'Town hall' meeting today President David Johnston and provost Amit Chakma have invited staff and faculty members to the Humanities Theatre at 4:00 today for a "town hall meeting" at which they'll report on the university's affairs and answer questions. About 300 people attended last year's event.

Weighing and measuring the university

If you want to know how UW ranks among top Canadian universities in student-faculty ratio, the place to look is the new Performance Indicators book, nearly 100 pages of numbers and graphs that were presented to the board of governors last week.

The answer: the UW ratio is 27.6, third highest among the "Group of 10" research universities, whose ratios range from 31.7 to 17.6. It's on page 8 of the Indicators, along with a graph showing the number of faculty, male and female, each year for the past decade. (In 1995: a total of 885, with 23 per cent of them women.)

It's the second annual Indicators book, and much more polished than last year's initial effort. This year, for instance, most of the graphs are coded in the UW colours of black and gold. The book was put together by a task force chaired by Adel Sedra, dean of engineering, who told the board meeting that most of the actual work was done by Mary Jane Jennings and some of her colleagues in the institutional analysis and planning office.

"Institutional performance measurement is key to the strategic management of our resources and to sound planning for our future," an introduction explains. "Like other universities, we first undertook this performance indicator exercise for our own benefit. Recent developments in government accessibility and reporting will also render this exercise both timely and useful at the provincial level."

The first section is an "overview" with twelve key indicators: enrolment (1996-97 to 2005-06), degrees granted (a total of 4,986 last year), the number of international students (now 27 per cent of grads and 8 per cent of undergrads), first-year students' entering averages, the split between co-op and regular programs, earnings by co-op students, the number of faculty, student-faculty ratios, total research funding, funding from the three federal research granting councils, operating revenue, and annual fundraising.

Later sections go into more detail, making it possible to discover, for example, that undergraduate enrolment was 45 per cent co-op a decade ago, rose as high as 51 per cent in 2001-02, but is now back to 45 per cent. Another chart shows that first-year students' marks were high in 2003, the year of the "double cohort", fell slightly in 2004 and rose again in 2005.

Three pages of the report deal with a few findings from the National Survey of Student Engagement, which asked students earlier this year about such issues as "student-faculty interaction" and a "supportive campus environment". There are also statistics about dropout rates, the length of time it takes graduate students to complete a master's degree or PhD, and co-op students' employment rates.

Which continent produces the most international students? Page 42 has the answer: Asia, with 1,191 undergraduates last year. And which sends the fewest? Latin America, with 6. What's the ratio of staff members to faculty members? 2.0, the same as it was in 1996. How many journals does the UW library subscribe to? A little over 20,000, up from 13,000 a decade ago. What percentage of students in each faculty get Ontario Student Assistance Program funds, and how many offers of admission were made by each faculty last year? For those details, you'd better download the full report.

Back to top

Business students gather Saturday

from the UW media relations office

Waterloo will host the UW Distributive Education Clubs of America fall in-house competition and conference on Saturday, attracting about 130 Ontario students interested in business, marketing, management and entrepreneurship. The event, organized by the UWDECA chapter, will draw participants from UW, Queen's University, University of Western Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University, York University and Ryerson University, as well as from several high schools. DECA is a non-profit North American organization, engaging secondary and post-secondary students in business-related activities.

UWDECA's programs and activities focus on helping students grow and develop as professional marketing and management leaders. Student participants network with counterparts on other campuses and with business representatives.

"Great ideas are born when talent and opportunity come together," said Laura Chelaru, vice-president of UWDECA. "By bringing students together and placing them in a competitive environment overseen by business professionals and industry leaders, our organization creates a brilliant networking opportunity and a lasting experience."

UW has a master's program in business, entrepreneurship and technology, and Chelaru added that the university has considerable entrepreneurial and managerial talent in its six faculties. Student teams will compete in eight categories involving business simulation and case studies: e-commerce decision making, business-to-business marketing, sports and entertainment marketing, business ethics, business law, apparel accessories, retail management and financial services.

