Senate sees UW's yearly statistics

Women now make up 24 per cent of UW’s faculty, and the average earnings of a co-op arts student on a work term are $10,600 — two of the hundreds of figures that can be plucked from the university’s third annual Performance Indicators report.

A much more sophisticated document than the first round of “indicators” produced two years ago, the 2007 report, some 100 pages long, is being presented today at the monthly meeting of the UW senate. (The senate meeting, which is open to the public, starts at 4:30 in Needles Hall room 3001.)

“We first undertook this performance indicator exercise for our own benefit,” says a brief introduction. “Recent developments in government accountability and reporting will also render this exercise both timely and useful at the provincial level.”

The performance indicators are a key part of the accountability web site that UW introduced a few weeks ago. They’re put together by the office of institutional analysis and planning, “with the oversight,” the document says, “of the Task Force on Performance Indicators and the support of the Data Working Group.”

Figures and black-and-gold graphs summarize UW’s activity under nine main headings: undergraduate studies, graduate studies, research, faculty, staff, co-operative education, resources, fundraising, and library.

An overview begins with enrolment figures — approximately 24,400 students in 2006-07, up from 23,500 the previous year — and moves on to degrees granted, students’ entering averages, faculty numbers and student-faculty ratios, research funding, and operating revenue.

Then come the details. What percentage of undergraduate students are in co-op programs? 47. What percentage of them arrive with high school averages of 90 or higher? 18.6, higher than all other Ontario universities except Western and Queen’s. How many graduate students come from the continent of Africa? 54.

What’s the average of “tri-council” research funding per faculty member in science? $86,800. What percentage of faculty are over age 55? 27. How many staff are there for each faculty member? 2.0.

Other sections report that 68 per cent of the journals available in the UW library come electronically; 18.94 per cent of UW alumni contributed to the university in the period from 2002 to 2006; and Waterloo has 81.5 per cent of the floor space that it should have according to Ontario’s building formula.

The people behind the report “will continue their efforts to shed more light on important activities of the University,” a concluding page says. “In particular, we will continue to work with our provincial and national peers to define, collect and build data sets and indicators that will allow meaningful comparisons and benchmarking.”

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Focus on energy events next week

“UW Energy Days” next week will include a series of events exploring the challenges of building a sustainable energy system in Ontario, and will lead into a pair of conferences on other ramifications of the energy future.

"Access to energy services is critical to human well-being, but our energy systems need to change since they are currently not sustainable," says Ian Rowlands, associate dean (research) in the faculty of environmental studies. ES and the engineering faculty are coordinating a series of lectures, discussions and displays under the October 23-25 Energy Days banner.

A related event, the third annual “green energy youth conference” for middle- and high-school students, will be held this Sunday afternoon, October 21, in the Arts Lecture Hall. That event, organized by the engineering faculty and the Association for Bright Children, will teach students in Grades 7 to 12 about the feasibility of self-sufficient or partially self-sufficient homes and buildings.

Says Rowlands: "The challenge for us all is to discover ways in which advanced energy technologies that can provide us with vital energy services in a sustainable manner can be encouraged." So Energy Days will showcase a wide range of research into sustainable energy technology, including solar, wind and biogas energy sources, nuclear and clean coal efforts, carbon dioxide capture, hydrogen fuel cells and advanced battery technology, as well as the power grid itself and clean-vehicle technology.

Tuesday evening, October 23, brings a public talk and discussion on Ontario's Electricity Future: Opportunities and Challenges. Like much of next week’s programming, it will be held at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, 57 Erb Street West. It features Amir Shalaby, a vice-president of the Ontario Power Authority, and Jatin Nathwani, UW’s Ontario Research Chair in Public Policy for Sustainable Energy Management.

Wednesday, October 24, brings an Energy Days open house, from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Davis Centre foyer. The open house includes poster presentations and hands-on demonstrations of applications promoting green energy from various faculties at UW. As well, there will be a display of UW's green achievements, such as the Midnight Sun, Challenge X, Clean Snowmobile, Sustainable Technology Education Project and Residential Energy Efficiency Project.

Thursday, October 25, at 7:30 p.m. in AL room 116, there’s a public talk and discussion on Hot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge. The event features Mark Jaccard, a professor of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University, whose 2005 book Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy won the Donner Prize for the best book in Canadian public policy.

Following on the heels of UW’s Energy Days comes the Intelligent Waterloo Conference, “a one-day conference exploring approaches to using broadband technologies more effectively to lessen dependence on energy, distribute energy and influence energy policy”.

It’s scheduled for October 25, again at CIGI on Erb Street, and is sponsored by the city of Waterloo, CIGI, Communitech and UW.

