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| Yesterday |
Friday, February 28, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Waterloo Region ouline map]](/images/2003/0228regionmap.gif)
Planning staff from the Region of Waterloo will be on hand to present the draft "Growth Management Strategy" for review and discussion, says school of planning professor Mark Seasons, who helped organize the event. It's supported by UW's Community-University Research Alliance, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
"The Strategy," Seasons explains, "is designed to guide the type and location of future urban development in this region over the next 40 years. The Region is particularly interested in opinions about implementation considerations for the Strategy. This is an opportunity for the University community to become familiar with, and offer advice or comments about, the Region's growth management proposals."
It's a complex, volatile issue, involving population, transportation, industry, agriculture, environment, health and other factors. The regional government's web site for the Strategy gives some background:
The Region of Waterloo is one of the fastest growing areas in Ontario. It is now the 10th largest urban area in Canada, the 4th largest in Ontario and boasts a diversified $15 billion economy. Today, the Region has grown to more than 450,000 people. Current forecasts see this growth continuing into the future.Today's open house will run from 12:30 to 2:30 in the Environmental Studies I courtyard. Regional staff, says Seasons, will have available a collection of information panels, brochures and other material. The Regional Planners will present an overview of the planning process and draft directions at 1 p.m., followed by a question and answer session and general discussion period. Refreshments will be available.We are pushing to the edges of our urban boundaries and must now decide how to hold the line and, where necessary, expand the envelope of urbanization.
This Region is recognized for its innovative and progressive approach to growth management. However, now is the time to build upon our past success and prepare us to cope with the challenges that face our growing community. . . .
During the next 40 years, our population is expected to grow to approximately 700,000 people -- an increase of at least 50%. Growth will bring economic prosperity and vitality, but at the same time this growth will create a number of pressures. There will be a need for more affordable housing, more transportation choices, and choices to accommodate increased employment. There will also be a need to preserve what we value about the Region today -- features like our rivers, our agricultural lands, our culture and heritage, our downtown core areas, our quality of life, and the significant attributes of our countryside.
A letter to the campus, which I've been asked to relay, says the committee has summarized the comments into four main themes. "These themes will be discussed at upcoming Staff Relations Committee meetings and there will be reports periodically to the campus community. Benefits and early retirement options, identified as one of the common themes, is on the agenda for our March 21 meeting." Here they go:
Performance Reviews, Grade Classification, Job Descriptions, Salary System: the recourse available to staff who do not receive an annual review or who feel the process was not carried out as intended; how salary grade levels are determined; under what circumstances should staff expect their positions to be re-evaluated; why staff perceive similar jobs having different job classifications; how movement through the salary range occurs, particularly addressing the situation where staff who are in the same salary grade for a long time with no change in performance rating, are normally eligible for smaller salary increases; should all job descriptions be made more accessible.
Benefits and Early Retirement Options: clarification of the design and costs of the insured benefits program; why vision care is not part of the benefits plan; whether 'emergency leaves' should be replaced by 'personal days'; reviewing the cost and other implications of greater early retirement incentives within the pension plan. (Although these issues will be discussed by the Staff Relations Committee, they are the responsibility of the Pension & Benefits Committee which includes members from all the employee groups on campus.)
Work Life at UW: how to deal with ongoing heavy workloads, for example, guidance/training on 'how to do less with less'; clarification and implications of the differences between scheduled overtime and working extra hours voluntarily; the impact of the greater use of contract/casual employees; who monitors contract/casuals; impact of Policy 18 on career paths; the possibility of having one standard work week for all staff.
Perception of Human Resources and Staff Association: HR's advice/guidance is not consistent; HR treats many issues like position descriptions and job classifications with too much secrecy; when problems within a department are not being adequately addressed within the unit, who is responsible for taking action to ensure a positive, productive work environment; SA has little impact on major staff issues including salary, job redundancy, reductions in staff positions; how SA can help determine how UW compares to other universities on staff related issues.
Premiere here for African films"A Kalahari Family," an historic series of five films covering a 50-year period in South Africa by noted filmmaker-anthropologist John Marshall, will have its Canadian premiere at UW this weekend. Showings are tonight at 7:30, Saturday at 2:00 and 7:30, all in Arts Lecture Hall room 113. Marshall will be present to introduce the films and answer questions, says Anne Zeller, chair of UW's anthropology department, which is sponsoring the showings. There will also be a short talk after each set of films. Admission is $10 (free with WatCard). More from UW media relations. |
Meanwhile, there are tours of the new CEC building again today, at 12:00 and 12:30 (meet in the main lobby).
