Thursday, November 4, 1993 ABOUT RETIREMENT: The second of two pre-retirement seminars takes place at noon today (Davis Centre room 1304). This talk, with experts from The Mutual Group, deals with "income strategies" and is aimed at people within about five years of retirement. It's sponsored by the staff association. (Also available from time to time are pre-retirement courses officially recognized by the university; the personnel department at ext. 2046 can provide information about those.) And speaking of retirement, the deadline to apply for early retirement under the "faculty and staff renewal programs" passed on November 1. Linda Bluhm of the personnel department reports the total number of people who applied for early retirement and have been approved: 98 staff and 55 faculty members. The original program started May 1, 1990, and was extended a couple of times; the latest retirement date under the current programs is September 1, 1994. CHINESE FILMS: The fine arts film society is continuing its series of Chinese films through the second half of this fall. Leading things off is "The Oilmakers' Family", a Golden Bear award winner, to be shown at 7 tonight in East Campus Hall room 1219. The series continues on Thursday evenings through December 16, and all the films have English subtitles. TWITS BEGET TWITS: That was the resolution in the final round of the William F. James, Sr., Interdepartmental Debates, held last night under the auspices of the Faculty of Science Foundation. Carrying off the trophy was a team of biology undergraduates, Carm Deluca and Gala Johnson. ON THE PAYROLL: How many people work at UW? The latest official answer comes from the community relations office, which compiled figures from operations analysis and personnel department sources. Staff: 1,886 full-time (including 373 unionized and 57 housekeepers); 221 part-time (including 57 unionized); total, 2,107. Faculty, not including the church colleges: 833 full-time, 140 part-time, total 973. RESULTS of yesterday's vote by environmental studies students, on whether to create an endowment fund financed by a voluntary $45-per-term fee from each student, aren't available yet, the ES Society office told me a few minutes ago. Chris Redmond Information and Public Affairs credmond@watserv1 ext. 3004