Fee changes on board's agenda today

Budgets, salaries and buildings will be on the agenda for today’s meeting of the UW board of governors — and so will the controversial removal of the fee that students have been paying for radio station CKMS.

Students voted in February, by a two-to-one margin, to drop the $5.50-a-term fee as of this September. Putting that decision into effect requires a vote of the board, which is responsible for UW’s financial affairs, including fees. Federation of Students officials have asked to have the CKMS fee on the agenda for today, and vice-president (administration and finance) Dennis Huber will bring it for approval along with other changes.

The board will also see a memo from Lois Claxton, secretary of the university, reporting that a law firm acting on behalf of the station has been in touch with the university. “The university has also,” she writes, “received six letters in support of CKMS from members of the UW community including alumni, a faculty member, and retirees; however, we have not received anything from a currently enrolled student.”

The bottom line on most students’ fee bills will be going down as the result of one other change that’s coming to the board for approval today. The “student services fee”, which pays for career, health and counselling services, as well as athletics, the writing clinic and some other supports for students, will fall from $127 a term for full-time undergraduates to $126, starting in the spring term. For full-time grad students it will drop from $105 to $102.

However, the co-op fee, paid each term by undergraduate students in co-operative programs, is to rise from the current $510 to $535, also effective in the spring. “The $25.00/term capita fee for the Tatham Centre continues,” a footnote reminds the board, “so that the fee appearing on the student fee statement is $560,” up from $535.

Tuition fee changes for 2008-09, effective May, were approved by the board at its last meeting in February.

The board of governors will be asked to give approval to the staff salary settlement for 2008-09 and 2009-10, which includes a complex calculation that should make the average individual increase somewhere above 3 per cent on May 1 this year and again next year. It will also vote on UW’s 2008-09 operating budget, the first budget in UW’s history to show total spending of more than $400 million.

And it will be presented with the revised Policies 70, 71 and 72 about student discipline, appeals and grievances, which were endorsed by the university’s senate in February.

For the first time in a long while, there are no building projects coming up for approval, but the board will be told about the campus master plan review that’s been launched by the building and properties committee, and briefed on a $3 million project for renovations to the Dana Porter Library, starting this month.

The board meeting will start at 1:00 today — not the usual 2:30 time — in Needles Hall room 3001.

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Authors honoured at library lecture

When John Manley gives his high-profile lecture in the Humanities Theatre this afternoon — "Afghanistan: Is There An Answer?" — he won't be the sole focus of attention. The talk is the annual "Friends of the Library" event, which each year recognizes not only a lecturer but a squadron of UW people who have written books or presented other creative achievements over the past twelve months.

The library office has provided this list of people whose books (and in a few cases art or other works) are being noted this year and will be on display.

