![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Michael Bird]](/images/2003/1029mbird.gif)
Michael Bird,
faculty member
in religious studies and fine arts
at UW and Renison College since 1969, died Monday night of heart failure.
Says Renison principal John Crossley:
"Michael was the longest serving member of the College's faculty, an
architect of the
Social Development Studies and Interdisciplinary Social Science programs,
an enormously popular and effective teacher, a scholar of the highest
quality who published many important works, a brilliant musician, a
wonderful colleague and a fine friend."
A brief memorial was held at the college yesterday and a full memorial
service will be planned, Crossley said.
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The package also includes a "special recognition award program" that will provide one-time $1,000 bonuses to 250 staff members a year, and that was the part that the board discussed for a few minutes yesterday before unanimously voting its approval.
Mark Walker of the registrar's office, one of the two staff representatives on the board of governors, raised the subject, telling the meeting that he's been hearing some "concerns" about the way the money will be distributed -- "the selection process, the criteria". Said Walker: "By some people on campus, it is being looked at as a competition, and there will be 'winners' and 'losers'."
The reply came from Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services), who is the senior administrator responsible for staff affairs. She reminded the board that the award program, like the rest of the salary settlement, was worked out by the staff compensation committee, in which leaders of the staff association sit down with administration representatives. She also noted that this year's settlement was intended to mirror the settlement that was reached by UW and the faculty association earlier in the summer, and which includes an "outstanding performance fund" for some individuals.
"There was a desire," said Scott, "to help recognize the many staff that put in something extra." She added that a subgroup from the compensation committee is "working out all the bugs, about distribution, how we will promote it, how we will reach a certain level of comfort with it".
It will be important, she said, to "have a wide swath through the organization", recognizing staff in all kinds of jobs and at all levels, not just the people who are already prominent and recognized. "The staff have been working incredibly hard," said Scott, "and with a great deal of dedication. We've had budget cuts and other things that have affected them."
The rules say that an individual can receive the bonus only once in three years, she noted, so that after three years as many as 750 staff -- roughly half of them all -- can have received the $1,000 award once.
On the other hand, she said, "there certainly will be people who won't ever get this award -- nor should they."
One board member, Kitchener mayor Carl Zehr, asked whether the program is meant to provide "recognition" of exceptional work, or "compensation" for doing it. "We wanted it," said Scott, "to be recognition that had some meaning in it."
She reminded the board that the staff association has invited comments about the new plan, but said very few had been received. The association will hold an open meeting next month to discuss it -- "to talk about how we're going to do it, not if," Scott said. That meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, in Biology I room 271.
This week's staff positionsListed today on the Positions Available memo from the human resources department are these opportunities:
More information, of course, is on the HR web site. |
The four-person crew has been travelling the globe visiting universities as part of their World Universities series, which provides Chinese young people with opportunities to learn about educational institutions all over the world. "We are looking for the best in the world," says Xu Zhong Cao, the crew's director, in an interview with the Windsor Star.
This year the series is focusing on Canadian universities, and the crew has visited Carleton, McGill, Windsor, and Western so far. UW and the other universities will each be featured in a 28-minute documentary to be aired over the Chinese New Year this winter.
The crew has plans to visit each faculty at UW, and will be conducting interviews with professors and students, as well as visiting labs and classrooms. CCTV will also be participating in some of the weekend's events, including Homecoming and the East Asian Festival. The entourage will be relying on a number of s interpreters.
The TV crew hopes to walk away with excellent stories and examples of academic achievement, research advances, and Waterloo talent in general. They will also be filming various facilities such as the library, housing, and other points of interest.
![[Holding them tight]](/images/2003/1029fan.gif)
Hockey fan
Shawn Cleary, left, a graduate student in civil engineering, will be off to
see the Maple Leafs play Vancouver on November 24. Will Russell, manager of
the Techworx store, presented a pair of tickets after Cleary was winner of a
customer draw last week. "They are in the hands of a diehard Leaf fan,"
Cleary reports, describing his unsuccessful attempt to buy a ticket -- any
ticket -- the day Internet sales began for the current hockey season. "I
started thinking about going across the border to see the Leafs play on the
road," he admits, but the win has saved him from that ignominy: "Thanks so
much, God bless hockey, and go Leafs go!"
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Head-shaving will be the order of the day on Friday, and leading the parade toward the razor is Kim Murphy of UW's food services department. It's a fund-raiser for the battle against children's cancer, under the label "Shave for the Cure". The actual shaving is scheduled for Friday evening at the Warrior basketball game in the Physical Activities Complex, but contributions are being collected now through the new Smiling Over Sickness club, and at Murphy's spot at Tim Horton's in the Davis Centre. There's also a contribution box in the Student Life Centre, and the hat will be passed at the basketball game.
A blood donor clinic continues today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Student Life Centre. . . . Today's career services workshops are "Interview Skills: the Basics" at 3;30 and "Preparing for Questions" at 4:30 (details on the career services web site). . . . Nancy Dahn (violin) and Timothy Steeves (piano) provide the music at today's free 12:30 concert at the Conrad Grebel University College chapel. . . . The student awards office is closed today "due to looming critical deadlines". . . .
The guest at today's brown-bag lunch (11:30 to 1:00, Environmental Studies I coffee shop) is David Wellhauser, one of the many candidates in the November 10 municipal election. . . . An information meeting about the Bachelor of Social Work program starts at 3:30 this afternoon in the chapel lounge, Luxton Building, Renison College. . . . The Society of International Students is continuing its "country presentation" series, with the emphasis today on Mexico (6 p.m., Rod Coutts Hall room 306). . . . The last of the season's "Cinema Italiano" showings is at 6:30 tonight, with "Mille Bolle Blu" in Italian with English subtitles (St. Jerome's University room 3027). . . .
Canadian novelist and poet Joan Crate will read from her work at 4:00 today at St. Jerome's University (the Sweeney Hall cafeteria, to be precise). Crate's first novel, Breathing Water, and her first book of poetry, Pale as Real Ladies: Poems for Pauline Johnson, both appeared in 1989. She teaches English and "First Nations literature" at Red Deer College in Alberta.
Everyone is welcome to a session this afternoon under the title "Language Degree -- Now What?" Several UW alumni with degrees in languages will talk about "their career, their skill set and the opportunities that exist". Refreshments are promised. The event starts at 5 p.m. in Tatham Centre room 2218A (a room that badly needs a flashier room number, if you ask me).
Among the doings on campus tomorrow:
Also on the weekend comes Saturday's 30th anniversary celebration for the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, with a guest lecture by United Nations "special envoy" Stephen Lewis. He'll speak at 7:00 Saturday night in the Humanities Theatre -- tickets are $10 (students $7) from WPIRG or the Humanities box office.
And a reminder: the "Creative Calories" silent auction organized by the university secretariat, as a United Way fund-raiser, is reaching deadline. The current top bid for the staff's cuisine is $325, and bidding will close Friday at noon. Trenny Canning (tcanning@admmail) will be happy to provide details.
CAR