October 16, 2002

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Provost still urging staff: 'do less'
This year's volunteerism awards
The search for a graduate dean
Some notes and some events

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[Balloons over the SLC atrium]
Provost Amit Chakma (at left, in white cap) talks to staff members at last week's noontime "appreciation" event. Photo by Graphics photo-imaging.

Provost still urging staff: 'do less'

UW provost Amit Chakma, who said last winter that UW has "too much bureaucracy" and needs to find "ways of reducing our activity", says he's still preaching that text.

"We probably have been doing 'more with less'," Chakma said in a conversation Friday, reflecting on last week's "staff appreciation" event at the Student Life Centre. "Since my arrival, I have been advocating doing 'less with less'. . . . It's not catching up."

Because UW is so decentralized, and works with all the freedoms that are usual in a university, the provost can't just issue an order down the line, he said. "I still haven't found a mechanism for dealing with that. I'm more taking the approach of preaching."

He did some of that preaching when he spoke to hundreds of staff members at the SLC last Wednesday. "The university has been under significant financial stress for quite some time," he told them. "Our workload has gone up. Yet our staff have served us well, providing quality service in many ways."

Praising staff "commitment and dedication", he said people across campus have been doing "more with less" but are now beginning to turn their attention to finding ways of doing "less with less". A current example, the provost said, is the plan to provide monthly payroll information in electronic form, so thousands of printed pay slips will no longer be needed.

That "initiative" came from staff in the department involved -- human resources -- and that's where other ideas for reducing workload will have to come from, the provost said. "I don't want people to send me their ideas, because I'm not the right person to deal with them. They should discuss them with their managers."

He called for staff to surmount a "cultural difficulty" of typically not asking why certain tasks are being done. "Somebody tells you to do it, you do it." It's time to think about the larger purpose of each job, he said.

In many cases, Chakma said, doing "less" doesn't have to mean less service being provided. "You can do things differently," as with the pay slips, where employees across campus will still get their individual information but the labour of mailing documents is eliminated.

"But," he admitted, "there will be cases where doing less will simply mean doing less."

[Scoins]
Math professor is mourned
Ron Scoins, who retired from the math faculty last year, died Sunday. Said the dean of math, Alan George, in a memo yesterday morning: "He served the Faculty and the University for more than 25 years. He was an outstanding teacher, receiving a UW distinguished Teaching Award in 1999, and OCUFA's Teaching Award in 2000. Moreover, his contributions went well beyond the campus. He was a key individual in our mathematics contest operations, and was one of our leaders in the development and nurturing of the wonderful relationship we enjoy with high school teachers in Ontario and across the country. He was a teacher's teacher.
"Ron faced his illness in the same way he faced other challenges -- with courage, grace and optimism. To those who knew him and worked with him, saying that he will be missed seems profoundly inadequate. We have lost a wonderful friend with whom it was a joy to work, and a very special man."
A funeral service will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Waterloo, after visitation today (2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.) at the Edward R. Good Funeral Home.

This year's volunteerism awards -- a memo from the associate provost (human resources and student services)

The President's Circle Awards for Volunteerism were established in 1997 to recognize the significant contributions of students in volunteer work both within the University and the community at-large. The awards honour the extracurricular contributions of students in a variety of service areas, some of which may not be highly visible but nonetheless important to the community. A Committee normally selects ten recipients each year to receive awards of $250 each.

Any member of the University or the community at-large may nominate a student. As well, because volunteer work often has a low profile, students are very much encouraged to apply directly for an award.

Once again, I ask that you make these awards known to deserving students and consider nominating some of our extraordinary volunteers yourself. Application/nomination forms are available at the Student Awards Office (Needles Hall 2001), the Graduate Studies Office (Needles Hall 3021), the Federation of Students (Student Life Centre 1102), and the Student Life Office (Needles Hall 3006). Applications/nominations and reference forms must be returned to Heather Fitzgerald, Student Life Coordinator (Needles Hall 3006), by Friday, November 1.

More information, including eligibility requirements, may also be obtained from Heather Fitzgerald, Student Life Coordinator, ext. 6876, e-mail studentlife@uwaterloo.ca.

The search for a graduate dean

As UW starts the work of choosing its next dean of graduate studies, a memo is out from the university secretariat calling an election for seven members of the nominating committee.

"Per Policy 44," says the memo, "nominations are requested for one senator of professorial rank, to be elected by the Senate; and one senator of professorial rank from each Faculty (a total of six), to be elected by a vote of the regular faculty members within that Faculty."

Eligible members of senate are listed, faculty by faculty, on the secretariat web site and in a Notice in today's Gazette.

Nomination forms are available on the secretariat web site or directly from the secretariat in Needles Hall. The form is to be signed by three regular faculty members, and returned to the secretariat, NH 3060, by noon on Wednesday, October 30.

