Provost, the UARC review process may be bypassed." That happened once in 2001-02.

[Hipel]

Prof recalls UW's first fund-raising

His work "doesn't feel like work at all", says Keith Hipel (right), professor of systems design engineering and the latest subject of a published "profile" from UW's Keystone Campaign.

Hipel "is a very busy man", the profile -- published as a no-charge advertisement in the Gazette -- points out. "But . . . he really enjoys his work, interacting with people and doing interesting things."

As his department's campaign representative, "he is also a valued Keystone Campaign volunteer," the profile says. Keystone is seeking to raise $4.5 million for UW from faculty and staff members by the time Campaign Waterloo, now being launched, winds up in 2007.

What do you personally value about the University? "I value many things about UW but especially the complete freedom I have as I strive to excel in what I most enjoy doing -- which is research and teaching."

What motivated you personally to give to Waterloo? "I was raised in a family that placed a high value on education, Even if I were not employed by the University of Waterloo and were not an alumnus, I would still financially support Waterloo."

What projects have you designated your gift to? "A part of my donation has been designated to Renison College. Because of my involvement with exchange programs with Tottori and Kyoto Universities in Japan, I appreciate the excellent Japanese language and East Asian cultural courses Renison offers that benefit our engineering students wishing to participate in these exchange programs. Additionally, I donate funds to Systems Design Engineering to help to ensure the quality of education for both our graduate and undergraduate students."

What is your best UW memory? "My best UW memory goes back to the late 1950's when I was a young boy and was playing in my dad's office (he co-owned Globe Stamping Co. Ltd., in downtown Kitchener). I remember hearing a loud knock on the door and my dad went to answer it. When he returned, I asked him who it was and he said that it was someone asking for money to help set up a new university called the University of Waterloo. I recall that my dad and his partner decided to donate $100 to this new university. My giving to the Keystone Campaign is a continuation of what my father and his partner did so many years ago."

Bank predicts costs will keep rising

The cost of a university degree is likely to go up at "close to a 4 per cent annual pace" during the time today's infants grow up and get their education, an economist at TD Bank Financial Group is predicting.

"Most parents hope their children will obtain a university education, but achieving this goal comes with an increasingly steep price tag," writes senior economist Craig Alexander in a paper on education costs published this week.

TD Bank chief executive Charles Baillie will be the speaker on Monday for this year's OPAS Visionary Seminar (OPAS being the Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills, Council of Ontario Universities). The seminar runs from 11:30 to 2:00 -- live at Queen's University, by videoconference in UW's Davis Centre room 1302 and at other places. Baillie's topic is "From Vision to Reality: Our Country, Your Future".
"Tuition and academic fees have been rising at a pace far above the national rate of inflation in recent years," he writes, "and, regrettably, there is no reason to expect this trend to change. Furthermore, there is much more to funding a post-secondary education than just the admission bills. Students require meals, books, school supplies, clothing, means of transportation, and often residence.

"From a financial planning point of view, the challenge is estimating the rate at which the total bill for university education will rise in the years ahead. While the Bank of Canada is likely to keep inflation at close to 2 per cent, an examination of student spending patterns suggests that the total cost of a university degree is likely to rise at close to a 4 per cent annual pace in the next two decades."

His study notes that "the actual cost will vary considerably across individual cases", but it's possible to predict some averages.

"In the 1990s, the average increase in tuition fees was more than 10 per cent. However, the rate of increase slowed heading into the new millennium, as governments increased their funding to universities, with tuition rising at an average annual rate of slightly above 4 per cent in 2000-02. Looking ahead, there is a significant risk that tuition and fees will rise at a faster pace.

"Some of the additional funding in recent years has been a restoration of transfer payments after prior government cutbacks. Meanwhile, future demands on government funds from an aging population, particularly for additional health care spending, are likely to dampen the growth in transfers to universities. Furthermore, some institutions are likely to introduce market-based tuition and fee structures, to more closely tie the cost of education to the future income earned by graduates. As a result, tuition and fees are expected to rise at close to a 6 per cent annual rate over the next two decades."

