Daily Bulletin

The morning after Canada Day

So here we are on the middle day of the year, definitely into July, and enjoying, no doubt, the latest phase of the Ontario income tax cuts, which took effect July 1. As of July 1 there are two new people in senior positions at UW: Sujeet Chaudhuri becomes dean of engineering, and Alan George becomes interim dean of mathematics.

Two academic talks are on the schedule today. At 3:30 (PAS room 2083), Shitij Kapur of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry will speak on "The Neurobiology of Episodic Memory", as part of the psychology department's behavioural neuroscience series. At 7:00 (Environmental Studies II "green room"), Brian Carter of Ann Arbor will speak on "Art and Industry", as part of the architecture school's Arriscraft Lecture series.

The WatCard office is closed today and tomorrow; it'll reopen Monday in a new location in the basement of the Student Life Centre. Food services and graphics locations can do most WatCard transactions on an emergency basis in the meantime.

The human resources department has issued its weekly Positions Available list, and here's a summary of what this week's list includes:

• Applications database administrator (PeopleSoft), information systems and technology, grade USG 11-12.
• Coordinator, co-operative education and career services, grade USG 11 (based in Toronto, emphasis on science).
• Construction coordinator/inspector, plant operations, grade USG 8.
• Assistant buyer, purchasing, grade USG 4.
• Technical support specialist, co-operative education and career services, grade USG 8.
• Research financial administrative assistant, office of research, grade USG 4.

Married Student rents go down

However, MSA residents who are parents of children in the local public or separate school system will now have to pay tuition fees to the Waterloo Region District School Board or Waterloo Catholic District School Board. The maximum school fee payable by Canadian citizens or permanent residents is $74 a month ($740 a year) for "one or more children" in elementary school and another $74 for "one or more children" in high school.

(Most children who live in MSA have been attending Northdale Public School on Hickory Street. But the school board is closing Northdale this year, and starting in September students from the MSA area will be sent instead to Brighton Public School on Noecker Street on the far side of King Street.)

Residents were told in a memo in mid-June, and at a meeting Monday evening, that UW "will provide assistance" with school tuition fees during 1998-99, at least up to the $74 a month level for each school, and that they should see the MSA office for information. Like the rent decrease, the financial assistance with school fees is available only to residents who are full-time UW students. The assistance applies only during 1998-99.

The changes mean that MSA residents with no children are $100 a month better off, and those who are Canadians and who have children in just one school are slightly better off, at least this year. Residents with children in two schools will find themselves paying slightly more, and school fee levels for the children of visa foreign students are not known. UW provost Jim Kalbfleisch says some MSA residents may eventually have to consider moving out of the UW-owned complex into privately owned buildings where property taxes are part of the rent and no school fees are charged.

The rent decrease applies through next April, the end of the current fiscal year. "It is anticipated," the memo to residents says, "that a smaller rent discount, to be determined in formulating the 1999-2000 MSA budget, will apply beginning May 1, 1999."

The rent decrease, and the arrival of school tuition fees, are the result of a change in the arrangement between UW and the city of Waterloo about the MSA complex, residents were told. "Previously, the City had been charging the MSA an amount in lieu of municipal taxes, and a portion of this amount was paid to the School Boards," the memo explains. "MSA will now be treated as tax-exempt."

Kalbfleisch said that until 1997 the university was paying property taxes on the MSA complex, which was built in 1970. "There's no bill for 1998," he said, and "we've put most of that into the rent discount." Somewhat lower rents will continue next year, and there will also be some improvements to the MSA facilities, he said.

Summer here for a short time

The summer session starts today with Peace and Conflict Studies 302C (Creative Conflict Resolution in the Schools), a half-credit course offered at Conrad Grebel College, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until July 10.

Coming later: St. Jerome's University is offering Religious Studies 295 (The Sacred Earth: Religion and Ecology) for a full credit, running July 6 to 24 from 8:30 to 12:30, Monday through Friday. At Renison, three social work courses, Child Maltreatment: Identification and Prevention (Social Work 355R), Family Violence (SocWk 357R) and Family Violence: An Advanced Seminar (SocWk 390A/B) are scheduled this month. Both 355R, from a July 6 to 10, and 357R, from July 13 to 17, offer a half credit. Students taking SocWk 390A/B from July 6 to 17 will earn a full credit. The Renison classes are held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and for an additional three hours, from 6 to 9 p.m., on Monday and Wednesday.

It's a far cry from the days when "summer session" courses, most of them running six weeks, numbered in the dozens, and attracted hundreds of students to campus starting the day after Dominion Day. Most of those summer students were public school teachers, who until the 1970s could hold teaching jobs with just a year of training after high school, and who would earn BA degrees through summer school and correspondence courses.

Headlines from other campuses

Faculty members and librarians who start work at the University of Toronto on or after July 1, 1998, are required to pay dues to the U of T faculty association, under a Rand Formula agreement. -- U of T Bulletin

Meanwhile, U of T administrative staff voted in early June on union certification through the Steelworkers; the 2,500 votes aren't expected to be counted for some months. -- U of T Bulletin

Dalhousie University expects to benefit considerably from a $62 million "information technology initiative" announced by the Nova Scotia government. -- Dalhousie News

Applications from non-whites are down sharply at the University of California at Los Angeles following an end to affirmative action admissions policies. -- Daily Bruin

Robert Lacroix. economics professor and former dean, is the new recteur (president) of the Université de Montréal, as of June 1. -- Forum, U de M

UW web site of the day

First you notice the dancing penguins. Then you notice that Jacob Sivak, director of the school of optometry, is identified as "Big Bird", while graduate students are "Tweety Birds", itinerant researchers are "Baby Chicks" and former colleagues have "Left the Nest". It's definitely an ornithological spot on the web -- which only makes sense, since Sivak's lab produces research papers on topics like "chick eye optics".

"If the truth must be told, the page was developed as a procrastination tactic," says Vivian Choh, one of the tweety birds. She explains what it's all about: "The page is for those who'd be interested in doing research in our laboratory, while the poster pages are for potential supervisors looking for PhD students or post-docs (who want to see some of the work that has been done) or for people who are just plain interested in our research." It consists mostly of summaries of research work that has been produced in the lab, plus links to the students' own web pages.

Choh adds: "Jake (our supervisor) likes penguins, so there's a bird theme. Other than this, there aren't many too features of interest. In terms of content, I've tried to include as many of the posters that I could get my hands on. Obviously, I haven't gotten to them all, although all the recent posters and papers from our lab have been duly noted."

CAR

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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