February 24, 2003

Monday, February 24, 2003

'Money will be reallocated'
Faculty and grads can elect senators
Today's events and current notes
Happening in the coming weeks

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Old School: takeoff on college movies

'Money will be reallocated'

Budget cuts in the coming year will be accompanied by increases in UW's spending, provost Amit Chakma will tell the senate finance committee this afternoon.

The meetings
Senate finance committee: 3:30 p.m., Needles Hall 3004.
Senate: 4:30 p.m., Needles Hall 3001. Agenda includes a presentation from the Federation of Students, the usual "environmental scan" by the president, and the provost's monthly report.
The committee is meeting for an hour, before the monthly meeting of the full senate, to start its review of the operating budget for the current year and budget planning for 2003-04. Chakma has said he'll take a proposal to the April meeting of the UW board of governors so that a budget is in place by the time the fiscal year begins on May 1.

Tuition fees for the coming year were approved by the board earlier this month, but there are still plenty of unknowns in the budget formula, including the exact level of provincial government grants -- still the biggest item on the income side of the university's ledgers. But officials are moving ahead, basic their calculations on shrewd guesses.

The agenda for this afternoon's meeting includes a summary of the situation as described in the draft minutes of the February 4 board meeting. "For 2003-04," it says, "UW's three main sources of income are estimated to be: $128M in government grants; $111M in tuition fees; $26M in other fees and income.

"On the expenditure side, salary and benefits costs will increase, as will pension contributions; new investments in student aid and classrooms, utility and maintenance costs of capital assets will also rise. Capital borrowing costs and additional support for students through voluntary initiatives will also increase.

"In summary, average increases in costs look to be in the 4-5 percent range; net revenue growth is estimated to be 2-3 percent; and expenditure reductions across the board could be between 2 and 3 percent. It was noted that there has been a steady decline in government grants and a steady increase in tuition fees over the past number of years. . . .

"Governors heard that there are several variables which will impact the upcoming budget, including: level of government grants; mix of students; cost of borrowing money; number of additional first-year students the institution is asked to accept; level of tuition fees; income from investments; and the success of expenditure reduction.

"While there will be real, across-the-board budget cuts, money will be reallocated/diverted to growth areas, new initiatives, and new student support strategies."

Faculty and grads can elect senators -- a memo from the university secretariat

Nominations are requested for the following seats on Senate:

Faculty: One faculty member of the University to be elected by/from each Faculty of the University, terms from May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2006.

Faculty at large: Seven faculty members of the University to be elected by/from the members of faculty of the University, terms from May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2006.

St. Paul's United College: One faculty member of St. Paul's United College to be elected by/from the members of faculty of St. Paul's United College, term May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2006.

St. Jerome's University: One faculty member of St. Jerome's University to be elected by/from the members of faculty of St. Jerome's University, term May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2006.

Graduate students: Two graduate students of the University to be elected by/from the full- and part-time graduate students of the University, terms from May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2005.

Nomination forms are available from the Secretariat (ext. 6125) and online. At least five nominations are required in each case. Nominations should be sent to the Chief Returning Officer, Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2003. Elections will follow if necessary. A list of faculty and graduate student members of Senate whose terms expire as of April 30, 2003, can be found on the web site.

Today's events and current notes

Yesterday's snowstorm brought some power flickers across campus, but I'm told there was no real excitement and everything is back to working as it should. Now as everybody returns to class following "reading week" or the more modest "reading period", the big day is here for co-op students. Today, they get matched with spring term jobs, or at least they hope so. Details of matches will be posted at 3:00, but before that, a list of students who haven't been matched with jobs will be posted by noon in the CEC building. Then meetings for students without jobs will start at 4:30 or 5:30 p.m.

The Quest student information system is out of operation today, expected to come back up at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Why? "IST staff will be performing a defragmentation of the database," a memo explains, "i.e., reorganized for better performance." Students, faculty and administrators will find that most of the programs they use will not be available, but the "general student records inquiry", or Winq, is not much affected.

Anthropology professor Robert Park is the speaker today in the noontime lecture series at Kitchener Public Library. His topic: "Childhood in Inuit Society".

