Daycare on campus: good news story

by Dave DeVidi, FAUW past president, and FAUW point person on the daycare negotiations

I would like to thank the Daily Bulletin for picking up on the Building and Properties Committee approval of the budget for the new daycare building. However, I think that the information in the note may mislead people a bit about the current status of the daycare project. There is a real good news story here, about co-operation between stakeholders to save something important.

(Photo, right, from Hildegard Marsden Co-operative Day Nursery website.)

Most significantly, while the $3.6-million budget figure is correct, the statement that there will be 150 daycare spots is not accurate.

People on campus may remember some controversy late last year about the planned number of spaces in the new daycare, which would not have increased beyond the 150 currently available in the existing three daycares. Faculty will recall a referendum on spending FAUW member dues to help increase the number of spaces.

Following negotiations early this year, the board of the new daycare, FAUW, representatives of the staff association, and the university administration reached an agreement in principle to include more than 190 spots in the new building.

A few important things about this agreement in principle:

Employee groups are putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into a building that the university will own, so that an increased number of high-quality daycare spots will be available to Waterloo faculty, staff, and students.

The university administration has long complained that some spots in the existing daycares are held by non-University of Waterloo families. This happens because of the very tight budgets daycares operate under – they simply cannot afford to leave spots sitting open, waiting for a university person on a waiting list to be ready to take it.

The faculty association has agreed to invest money every year to hold spots open for children of faculty members when no university-affiliated family from the waiting list is ready to take the spot when it comes open. Any money designated for that purpose that is not used for it in a given year will go into a fund to subsidize spots for low- income university affiliates.

Thus FAUW has recognized the validity of the administration’s concern, and put money towards addressing it. It also has recognized that for staff and students, affordability can be as big an obstacle as access. We hope that the staff association, and the university on behalf of graduate students, will do something similar.

In return, the university has agreed to more reasonable financial arrangements with the new daycare, and has also agreed, for the first time, that the new daycare will be something to which Keystone contributions can be directed.

Right now, the agreement in principle is being written into a more formal document. But the bottom line is: Employee groups put money on the table, the university showed some flexibility, the increased number of daycare spots were saved, and you can now designate your Keystone contribution to the new daycare.

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Licensing regs vary for older drivers

from a Waterloo Media Relations news release

A national study shows that licensing policies for older drivers, which until now have not been fully documented, vary widely in Canada. Requirements for licence renewal, reporting practices, appeals processes, and options for restricted licences largely depend on where someone lives, according to the researchers, Anita Myers (left) from the University of Waterloo, Brenda Vrkljan from McMaster University, and Shawn Marshall from the University of Ottawa.

The study, funded by the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and Transport Canada, found little agreement between the provinces and territories on the best ways to identify and regulate older drivers who may present a risk to themselves and other road users.

The National Year of Road Safety, 2011, also marks the year Canadian boomers begin turning 65. Transport Canada data shows that in 2009 there were 3.25 million licensed drivers aged 65 and older, 14 per cent of the total driving population. The volume of senior drivers is expected to more than double in the next decade.

"This has huge implications for transportation planners, licensing authorities, health professionals, and taxpayers," said Myers, a professor of health studies and gerontology at Waterloo. "While older drivers are involved in proportionately fewer collisions than younger drivers, they are more likely to be seriously injured or die as a result. The rate of fatal collisions starts to rise at age 70 and continues to increase for drivers in their 80s and 90s."

Problems that develop as we age
As drivers age, they are more likely to develop vision and other health problems that may compromise driving safety. In some provinces, but not all, drivers are subjected to medical review once they turn 70, 75, or 80. Mass screening, however, is costly and apart from in-person renewal, has shown minimal impact on fatalities.

Experts agree that the focus should be on identifying potential medically at-risk drivers regardless of age and thoroughly assessing each person’s capabilities for continued safe driving. In most provinces, physicians are required to report patients they suspect are medically unfit to drive. This puts enormous pressure on doctors who have increasing numbers of older patients with chronic conditions and lack valid tools to determine fitness to drive.

Access to driver assessment centres, wait times, and costs to drivers themselves also vary widely from province to province, according to the study.

Loss of licence can be traumatic
For many seniors, driving is crucial for maintaining mobility and freedom. Surveys show that most would rather have restricted licences (such as no night or highway driving) rather than lose their driving privileges altogether. Licensing authorities are under pressure to expand restricted licences for older drivers, comparable to graduated licences for novice drivers.

Prior to the study, however, it was unclear which options were available across the country or how authorities monitor driver compliance with licence restrictions. To make this information widely available, the Canadian researchers partnered with the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety to produce a comprehensive website on current practices and promising approaches regarding medically at-risk and older drivers. The site provides one-stop shopping for professionals and the general public looking for information on licensing regulations and resources.

"The public has a right to know what is being done in various parts of the country, while policy makers need these data to make informed decisions based on best practices," said Kent Bassett-Spiers, CEO of the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation. "This research is the first step in unifying policies and setting strategic priorities."

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Engineers report on sabbatical plans

Here’s another list of Waterloo faculty members who are currently on sabbatical leave. The plans quoted are taken from documents submitted to the university’s Board of Governors, which has to approve all sabbaticals. All these leaves are for twelve months that began May 1, 2011.

Kenneth McKay, management sciences: “The sabbatical will allow me to concentrate on my NSERC-funded research on operations management with regard to health care, completing a text on factory management, conducting short trips to colleagues for research purposes, and attending a number of conferences.”

Jan Huissoon, mechanical and mechatronics engineering (right): “I intend to write a text on mechatronic design based on lecture notes for the Electromechanical Machine Design course (MTE322) that I developed for the mechatronics engineering program, and have taught for the past three years.”

Glenn Heppler, systems design engineering: “I wish to spend this time working on my book on advanced dynamics. The book is at a stage that I need to spend more time on it than I can find under the present circumstances. More specific goals include: finish all the chapters that have been started but not yet completed; start and, hopefully, complete the chapters that have only been outlined at this point; and be able to travel to libraries at other universities (e.g. Toronto, Guelph) to use rare books housed there.”

Stephan Lambert, mechanical and mechatronics engineering (left): “I anticipate renewal of my NSERC Chair in Design Engineering, focussed on the development and implementation of engineering design case studies from student work term experience. My sabbatical leave will focus on the scholarship of learning: the assessment of this program and identification of best practices in the use of cases to improve student learning.”

Daniel Stashuk, systems design engineering: “Methods I have developed for the quantitative analysis of clinical electromyographic (EMG) signals have matured and been transferred to run on the clinical EMG equipment of several manufacturers. I would like to focus on modifying and extending the capabilities of these applications to encourage more widespread clinical use.”

CPA staff

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