October 21, 2003

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Job descriptions will go on web
Actors today, lectures tomorrow
UW helps sponsor clean air event

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

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World University Service of Canada summer seminar in Malawi

Student killed on parkway
Police have identified the man killed in a crash on the Conestoga Parkway on Saturday as Andrew Uhrig, a third-year arts student.
This morning's Record reports that Uhrig "lost control of his Jaguar convertible at about 1:30 a.m. and hit a concrete median, then a light standard. Cambridge OPP said Uhrig was travelling at more than 160 kilometres an hour when the crash occurred between Ottawa Street and Highway 8."

Job descriptions will go on web

Lots of staff members will be getting job descriptions in a new format, before descriptions across campus are posted on a planned web site, a memo last week announced.

Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services), told department heads in the memo that a decision has been reached about the longstanding issue of making everybody's job description public. Here's what she wrote:

"The Staff Relations Committee recently discussed whether there should be open access to all Academic Support Staff job descriptions and salary grades through the web. At present, job descriptions for open positions only are available at Human Resources for staff members who may be considering applying for an advertised position. Committee members felt strongly that removing the confidentiality of descriptions and their corresponding grades would assist those who are looking for developmental opportunities and promotions and transfer to other positions. As well, an accessible job description web site could help to remove some of the misunderstandings regarding job classifications.

"The consensus of the Committee was that there should be open access to all job descriptions and their salary grades available through the web.

"Part of this discussion focused on the uneven quality of job descriptions currently held by Human Resources and in University departments. Clearly this means that we all may have some work to do on the quality and consistency of the job descriptions before they are made available to the university staff community. In November and December, Human Resources will be holding several workshops for managers, supervisors, administrative assistants and any other staff members who may be responsible for overseeing the preparation of job descriptions for staff.

"All job descriptions must be written using the format that is currently posted on the Human Resources web site. . . . Your Staff Relations Coordinator will assist you with any questions and with reviewing the overall quality and consistency of the descriptions before they are placed on the web site. We anticipate that this project will take no more than two years and hope that with luck and commitment from you and your staff, it will be completed well before that. . . .

"No requests for reclassifications or recruitment will be undertaken until they are accompanied by a current job description in the format required for this project. Maintenance of the job descriptions will continue to be an on-going responsibility of the management of each department but with an understanding that the public nature of the descriptions will make it imperative that they be kept current. Job descriptions will be required for each active job that is currently within a department."

She announced a pair of noon-hour meetings -- November 11 and December 10 -- to provide the nitty-gritty of "job description preparation and format".

Said the memo: "The Staff Relations Committee realizes this is a large project which will require oversight and extra work for all of you. Hopefully we can work together to make this as easy as possible and the broad timelines will provide you with some leeway in completing the project."

Actors today, lectures tomorrow

Today the drama and speech communication department presents the fourth annual Silversides Theatre Artists Event, featuring Studio 180 -- a professional company founded by UW alumni. Studio 180 (left) performed the Canadian premiere of "The Laramie Project", a collective play about the notorious murder of a gay man in Wyoming. They'll be here "to discuss the experience of launching a new company with the professional Canadian premiere of a landmark play", says Joel Greenberg of the drama department. "The discussion will also include the challenging transition that artists face as they move from the training process into the professional world." The event starts at 12:30 in the UW bookstore in South Campus Hall.

Meanwhile, the climate change "fair" continues today in the Student Life Centre, with displays and workshops touching on conservation, alternative energy and international cooperation. . . . The campus branch of the Waterloo County Education Credit Union presents a talk on Registered Education Savings Plans, at 12:15 in Davis Centre room 1302. . . . UW Graphics will hold a noon-hour seminar about its Courseware Solutions program -- call ext. 2210. . . . The Computer Science Club presents a talk today (4:30, Math and Computer room 2065) under the title ".NET and Linux: When Worlds Collide", by James Perry. . . .