"During scheduled breaks, participants will have the opportunity to interact with potential employers and ask questions pertaining to different industries, all in a very informal environment," Chelaru said. As well, sponsors and partners will hold speaker sessions and set up booths displaying the latest technology. The two main sponsors are Telus Corp. and Infusion Angels. Other sponsors are the Cosco Group, Palm Inc., Deloitte and CGA (Certified General Accountants). The competition and conference take place in the J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Back to top

Pioneer remembered, and other notes

William G. (Bill) Scott, who died October 25, was not merely a sociology professor but a key figure in UW's early history (the photo at right is from the 1960s). A graduate of Western, with an MA from Toronto, he served during the Second World War, leaving the army as a Captain; taught at Waterloo College, forerunner of both UW and Wilfrid Laurier University; and worked in industrial relations. Then he joined the UW faculty in September 1960, just as the Faculty of Arts was enrolling its first students, and at various times served as acting chair of the economics and political science departments as well as his own. In May 1965 Scott, whose high profile on campus came partly from his beloved motorcycle, was appointed to a new position, called Provost. In charge of student affairs and services, the job would correspond to the present post of associate provost (student services). For a short time he was also acting warden of residences. He resigned as provost in 1969, went briefly to the University of Guelph, but continued in UW's soc department until his retirement in September 1985. Shortly afterwards he was given the status of Honorary Member of the University.

"I thought I would let you know," writes Kim McKee of the UW Visitor Centre, "that UW Day was a huge success this past Saturday. 4,362 visitors registered for our event, which is record-breaking attendance for our fall open house! Staff and volunteers from all over campus did an outstanding job providing visitors with important information about UW. Our keynote speaker, Marc Kielburger, provided guests with an outstanding address at our Welcome Session in the PAC. We've already heard some positive feedback about UW Day and what a great experience this group of prospective students (and their families) had here at the University of Waterloo!"

And from Frank Seglenieks, who manages the UW weather station: "I don't think it will be news to anybody that it was a really wet month of October, and although it got cold at the end of the month, overall it was only slightly colder than average. After seeing some really nice temperatures during the first part of October, up to and including the Thanksgiving weekend, we really turned a corner on October 12. In the last 20 days of the month, it was only above average on 5 of them, and the daytime highs of around 7 C were about 5 degrees below average. However, when you add in the daily low temperatures to the high temperatures for the month, we were only 0.5 C below average and this means that overall the month of October would still be considered average. It went below zero at 6:15 a.m. on October 7 for the first time since the spring. We had almost double the average amount of precipitation for the month, 131.4 mm compared to an average of 67.1 mm."

Black-and-gold ribbons like the one pictured at left will be on sale starting tomorrow at the engineering coffee-and-doughnut stand in Carl Pollock Hall, as well as various other locations in the engineering buildings. It's a fund-raiser aimed at putting up a memorial to Kenton Carnegie, the geological engineering student who was killed during a work term in Saskatchewan a year ago. "Kenton had an idea for his class when they graduated," says a memo on behalf of the 2007 geological and environmental-civil graduating class. "Their gift to the University of Waterloo would be a rock for the Peter Russell Rock Garden, located near the B2 Green. Kenton’s classmates want to make his dream a reality, commemorating his wonderful life. On behalf of and as a dedication to Kenton, his classmates are raising money to purchase a rock. Friends and classmates assembled one evening to hand-cut and glue over 500 black and yellow ribbons. The colour scheme was a suggestion from Kenton’s parents, Lori and Kim Carnegie. They represent Kenton’s involvement and achievements at the University of Waterloo. All proceeds from this campaign will go directly towards the purchase of a rock for the Peter Russell Rock Garden, dedicated to Kenton."

Details will be coming out soon about flu shot clinics for the general campus population, to be held starting November 23 (and a special clinic will be scheduled at the Architecture building in Cambridge, Health Services notes). . . . Speaking of architecture students, though I forgot to mention it in yesterday's Daily Bulletin, they were to get word at noon yesterday about their matches with winter term co-op jobs. . . . UW president David Johnston will be meeting with an economic delegation from the Flanders region of Belgium that is visiting local companies today under the sponsorship of Canada's Technology Triangle. . . .

The UW Recreation Committee, which organizes social events aimed at faculty and staff, has apparently struck a bonanza with the Four Nations Hockey Cup being played this week in Kitchener. Verna Keller of the teaching resource office, one of the key UWRC organizers, says "close to 100" employees and family members will be at the arena tonight to see the Canadian national team play the USA, and tickets are available ($5 a head) for tomorrow night's game against Sweden.

CAR

Back to top