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Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Monday, November 25, 1996

Waterloo, slip-sliding away

Winter may bring the prospect of skiing, and the immediate beauty of snow-laden trees, but it also makes roads slippery. I was driving past the campus about 5 last night and watched a car skid sideways past the University Avenue kiosk and down the campus exit towards oncoming traffic. No wonder folks like the Canadian Automobile Association issue advice about winter driving:
Winter collisions can occur when your vehicle skids. A skid occurs when you apply the brakes so hard that one or more wheels lock, or if you press hard on the accelerator and spin the drive wheels. Skids also occur when you are travelling too fast on a curve and encounter a slippery surface. Skids can best be avoided by anticipating lane changes, turns and curves; slowing down in advance; and by making smooth, precise movements of the steering wheel. Regardless of the type of skid you encounter, to regain control of your vehicle, DO NOT PANIC.
Meanwhile, a report was presented to Waterloo Region last week listing the most dangerous intersections in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge (those with the most collisions in 1995, that is), and four of the top five are along University Avenue -- its intersections with King Street, Weber Street, Lincoln Road and Westmount Road. Another spot very near UW, the corner of Columbia and Phillip, is close behind in 7th place.

All of which brings to mind the old joke: 80 per cent of accidents happen within 25 miles of home. Maybe we ought to move. . . .

Pension meeting is announced

The pension and benefits committee has issued notice of the University of Waterloo Pension Plan Annual Community Meeting, to be held Tuesday, December 10, starting at 12:15 in Needles Hall room 3001. Members of the Pension and Benefits Committee will be on hand to provide information about the pension plan and answer questions. All members of the UW pension plan are invited to attend.

Says a memo giving some background:

UW has a defined benefit pension plan. At retirement, pensions are based on average earnings near retirement and on years of participation in the pension plan. Various forms of pension are available to suit personal circumstances. A calculation is done at retirement to determine whether the member's own contributions with credited interest exceed one-half of the pension value, and if so the excess contributions are refunded.

Members' required contributions are a fixed percentage of base pay. The University is required to contribute an amount sufficient to fund the pensions promised, and must at least match the total of all members' contributions. Currently, the contribution rate for the University is 120% of the total contributions by members.

The pension fund is invested primarily in stocks and bonds through four Investment Managers. The Pension and Benefits Committee sets investment guidelines, chooses the Investment Managers, and carefully monitors their performance. A valuation of the pension plan is carried out annually by an independent actuary. After allowing for commitments under the Special Early Retirement Program, the pension plan still had a funding excess at the end of 1995. Investment returns in 1996 have been strong, and the pension plan continues to be in excellent financial health.

Another note about pensions:
Do you have questions about your recently distributed Pension and Benefits book? You are welcome to attend one of the following sessions offered by the human resources department: You should bring your Personal Summary of Benefits with you to the meeting. The meetings will take about an hour, including time for general questions. The rooms are booked for an hour and a half to allow extra time for specific questions at the end of each session.

It's one month to Christmas

And people will be starting to think about fruitcake, turkey, stuffing, nuts, sherry and chestnuts. (Or latkes in rather less than a month, if Chanukah is your holiday of choice.) "Eat Well: How to Enjoy the Holidays Guilt Free" is the title of a session set for tomorrow at noontime, sponsored by UW's Employee Assistance Program. The speaker is dietitian Linda Barton, who promises that you can "Experience this year's holidays without gaining weight! Discover new ways to boost your energy over the break." The brown-bag session tomorrow starts at 12:00 in Math and Computer room 5158 -- and I see that reservations were supposed to be filed at health services (ext. 3542) by last Thursday.

The engineering faculty council meets this afternoon at 3:30 in Carl Pollock Hall room 3385. On the agenda, among other things: continued discussion of a controversial proposal to overhaul General Engineering 121, the "Digital Computation" (computing) course taken by practically all first-year engineering students in term 1B. It's traditionally been taught using the old war-horse of computing languages, Fortran, and the proposal is to switch to a pair of newer but more complex languages, C and C++. The October meeting discussed the change but didn't make a decision.

The professors and librarians of Trent University are still on strike. The administration said late last week that if there's no settlement by noon tomorrow, fall term exams will be rescheduled into January -- a statement which the Trent University Faculty Association promptly described as "a public threat of sending students home". There was a suggestion of a student-organized "work-in" at Trent's Bata Library on the weekend, designed as "a show of determined presence and solidarity" to help get negotiations started again; I've had no word on what it amounted to.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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Copyright 1996 University of Waterloo