Other costs, such as books and computers, will rise more slowly, says Alexander. "Applying the forecasted price increases to the weighted basket of goods and services purchased by students leads to the result that the total cost of a university education will rise by 3.5 to 4.5 per cent a year."

The result: "$2,400 a year (including the government contribution), or $200 a month, must be put aside from when a child is born to fully fund a 4-year undergraduate degree if the student goes away to school. . . . The clear message is save early, save often."

Hagey Lecture tonight; other events

The role of the immune system in the control of infection will be the topic of this year's Hagey Lecture, to be given tonight by British medical researcher John Stanford. He'll speak at 8 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre, and at last word free tickets were still available (888-4908). Stanford's lecture, "Environmental Echoes: Immunological Learning from the Environment", will draw on his life work concerning the role of the immune system in the control of infection, as well as the interactions between bacteria and human physiology.

[BFE cover]
Books for the holidays: that's the idea of the annual Books for Everybody catalogue issued by Canadian publishers. Copies are available at the UW bookstore. "The catalogue features a selection of general adult books," says Noemia Fernandes of retail services, "in categories that range from fiction to food, art to reference, history to politics and everything in between." A "young readers edition" with children's books is included, as is a $5 coupon good at the bookstore.
Stanford will also give a student colloquium tomorrow at 3 p.m. in the Clarica Auditorium, Hallman Institute, Matthews Hall.

Today, meanwhile, the Graduate Student Association has invited Jerry Gray, director of UW's technology transfer and licensing office, to give a noon-hour seminar on intellectual property. "Learn what intellectual property is," says the GSA's announcement, "how you can ensure your rights, learn about the university's policy on IP ownership and have your questions answered." The session will start at 12:15 at the Grad House.

The Pure Math, Applied Math, Combinatorics and Optimization Club presents a talk today by Peter Hoffman, pure math professor, on "Boolos' Proof of Gödel's Theorem Using Berry's Paradox", at 4 p.m. in Math and Computer room 2034.

Then at 5 p.m. the Interdisciplinary Coffee Talk Society presents a talk at the Graduate House. Jan Narveson -- philosophy professor, doyen of the K-W Chamber Music Society, and "Cecilia" in the Gazette for three decades now -- will speak on "Why and How Is Music Meaningful?"

Tonight brings the 27th annual Engineering Awards Dinner, being held at the Waterloo Inn. I've had a peek at the menu, which is quite something, involving a choice between "Chicken Forestiere" and "Asian Twist" (in black bean and ginger sauce). Chair for the evening will be Arthur Church, a 1976 mechanical engineering graduate who now heads Mancor Industries, and the speaker is Vernon Lobo, a 1987 graduate, also in mechanical, who's now managing director of Mosaic Venture Partners in Toronto. Title for Lobo's talk: "Lessons They Don't Teach You in Engineering".

The Math Society presents a double double-bill for its Thursday night movies this week: "Enigma" and "A Beautiful Mind" in one room, likely Davis Centre room 1302, and "Summer Catch" and "The Rookie" in another room nearby. The projectors roll starting at 7:00, and admission is $2.

Tomorrow morning, the tourism seminar series continues with a talk by geography graduate student Lorri Krebs. Her topic: "The Internet and Tourism". The lecture starts at 9:30 in Environmental Studies I room 132.

And some things on the horizon:

A Friday night lecture at St. Jerome's University: "Justice and Compassion in Canadian Health Reform", by Sister Nuala Kenny.
A talk by an expert from Macromedia, makers of the Flash animation program, "about where the next steps in online course development will go". The event is of course sponsored by the LT3 technology centre, it's scheduled for Tuesday at 11 a.m., and Peter Goldsworthy in LT3 (peter@lt3) would appreciate RSVPs.
"Graphics Goes Hollywood", an open house in UW Graphics, next Wednesday from 11:00 to 3:00.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
November 21, 1973: The original Report of the President's Advisory Committee on Equal Rights for Women and Men is published.