Monday, September 13, 1993 THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS: As classes begin today for the fall term, officials are predicting a total of 13,586 full-time undergraduate students on campus. And there are more up-to-date figures about the number of first-year students than the ones announced last week, which may have been rather misleading because they were based on "acceptances" received during summer. The current figures (calculated as of Thursday night) are based on students who have actually preregistered or registered in full-time first-year programs. The total is 3,772, which allows some room for dropouts before the official "count date" of November 1, when the target is 3,667 first-year students. Faculty-by-faculty figures, compared with the November 1 targets: arts, 966 (1,010); mathematics, 810 (785); engineering, 755 (740); science, 662 (593); AHS, 290 (267); environmental studies, 284 (272); independent studies, 5 (no target). Associate registrar Ken Lavigne says that when last-minute registrations are finished, students make their mid-September decisions to change careers, and the calculations are done, all faculties should be in fine shape. PENSION DECISION: The pension and benefits committee voted on Friday to confirm its decision that UW and employee contributions to the pension plan can be reduced for the next three years, to help with the Social Contract budget cuts. Individual faculty and staff will be paying 90 per cent of the current level of premiums, and UW as the employer will exactly match those contributions, a substantial drop from what it has been paying, 117 per cent of employee contributions. The drop is effective September 1 and will be reviewed after one year. The pension fund has a sizeable surplus, and the stability of pensions won't be affected by the temporary drop in contributions, the committee decided. WARRIORS WOBBLE: The football Warriors lost to the University of Toronto's Varsity Blues 22-3 on Saturday in their first game of the OUAA season. Chris Redmond Information and Public Affairs credmond@watserv1 ext. 3004