Among the topics under discussion: “How can we save energy using broadband? What environments can we provide to simulate person-to-person contact at a distance? Can we outsource work to other places to reduce the need for office space and travel? What broadband technologies and pricing strategies can be used to encourage more energy conservation and what businesses might be derived from broadband to support that?”

Participants are expected to include municipal leaders, business and utilities executives, government representatives and academics.

In a “pre-conference tour”, participants can get a look at “what makes Waterloo the 2007 Intelligent Community of the Year. Hear from key individuals from organizations in Waterloo and get inside some of our world-class facilities and institutions, including Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the University of Waterloo Research + Technology Park Accelerator Centre and more.”

Finally, October 26-27 will bring CIGI’s own “third annual conference”, bringing more than 200 experts and policymakers from around the world together to discuss energy and the environment.

Participants will try to “define issues of critical global importance and identify innovative international governance practices that can assist in meeting global challenges”, a news release says. Title of the conference: "A Moment of Truth: Towards Sustainable Energy Futures?"

The annual meeting of CIGI's International Advisory Board of Governors will take place as part of the conference, which will be preceded by an inaugural dinner for the Canadian International Council and the conclusion of a series of conferences on “Breaking Global Deadlocks”. The energy conference is a partnership involving CIGI, UW and the Royal Society of Canada, marking the 5th, 50th and 125th anniversaries of these institutions.

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Staff grievance policy; more notes

Staff members across campus have another few days to send in any comments they’d like to make about the proposed new policy on “dispute resolution”, replacing the existing staff grievance policy. The new version of UW Policy 36 sets up a “tribunal” to address such grievances, with the power to make a “final and binding” decision. It was sent out for discussion in late September, and Trenny Canning of the university secretariat says she has received comments from seven people; the deadline is this Friday. The staff relations committee, the key body in writing the policy, will consider the comments at its meeting October 25, before sending a final version of the policy to the university president for approval, Canning said.

Also about Policy 36, this note comes from Trevor Grove of the staff association executive: “An interesting aspect to the new policy is the potential for the ‘staff advocate’ position to be not only another staff person but a ‘representative of the staff association’. This is intended to be an employee of the association, someone who is not a staff person and not subject to any ‘employee pressure’. Over time this person would provide continuity from the staff perspective, would become experienced at dealing with the intricacies of the dispute-resolution process and would help to provide consistency. The details of this proposed Staff Association position have yet to be worked out — it could be a full-time, part-time, on-demand (consulting) position or something else. It would have to be funded, of course. Once the new policy is in place, the SA will begin working on this new position.”

The Employee Assistance Program, which for a short time was mailing copies of Moods magazine to every staff and faculty member, has stopped doing that, says Linda Brogden of health services, a member of the EAP committee. Apparently there were too many complaints, some from people who thought it was inappropriate or found it unwelcome, others claiming that it was costing the university big bucks. (The cost, according to Brogden: one cent a copy.) "EAP decided to cut down our order," she says, "and supply each department with about five or six magazines. Anyone who would like to receive the magazine can contact me directly by either e-mail or phone, and I will make sure they get a copy." Moods appears four times a year. Published in Mississauga, it focuses on mood disorders and healthy living; the summer issue features military hero Roméo Dallaire, known for his battle with depression and the memories of the Rwandan genocide, as well as articles on "night eating", post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.

The UW Recreation Committee is offering beginner line-dancing classes Thursday noon-hours starting next week (e-mail uwrc@admmail for details). • The UW bookstore will hold a "Hurt Penguin Sale" Tuesday through Thursday in the South Campus Hall concourse. • Today's the deadline in the 2008 concerto and aria competition sponsored by Orchestra@UWaterloo as it prepares for April's big concert.

Sessions to develop a magazine for students in arts, to be called The Boar, are being held weekly (e-mail ashleycsanady@gmail.com for details). • The golf Warriors are competing in the Ontario University Athletics championships at Carleton University today. • Writing workshops, aimed only partially at those who had trouble with this fall's English Language Proficiency Exam, are continuing, including a "Report Writing" session today in counselling services.

And finally, this challenge, should you choose to accept it: “Create a video, in any style (live action or animated), that promotes living on campus during the spring academic term and the many associated benefits. The Department of Housing and Residences seeks to increase awareness of the opportunity to live on campus in spring 2008. In order to do this we are inviting students to create 30-45 second videos. Judges will narrow the field to 5 of the best videos, which will be voted on to decide the winner. After watching the videos, viewers should be aware of the opportunity to live on campus during the spring term and be intrigued enough to visit the housing website to learn more. Video should include the key messages: Live in residence this spring! Convenient, all inclusive living (including furniture!) No landlord, no subletting, no hassles.” The deadline for videos: midnight October 26. The fine print and some suggestions are online.

CAR

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