Sessions today in the career services workshop series include "Interview Skills: The Basics" and "Preparing for Questions". Information and registration for the workshops happens online.
As I was saying yesterday, a conference "to promote aboriginal awareness", being held today at Wilfrid Laurier University, is organized by the Shared Universities Native Development and Navigation Committee (SUNDANCe), which includes UW and the University of Guelph as well as Laurier.
The annual meeting of Imprint Publications, which publishes UW's student newspaper, starts at 2:00 today in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. . . . John Campbell of the University of Memphis speaks today (on "Darwin's Rhetoric") at the regular philosophy department colloquium, which starts at 2:30 in Humanities room 334. . . . Tonight's party at the Graduate House, starting at 9:00, is being advertised as "Austin Powers in Goldmember Mixer . . . grad shag baby!"
A tough issue gets an airing tonight in a public lecture for the St. Jerome's Centre for Catholic Experience. "Today, Canada is composed not of two faiths, but of dozens. However, our separate and public school systems were established to accommodate only Catholics and Protestants, not the variety of religious communities we find today. Long-time journalist and now Carleton University professor, Lois Sweet, will examine the historic Catholic-Protestant conflicts that created separate schools. How can that system accommodate today's diverse communities? Sweet argues that religious diversity can be a force for good today -- a force, not only for personal growth, but for the formation of a stronger, more enlightened country." The lecture starts at 7:30, and will be held at Siegfried Hall at St. Jerome's University (not, as it says in the Centre's season brochure, at a downtown church).
About a different kind of schools, the Six Nations Community Youth Outreach group will present a play tonight at Conrad Grebel University College. The performance is titled "One Voice, Many Stories", and a news release explains: "Through research and talking to their elders, these youth have written a series of true stories that depict residential school experiences in their community. they invite us to revisit the legacy of the residential school experience for awareness, understanding, and healing." The performance starts at 8 p.m.; tickets are $10 and $5.
Another play comes to Grebel tomorrow, under the title "Lack Of". "It's written, directed, produced and performed by UW students," writes one of them, John Arnold of math. "The play is about four students living in a house together, all of them messed up in their own way and trying to find what they're missing. Much of the play was created through improvisation and collaborative work, so it was a lot of fun to work on and it'll be a lot of fun to see!" Performances are at 2:00 and 8:00 in the great hall at Grebel, with tickets $5 at the door.
A group from UW's staff association is making an outing to see the Kitchener Rangers play tonight at Kitchener Auditorium. . . . Something called "Dance Dance Dance" has the Humanities Theatre rented for the weekend. . . . Warrior athletes are off to the Ontario championships this weekend in figure skating (at Western), indoor hockey (at Toronto) and track and field (at York). . . .
Says a flyer: "Have you ever wanted to try contact lenses but were too worried about the price? Have you been told that you couldn't wear contact lenses because of your age or prescription? Do you ski, snowboard, sail? Do you enjoy holidays on the beach? Would you like to wear designer sunglasses but need a vision correction? We will give you the opportunity to try soft, disposable contact lenses at no charge with no obligation. . . .
"Come and have a beverage with the faculty, staff and students and see some of the latest optometric technology. Clinicians will be available to fit you with disposable contact lenses. Browse through our extensive range of sunglasses and pick up a bargain.
"It doesn't matter if you do not know your prescription. We will measure your prescription and eye shape using advanced optometric instrumentation. This will enable us to fit you with the appropriate lenses on the spot, which you can try, while you are here."
Some did-you-knows from the same flyer: "Coloured disposable lenses are now available; how would you like different coloured eyes from month to month? People with astigmatism can wear soft lenses, even disposable lenses! People who only need reading glasses can wear contact lenses. People who need bifocal spectacles can wear contact lenses. Patients of virtually any age and with almost any prescription can wear contact lenses. The cost of disposable lenses -- with all the benefits of a fresh, clean lens on a regular basis -- is now comparable with conventional lenses."
Wednesday's event will take place in the clinic area on the main floor of the Optometry building, just east of the North Campus Road (soon to be Hagey Boulevard). There's parking beside the building.
CAR