![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, December 22, 2005
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Seated at lunch table, centre right]](/images/2005/1222guild.jpg)
Paul Guild,
UW's vice-president (university research), enjoys the University Club's
Christmas buffet yesterday as the research office staff had their
holiday lunch. Guild will finish his five-year term as VP on December
31, and will take a year-long sabbatical leave before returning to the
department of management sciences as a faculty member.
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Meanwhile, faculty members are hunkering down to mark those exams, key control is processing a few last-minute requests from people who think they'll be dropping in to work over the Christmas holidays and will need building keys, and John Cunningham and his colleagues in the WatCard office are getting ready to re-program electronic doors in the residences after the last few students move out tomorrow.
The university will be closed from this Saturday, December 24, through Monday, January 2, with everybody back to work -- and students back in class for the winter term -- on Tuesday, January 3. Tomorrow's Daily Bulletin, which will be available through the UW home page all through the holiday, will have details on special events, emergency arrangements, and the few UW services that do keep functioning over that ten-day period.
Tomorrow, meanwhile, is officially a working day, although many staff are taking a day of holiday or overtime, and nobody doubts that some places across campus will close early. I have word of the following special arrangements affecting today and tomorrow:
• All food services outlets will be closed tomorrow, except for the Tim Horton's outlet in the Student Life Centre (7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. only). Today, several outlets are still open, including Mudie's cafeteria in Village I (closing at 7 p.m.).
• The administrative office and most services in the Architecture building, including the Musagetes Library, will be closed tomorrow.
• Extended exam hours for the Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries end tonight, with Porter closing at 11 p.m. and Davis at midnight. Tomorrow both libraries will be open from 8:00 to 6:00, then will close until January 3.
• The last recreational swim of the year is a final session from 9 to 10 p.m. today, as the Physical Activities Complex pool is closed tomorrow. Recreational skating at the Columbia Icefield (11:00 to 1:00) also winds up today. Gymnasium facilities at the Icefield and the PAC will be open Friday from 8:00 to 4:30.
The parking office will be closed from 12 noon to 1:30 today for the staff Christmas lunch. . . . The UW safety office has issued a memo about laboratory safety during the holiday period. . . . Tomorrow is payday for both monthly and biweekly payrolls. . . .
From information systems and technology comes this note: "Instructors interested in using UW-ACE (Angel Course Environment) for the Winter 2006 term can request the creation of their courses by going to the UW-ACE login screen and selecting Faculty: Create a Course. Students will cease to have access to Fall 2005 courses and be given access to Winter 2006 courses on Tuesday, January 3."
And about this "winter" business: the winter solstice passed last evening, and Frank Seglenieks of the UW weather station has already issued his quarterly summary. "Overall, the temperature was slightly above average for the fall of 2005," he writes, but mostly that was in October: "There hasn't been a day when the temperature has been higher than average since November 29." Between equinox and solstice, temperatures ranged from plus-26.9 to minus-21.0 Celsius. The season's first "measurable" snow, he adds, was seen November 17.
And now 'tis the season to be chilly -- and jolly. I happened to drive along University Avenue after dark last night, for the first time in a while, and noticed the traditional Christmas tree shining bright atop the Dana Porter Library, the highest point on campus. It'll be there nightly through the holidays.
The limit, which used to rise each year, has now been at $555 per person since January 2003. "Indexation of paramedical limits will be delayed to recoup, over time, the cost increases to the Plan as a result of adding chiropractic coverage," the report says.
When the provincial government pulled out of chiropractic funding in 2004, the UW plan introduced a stopgap measure to pay some of the difference. The arrangement has now been made permanent: "The Extended Health Care Plan will pay 80% of $12 per visit for the first 15 visits (effectively replicating what OHIP paid). After 15 visits, the current benefit of 80% of the reasonable and customary cost of a visit (100% of the cost if the out-of-pocket maximum is reached) continues to apply, as does the current annual maximum benefit of $555 per covered person."
