University of Waterloo
Daily Bulletin
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Monday, July 24, 1995
"Bad, but not disastrous"
That's how UW president James Downey sums up the government's latest
funding announcement, as it affects the university. A number of spending
cuts were made official Friday by the minister of finance, Ernie Eves.
(Said Eves: "The scope of the actions outlined in this statement is
unprecedented for a government which has been in office for less than
four weeks." The Progressive Conservatives are moving to do what they
said they would do: cut government spending, especially on social
welfare.)
Transfer payments to universities, colleges and boards of education are
being cut, starting in the current year, as part of a general budget
trim for the ministry of education and training. Reductions were
announced
in dollar figures, rather than percentages: $32 million taken away
from boards of education, $6.8 million from colleges, $16.8 million
from universities.
Here's the text of a memo written Friday afternoon by UW's
provost, Jim
Kalbfleisch, for circulation to members of executive council:
Attached is a copy of
the statement made by the Finance Minister earlier
today. MET has been given 1995-96 spending reduction targets of $80
million (operating) and $40 million (capital). We do not know precisely
how this will affect us, although the Finance Minister states that
1995-96 payments to universities will be reduced by $16.8 million (about
1%). UW's share of this would be about $1.2 million.
Some of the other announcements may also affect us.
The Province will reduce its contribution to the Canada-Ontario
Infrastructure Works program to save $73 million in 1995-96. (I believe
this is a change in cash flow rather than in total funding to be
provided.) Pay Equity funding is being capped at $500 million per
year. Funding for the High Performance Computing Centre has been
cancelled.
Mid-year funding reductions are never pleasant, but overall the reductions
are not as great as had been rumoured. So far as we can tell, funding for
the new Science and Engineering building has not been affected.
Also from the minister's statement on Friday: "All programs offering
grants, loans or guarantees to business have been frozen. . . . Social
assistance rates will be reduced by 21.6 per cent effective October 1. . . .
The JobsOntario Training program is being cancelled. . . . Funding for
the Training for Workplace Innovation and Demonstration Projects
programs will be eliminated. . . . Additional capital savings of
$187 million will be achieved through project cancellations and
spending freezes. . . . Payments to all social service
agencies funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services will
be reduced by 2.5 per cent."
Faculty association's statements
The May-June issue of the faculty association's newsletter Forum
came out on Friday, with some news of interest:
- At the request of the faculty association, the Canadian Association
of University Teachers "has established a Committee of Inquiry to
investigate the facts" of the appointment held by Ewa Lipczynska at
UW. She came in 1992, as a
research associate professor in earth sciences and later also in
chemistry; that appointment ended last fall, and she held a sessional
post in chemistry January 1 through April 30 this year. She had
attempted to file a grievance when her research appointment was not
renewed, and the association is "concerned that Dr. Lipczynska had
not been treated fairly" under UW's tenure policy.
- Negotiations between UW and the association over their Memorandum
of Agreement have not been going well, the negotiating committee says.
"There is little agreement on major issues, and negotiations have been
suspended until late August." The report says UW management is refusing to
discuss "binding external arbitration for individual, group, and FAUW
grievances", and "explicitly has rejected" a request that FAUW become
the representative group for professional librarians as well as for
faculty members.
And in other news, briefly
-
A few people may have noticed a small oil slick on
the creek leading into Laurel Lake on Thursday morning. The slick, near
the bridge
leading to Conrad Grebel and St. Jerome's, was probably the result of heavy
rains on Wednesday night that caused an overflow of a catch basin
containing auto oil, says Rudy Molinary of plant operations, who received a
few calls about the slick. He assured callers the spill "was nothing really
major." By Thursday afternoon, oil was no longer visible in the creek.
- The national junior basketball championships are being held at
UW and Wilfrid Laurier University
this week. I don't have full schedule information, but it appears
that play in UW's Physical Activities Complex starts at 1:30 today
with Ontario vs. Newfoundland in the
women's competition.
- The students' union at Wilfrid Laurier University has budgeted funds
for a lawsuit against WLU over last spring's
Ezra Street party and the
disciplinary actions that followed, says the June 18 issue of Laurier
News. WLUSU president Scott McCormick says he hopes the lawsuit "will
clearly define the limitations of the code of conduct" imposed on
students by WLU. The union says the disciplinary actions taken by WLU
"violate both the rights of students and the principles of Canadian law".
And to end on a bright note: congratulations are due to Jay Thomson
of the kinesiology department, who shot a hole-in-one on the 15th
at Conestoga golf course yesterday.
Chris Redmond
Information
and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
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