Board sees half-billion-dollar report

It was another year, another $613 million, for a university that now spends more than a thousand dollars a minute, around the clock.

“The university’s balance sheet continues to show a strong financial position,” says the audit committee of UW’s board of governors, in its memo submitting the university’s 2006-07 financial statement to last week’s board meeting.

The committee noted that in the year that ended April 30, 2007, UW “invested $40 million in new capital assets which included building additions, major research equipment and library acquisitions.”

The financial statement is a document for accountants rather than ordinary readers interested in how the university’s money was spent to support its work. For example, it doesn’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 $562.1 million in the past year, including $362.5 million in the general “operating fund”.

“Cash and investments increased by $69 million,” the audit committee’s report to the board said, “which includes new endowment contributions and one-time provincial grants received at year end. Endowments grew by $14 million or 9% bringing the balance to $172 million.”

The financial statements say UW’s total assets at the end of the year were $827.1 million — more than 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 university’s total income was $614 million, the financial statement shows. That’s up by just under 10 per cent from 2005-06.

Scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students were some $43 million in the past year, “an increase of 8% over the prior year”, the audit committee points out. Another big expense was utility bills of some $11 million, a figure that’s actually lower than the cost in the previous year.

Turnover during the year was $16.5 million in retail services, $22.8 million in the residences, and $2.0 million in parking.

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Social innovation in tonight's spotlight

from the UW media relations office

Frances Westley, a leading Canadian scholar who is making key contributions to national and international social innovation, will explain in a public lecture tonight how universities in general, and her new field in particular, can help make society a better place to live. She will also accept a donation from two local organizations.

Westley (left), who holds the J.W. McConnell Chair in Social Innovation, will give a talk entitled Social Innovation and the Role of the University. It takes place at 7 p.m. in the Festival Room in South Campus Hall. Admission is free, but seating is limited. To reserve a seat, call ext. 38214.

"Social innovation explores new and effective ways of addressing intractable social problems," says Westley. "At Waterloo, we will design and lead academic programs to strengthen the capacity for social innovation in engaging researchers and practitioners across the country in collaborative work to find and test innovative solutions to these social problems."

Earlier this year, UW launched a new initiative entitled "Social Innovation Generation (SiG) at Waterloo", funded by a $4 million donation from the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and additional support from UW and the Ontario government. Westley joined UW this summer and is developing a Canada-wide network of social innovation researchers.

Tonight, the social innovation initiative will accept $75,000 from the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation and another $75,000 from the Frank Cowan Foundation to hire a community catalyst as well as to launch a social innovation luncheon series, a leaders' circle and special events.

"Social Innovation Generation has the potential of bringing knowledge to a broader group of people, and the opportunity to affect positive change," says Maureen Cowan, president of the Frank Cowan Foundation. "Once again the Waterloo Region has the opportunity to be the base of an exciting and potentially transformational initiative, and we are pleased to be able to support its launch."

"Social innovation is alive and well in Waterloo Region. This initiative will provide the support and opportunities to advance this innovation to a new level," says Hulene Montgomery, CEO of the Hallman Foundation. "We believe our investment in this project will advance the search to find creative solutions to intractable social problems. A strength of this initiative is the partnership between the university and the community which combines academic knowledge with the lived expertise of people working in the field."

In her talk, Westley will draw on her most recent book, Getting to Maybe, which focuses on the dynamics of social innovation and institutional entrepreneurship in complex adaptive systems. The book, co-authored with Brenda Zimmerman, a business professor at York University, and Michael Quinn Patton, an organizational development consultant, explores real-life examples of social change involving volunteers, leaders and organizations.

Westley is a renowned scholar and consultant in the areas of social innovation, strategies for sustainable development, middle management and strategic change, visionary leadership and inter-organizational collaboration. Before joining UW, she was the director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at University of Wisconsin at Madison. Previously, she was the James McGill Professor of Strategy at McGill University's faculty of management and director of the McGill-Dupont Initiative on Social Innovation.

