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Wednesday, December 6, 1995

Fourteen not forgotten

Canada -- and Waterloo -- today remember the fourteen young women who were shot to death at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique on December 6, 1989.

"The more men and women we have standing together, the better," says Vanessa Yingling, one of the organizers of the memorial service that will be held starting at 6:00 in Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's College. It is followed by a coffee-house in the nearby J. R. Finn Residence, with three speakers and a short presentation by UW drama students.

Faculty association meets

The annual general meeting of the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo will start at 2:00 this afternoon in Engineering Lecture room 101.

The front page of today's Gazette has much about the outstanding item on the agenda -- a proposal to move FAUW towards union status, following the collapse of negotiations about the faculty Memorandum of Agreement -- but other matters are scheduled to come up as well. the agenda documents include a six-page report from the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, touching on several high-profile cases (Westhues, Lipczynska, Kumar, Bondy) and some others as well, such as this one about a faculty member whose identity hasn't been made public:

Professor X, with tenure and approximately 30 years of service at the University, is undergoing dismissal proceedings, based on charges of sexual harassment. . . . Professor X has contested the dismissal, and an external adjudicator was appointed.

Four day-long hearings have been held with the external adjudicator presiding, during which the University has presented its case. Witnesses have given evidence and have been cross-examined. The time allocated has not proved sufficient to complete testimony, and five more days have been allocated in February and March 1996.

The faculty association is recognized as bargaining agent for all UW's professors. Its current membership includes 68.6 per cent of them (571 people, as compared to 261 non-members).

The chairman of the board

That's what they call Ursula Nekon in UW's telephone services department. She's been a voice for UW for longer than anyone else, answering countless thousands of calls that come in to 885-1211. Today's her last day of work, and she will be much missed, says supervisor Joan Wiley.

But Wiley notes that she won't be replaced. Since the "automated attendant" phone system was introduced in 1993, with many of UW's phone calls coming in to 888-4567 and being handled by computer, the volume of calls coming through the switchboard has fallen to the level it was at back in 1978. There remain three full-time operators and one part-time.

High school students here

Local high school students are on campus today and tomorrow tackling the issues that face Canada in the wake of the Quebec referendum. It's the annual federal-provincial conference simulation, sponsored by the political science department and local school boards. Plenary sessions are being held in the Theatre of the Arts. The high schoolers have a banquet tonight in South Campus Hall, with former Ontario premier Bob Rae as guest speaker.

Also happening on St. Nicholas's Day

And more music tomorrow

The sixth annual Davis Centre concert is set for tomorrow, starting at 12:15. The University Choir, Chamber Choir and Chapel Choir will perform in the great hall of the Davis Centre; everyone is welcome and there will be a chance for audience carolling. The event should run about 45 minutes, says conductor Leonard Enns.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

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