Miroslav Kis of BMO Financial (that's the Bank of Montreal by another name) will be on campus this afternoon to speak on "Business Risk Analysis: Link Between Information Security Theory and the Practice". Kis is co-author of BSDP, a speech recognition algorithm. His talk, sponsored by the cryptography group in the combinatorics and optimization department, starts at 3:30 in Math and Computer room 5136.

The Bangladeshi Students Association has a movie showing tonight: "Teen Kanya", or "Two Daughters", a 1961 work by Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray based on stories by poet Rabindranath Tagore. The movie, a Bengali-language classic with English subtitles, "illustrates the life of women in south Asian countries back in the 60s," writes Arif Islam, vice-president of the BSA. The showing starts at 7:15 in the lounge area of the Student Life Centre; admission is free.

I finally had a chance to see the inside of the new Co-op and Career Services building late last week, and I can report that the broad spaces, and the wall of windows along the main stairway, will take your breath away. Tours of the building are being offered again today and tomorrow, starting at 12 noon and 12:30 -- meet in the main lobby.

Engineering Shadow Days will be held tomorrow and Wednesday, says Kim Boucher in the engineering undergraduate office. "The day begins at 9:15 a.m. when high school students are paired with engineering students in their program of interest, and they will attend classes with them until lunch time. In the early afternoon I'll do a presentation in admissions and co-op, and then the shadows will choose a department-specific information session led by a professor. The day will end at 2:30. I've been working with the EngSoc Shadow Day directors, Kayley Ma and William Ha, to organize this very popular event." She said invitations were sent to schools within about an hour's drive of campus, There's more information online.

The Graduate Student Association has issued a call for nominations for positions on its executive, board of directors ad council for the coming year. Needed: a president, three vice-presidents, six at-large board members, and 20 at-large members of the council, all representing UW graduate students in various ways. The nomination deadline is March 6.

The university secretariat sends a reminder that Geoff McBoyle's term as dean of environmental studies expires June 30, 2004. "Accordingly, a Dean of Environmental Studies Nominating Committee is being constituted. Nominations are requested for the following seat on the Nominating Committee (at least three nominators are required in each case): One staff member elected by and from the regular staff of the Faculty of Environmental Studies Completed nominations should be sent to the Chief Returning Officer, University Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., Wednesday February 26, 2003. An election will follow if necessary. Nomination forms are available from the Secretariat at extension 6125 or online."

And . . . this is the week that payroll staff in UW's human resources department will be sending out T4 and T4A slips reporting the earnings (salaries, wages, scholarships) of people who were paid by the university during 2002, and now need the paperwork for their income tax returns. Sandra Hurlburt, assistant director of HR, says some 16,000 slips are being mailed to home addresses.

Happening in the coming weeks

Thursday, February 27: Open house about the north campus environmental reserve -- noon to 2 p.m., Davis Centre; 6 to 8 p.m., Waterloo Recreation Centre.

Friday, February 28: "Separate Schools -- Separate Communities? Pluralism and Education in Canada", lecture by Lois Sweet, St. Jerome's University, 7:30.

February 28 and March 1: "The Kalahari Family", premier Canadian showing of five films, sponsored by the anthropology department.

March 5-8: "The Laramie Project", play about the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder, performed by Studio 180, 8 p.m., Theatre of the Arts. (There's a discount for tickets bought by UW staff, faculty and students from the Humanities box office -- and in a change to what was previously announced, no deadline applies to that discount; buy the tickets any time before the performance and enjoy the subsidy, which comes from UW's student services office.)

March 6: Jewish studies lecture by Stephen Berk, "Germans and Jews: A Strange, Productive and Tragic Relationship", 7:30, Siegfried Hall.

March 6-7: Bechtel Lectures by Mennonite author Rudy Wiebe, 7:30, Conrad Grebel University College.

March 13: Henry Rollins performs, Humanities Theatre, 8 p.m.

March 18: Kelly Thambimuthu, this term's Walter Bean visiting professor, speaks on "Fossil Fuels, Climate Change and Kyoto", 4 p.m., Humanities Theatre.

March 19-22: Student production of "Godspell" at Conrad Grebel University College.

March 20: Open forum for students about planned changes to the co-op system, 4:30 p.m.

March 22: Grand opening of residence link and dining hall, Renison College, 11:30 a.m.

CAR