Jake Sivak of the optometry school left the dean's post on August 31, and associate provost Gary Waller is serving as interim dean of grad studies while the search is carried out.

Sportscast
The women's rugby team hosts McMaster at 3:00 this afternoon at Columbia Field, and at 4:30, same location, the men's team hosts Laurier. The volleyball teams will host McMaster tonight in the PAC -- women at 6 p.m., men at 8 p.m. And the field hockey Warriors host Guelph at 7:00 at University Stadium.
In Friday's Daily Bulletin, writing about men's soccer, I provided some statistics that were self-evidently wrong, as several readers pointed out. In particular, Laurier's Golden Hawks, having previously tied UW's Warriors, could hardly have a 7-0-0 won-lost-tied record. Sorry. Anyway, the Warriors faced the Golden Hawks again on Friday, and defeated them 3-2, with the result that Laurier -- still the national first-place team -- has a 5-1-2 record. UW is sitting at 5-2-2 and isn't nationally ranked.

Some notes and some events

People have been asking about the availability of flu shots on campus this year, and Linda Grant of health services provided the answer yesterday: "We now have on hand flu vaccine for the high risk population of students, staff and faculty. This is available without an appointment. The clinic for the healthy population of students, staff and faculty will be in the multi-purpose room at the SLC from Monday, November 11, until Thursday, November 14, from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m."

As I noted yesterday under the heading of "Today in UW History", radio station CKMS is marking its 25th anniversary. Jubilee celebrations were launched with a special day of programming yesterday, and special events are planned all through the coming year, says Chris Abbott of the station's promotions committee. CKMS can be heard at 100.3 FM and is also on the Internet.

Judie Lankowski writes from the information systems and technology department that "Effective Monday, October 21, the university switchboard will be staffed 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, to provide operator assistance to callers during regular business hours. The current automatic facilities remain available at all times. These deliver calls, by voice recognition or by entering the extension number, to faculty, staff, services, and all campus extensions. As a result of the introduction of voice recognition in May 2002, service has improved, and the need for operator intervention has decreased."

Today is "Professional and Post-Degree Day", and here's what that means:

Some people can't get enough of school. Others just want to know as much as humanly possible. Whatever your reasons for considering graduate or professional school, Career Services has an event for you. Wednesday, October 16, is Professional and Post Degree Day (PPD Day) in the SLC. Forty-four schools from across Canada and the US will be available to answer questions about furthering your education. There will also be a few representatives from schools in the UK and Australia at the event. The institutions at PPD Day offer graduate programs in social work, education, law, MBAs, veterinary medicine, optometry, chiropractic, and health technology to name a few. A number of post-degree programs from colleges will also be featured including health and environmental technology.
This is the first time that the University of Waterloo has hosted a PPD Day. Career Services decided to do so in response to inquiries from UW students. Faculties from other universities and colleges were also looking for a way to get information to UW students. PPD Day will provide an excellent opportunity for students to get direct information from these schools about the application process, programs, career outlooks, and salaries.

And this bulletin from Elisabeth Adrian in career services: the number of institutions represented today is up to 49. Booths will be open in the SLC from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Coincidentally, the annual MBA and law school fair will be held today at Wilfrid Laurier University -- 4 to 7 p.m. in the Paul Martin Centre.

There's a free concert at noontime today in the chapel at Conrad Grebel University College: "Britain Before Britten", music for cello and piano. Things start at 12:30.

Students in accountancy programs get the news today about job matches for the winter work term. Interviews continue, for students in other programs.

This afternoon brings a talk in the smarter health series sponsored by the InfraNet Project and the Education Program for Health Informatics Professionals. The talk is "Integrating the Health Record", by Andrew Szende of the Hospital for Sick Children and Pat Billard of IBM; it's scheduled for 3:00 in Davis Centre room 1302.

Steam will be shut down late tonight in all the buildings inside the ring road, from Matthews Hall in the north to PAS in the south. "Hot water may run cool," the plant operations department warns. The shutdown -- scheduled for 10 p.m. through 1 a.m. -- does not affect the residences or other buildings outside the ring road. It's the result of electrical work that needs to be done in the central plant.

Note for tomorrow: at 12 noon, the teaching resources and continuing education office will present a workshop on "exam preparation" -- not for students, but for instructors. "How can we construct good exam questions?" is the sort of thing that Geneviève Desmarais of TRACE will discuss. The workshop takes place tomorrow in Math and Computer room 5158; last-minute information should be available at ext. 3132.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
October 16, 1980: The Industrial Advisory Council, formed in UW's early days to support the co-op program, meets for the last time; it's to be succeeded by a more broadly defined Waterloo Advisory Council.