![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, November 5, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Steffler]](/images/2004/1105steffler.jpg)
Judy Steffler
(right), a housekeeper ("house mom") in Village I,
died Monday
after a brief period of hospitalization. She was 53 and had
worked at UW since 1990.
"She was a very dedicated employee and will be greatly missed
by co-workers and the many students she came to know," says a
note from a colleague.
Visitation will take place today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 at the Henry
Walser Funeral Home in Kitchener, and the funeral will be held at 11 a.m.
Saturday at the chapel of the funeral home. Memorial donations to the
Big Brothers Association of K-W are suggested.
|
"In the early 90s," he writes, "the Board of Governors approved a plan for the development of the University of Waterloo campus. The plan provides that the valuable land occupied by surface parking on the south campus should be made available for future University buildings and identified these lots as potential building sites for development.
"In the past couple of years MacKenzie King Residence was built on "F" lot and the CEIT building on "B1". This loss of about 400 spaces along with concurrent increasing numbers of faculty, staff and students resulted in demand for parking spaces exceeding availability given the current allocation.
"In September, ungated lots for students were introduced and many parking spaces were reallocated. This change makes more efficient use of the parking lots and should provide the capacity to meet campus parking demands for the next five to seven years.
"Planning for beyond five years, however, must start now with the development of a contingency fund that will cover costs for construction of future facilities, whether new surface lots or a parking structure. Both are very expensive to build and a structure is expensive to maintain. To create the contingency fund we must increase the parking fees charged to faculty, staff, students and visitors to campus. These increases will be set aside and used solely for construction costs of future parking facilities."
The provost notes that "Because those parking in ungated student parking lots do not have the same assurance of finding a parking spot in a preferred lot, the fee increase will be lower.
"The Parking Advisory Committee met in August to discuss the fee structure and made the following recommendations, effective January 1, 2005, which I have accepted."
![[Flying Buttresses free show at the Bomber]](http://www.feds.ca/graphics/flying-buttress-nov-5-WEB-PREVIEW.gif)
Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services), reported to UW's board of governors last week that the value of the fund as of January 1, 2004, was $697,356,302. Its liabilities -- the amount needed to pay for the pensions of past and present staff and faculty members -- were $691,557,709.
Those figures are calculated by actuaries on a "going concern basis", on the assumption that UW is staying in business and the pension plan be paying out pensions for many decades into the future. There are other ways of calculating the health of such a fund, Scott's report said, and in fact on a "solvency basis" -- if the pension plan were shut down today -- it would have a surplus of more than $113 million.
She told the board that this year's valuation of the plan has been done on new actuarial "assumptions", as the experts who advise the P&B committee have been saying that the way the calculation was done in past years didn't reflect reality very well. "What they were suggesting was, in fact, how many pension plans are evaluated now," she said after the meeting.
One major change involves how the investments of the pension fund are valued. (About 40 per cent of the fund is in the stock market, and most of the rest in various kinds of bonds.) On the experts' advice, the committee is now using "a more modern approach that brings it closer to market value," Scott said. After some listless years in the stock market, current prices are up, and the figures used in the January 1 valuation reflect that increase to some degree.
The other change increases the fund's liabilities, because of experience in how many years it's typically having to pay pensions to retired faculty and staff members. "We tend to live a lot longer than normal people," Scott told the board of governors, drawing a few chuckles.
At the beginning of this year, there were a total of 3,025 "active" members of the pension plan (employees not yet retired) and 1,179 drawing pensions, as well as a few hundred with "deferred" pensions.
Employees pay a percentage of their salary into the pension plan each month or each two weeks, and UW, as the employer, must at least match that amount. The employer is responsible for paying more into the fund if the actuaries calculate that more will be needed. In the current year UW is paying 134 per cent of employee contributions, and that will rise to 165 per cent during 2005 -- with the university putting about $16.5 million into the fund and employees putting in about $10 million during the year.
| Regional contest schedule and live scoreboard |
Black's members are Ralph Furmaniak (2A pure math), Matei Zaharia (2A computer science) and David Narum (2nd year math exchange), said the coach, computer science professor Gordon Cormack.
Gold's members are Gordon Chiu (4A computer engineering), Tor Myklebust (3A pure math), and Geir Engdahl (3rd year math exchange).
The top three teams from the regional competition will qualify to attend the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals in Shanghai in April 2005. Waterloo has qualified for the World Finals every year for the past twelve years.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Housing lecture: Larry Smith, economics, speaks on "The Best
Argument for Affordable Housing", at fund-raising dinner for Charles Village,
project of the House of Friendship. Special music by Conrad Grebel University
College music department. Tonight, St. Aloysius Church, tickets
$50, phone 742-8327.
