Board sees half-billion-dollar report

“The university’s balance sheet shows a strong financial position,” says the audit committee of UW’s board of governors, recommending that the 2005-06 financial statements be approved at today’s board meeting.

The meeting, which starts at 2:30 p.m. in the art gallery in East Campus Hall, will also hear an update on the 2006-07 operating budget, as well as a report on the past year’s “performance indicators”, everything from enrolment figures to the age of faculty members and the number of co-op jobs.

The financial statements, which cover the year that ended April 30, 2006, are a document for accountants rather than ordinary readers interested in how the university’s money was spent to support its work. For example, they don’t separate research funds from the “operating” funds used for teaching and general expenses. But some overview figures are available: for example, the university spent a total of $539.8 million in the past year, including $339.7 million in the general “operating fund”.

“Cash and investments increased in excess of $110 million,” the audit committee’s report to the board says, “owing mostly to new endowment contributions and a substantial grant from the provincial government ($50 million). The University invested $39 million in new capital assets which included building additions, major research equipment and library acquisitions. Endowments grew by $37 million or 31%.”

The financial statements say UW’s total assets at the end of the year were $750.9 million — almost half in investments, which would include the endowment funds, used to provide income for scholarships and other continuing activities. The rest of the assets include land, buildings, equipment, library books, accounts receivable, and cash.

The “consolidated total income” was $559 million, the committee points out to the board of governors. That’s up by 8 per cent from 2004-05.

It makes special note that scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students were more than $40 million in the past year, “an increase of 20% over the prior year”. Another big expense was utility bills of some $11.4 million.

Turnover during the year was $14.2 million in food services, $22.2 million in the residences, and $2.0 million in parking.

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Where's UW? 21 sites are listed

UW has the main campus (south and north), the Cambridge outpost that’s home to the school of architecture, and a spot of land in downtown Kitchener — but it turns out that’s just the beginning of the real estate, owned or rented, that the university occupies.

A full inventory is in the agenda documents for today’s meeting of the UW board of governors, in response to a board member’s request for such details. It shows seven sites owned by UW, and an eighth coming soon, as well as 13 leased properties.

“While UW’s practice is to acquire property rather than leasing it, circumstances can present where leasing is the only viable, and usually short-term option,” writes Mary Bales, a local real estate agent who is a board of governors member and chair of the building and properties committee.

The largest area occupied by UW of course is the central campus, a total of 961 acres with $6.1 million square feet of university-owned buildings. The university also owns about one acre for the architecture school in downtown Cambridge, and 3 acres off Victoria Street South in Kitchener that will be part of the planned health sciences complex. Another 8 acres in that area are listed as “potential” UW property, not yet officially owned but planned as part of the health sciences site.

Besides those urban campuses, UW owns an 18-acre property in Rockwood, east of Guelph, and 79 acres at Spongy Lake near Baden, west of Kitchener, both used for environmental studies research. In addition there’s a 41-acre property at Aberfoyle, south of Guelph, plus UW’s share of the Tri-Universities Group library storage facility in Guelph (about one acre).

The leased properties are all tiny, representing a total of some three acres. Several are near the main campus: 145 Columbia Street (office space for the Economic Development Program) and 195 Columbia (the former B. F. Goodrich building, used by various departments), six courts at the Waterloo Tennis Club, and parking lot E off Seagram Drive.

There are two outposts at the Waterloo Region landfill off Erb Street West, one for the Fire Research Facility and one for a Pavement and Transport Technology Facility.

There’s the office building on Gage Avenue in Kitchener that houses the distance and continuing education department.

There’s a parking lot across the street from the Architecture building, and there’s some office and classroom space in a nearby commercial building, listed as the “School of Architecture Annex”.

There’s the Artery Gallery on King Street in downtown Kitchener, and space in the former Victoria School that houses activities scheduled to move into the health sciences campus when it’s ready.

And there are two out-of-country facilities: studio, library and office space in Piazza Santa Maria, the base for the architecture school’s Rome program, and office space in a building on Broad Street in New York’s financial district, used by the faculty of mathematics.

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Local elections are two weeks away

Voters will go to the polls two weeks from today to elect municipal governments in communities across Ontario — including three officials who will automatically be members of UW’s board of governors.

Voting in Waterloo Region is particularly complicated because two levels of local government are involved here: the Region and the cities or townships. The Region includes three cities (Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge) and four townships (Wilmot, Wellesley, Woolwich, and North Dumfries).

The Region level is responsible for police, social services, waste management and major roads, among other activities. Voters will choose a Regional Chair and councillors from the cities and townships (two from Waterloo, four from Kitchener, two from Cambridge, and so on).

The city or township level is responsible for fire service, recreation and libraries, and zoning, among other activities. Voters in each community will choose a mayor and council members — six councillors from the wards of Kitchener, and seven from Waterloo (up from five in the past).

Most students who live near the main campus will find themselves in Waterloo’s Central-Columbia Ward (ward 6) or the Lakeshore Ward to the north or Uptown Ward to the south. A polling place will be set up on election day, November 13, in the Student Life Centre, for voters who live right on the campus.

Voters will also choose representatives to one of four school boards: the Waterloo Region District School Board, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, or one of two French-language boards (public or Catholic).

By law, the Regional Chair and the mayors of Kitchener and Waterloo are members of the UW board of governors. The incumbents are seeking re-election to all three positions: Carl Zehr in Kitchener, Herb Epp in Waterloo, and Ken Seiling of the Region.

Four people who work at UW have their names on the ballot: Tom Galloway of the plant operations department, seeking reelection to Regional council as a Kitchener representative; Ed Spike of electrical and computer engineering, seeking a Regional council seat as a Waterloo representative; Kate Windsor of the safety office, running for a Kitchener seat on the WRDSB; and Bill Poole of the Centre for Cultural Management, running for Kitchener city council in Ward 4 (South).

CAR

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