Now in positions of powerA number of faculty members who took over administrative posts this summer and fall have not been introduced or announced in this Daily Bulletin -- so, for the record and before 2005 passes into history . . .• Kirsten Morris of applied mathematics became associate dean (graduate studies and research) in the faculty of mathematics as of June 1. • Micheal Stone of the school of planning became associate dean (computing) in the faculty of environmental studies as of July 1. • David Matthews became chair of the department of statistics and actuarial science as of September 1. • Terrance McMahon became chair of the department of chemistry (again) as of September 1. • William Taylor of biology became associate dean (research) in the faculty of science as of September 1. |
The information about the chiropractic benefit is just part of the six-page, fine-print report from the P&B committee, which was distributed to staff and faculty members late in November. It's also available online.
Some of the other highlights of the report:
"In addition to its on-going responsibility to manage the University's pensions and benefits plans, the Committee spent the last couple of years reviewing the Pension Plan's investment policy, which included a comprehensive asset liability study, ending relationships with two investment managers and initiating relationships with two new ones; and, saying goodbye to its long-standing Consulting Actuary, Harold Nudelman. . . .
"A comprehensive search for a new Consulting Actuary was undertaken, resulting in the appointment of Allan Shapira, Lead Actuary in Hewitt Associates' Retirement & Financial Management Practice. Allan's relationship with the Committee began in May 2005. . . .
"Prompted by the provincial government's decision in 2004 to remove some benefits from OHIP coverage, the Committee felt it necessary to prepare for the next time the government decides to download its responsibilities re health care. Hence, the following decisions: In the event the Ontario government decides to eliminate coverage (government 'downloads') for services which are also partially covered by the UW Extended Health Care Plan, the Pension & Benefits Committee will attempt to replace what was previously covered by OHIP by 'smoothing' or 'massaging' other similar benefits in order to make the change cost neutral. When the government decides to discontinue funding for benefits not partially covered by UW's Extended Health Care Plan, decisions on whether the UW Plan should pick up that coverage will be made on a case-by-case basis and subject to affordability. . . .
"In 2004, the Committee decided to conduct a review of the needs of the Plan and how those needs were being met by its current investment managers. The review resulted in the release of Sceptre Investment Counsel Ltd. and HSBC Asset Management (Canada) Ltd., and the hiring of McLean Budden and Highstreet Asset Management. The two other managers of UW's Pension Plan assets are INVESCO and TD Asset Management. . . .
"When considering the Actuarial Valuation [of the UW pension fund] as at January 1, 2004, the Committee was advised by the actuarial consultant of the need to modify some of the assumptions to more closely reflect reality, specifically those relating to mortality and investment returns. Much to our delight, we learned that the life span of university retirees significantly exceeds that of the rest of the population. However, the result of this and the other changes in assumptions increased the Pension Plan's liabilities by about $7.6M and increased the annual cost to the University marginally. The Committee also modified the method used to calculate the actuarial value of the assets. A new adjusted market value method was adopted which spreads the investment gains and losses vis-à-vis the expected return on a linear basis over three years. This increased the actuarial value of assets by approximately $49.2M."
The figures are from the annual report of the University Appointments Review Committee, presented to the November meeting of UW's senate. The committee is chaired by Flora Ng of the chemical engineering department.
More than half the proposed appointments were of non-Canadians (47) and 66 of the 92 were male. The largest number of them, 25, were in the faculty of science, with mathematics following (20 proposals in math and one shared by math and applied health sciences).
In the end, UW hired 46 men and 17 women to faculty positions, UARC says. Total hires were 16 in math, 15 in science, 11 in arts, 8 in engineering, 7 in AHS and 6 in environmental studies.
UARC's report comments on the way the faculties advertise when they're hiring (increasingly on websites, electronic bulletin boards and e-mail lists); the addition of a "spousal hiring" provision and special rules for "exceptional candidates" to UW's rules this year; and the federal government's delay in reviewing its regulations about hiring from outside Canada.
CAR