Daily Bulletin

Monday, October 6, 1997

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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What staff need to know

The fall "Get Up and Grow" brochure, distributed to staff members last week, has several pages of tips and ideas about the world of work, quite apart from its listing of staff training and development programs that are being offered this fall. For example, there are some multiple-choice questions about electronic mail etiquette, and there are comments on "three pitfalls when you form a team":

Draft team members without any thought to whether they want to be on the team.
Throw bodies together and declare the result a team.
Appoint yourself team leader.

Again: those are the don'ts, not the dos.

Now, as to the staff training and development program itself, here's what the brochure is offering:

Seminars on "Managing Multiple Priorities" (October 23 or December 11), "Stress Management" (November 12), The Phoenix Program (November 25 and 28 and December 3), and "Coaching: Bringing Out the Best in Others" (December 9).
Ongoing programs on Teamwork ("Playing a Vital Role in Team Decisions", October 28, and "Raising Difficult Issues with Your Team", November 18) and Making Organizational Impact (sessions November 6, 13, 20 and 27).
The New Workplace series: "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace", October 29 or December 2; "Human Rights in the Workplace", November 4 or December 10; "Valuing Diversity", part I November 11 and part II November 26.

"If you have any suggestions about programs you feel should be offered," says a final note from the staff training and development committee, "we want to hear from you."

Talking about pension improvements

UW's pension and benefits committee is meeting tomorrow to discuss "improvements" to the faculty and staff pension plan, because there's a growing surplus in the pension fund. Pension premiums paid by UW and its employees have been reduced for the next three years, and now the committee will look at ways of improving benefits. Here's part of a memo that went out from the provost last spring:

Pension Fund investment returns of 17% and 20% in the past two years have produced a funding excess of more than $37 million at the end of 1996. This is in addition to the funds required for the Special Early Retirement Program (SERP) during 1996. The funding excess will likely grow in 1997 because the actuarial valuation uses a three-year average rate of return. If the funding excess were to exceed $47 million, legislation would require UW to stop contributing. The Pension and Benefits Committee has concluded that part of the funding excess should be used to reduce contribution levels, and part to improve future pensions. . . . The P&B Committee is discussing possible pension improvements, and plans to make recommendations to the Board of Governors in October, with changes being retroactive to May 1, 1997.

In preparation for tomorrow's P&B meeting, the staff association is holding a meeting of its "pensions, benefits and staff compensation" committee at 12 noon today (Matthews Hall room 1633). Staff are being invited to give their advice to the staff representatives on the university P&B committee. "UWSA reps can only promote what we understand are the wishes of staff within the fiscal reality of the institution," says Stephen Sempson of applied health sciences, who chairs the staff association committee.

There has been lively discussion of pension improvements on the staff association mailing list over the past few days, with some people expressing a keen interest in improved early retirement benefits. One of the staff P&B representatives, Steve Cook of the purchasing department, told readers of the mailing list that several "options have been reviewed" although exact cost information isn't available yet.

Cook warns: "Before the committee can proceed, there are a number of issues which must be resolved. More than any one issue is the need to be fair, amongst collective bargaining groups and amongst the individuals within each group. We must find a balance between 'retro' and long-term solutions. We must also consider the balance between benefit and opportunity to obtain a benefit. . . . One of the equity issues that must be considered is that early retirement provides equal opportunity but not necessarily an equal benefit to all members of the pension plan."

Rugby players are suspended

Imprint reported Friday that five members of the Warrior rugby team had been suspended for the rest of the season following a party late in September at which a first-year team member apparently was injured. "Age-old freshmen-welcoming practices such as head-shaving and drinking games like boat races and 'dizzy-stick' took place," Ryan Pyette wrote in Imprint's page-three story.

It's quite true, athletics director Judy McCrae said on Sunday:

In the course of the event, one of the freshmen must have fallen and hurt the muscles in the upper neck region. As a result of the care needed for the freshman, I got a call from the UW police. Then I got to the bottom of the event. We suspended the 5 leaders of the event. This means 3 league games and potentially 2 playoff games. These type of events are unacceptable to the Department and the University. They have excessive drinking, excessive peer pressure and are not welcoming in any way. In the case of rugby, there is a history of drinking and the behaviour that goes with the sport culture. Clearly, we have to divorce the two. That's it in a nutshell -- many hours, many people involved, and much renewed emphasis on the non-tolerance of this behaviour.

The Imprint article says one of the suspended players called such parties "a fact of life for most university sporting teams" and said 1997 could have been "a championship season for our club" if not for the five suspensions.

And a few other notes

Co-op interviews for winter term jobs begin today and run through October 31.

The football Warriors defeated Western's Mustangs 20-13 on Saturday, making them 3-2 for the season.

The senate executive committee meets this afternoon, at 3:30 in Needles Hall room 3004. Among items on the agenda is the annual report of the University Tenure Appeals Committee, which says that 28 faculty members were awarded tenure in 1996-97 (and another five were appointed to UW and given tenure immediately). The meeting will also include a confidential session to hear a report from the dean of engineering nominating committee -- sounds as though an announcement might be along soon about a successor for David Burns, dean since 1990, whose term ends next summer.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY October 5, 1968: The Ridgid Tool makes its first public appearance (at a semi-formal dance) as mascot of the Engineering Society.

October 6, 1995: The undergraduate calendar is made available on the World Wide Web for the first time.

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