Chinese Christian Fellowship "Lifesong", 7 p.m., Humanities Theatre. '2,000 Hail Marys' prayer day organized by Youth for Christ, Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Notre Dame Chapel, St. Jerome's University. Everyone welcome at any time during the day. 'Persons with Dementia and Their Caretakers' forum, Saturday 9:30 to 5:30, Fairmont Royal York, Toronto, details online. Niagara ghost tour outing organized by UW Recreation Committee, Saturday. 'Autumn Magic' charity ball, Saturday night, Waterloo Inn, information charity@mathsoc. Drum making workshop Sunday 1 to 5 p.m., St. Paul's United College, information 885-1465 ext. 209. Pat Kalyn, retired from registrar's office, open house and show of paintings at home studio, Sunday 1 to 5, information 894-4118. Kumon Canada awards ceremony Sunday 3 p.m., Humanities Theatre. Town Planning Day special event: "master planning exercise" for Bleams and Fischer-Hallman area in Kitchener, organized by planning students and school of planning. City presentation followed by group brainstorming, Monday 9 to 11 a.m., Environmental Studies I courtyard, participants welcome, breakfast provided. Pamela Wallin gives the 2004 Visionary Seminar sponsored by Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills, Council of Ontario Universities, interactive videoconference Monday 11:30 to 2:00, Davis Centre room 1301, RSVP ext. 3580. Flu shot clinic for faculty, students and staff Tuesday through Friday, November 9-12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Student Life Centre. Electronic Portfolio Landscapes day-long showcase of ePortfolio projects at UW and elsewhere, November 15, information and reservations e-mail tracy@lt3. |
![[Sunglasses]](/images/2004/1105glasses.jpg)
The school of optometry will hold a "Holiday Celebration Eyewear Show"
from 2:30 to 8:00 today in the Optometry building. Says dispensary
supervisor Sandy Watson: "Representatives from
the most prominent frame companies will be presenting their latest frame
releases and lens consultants will be available to discuss the newest lens
technology.
For this evening only, the Eyewear Show prices will be 15% to 50%
off. There
will be draws for exciting door prizes such as Adidas and Escada
Sunglasses, $250 pair of glasses, $75 gift certificate, Guess and
Silhouette watches, Tommy Hilfiger duffel bag. Gourmet coffee and holiday
sweets will be served." Any questions? Call ext. 4733 or 6851.
The UW art gallery opens its "Alumni Juried Exhibition" tonight -- not yesterday, as I managed to say in the Daily Bulletin yesterday morning. Curator Carol Podedworny says the show represents 27 artists, all UW graduates, in various media: installation, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, and photography. The opening reception runs from 4 to 6 today at the gallery in East Campus Hall, and the show runs through January 20.
It's Homecoming weekend, with more events than there's room to tell -- fortunately, details are on the alumni affairs web site. The original meaning of "Homecoming" involves alumni coming home, and there will be a number of reunions this weekend, including a 1964-70 gathering at Conrad Grebel University College. Other highlights are on-campus parties (including Homefest on Saturday night), the Applied health sciences Fun Run on Saturday morning, Saturday night's dinner at St. Jerome's University launching a book about Pierre Trudeau, and "a morning of discovery and amusement" at the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum on Sunday, hosted by science alumni.
Children and their parents can experience science and technology at the annual science open house, Saturday from 10 to 4. Activities will be held in the Centre for Environmental and Information Technology, home of the Earth Sciences Museum. Activities include lunch with T-Rex the dinosaur, blasting rockets into the sky, a fossil fish dig, piloting a remote controlled airship, and turning pennies into "gold". The popular Chemistry Magic Shows are at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. New this year is a Gem Show, which will run both Saturday and Sunday. A dozen gem and mineral dealers will be on hand. Also planned are lectures (at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.) on Ontario diamonds, jewelry appraisal and physics exhibits. There will be a regional water display and an oil drill rig from Petrolia Discovery Centre.
Of special interest to students who don't hit the drinking spots: it's a Warrior Weekend, with a number of events organized for tonight and Saturday, mostly in the Student Life Centre. The weekend starts with a Homecoming pep rally at 7:00 ("face painting, noisemakers, Smiling Over Sickness Shave for a Cure") before the Warriors' Naismith game this evening. Later there are movies: "Shrek I", "Shrek II" and "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy". Saturday night brings a coffee-house starting at 9:30, as well as swing dance lessons, still in the SLC.
As always during Homecoming, there's the Naismith Classic basketball tournament, which this year includes four men's teams and four women's teams. Round-robin play begins today at 1:00 (women) and 6:00 (men) in the Physical Activities Complex. The women Warriors will face Western at 3 today, St. Mary's at 3 tomorrow and Roberts Wesleyan at noon on Sunday. The men face Dalhousie at 8 tonight, Bishop's at 8 on Saturday night and Brandon at 4:00 Sunday.
In other sports, the hockey men meet Brock at 7:30 tonight at York at 7:30 tomorrow, both at the Columbia Icefield. The hockey women are at Rochester on Saturday, but home on Sunday to play Laurier at 7:30, again at the Icefield. The men's rugby team plays for the OUA bronze medal tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. versus Queen's (at Columbia Field). The swim team is at a meet in Toronto today, and will face McMaster tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the PAC pool. The volleyball teams, both men and women, are at Queen's tomorrow and Royal Military College on Sunday. And the field hockey team continues in the national championship tournament at Edmonton. They'll face both Alberta and UBC today.
CAR