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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Wednesday, February 7, 1996

Dig they must, on a snowy day

The crew assembled, with equipment and road barriers, at one end of parking lot H, near the University Avenue entrance, is getting ready to dig for what seems to be a broken water pipe, says Rudy Molinary of the plant operations department. It's the second broken pipe in a week; a similar incident happened Friday near the west court of Village I.

Co-op interviews continue

Employers are still flocking to campus, students are still dressing up, and gradually the matches get made for spring term co-op jobs. "The summer is the hardest," co-op director Bruce Lumsden notes, "and certainly the cutbacks from the feds and the province are going to make it more difficult."

Clearly the co-op department is looking everywhere for jobs. I'm just about positive that was I walked through the first floor of Needles Hall yesterday, I heard the public address system say, "Captain Hook to the reception desk, please!" Not sure what kind of job he'll be hiring a student for -- software piracy, maybe?

Staff appraisals to go ahead

Here's the full text of the memo from provost Jim Kalbfleisch that was received by department heads yesterday:
The Provost's Advisory Committee on Staff Compensation has discussed the matter of Staff Performance Appraisals in light of the many challenges which the University of Waterloo will be facing within the next six months. The Committee concluded that the performance appraisal process has never been more important than in this time of radical change and upheaval. Staff members need to discuss their futures and their jobs with their managers and need the reassurance and support that performance appraisals can provide. Indeed, the right of each staff member to an annual performance appraisal is a matter of policy under Staff Policy 5.

The performance review process is time-consuming and management and supervisory staff are engaged in solving the various problems of underfunding and imminent retirements. However, we must focus as well on the 1400 staff who are not leaving and upon whom we will need to depend for our future success and capacity to weather these "storms".

Performance appraisals will be conducted this year using the same forms and with the same format as usual. That is, forms will be completed by managers and supervisors, reviewed and signed by the next level of management and performance appraisal interviews will be conducted with each staff member. I understand that the performance appraisal form is available on-line for your convenience. Performance appraisals will need to be returned to Human Resources by April 21st.

Please conduct this exercise as soon as possible and with a commitment to the welfare of our remaining staff complement and their futures. Thank you for your continued support in this very important process.

Students protest across Canada

The Canadian Federation of Students has picked today for a national day of protest against government funding cuts, both provincial and federal. UW students won't be participating, since UW's two central student organizations (the Federation of Students and the Graduate Student Association) aren't members of CFS. At the University of Guelph, though, an 8 a.m. demonstration outside classrooms was scheduled, followed by teach-ins, a noon rally in the University Centre courtyard and a march to downtown Guelph. At the University of Victoria, British Columbia, a rally is to take place in the afternoon, but the senate turned down a student request to have classes cancelled for the occasion.

A different kind of strike: Some 2,600 clerical and technical staff at Yale University, one of the most famous universities in the United States, went on strike at 6:00 this morning. The staff members are represented by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. Major issues in the strike are vacation time and health benefits; Yale is also looking for "greater management flexibility". Yale is also still in conflict with graduate student teaching assistants, who held an unsuccessful "grade strike" at the end of the fall term, refusing to submit marks for students they had taught.

Many things happening today

Very briefly:

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

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