• Abler, Thomas (anthropology), Cornplanter: Chief Warrior of the Allegany Senecas
• Acton, Carol (English), Grief in Wartime: Private Pain, Public Discourse
• Bonner, Kieran (sociology and human sciences, St. Jerome’s), Urban Enigmas: Montreal, Toronto, and the Problem of Comparing Cities
• Bow, Patricia (communications and public affairs), The Ruby Kingdom
• Brown, Elaine (housing and residences), floral designs
• Brown, Robert (actuarial science), Introduction to Ratemaking and Loss Reserving for Property and Casualty Insurance, Third Edition; Mathematics of Finance, Sixth Edition
• Buyers, Jane (fine arts), art
• Diamond, James A. (Jewish studies), Converts, Heretics, and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider
• Drysdale, Maureen (psychology, St. Jerome’s), Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Adolescence
• Eagles, Paul (recreation and leisure studies and planning), Tourism and Protected Areas: Benefits Beyond Boundaries
• Jewinski, Judi (Renison College), Making Sense: A Student's Guide to Research and Writing
• Johnston, David (president), Halsbury's Laws of Canada: Communications 2007
• Kenyon, Tim (philosophy), Clear Thinking in a Blurry World
• Lackenbauer, Whitney (history), Battle Grounds: The Canadian Military and Aboriginal Lands; Aboriginal Peoples and Military Participation: Canadian and International Perspectives; Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Military: Historical Perspectives; Kurt Meyer on Trial: A Documentary Record
• McLaughlin, Kenneth (history), Waterloo: An Illustrated History 1857-2007; Unbundling Computing at Waterloo: 1957-2007
• McWebb, Christine (French studies), Debating the Roman de la Rose: A Critical Anthology
• Mosca, Michele (combinatorics and optimization, St. Jerome’s), An Introduction to Quantum Computing
• Murty, Uppaluri (combinatorics and optimization), Graduate Texts in Mathematics: Graph Theory
• Pare, François (French studies), Le fantasme d'Escanaba
• Perrin, David (president of St. Jerome’s), Studying Christian Spirituality
• Poirier, Guy (French studies), Culture et littérature francophones de la Colombie-Britannique: Du rève á la réalité
• Ponnambalam, Kumaraswamy (systems design engineering), Tsunami Travel Time Atlas for the Atlantic Ocean
• Rye, B.J. (psychology, St. Jerome’s), Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Adolescence
• Ryman, Rhonda (recreation and leisure studies), The Royal Academy of Dancing Dictionary of Classical Ballet Terminology
• Sims, Diane (BA 1983), "Rider Of The Clouds"
• Socken, Paul (French studies): Yves Theriault
• Taylor, Bruce (fine arts), Studio Ceramics in Canada; International Olympic Ceramic Sculpture Museum
• Thagard, Paul (philosophy), Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science
• Wall, Geoff (geography), Approaching Tourism: Change, Impacts and Opportunities
• Zanna, Mark (psychology), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

The Manley lecture starts at 4:00. Admission is free, and although reservations have been coming in briskly, there might be some room for last-minute additions to the crowd.

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What 7 profs are doing on sabbatical

Dozens of UW faculty members are on sabbatical leave this season, and here’s another list of some of them, with summaries of their sabbatical plans as submitted to the university’s board of governors. All the sabbaticals in this list are for six months that began January 1, 2008.

Doris Jakobsh, religious studies: “I have two contracts with book publishers, University of Hawaii Press and YODA Press; both contracts are due in 2008. I will also be doing language study (Punjabi/Gurmukhi script) for one month.”

Cora Cluett, fine arts: “I plan to spend a sustained period of time engaged in the development and production associated with practice-based research toward two exhibitions — a solo exhibition (painting) at Wynick Tuck Gallery in Toronto (Fall 2008) and a two-person exhibition (photographs) at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (Summer 2008). I am applying for external funding (SSHRC Research and Creation, Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council) to continue in the development of documenting the remnants of and sites of W.W.II pillboxes which once lined the coasts of Scotland and Nova Scotia.”

Peter Carrington, sociology: “I will visit the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge to complete a book which I am writing on the delinquent careers of Canadian youth. This research is an original contribution to knowledge in this area, and will contribute to more effective crime prevention and rehabilitation programs.”

Kenneth Graham, English: “I will work on a book about the relationship between poetry and the history of church discipline from the English Reformation to the Restoration.”

Sherry Schiff, earth and environmental sciences: “My research program concerns the environmental geochemistry of forested and agriculturally impacted watersheds. In recent years, we have had a particular focus on the Grand River Watershed including a small research site, Strawberry Creek within the Grand River Watershed. This research is the basis of three NSERC Strategic Projects and forms a portion of two additional NSERC Strategic Projects.”

Leonardo Simon, chemical engineering: “During the sabbatical leave I will dedicate my time to work on research in the areas of nanocomposites and bioproducts. Time will be spent on experimental and theoretical aspects of the research, the supervision of graduate students, networking with research laboratories in Canada and abroad, and interactions with the industrial sector. The sabbatical leave will enhance the quality of my research program at UW.”

Nico Spronk, pure mathematics: “I plan to continue, and deepen, my research in abstract harmonic analysis. I have applied, through the Math Department in Leeds, for a London Mathematical Society Grant to spend seven weeks in the United Kingdom visiting specialists there. I also intend to continue collaboration with colleagues in Thunder Bay, Texas, Illinois and Ottawa.”

CAR

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