Hong Kong, the town hall, and fall weather

President Feridun Hamdullahpur attended three big public events in Hong Kong over the weekend — a dinner attended by some 240 Waterloo alumni, a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, and the official opening of the university's Hong Kong office in the city's business district. He's pictured here along with Danny Ying, president of the alumni association in Hong Kong, who is presenting him with a gift — a framed picture of golden bamboo that signifies growth and prosperity. Other pictures and updates appear on the association's Facebook site.

Speaking of the president the video of Tuesday's "town hall" meeting, at which he spoke about the university's present and future and answered questions, is now available online. • The month of October was "a hot month that was the third wettest October ever seen", according to Frank Seglenieks of the university's weather station. • The Pragma Council, advisory to the school of planning, held its fall conference October 26-27 under the title "Transforming Urban Land Use Through Strategic Transit Investments".

“Mental health issues affect everyone — family members, friends and co-workers,” says a memo to staff and faculty from the organizational and human development office. “In Canada alone, mental and behavioural disorders account for 25% of disease and injury. Mental health is a broadly defined term and can include issues such as excessive stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and addictions, as well as more severe occurrences. Join us on December 2 for a candid talk on mental wellness in the workplace as we bring the largely invisible state of mental health to the forefront. We urge you to attend this important initiative led by two of Canada’s experts.” They are Ian Arnold, chair of the Workforce Advisory Committee, Mental Health Commission of Canada, and Mary Ann Baynton, program director for the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace. “There will be further presentations in the New Year,” says OHD, “which will build on the foundation presented December 2. Plan to attend this session so you are ready for the next segment. This initiative is supported by the Faculty Association, Occupational Health, Human Resources, the Staff Association, the Employee Assistance Program, and our benefit carrier, Great West Life Assurance Company.” Registration is online.

Paintings, jewellery, dance, knitting, watercolours, photography — a small sampling of what’s coming at the Federation of Students second annual Arts Symposium on November 22 in the Student Life Centre great hall. It’s an opportunity for Waterloo artists to share their passion for art, celebrate and raise awareness for artistic appreciation in society and make a little extra cash. “We welcome and encourage all artists to be a part of the Symposium,” says Luke Burke, vice-president (internal) of the Federations. “The Symposium is the perfect occasion for our uWaterloo community to show its artistic side.” There are multiple ways to get involved, says Feds arts commissioner Xinxin Zhang. “Students, staff and faculty can apply to sell their art at our market, perform on stage, host a workshop or informational booth to showcase an artistic talent or organization. There’s so many ways to get involved.” Zhang noted that a change from last year’s Symposium will be the way in which the market runs: “This year our vendors will still be selling their art, but now they can also barter with their art to trade with other vendors or students.” Attendees to the event will also have a chance to win a door prize from each of the artists. Deadline for applications to take part will be this Friday.

A number of Waterloo staff members have retired in recent days, according to memos from the human resources department. Among them: Kim Wah Tang, a cook in food services who joined the university in 1991, retired September 1. Edward Spike (right), technician in electrical and computer engineering since 1971 (when of course the department was just "electrical engineering"), also left as of September 1. Stephen Wiles, locksmith in plant operations since 1982, retired as of October 1. Marijana Buzadzija, a custodian in plant ops since 1986, also retired October 1. Colleen Barnes, a staff member since 1980 who was secretary-receptionist in counselling services, retired as of November 1.

And . . . provost Geoff McBoyle, who is not known for using two words when one will do, kept it short last week when he sent out an all-departments memo about when the Christmas holidays start: "This is a reminder that the University will be operating as normal until 4:30 p.m., Friday, 23rd December. This means, therefore, that there will be no early closing of any Department."

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Waterloo tops research ranking again

Waterloo is the “research university of the year” in its category, says Research Infosource, which bills itself as “Canada's source of Research and Development intelligence” and has been issuing such laurels annually since 2001. It’s the fifth straight year Waterloo has been given the title.

“This prestigious designation is awarded to the leading institutions that excel on a balanced scorecard of research input and output and impact indicators in three categories (Medical/ Doctoral, Comprehensive and Undergraduate),” says a news release. Waterloo is in the middle, “comprehensive” category, just as it is for Maclean’s magazine rankings of undergraduate education.

The top-rated medical-doctoral university was Toronto, and the undergraduate institution rated tops for its research was the Université du Québec à Rimouski. Research Infosource also publishes lists of the country’s “top 100 corporate R&D spenders” and “top 40 research hospitals”.

The company says it relies on “Statistics Canada data and our Canadian University R&D Database” to prepare its annual top 50 list of institutions. The Research Universities of the Year rankings are based on “a balanced scorecard of input, output and impact measures”.

Waterloo’s research office says its calculates research income — a deeply complex subject — rather differently, but here’s how Infosource summarizes the financial data for this year: “Total research income for Canada's Top 50 Universities was $6.5 billion in Fiscal 2010, an impressive increase of 3.6% over Fiscal 2009. Research income includes all internal and external government and non-government sources.”

Says the company’s CEO, Ron Freedman: "The 2010 result caps a decade in which university research income rose by 134%. To illustrate, total research income in 2000 was $2.76 billion, which indicates how strongly the sector has grown."

The majority of research is conducted at medical/ doctoral universities, it points out. The 16 universities in that group accounted for 81% of total research income. It also notes that 16 universities, down from 17 last year, recorded research income of $100 million or more in fiscal 2010. “Most have medical schools attracting considerable amounts of research support,” though Waterloo would be an exception to that.

"Research income growth actually outstripped overall economic growth in 2010, which is an encouraging sign," added Freedman. "Clearly, Canada's leading universities are powerful research engines that rely on a continuous stream of funding. Since government sources account for 68% of the total, indicating how closely university research income is tied to the fortunes of the public sector, unless university research is singled out for special attention it is hard to see how the sector will escape some cutbacks. The silver lining is that the substantial growth of research funding over the last decade leaves a strong legacy of research infrastructure and activity that can buffer the system, at least for a short time."

As a new feature this year, Research Infosource highlighted the topic of research publication “intensity growth”. It says: "Scholarly publications are a key output of university research. Publication intensity (the average number of publications per full-time faculty) is a way of comparing the publishing performance of different institutions. This year's spotlight examined the 5-year growth in publication output. The top institutions in each category are University of Toronto (Medical/Doctoral), York University (Comprehensive) and Ryerson University (Undergraduate).”

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'Be change, make change, see change,' say the T-shirts sported by Bonnie Oberle (office of development) and her husband, Kevin (information systems and technology), in support of the United Way. "The Oberles are long-time donors because they strongly believe in the importance of helping people both locally and globally," says a testimonial for the on-campus United Way campaign this year. The active campaign period was scheduled to end last week, but gifts are still being received, and as of Thursday the total had reached $170,857, or 84 per cent of the goal.

CAR

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