University of Waterloo

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[ President's letter to the UW community, 19 October 1995 ]

Friday, October 27, 1995

The buses are rolling

Should be quite some traffic jam on Autoroute 20 this morning, as the buses head into Montreal for the massive rally in support of Quebec's place in Canada. The "yes" and "no" sides -- yes meaning sovereignty, no meaning Quebec's continued presence as a Canadian province -- are said to be just about neck-and-neck as Monday's referendum in la belle province draws near.

Two buses from UW, carrying about 100 people altogether, left in the early hours of this morning. Doug Letson, president of St. Jerome's College and one of the people who organized the caravan in a hurry, says there were more people keen to go, but a third bus just wasn't available.

Some of those who can't make it to the noontime rally in Montreal will be doing much the same thing locally. Kitchener and Waterloo's Members of Parliament last night issued an invitation to a rally in Civic Square in downtown Kitchener, starting at 12 noon. "Let's join together to send a positive message to Quebecers," says John English, Kitchener's MP and a UW history professor.

Budgets, this year and next

The finance committee of UW's senate meets this morning, at 10:30 in Needles Hall room 3001. On the agenda: the 1995-96 budget, the "fiscal outlook" for next year and beyond, and "general discussion".

According to statements attached to the agenda, UW's income in the current fiscal year is expected to be $183,409,000. That's gone down by more than a million dollars since the beginning-of-the-year estimates, thanks to a 1 per cent "clawback" of government funding announced in mid-summer. With spending trimmed to match, there will still be a budget surplus in the current year, about $1.1 million -- enough to wipe out last year's $800,000 deficit and leave a little over.

Seems like just yesterday

But actually it's thirty years this fall since the publication of The Vertical Mosaic, a book by John Porter about Canadian society that pretty well defined the field of sociology in Canada. A symposium marking the anniversary is to be held at UW November 9 and 10. Thanks to an awkward typographical error, the front page of this week's Gazette said it was only the 10th anniversary.

Future president of Grebel

John Toews, who is to become president of Conrad Grebel College on January 1, has been visiting the college this week. He was guest of honour at a "donor recognition" reception last night, and at 12:30 today will present a paper at Grebel's "faculty forum", on the topic of "The Church and Education in the Post-Modern Age".

United Nations teach-in today

They're gathering at Federation Hall today for a day-long teach-in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Jointly sponsored by people from UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph, not to mention the local UN Association and UW's international student association, the event will feature four panels, each with three guest speakers, focusing on women's issues, economic development, peacekeeping and human rights and refugees.

Also happening today

Lorna Marsden, president of Wilfrid Laurier University, is receiving an honorary LLD from Queen's University today. And here on campus:

And a couple of things Saturday

Besides the climax of the World Series, of course.

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

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