Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Wednesday, June 5, 1996

Preregistration begins today

Preregistration for undergraduate courses in the winter 1997 term begins today and runs through Friday. Preregistration allows students to select in June the courses they wish to take next January.

All currently registered students intending to enrol in undergraduate programs in that term should preregister with department or faculty advisors. Information about advisors, times and places can be found in the Course Offerings List, which can be obtained from department and faculty offices.

Says a registrar's office notice: "If you are thinking of changing faculties, you should contact the appropriate advisor of the faculty to which you wish to transfer."

Undergraduate calendars are available from the registrar's office. Each undergraduate student can obtain one free calendar in the current year; additional copies are available for sale at the bookstore. The text of the calendar is also available on the Web (from the UWinfo home page, choose "Courses").

Just a fight overnight

This morning's police news: a man, believed to be a student but not yet identified, is in hospital with head injuries, following an assault outside Loose Change Louie's in the Phillip Street plaza in the early hours of this morning. The incident was "a consensual fight", says Jim Doyle of the Waterloo Regional Police, meaning the people involved knew each other.

Talking budgets and salaries

The UW administration intends to propose a general cut in faculty salaries to provide the money for "progress through the ranks" pay hikes for faculty, provost Jim Kalbfleisch told the board of governors yesterday. The effect would be to transfer some salary money from higher-paid professors to younger ones.

"The university is committed to the selective salary increase process," Kalbfleisch said, in response to a charge that the administration is ignoring the provisions of UW Policy 11. That policy says the PTR ("merit") increases must be provided every year:

If in periods of severe financial constraint, after all possible economies have been made, the total funds available for salary increases are inadequate to provide fully for the program of selective increments outlined earlier in this policy, funds for this purpose shall be provided by applying a negative scale change in the salary structure and all salaries in it. As a matter of highest priority when its financial situation improves, the University shall adjust the salary structure and all salaries in it to compensate for any previous negative scale changes.

That's the situation this year, Kalbfleisch said. "We will be talking, when negotiations restart, about some sort of compensating rollback." He estimated that the PTR increases will cost about $1.25 million, or a little more than 2 per cent of the faculty payroll.

Faculty salary changes are normally effective May 1 each year, but things have been delayed this year because of the April vote on faculty association unionization, and because of budget uncertainties. The provost noted that professors did see an increase in their take-home pay in May, because of the end of "unpaid days" under the Social Contract. Ironically, that increase also amounted to about 2 per cent.

At last night's meeting, the board of governors approved the 1996-97 budget, which the provost admitted was "preliminary" and subject to revision at the board's next meeting in early October. It provides for 7 per cent cuts in most departments' spending, and board members were audibly unhappy with what that means. "The integrity of a number of our programs is really being threatened," said Jim Brox of the economics department.

Kalbfleisch pointed out that the budget does have a few good things in it, including a new $100,000 component of the Academic Development Fund "to enhance the teaching and learning environment in the university". He said a committee will sit down this fall to decide how to spend that money.

The provost also announced that pay for graduate teaching assistants has been increased by 2.7 per cent, effective May 1.

The week's Positions Available

Because there's no Gazette today, the weekly Positions Available list is being circulated to departments as a memo; it's also available on UWinfo under "Human Resources". These are the job titles listed:

Secretary-receptionist, physics, grade USG 3.
Undergraduate and department secretary, management sciences, grade USG 4.
Director, early childhood education centre, psychology, grade USG 8.
Advisor on teaching and learning, TRACE office, grade USG 11.
Counsellor, counselling services, grade USG 12.
Director, audio-visual centre, grade USG 13.
University registrar, grade USG 17.

More information: ext. 2524.

What's happening today

There's a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at the University Club to honour four people -- Peter Brillinger, Larry Davidson, Betty Weber, Ron Dunkley -- who are retiring from the faculty of mathematics. Last-minute information: Wendy Zehr, ext. 6508.
Dance recitals continue in the Humanities Theatre; tonight, performers from the Waterloo Dance Centre.
The astronomy group in the physics department offers its monthly tour of the observatory atop the Physics building. The tour is free, and starts with a slide show at 9:30 p.m. in Physics room 308.
The annual meeting of the Statistical Society of Canada is winding up at the Village II conference centre. Among the features of the program today is a four-hour "demonstration session", led by Wayne Oldford of UW's stats department, on "Statistics Teaching with Physical Laboratories".

Final note: I said in the Bulletin a couple of days ago that the daily price of parking in lot C had been "doubled" to $2, before the recent reduction to $1.50. In fact, until a few weeks ago the rate was 75 cents, so when it went to $2 it was more than doubled.

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

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