Tomorrow's a day of notable lectures on campus. Here are four of them:

At 12 noon, Tim Jackson, partner in Tech Capital Partners, speaks on "Securing Capital for the Early Stage Technology Business". The talk is sponsored by the Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology, and takes place in its meeting room, Needles Hall room 1101. If there's any space left, last-minute RSVPs go to ext. 7167.
At 3 p.m., John Holmes of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania speaks on "Mining Health-Related Data: Methods and Applications in Research, Public Health, and Patient Care". The talk is sponsored by the Smarter Health Seminar series, and takes place in Davis Centre room 1302.
At 4 p.m., Janice MacKinnon, former New Democratic finance minister of Saskatchewan, speaks under the title "A New Prime Minister, a New Agenda: Health Care versus Education". She's brought to campus by the history and political science departments, and will meet with students and faculty in the course of the day's visit. The lecture is scheduled for the Humanities Theatre.
At 8 p.m. Nicholas Wolterstorff, professor emeritus at Yale University, gives the first of this year's two Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University. The general theme is "The Importance of Justice", and Wolterstorff will speak Wednesday night under the title "Why Are Christians and Others So Reluctant to Talk about Rights?" A second lecture is scheduled for Thursday night; both are in the Humanities Theatre. (Earlier tomorrow, at 3:30 in the Student Life Centre, Wolterstorff will give a student seminar, titled "Could God Speak?")

Also tomorrow, health services will have a nutrition booth in the Student Life Centre, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with information about "Backpack Snacks". . . . And the Klemmer Farmhouse Co-operative Nursery day care centre will hold an open house all day tomorrow (7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.) at its north campus home. . . .

UW helps sponsor clean air event -- from the UW media relations office

With mounting public alarm about the quality of air that we breathe, a UW-based network has taken a lead role in gathering experts from around the world for a clean air conference to be held November 5-7 in Rome.

Titled "Strategies for Clean Air and Health," the conference is being organized by the Network for Environmental Risk Assessment and Management (NERAM) (founded in 1995 by UW's Institute for Risk Research) and the AIRNET European Thematic Network on Air Pollution and Health.

The objective of the conference at Rome's Santo Spirito Hospital is to examine "health effective policy options for air quality management in North America and Europe based on currently available scientific information," said professor emeritus John Shortreed, of civil engineering, and a member of the conference planning committee. Research shows that both short term and long term exposures to particulate matter and other air pollutants are statistically associated with serious human health effects including premature death, heart-and breathing-related hospital admissions and emergency room visits, along with a worsening of asthma conditions.

The event will attract air quality policy makers, air quality managers at all levels of government, industry and business representatives, as well as researchers and representatives from universities, government agencies and the private sector. It will feature the presentation of synthesis papers, facilitated poster presentations and break-out group discussions.

Sponsors include Health Canada, the Ontario ministry of the environment, Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Shell and Rome E Health Authority.

Shortreed said the meeting will provide a platform for identifying innovative management approaches and future research needs to further support policy decisions. "The task of identifying strategies for effective air quality management to improve human health and the environment involves a number of scientific, technical and economic considerations," he said. Among the questions the conference will consider:

What does health effects research tell us about the risks from air pollution, including who should be protected, and from what sources or components of the air pollution mixture?

In addition to scientific evidence, what are the key considerations for public policy development, for example the role of scientific uncertainty, public risk perception, requirements for risk communication?

What sources contribute to risks to public health, and what methods are available to link sources to exposures? How can air quality modelling inform local, regional and continent-wide air management strategies?

What are the expected future benefits of existing policies for pollution reduction for cars, power plants?

What are currently the most prominent research priorities to improve air quality management, and is the science community targeting these priorities?

A keynote address on "Perspectives on the Science: Policy Interface" will be given by Canada's Ken Ogilvie, of Pollution Probe, and David Briggs, Imperial College London.

Shortreed said there are many epidemiologic (human population) studies carried out in North America and Europe that have demonstrated statistically significant ties between ambient levels of particulate matter and other air pollutants and a variety of human health problems, including death and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

CAR

Communications and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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