More than $1 million a week

That's the amount of private sector money that was flowing into UW in 2005-06 — a total of $55,709,615, according to the university's annual donor report. The amount is slightly ahead of what was raised in 2004-05, and well ahead of every other year in the university's history except for 2003-04, when a single $50 million gift produced a huge spike in the graph.

"Thank you for your tremendous support," says the report, which has been distributed to tens of thousands of alumni as well as other UW donors. It calculates the total number of givers at 21,648. And that's not counting most of the student donors, as nearly every UW student has contributed to Campaign Waterloo through refundable or voluntary fees to help pay for the Tatham Centre, faculty endowments and other projects.

Two-thirds of the money came from individuals, including $30.1 million from some 15,000 alumni, $4.4 million from "friends", and $1.5 million from faculty, staff and retirees (that year's share of the Keystone Campaign takings). A growing segment of support came from 2,902 parents of students, whose gifts reached $379,000.

The donor report includes a breakdown of where the money went: $27.3 million to mathematics (including David Cheriton's massive gift to the computer science school that now bears his name), $13 million to "university-wide projects", and smaller amounts to the other faculties and the colleges.

Much of the report is taken up with listing the names of donors, arranged in groups according to level of giving and other factors. Heading the list are two "gifts of $1 million or more" during the year, one from Cheriton and one from A. D. Friedberg. Six gifts of "$250,000 to $999,999" follow.

While much of the money given to UW is spent on capital projects such as buildings and equipment, large sums also go into the endowment fund, where the money is invested and the interest made available for spending year by year. UW's endowment hit $157.3 million by the end of 2005-06, the report says, a jump of 31 per cent in one year. The graph at left is said to show the increase in endowment funds, from $25 million ten years ago.

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Afghanistan experts cluster at CIGI

UW is co-hosting a gathering of experts of Canada and Afghanistan that started last night at the Centre for International Governance Innovation on Erb Street.

The event, entitled "Afghanistan: Transition Under Threat", continues through tomorrow and will discuss the progress of security and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. The invitation-only gathering includes Chris Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan, who is currently serving with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

A public event will be held this evening, and a press conference is planned for tomorrow afternoon to brief the media on the findings of the workshop, CIGI says.

A key purpose of the workshop is to develop an edited collection of papers on Afghanistan, due for release in April or May. The authors will represent perspectives from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Pakistan.

Among the areas of discussion today and tomorrow at CIGI: Looking Back at the Bonn Process; Afghanistan's State-Building Challenge; Afghanistan's Development Challenge; the Private Sector as an Engine of Development; Looking Ahead with the Afghanistan Compact; Canada's Role in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan; Domestic Implications of the Afghan Mission; Human Rights and Transitional Justice in Afghanistan; the Role of Afghan Civil Society in the Reconstruction and Peace-building Process; Standing Up the Afghan National Security Forces; Understanding and Addressing the Drug Economy; Understanding the Taliban-led Insurgency; Canada's Mission in Kandahar; and, Afghan-Pakistani Relations.

Tonight's public event, starting at 7 p.m., is co-sponsored by the Canadian Institute for International Affairs. Alexander, the former ambassador, will be the keynote speaker, and will focus his talk on Canada's role in Afghanistan. Several other workshop participants will be available for questions and media interviews. There is no charge for this event, but guests are asked to RSVP to events@cigionline.org.

The workshop as a whole is hosted by CIGI, a think-tank closely linked to UW and directed by Waterloo history professor John English. Other workshop partners include the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, UW's Centre on Federalism and Foreign Policy, and the Academic Council on the United Nations System.

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In the last week before Christmas

"I would like," a staff member writes, "to share with you an amazing story about one of our students. Melanie Doerig (left) is a 2B architecture student, is physically disabled, and is currently training to compete for a spot on the Paralympics cross country ski team. A few weeks into this work term she was diagnosed with a tumor of the mouth that was very aggressive and needed immediate surgery requiring part of her jaw bone to be removed. Melanie agreed to become a part of a research project to test a new prosthetic bone in place of a traditional bone grafts; however, as the project is still in the research phase the prosthetic piece (costing $2,000) is not covered by OHIP or extended health. Melanie has launched a charity campaign to help with the cost of the prosthetic bone. A $10 donation will get your name entered into a draw for a 2 night stay at the Fairmont Manoir Richelieu in Québec. If you would like to learn more about one of our incredible students or care to donate/purchase a ticket for the draw, go to her web site."

An alumni newsletter issued by UW's department of English reports that faculty member Kathy Acheson has produced "a valuable edition" of Anne Clifford's Memoir of 1603 and Diary of 1616 to 1619, to be published by Broadview in their Literary Texts series. Says a reviewer from Stanford University: "Lady Anne Clifford was a brilliant and powerful figure who successfully challenged the rule of patriarchy in seventeenth-century England, and whose life gives the lie to a whole complex of assumptions about what was possible for women in early modern society. Her diaries and letters, preserved from her youth into old age, show her continuously creating herself. Katharine O. Acheson is an expert and illuminating guide to Clifford's life and papers.”

The fall issue of the alumni newsletter from Conrad Grebel University College, Grebel Now, includes a front-page article about a two-day "visioning" retreat held by some 50 people in September. "This process," the newsletter reports, "resulted in a long list of issues ranging from the need to upgrade 40-year-old residence furnishings to revisiting the Mission Statement. . . . Some issues, like replacing retiring faculty members, were ranked highly. However, defining priorities for these positions will involve a more extensive process. . . . Creating opportunities to develop student leadership through the residence program and faculty interaction was also identified as a key issue. On the finance and development front, participants noted the need to further grow endowments for student support and academic programs."

One other thing: I'd appreciate it if somebody in each administrative office around campus would take a look at the "University Officers and Administrators" list that I maintain on behalf of Communications and Public Affairs, and report any updates or additions that are needed. This list, put together with the help of the University Secretariat, is designed to replace the list of administrators that used to appear in the undergraduate calendar each year, but lately has been squeezed out. I like to keep it up to date, but that depends on help from all over.

CAR

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