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Programming team wins; other notes

A UW team will be in the world championships of the ACM Collegiate Programming Contest again this year. Coach Gordon Cormack, of the school of computer science, reports that Waterloo's three teams placed first, third and fifth in a field of 116 teams in the East Central Region of the contest, held over the weekend at sites in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario. Waterloo Black, the first-place team, thus earns a berth at the ACM ICPC World Finals, to be held April 6-8 in Banff. Members of that team, which solved all eight of the problems posed, are Simon Parent, Konstantin Lopyrev, and Richard Peng. The Waterloo Red team, solving six of the eight problems, included Ricky Ngan, Ning Zhang and Yin Zhao; and Waterloo Gold, solving five problems, was made up of Bo Hong Deng, Andy Kong and Darin Tay. It's the 16th straight year that Waterloo has qualified for the world finals.

Waterloo International, which was created earlier this year to bring together various units involved in UW's worldwide activities, will hold its grand opening tomorrow at its new offices in Needles Hall, just in time for International Education Week. "Internationalization is a dynamic high-priority area for UW," Wendy Mertz writes from the new office, which is headed by associate vice-president Gail Cuthbert Brandt. "Waterloo International is a new amalgamated office designed to provide exemplary customer service to UW students, faculty, staff and international visitors. The Associate VP is the head of this unit, which houses the International Programs Office, International Student Office and an International Alumni Affairs officer. We're located on the first floor of Needles Hall. Join us in celebrating International Education Week and the official opening of Waterloo International by attending our Open House." It's scheduled for Tuesday from 2:30 to 5:00 in Needles Hall room 1101, and the dress code, the invitation adds, is "International Apparel preferred."

Robert Le Roy of the department of chemistry sends word that two major research conferences were held at UW over the weekend: "One is the the 23rd annual Symposium on Chemical Physics at the University of Waterloo, which started many years ago as a regional meeting, and quickly grew into the national meeting in this subdiscipline, with participants from coast to coast and a history of outstanding invited speakers which has included five Nobel Prize winners. This year's plenary speaker was Frederic Merkt, professor of physical chemistry at the ETH Zürich in Switzerland, a gifted young experimentalist who has earned world renown for his elegant high-resolution spectroscopic studies of highly excited molecules and molecular ions. The second conference held this past weekend was the 35th Ontario-Québec Physical Organic Mini-Symposium or POMS, which has annually brought together physical organic chemists from Ontario and Québec since 1973. This year is the first occasion that this meeting has been held at Waterloo, and Professor Monika Barra was the host and local organizer. The fact that these two major academic events passed by almost unrecorded is a reflection of the way researchers in chemistry function: we are so busy doing things, we forget to take the time to advertise more broadly."

An announcement from the university secretariat makes it known that "The University of Waterloo is looking for a Chancellor (term from May 1, 2009, to April 30, 2012) to succeed Dr. Mike Lazaridis, whose second term ends April 30, 2009.  Candidates must be Canadian citizens.  Duties include membership on the Senate and Board of Governors and presiding at Convocation ceremonies. Any member of the University community or UW alumni is invited to send nominations, accompanied by a resumé, if possible, by January 31, 2008, to Lois Claxton, Secretary of the Chancellor Nominating Committee, Secretariat, University of Waterloo. All nominations will be treated in confidence."

The Centre for Teaching Excellence is holding an "open classroom" session for faculty today, hosted by Barbara Moffatt of the biology department. • Johann Werner, who served UW as a building serviceperson in plant operations from 1986 to his retirement in the fall of 2000, died October 7. • The "Leadership for Results" staff training series is continuing, with a session on "Proactive Listening" scheduled for this Wednesday morning.

Proposals for grants from the new arts endowment fund, supported by a fee collected from all arts students, will be received until November 14, fund director Caitlin Cull advises. • As the women's soccer season winds up, Danielle Deloyer of the Warriors has been named to the Ontario University Athletics all-star team. • The career services workshop on "Working Effectively in Another Culture" is being offered only once this term, this Wednesday afternoon; registration for the session is online.

And . . . a memo from Peggy Jarvie, executive director of the co-op education department, announces that "only 3 students still seeking employment for this term, none of whom is a junior student. 3,672 students are employed, with 73 not participating. The 3 remaining students are seniors in Math, Engineering, and Science. This is an exceptional result, reflecting a robust job market as well as the hard work and diligence of our students, employers and CECS staff."

CAR

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