Three new deans begin their terms

Three of the six faculties are under new leadership as of July 1, as previously announced deans take office. Left to right above, they are…

Susan Elliott, who comes from McMaster University to be dean of applied health sciences, succeeding Roger Mannell. A medical geographer, she is currently a professor in McMaster's School of Geography and Earth Sciences. She has served as director of that school and of the Institute of Environment and Health, and as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2003-08).

Ian Goulden, new dean of mathematics, succeeding Tom Coleman. A faculty member in combinatorics and optimization since 1980, he was a Waterloo graduate at the bachelor's, master's and PhD levels and has been a department chair and a math teaching award winner.

Mark Seasons, interim dean of environment, taking over on the departure of Deep Saini. He's been a faculty member in the School of Planning since 1998, has served as associate dean (undergraduate studies and educational liaison), and is chair of the board of governors of St. Paul's University College.

A number of other administrative appointments across campus also take effect as of July 1:

• Faculty of Engineering: Raymond Legge, associate dean (graduate studies and international agreements) for a three-year term.
• Faculty of Environment: Jeffrey Casello, interim associate dean (undergraduate studies and educational liaison) for a one-year term.
• Faculty of Mathematics: Riley Metzger, director of first-year studies for a three-year term.
• Civil and environmental engineering: Mark Knight, chair of the Geological Engineering Board for a three-year term.
• Combinatorics and optimization: William Cuningham, interim chair for one month, to be followed by Jochen Konemann as interim chair, August 1 through December 31.
• Computer science: David Taylor, director of the Cheriton School for a four-year term.
• Environment and resource studies: Stephen Murphy, chair of the department for a four-year aterm.
• Pure mathematics: Frank Zorzitto, acting chair of the department for six months.
• Statistics and actuarial science: David Matthews, chair of the department for one year.

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International students arrive; other notes

More than 40 international students, mostly from China, arrive this week to begin an eight-week Summer Intensive Language for Academic Studies program that will let them start full-time study in the mathematics faculty in September. It’s a variation on the better-known ELAS program that will have 263 students taking a mixture of math and English courses in the fall term, with a few of them continuing in the winter as well, says Judy Reidt, who coordinates both programs for the math faculty. Reidt says she’s “extremely pleased” with this year’s enrolment. “A portion of these students is already studying in Canada,” she reports, “but the majority will be coming from areas such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Jinan, Shanghai and Suzhou.” The program is offered at the Waterloo campus of Conestoga College, with students’ progress monitored by the university. “Students are given the opportunity to improve their English language skills to meet our admission requirements, so that they are able to begin their full-time degree studies in September,” Reidt says. “This is a stellar group of math students that have very strong mathematical backgrounds and rate very well in our mathematics contests and our Math Readiness Test that is written during orientation week.” Some of the students have arranged to stay on campus, at the Ron Eydt Village conference centre.

Gerd Hauck (right), a faculty member in the drama and speech communication department since 2000, will leave to become dean of the Faculty of Communication and Design at Ryerson University in Toronto as of August 1. The appointment was announced Friday. Hauck “brings to Ryerson,” said a news release, “a passion and energy for experiential learning and an international perspective gained from study, teaching, research and performance in multiple countries. A native of Heidelberg, Germany and fluent in three languages, Gerd obtained degrees in Europe and Canada and has published works in both German and English. He has directed, produced and hosted theatre and television performances in Italy, Germany, the U.S. and Canada, and has acted as producer and host of a weekly current-affairs television program. Over the course of his career, Gerd has been involved in a wide range of scholarly areas, including modern drama, technology in theatre, translation, film and television production, journalism and dramaturgy. His most recent research has focused on the convergence of digital media and theatre, which allowed him to explore the applications of new technologies in both the artistic and commercial aspects of design and performance.”

The newspapers have had one or two mentions of the new Harmonized Sales Tax that blends provincial and federal taxes into a single 13 per cent tax on most retail purchases, effective July 1. The university’s finance office sent a memo to departments last week: “Areas on campus currently engaged in selling taxable goods and services should start charging 13% HST for sales made in Ontario. There is an 8% point of sale (POS) rebate available for certain qualifying items, i.e. printed books, children’s clothing, qualifying prepared food and beverages. In these situations, only 5% HST will be charged.” It also gave details on how to charge the HST on things they sell, and how to credit the proceeds to account number 5220-100-100-0000-000000-2102-0000-000. “All E-Commerce sites need to be updated to reflect the change to HST. Rates and 31-digit account numbers will need to be updated by the site administrators. All templates stored on Sharepoint will be updated by Finance on Monday,” the memo says. “For any HST paid on the purchase of taxable goods and services, Accounts Payable will be responsible for calculating the applicable tax rebates and recording them to the appropriate tax accounts. HST is not to be charged on internal charges and inter-departmental sales. HST will apply to sales of taxable goods and services to all external customers, including colleges, Federation of Students, Graduate Student Association, other student organizations, faculty, staff and students.”

The pedometers were clicking hard during the four-week “Campus Walk” organized by the Employee Assistance Program, May 10 through June 6, and results have been tabulated, say the EAP’s Kathy Winter and David Logan. The bottom line: some 300 staff, faculty and co-op students working for the university walked more than 53,000 kilometres. The original idea was to see how many people would walk the equivalent of the distance from the main campus to the Kitchener health sciences campus (5.5 km), the Architecture building in Cambridge (27.5 km), or the Stratford campus (46.7 km) — and, to dramatize the point, organizers added the United Arab Emirates campus, a mere 11,196 km away by a straight-line route. Says Winter with some awe: “Our UW community was able to walk to Dubai and back over four and a half times. It was a pleasure to see people — whether it be individually or in groups —walking around campus wearing their signature pedometers.” Oh, and by the way, participants included a team from the UAE campus itself and its host, the Dubai Men’s College, who presumably were walking from Dubai to Waterloo. A number of teams (including the research office Running Rascals) and individuals were recognized with prizes for “great strides”; details are on the EAP web site. “This event was received with great enthusiasm by David Johnston,” says Winter, “and we hope to offer it again next year.”

The June issue of the faculty association’s Forum newsletter includes an open letter from recreation professor Diana Parry, who chairs the association’s Status of Women and Equity Committee, expressing “serious concern over the severe gender disparity in new faculty recruitment this year so far”. She writes that “UW has hired 31 new faculty, 28 of them men . . . even in a year in which UW is one of the very few major North American univerisities still hiring tenure-stream faculty. This yeare afforded us the best opportunity we’ve had in years to recruit female faculty members in male-dominated disciplines.” Says Parry: “It would seem that mission-critical hiring — regardless of which programs are favoured — tends to exclude women.” Her committee calls for “immediate measures to address the female faculty recruitment shortfall before it manifests as a serious retention challenge”.

Ashley McKinley, a graduate student in developmental psychology, writes to say that the Centre for Child Studies, “under the direction of Dr. Daniela O’Neill, is looking for families with children ages 20-26 months to participate in a mother-child study. This study looks at parent-child interactions in the context of toy play and book reading between mother and child. Participation would involve a visit to the university and should take no longer than 1 hour of your time. Free parking is provided and children receive a small gift in appreciation.” More information: ext. 35416.

CPA staff

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