February 17, 2003

Monday, February 17, 2003

Surprise! More applications to UW
Edey wins post of Feds president
Policy would define staff files
Other notes on a quiet morning

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

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'No limits' to high-tech growth in Waterloo Region

Surprise! More applications to UW

It's not only teenagers in Ontario's "double cohort" who want to come to UW this fall. The university has received 4,477 applications so far from people who aren't currently in Ontario high schools, says director of admissions Peter Burroughs.

The "non-OSS" category of applications includes students from outside Canada, those from other provinces, and people who are currently in the work force or in institutions such as community colleges. That category of application is up by 14.7 per cent from the figure at this time last year, Burroughs says in a memo.

"Given the very high profile that the 'double cohort' has had in the press," he writes, "I would have expected that there would not have been an increase in this category for 2003. Provincially, there has been a 19.5% increase. . . .

"Non-OSS applications will continue to increase until the various Faculty and program application deadlines are enforced beginning in mid-March. Last year, UW received a total of 6,215 non-OSS applications by the end of the 2002 admissions cycle."

Meanwhile, a few hundred more applications from Ontario high school students have been trickling in through the Ontario Universities Application Centre. Ontario-wide, a total of 101,949 students had applied as of February 5, including 7,560 who listed a Waterloo program as their first choice.

Altogether, UW has 31,837 applications from high school students -- first choice, second choice, all the way up to about tenth choice -- and those 4,477 applications from "non-OSS" candidates (including 1,351 who listed a UW program as first choice).

In general, says Burroughs, UW applications are up in every field of study, but not as much as the province-wide figures, which are close to twice last year's totals because of the double cohort graduating from high school. "Most of our more modest increases," he says, "are in programs that traditionally have had substantial numbers of applications and very high admission criteria. I expect that many applicants are aware of our historically high average requirements and have 'self-selected' in view of the expected competition."

[Edey]

Edey wins post of Feds president

A team emerging from the school of planning will lead the Federation of Students in the coming year, as Chris Edey (left), David Capper and John Fedy, who campaigned together, were victorious in last week's election. All are fourth-year urban planning students.

The Federation announced Friday night that Edey topped the polls to become president for 2003-04, Capper took the position of vice-president (administration and finance), and Fedy won as vice-president (internal). The team didn't have a candidate for the other executive position, vice-president (education), and that one went to math student Liam McHugh-Russell.

According to official Federation figures, turnout was 14.9 per cent for the presidential race, after six days of electronic balloting and three of on-campus polling stations. Slightly fewer students voted for the vice-presidential positions.

Edey drew 969 votes, ahead of rivals Alex Matan (788), Andrew Dilts (625), and Dan Colquhoun (213). He and the other new executive members will take office May 1.

Said Edey during his campaign: "I want to focus on a reasonable number of achievable goals that will benefit the students of Waterloo. In the past, candidates have promised things that they had no hope of ever delivering. I intend to be different. . . .

"The President must assertively represent students through all available channels, especially in dealing with university administration and outside organizations. Alliances must be built between student and faculty members on Senate. Only a strong and active Federation can ensure that student interests are being looked after."

He called for "reform" of students' council; a bus pass program; emphasis on student votes at the federal, provincial and municipal levels; a better method of dealing with refundable fees; and "a long-term solution to the three problems of quantity, quality and affordability of student housing near the university".

Policy would define staff files

Some proposed changes to Policy 18 -- the UW document that defines the rules for staff employment -- are on display for comment this month.

Most of the policy is not affected -- such as rules about recruitment, probationary periods, promotion, transfer, termination, disability, and the elimination of jobs because of changes in the university. Those sections mostly date from 1995.

The changes that are now being considered are in the section on discipline, and in a new passage that defines what records are kept on file in the human resources department. Says a brief preface to the draft policy:

The Staff Relations Committee has been working on several sections of this Policy, and is now ready to seek comments from the community. Specifically, the Committee has made modifications that describe what is and isn't contained in staff members' employment files (formerly referred to as Human Resource files; addition of Appendix C), and has clarified the information contained in Section V.B., Stages of Disciplinary Action, vis-a-vis the length of time disciplinary letters are kept and, for potential candidates for a position, the situation under which disciplinary letters are disclosed to a hiring manager.

One new provision would say that "Hiring managers have the right to know that a prospective candidate for a position has a warning letter on file, as well as a dissenting view (if such exists)."

But the major change is the new appendix defining an "Employment File" for a staff member: "Located in and maintained by Human Resources, the File is a collection of documents relevant to the staff member's employment at the University of Waterloo. Staff members have access to their own File (subject to the Protection of Privacy & Freedom of Information Guidelines) to verify the accuracy of the contents, request removal of items, and add explanatory comments and materials. Staff members may challenge, under Policy 36, the inclusion of any item in the File. The material in the File will be the primary resource used in decisions respecting the employment of regular staff members of the University of Waterloo."

The file is to include "performance appraisals from the last five years" as well as any disciplinary letters, and any documents required by the government.

"Medical information," says the draft, "is kept in a separate confidential file accessible only by the University's Medical Director or the HR Disability Advisor." The employment file is also not to include "anonymous, undated or unsigned material".

Any comments about the proposed changes will be considered if they're received by March 7. They should be sent to Trenny Canning in the university secretariat, tcanning@uwaterloo.ca.

Other notes on a quiet morning

"Reading week" is under way in four of six faculties, and that means a quiet campus -- even a quiet co-op department. "Last year was the first year I can remember when there were no interviews during study week," Olaf Naese of co-op tells me. "However, job ranking day took place on the Tuesday of study week, compared to this year" -- ranking for spring term jobs was held on Friday. The early end to interviews is possible because (and this is not necessarily good news) there are fewer jobs listed than there were a couple of years ago -- and now that co-op is in its new building, with more interview rooms than Needles Hall, the process can be crammed into fewer days. "Students complained in past years that they did not like interviews interfering with study week," Naese notes, "but we really could not afford to stop interviews for a week." Now, it's more than possible.

The Co-op and Career Services building will get some special visitors today, as a tour has been arranged for members of engineering faculty council before the council's monthly meeting this afternoon.

And . . . if you like cookies, you may want to hunt up someone on campus who's connected to the Girl Guides, and in particular to Link, the branch of Guiding for young women who are entering higher education and the work force. It's the season for selling their famous fund-raising cookies, this year with a new recipe (and I can say from direct personal experience that the chocolate ones are excellent). Link members won't have a fixed location for cookie sales this year, as they've sometimes had in the past, but you can find one by word of mouth, aroma of chocolate, a phone call to 886-4016 or e-mail to Laurie Strome in UW's library (lestrome@library).

CAR