February 13, 2003

Thursday, February 13, 2003

In February's frozen grip
Sociology 'faces hard choices'
Among the 46,000 medal winners

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

American Association for the Advancement of Science is meeting

[Hundreds of notes and photos]
A love note has to be really something to stand out among hundreds of others on the "Valentine Wall" in Mudie's, the Village I cafeteria. Delali Agbeli-Wotortsi, a first-year arts student, waits as Steve Woods, cook at Mudie's, works on the perfect message to capture a heart. The Valentine's wall is organized each year by Isabelle Dyet, manager of Mudie's, as a forum for amorous exchanges.

In February's frozen grip

Things are distinctly slowing down, as we get close to the annual reading week. The faculties of arts, science, environmental studies and applied health sciences will cancel classes all next week; mathematics and engineering mark a shorter "reading period", just Thursday and Friday.

Meanwhile, it is distinctly cold out there. "At least my left hand is starting to thaw out," said a colleague clutching a paper cup of hot coffee on a brief walk across campus. However, I can report that my car window, which was frozen shut yesterday, is working this morning -- a real convenience for trying to get into the parking lot.

The Record reports this morning that two more men have been charged as the result of a "vicious beating" on New Year's Eve in a parking lot near Federation Hall. One of the men newly charged with aggravated assault is from Mississauga, like the three who already faced charges; but the fifth man is a UW arts student. The incident on New Year's Eve was a link in the chain of events that led to the current closing of UW's student pubs in a dispute over how they're to be managed.

The co-op job process for the spring term is continuing. Regular interviews for most students have ended, and job ranking forms will be available tomorrow morning at 10:00 at the paging desk in the new CEC building. Meanwhile, the first job posting for architecture students will go up today.

A cancer control seminar is scheduled for 12 noon today in the Clarica Auditorium, Lyle Hallman Institute, Matthews Hall. The speaker is Allison McKinnon of the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, talking about "The Alberta Tobacco Reduction Strategy: Policy, Programs, Research and Evaluation".

[Windex] There's a "sushi party" from 6 to 8 tonight at the Graduate House -- "includes cultural presentation by the International Student Association . . . sake will be available for purchase." Tickets are $2 in advance or $4 at the door (higher for those who aren't graduate or international students). Later tonight at the Grad House, Dinocopter plays.

The Math Society continues to show Thursday night movies at the laughable ticket price of $2. Tonight's showings are "Sweet Home, Alabama" at 7:00 and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" at 9:00. Location: Math and Computer room 2066.

The feature today at Ground Zero restaurant in the Student Life Centre, where Caribbean week continues, is Jamaican jerk pork roast. . . . The drama department's production of two plays by Daniel MacIvor continues at 8:00 tonight in Studio 180 in the Humanities building. . . .

[No Sanctions, No Bombing]
It was 1998 when Nayer Wanas, a graduate student in systems design engineering, took picket sign in hand and posed with a friend at Speakers Corner in Kitchener. Five years later, the possibility of warfare between the United States and Iraq is still at the top of the news. Project Ploughshares will sponsor a public forum on the Iraq issue tonight at 7:00 at the Waterloo Inn on King Street North.

Sociology 'faces hard choices'

Like many other units at UW, the sociology department faces "some hard choices", says an academic program review report submitted to UW's senate. The review team had "a generally favourable judgment of the department and its activities as they are today", writes Bruce Mitchell, associate vice-president (academic).

He says UW's department, with 13 full-time faculty, is "medium-sized relative to other sociology programs in Canada" and "represents a broad diversity of research skills and substantive interests capable of providing a thorough general foundation in most major fields of Sociology, with the exception of demography. . . . Furthermore, the review team complimented the department for the very high level of cooperation among its members."

The teaching load in sociology dipped during the 1990s, "as it did for most Arts programs throughout Ontario", but is back to previous levels, except that distance education enrolment has continued to decline. There are MA and PhD programs.

Mitchell writes: "The review team commended the Department of Sociology for persevering in the face of difficult financial constraints, and noted that as a group they are active scholars and committed to their teaching. Furthermore, the review team complimented the department for the very high level of cooperation among its members.

"The review team concluded that it had a 'generally favourable judgment of the department and its activities as they are today'."

He goes on: "Despite the significant effort being made by faculty in the department, its 'tendency to try to be all things to all people . . . cannot continue much longer.' In its view, given budget restraints which suggest new hirings are unlikely, the choices related to refocusing are to increase class sizes, decrease class offerings, and/or end the across the board requirement for an honours essay. All of these options involve disadvantages, but the review team concluded that the status quo is not sustainable. . . . A plan for renewal should be a high priority.

"The review team concluded that over-teaching in the department appears to be chronic. . . . A reassessment of instructional offerings to bring commitments in line with available resources would appear to be essential." In particular, the review said, the department might want to reconsider its co-op program.

Responding to the report, "the Department indicates that the most critical issue is faculty resources, given that the last regular hiring was in 1992. In its view, the Department is badly in need of faculty renewal, both to ensure the vitality and freshness of perspectives and to meet teaching commitments.

"A second concern is the need to tighten the teaching focus, by reassessing the 80% of teaching committed to service courses. A third and related concern is to provide reasonable teaching loads and thereby support the faculty to maintain active research programs. A fourth concern is the wide breadth of plans offered, and the need to assess what can be realistically offered with existing resources. A fifth concern is to ensure capacity to provide enhancements, to attract high quality students."

The department says it intends to "reform the curriculum to ensure more focus", reduce its service teaching, "reduce commitment to distance education" and "enhance" the co-op option.

In a concluding comment, the associate vice-president writes that sociology "faces challenges shared by numerous other UW programs: providing a high quality and diverse undergraduate program and a focused graduate program with declining faculty resources."

Second thoughts
"Love can make it around the world in nanoseconds," I wrote yesterday, "but so can computer viruses." Well, an engineering faculty member took exception to that. "OK," he wrote by e-mail, "point taken about computer viruses, but love isn't really that fast. If the circumference of the earth is approximately 40 million metres, and messages travel at the speed of light, approximately 300 million metres per second, how long does it take for a message to travel around the earth? Go to the back of the physics class."
[Showing off medal]

Among the 46,000 medal winners

Several people associated with UW are among 46,000 across Canada to receive the Golden Jubilee Medal in the year that's just ended.

The medal was issued to celebrate 50 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth II and to honour "Canadians who have made a significant contribution to their fellow citizens, their community or to Canada".

Pictured at right is one of the recipients: Jeff Fischer, a graduate student in the Germanic and Slavic department. He's posing with the man who suggested him, G&S professor Robert Karpiak.

Medal recipients were suggested by people across Canada and nominated by organizations that ranged from the Red Cross to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, as well as Members of Parliament and provincial governments. Among the UW people who made the lists:

Arend Bonen, kinesiology professor, nominated by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology.

Marjorie Carroll, former Waterloo mayor and a leader of Campaign Waterloo, nominated by Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi.

Hilde English, lawyer and a member of the UW board of governors, also nominated by Telegdi.

Bob Harding, Brascan executive and current chair of the board of governors, nominated by the AUCC.

Mike Lazaridis, RIM executive and soon to be the new chancellor of UW, also nominated by Telegdi.

Val O'Donovan, industrialist and UW chancellor, nominated by Janko Peric, the MP for Cambridge, where he lives.

Peter Sims, lawyer, insurance executive and former char of the UW board of governors, also on Telegdi's list.

Medal nominations came from so many sources that I'd be surprised if there aren't other UW-related recipients whose names haven't come to my attention yet.

CAR