Dinner becomes a master class in public service

by Sheila McConnell and Wendy Philpott

Thursday, March 21 was a night that a group of Master of Public Service students will always remember. At the Master of Public Service Annual Talk and Dinner Social held at the University Club, 41 students listened intently to The Honourable Kevin Lynch as he offered valuable life lessons for a career in public service.

“If you ever hear the words ‘Don’t worry!’ it means the exact opposite,” was one tip he shared from his thirty-seven years of experience in Canadian public service. But his most emphatic lesson was that public servants need to be “disruptors of the status quo”.

“You are considering public service in a world when we are going through tremendous change. You need to embrace change while respecting everyone’s backgrounds,” said Lynch, adding that, though change is not easy, the greatest risk for public servants is to resist change.

“The natural reaction to change is to hunker down and do what we know. Instead, as a public servant, you need to do the opposite by being entrepreneurial and never stop trying new things - all while keeping engaged with your community.”

From experiencing the rise of social media to observing Canadian culture turn from “one of trusting the government to one of skepticism”, Lynch has seen a lot of change. “Even 15 years ago we could not imagine the new global reality. The public sector needs to keep pace with the speed of the globalized world.” Lynch asserts that active engagement with the world is what kept his years as a public servant always “extraordinary and captivating.”   

 “Your job [as a public servant] is to do something for someone you never met in your life (and you likely never will) and know you’ve made a difference.”

Lynch certainly has. Currently chair of the University of Waterloo’s Board of Governors and vice-chair of BMO Financial Group, Lynch has a very impressive public sector resume including the role of Clerk of the Privy Council, where he provided non-partisan support on all policy and operational issues affecting the government. He was also Secretary to the Cabinet, and head of the Public Service of Canada, prior to his retirement in 2009. As well, he served as deputy minister of finance, deputy minister of industry, and executive director for Canada at the International Monetary Fund.

“We were honoured to have Kevin Lynch speak at the Master of Public Service Annual Talk and Dinner Social,” says Daniel Henstra, political science professor and the program’s director. “He has so much life experience to offer our students and we know they appreciated him taking the time to meet with them.”

Jeff Bunn, current MPS student and president of the program’s association, agrees. “This is an evening of excellence celebrating the finest quality of public service. Lynch’s inspirational words combined with our in-class experience have prepared us to take a step into a meaningful career as dedicated, honest public servants.”

Photograph by Jonathan Bielaski, Light Imaging.

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Construction underway for consolidated daycare

Those of you in the vicinity of the O and X parking lots may have noticed signs of construction work in progress. That's because there's construction work in progress.

What's being built, you may ask? A new daycare facility that, when completed by Fall 2013, will consolidate the existing child care centres operating on campus into an 18,000 square foot state of the art facility. The building will be located northeast of the Optometry building on the university's North Campus. Currently, the foundations are about 60 per cent complete.

Plans have been in the works for the daycare expansion since at least 2009, with the university's  Building and Properties Committee approving a preliminary budget in in May 2011. Funding for the project came from the university, from the faculty and staff associations, and from rent that will be paid by the consolidated daycare operator.

Three independent daycares currently operate on campus - Paintin' Place, located in the UW Place residence, and the Hildegard Marsden Nursery and Klemmer Day Care, both located north of the Columbia Icefield.

The new building will be able to accommodate more than 150 children.

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Library's "micro desk" to be closed

By Rose Koebel. This piece originally appeared in the March 28 issue of News @ Your Library

When you hear “micro desk” do you picture a tiny little desk? If so, you’re probably not alone. The Library’s “micro desk” is actually a public service desk on the 1st floor of the Dana Porter Library where staff sign out “controlled access” materials and provide support to students and researchers using the microfilm and fiche.

In response to a significant decline in the need to support researchers (due in large part to the Library’s amazing new micro scanners), the Library will be permanently closing this desk at the end of this term.

The Library will provide service from the Circulation desk, as it does already on evenings and weekends. In addition:

• Controlled access items that are highly-used will be moved to shelves behind the Circulation Desk. Other controlled access items will be retrieved within a few minutes of a request
  
  
• Some items may be transferred to the book stacks or the Annex
  
  
• An extra staff member will be scheduled at the Circulation desk for peak periods of the day for the first three weeks of fall and winter term, the time that statistics show is when the most support is required for using micro materials
  
  
• When advance notice is provided regarding class projects that use the micro collections, staff will be scheduled to provide support. Librarians will work with faculty to obtain advance notice.
  

For more information, contact Alex McCulloch, Head, Circulation Services by email or at extension 35326.

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Typical Tuesday tidbits

Douglas Stinson of the Cheriton School of Computer Science is the latest faculty member to receive the designation of "University Professor." The announcement was made at last Monday's Senate meeting.

Registration for the annual Matthews Golf Classic opens next Monday, April 8. The event, now in its 23rd year, is named for the university's second president Burt Matthews, and will be held Monday, June 10. Registration will remain open until May 31, but last year, the event sold out in one day, so don't delay.

The university's libraries are now operating in "extended hours" in anticipation of the end of term and the beginning of exams, which will be here before you know it. During the extended hours period, which runs until Thursday, April 25, the Davis Centre will be open 24 hours daily except for Sundays, when it will close from 2:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.. The Dana Porter library will be open Monday to Sunday 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Full details are available on the library's website.

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