Videoconference on academic integrity

Daily Bulletin

Government reassures the universities

The excitement started Wednesday with a report in the Star by national affairs reporter Thomas Walkom. "The Ontario government," he wrote, "is proposing to hit schools, colleges and universities with more than $800 million in cuts, according to a confidential cabinet document. . . . It says money for textbooks, scholarships, classroom computers, student aid and university research should be slashed. . . . At the same time, it targets what it calls 'low-priority programs' offered by existing public universities and colleges, saying the government should concentrate instead on creating 'a more cost-efficient, competitive, flexible and market-oriented system.'"

The paper also said Ontario would delay the planned introduction of a degree requirement for registered nurses, and would orchestrate mergers involving some 21 post-secondary institutions.

When the Legislature met that afternoon, opposition politicians concentrated their questions on the Star's allegations. "How dare you put forward this kind of a plan?" Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty asked education minister Janet Ecker. She and the minister of training, colleges and universities, Dianne Cunningham, told the questioners not to believe everything they read. Cunningham repeated a promise that the government has made before: "There will be a place for every qualified and motivated student who wishes to go to college and university in the province of Ontario."

She added: "It has been our government's plan from the very beginning to get rid of waste, overlap, duplication, administration within the college and university system."

Thursday brought an announcement from Chris Hodgson, chairman of the government's management board, about cuts of $300 million in "waste, fraud and non-priority spending". He also sent what he called "a signal" to the public sector -- schools, municipalities, the health-care sector and post-secondary institutions -- that "they should follow the province's lead in negotiating collective agreement settlements that are affordable". Said the minister: "We reached reasonable agreements with our major unions in the last year and expect our transfer partners to be fiscally responsible as well."

Analyzing Hodgson's announcement on Friday morning, the Star said that "Students, welfare recipients and municipalities will bear the brunt" of the $300 million in cuts. "Of the savings announced," the paper said, "$29.9 million correspond to cuts listed in a confidential cabinet document made available to The Star earlier this week. These include cuts to student aid, basic literacy and training programs, university exchange programs and specific grants to unnamed universities." (Other summaries of the cuts: Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citizen.)

Other post-secondary developments last week § Ontario awaits the University of Phoenix § 'Alternative guide' ranks Ontario last in Canada

University presidents got a briefing Thursday from Bob Christie, deputy minister of training, colleges and universities, who told them the cuts amounted to about 0.2 per cent of current funding -- largely concentrated in savings on student aid administration.

Johnston said later that, based on what Christie said, he's expecting "the other shoe" to drop, but this time in a positive form: a funding increase for 2000-01 to help universities cope with continued growth in enrolment. He shied away from calling the expected boost "significant", but said he was not greatly concerned about the cuts that had come last week.

"Any reduction is difficult to deal with in the face of the tremendous enrolment challenges that we are expecting," said a statement from Paul Davenport, chair of the Council of Ontario Universities and president of the University of Western Ontario. "We will naturally want to take a closer look at the student assistance dimensions of the announcement to see how students might be affected. We are, however, encouraged that the government will continue to go forward in collaboration with us to develop solutions to the expected surge in demand."

The long trip home from Halifax

The Warriors finished their season Saturday with a 21-14 loss to the St. Mary's Huskies in the Atlantic Bowl game in Halifax. St. Mary's goes on to face Laval in the Vanier Cup game this weekend, while the Warriors reflect on the second time in three years that they've reached a national semifinal game but failed to go on to the Vanier. (UW lost to Ottawa in the Churchill Bowl in 1997. In 1996 and 1998, the Warriors got into the Yates Cup game for the OUA championship, but didn't reach the semifinals.)

Said Canadian Press yesterday: "The defence won it for the Huskies, who had to contend with a wishbone option that no team in the Atlantic conference employs. But after a rocky start in which the Warriors marched the length of the field on their second possession to score, the Huskies adapted superbly to the unfamiliar option and forced Waterloo to throw more than they prefer. The Huskies intercepted three Ryan Wilkinson passes, one of them a key pick in the Saint Mary's end zone late in the first quarter that changed the complexion of the game. . . . A swarming Saint Mary's defence held star tailback Mike Bradley to 117 yards and forced Wilkinson, who doesn't have the strongest arm in the world, to the air."

Another report of the game is available from the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union.

Now, about those loyal fans and their bus ride . . . Anthony Fejes, "co-chief centurion" of the Warriors Band, took the trouble on Sunday to correct something I said in Friday's Bulletin. "I just got back from Halifax," he reported, firmly denying my statement that the Band and the UW cheerleaders "flew out" to Halifax on Thursday night.

"Actually," he says, "the Warriors Band hopped on a bus, along with the cheerleaders, at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday. We didn't exactly fly -- it was a 22 hour ride each way. (We only got to spend about that much time in Halifax.) Although we truly appreciate the university's sponsorship of the band, they haven't yet flown us anywhere."

Fejes goes on: "However, unlike the last band trip to Halifax (the final 8 basketball challenge in the spring of 1998), which was done in a 12 seater van, we didn't get hit by snowstorms on the way there and back. (It took 27 hours to drive there and about the same on the way back, if you don't count the extra 24 hours we spent in the town of St. Raphael, waiting for the storm to pass.) This time, the weather was absolutely beautiful. But I digress."

It was a long trip home, Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, at the end of a long season.

Theses now welcome electronically

"Effective immediately all Master's and Doctoral students have the option of submitting an electronic version of their thesis in fulfilment of their degree requirements," says Audrey Sloboda, records coordinator in the grad studies office.

The announcement follows changes to the thesis regulations that were approved by the university senate in June.

"It doesn't change the way they write theses," said Dwight Aplevich, who shepherded the new rule through the senate as one of his last duties as associate dean of graduate studies. He finished his term in that post on June 30. A thesis still has to be "black on white", Aplevich said, but now it can be electronic (in PostScript format) rather than on paper.

The grad office says electronic submission of theses will "reduce paper handling, printing, photocopying and binding costs for students, allow creativity of expression not possible in a print medium, and benefit researchers around the world who will have free remote access to full text, abstract and bibliographic records".

Students choosing this option must submit a single file, in PostScript format only, to the GSO. Full information is available on an electronic thesis web site, or from the GSO at ext. 6035.

When it changed the rules in June, UW's senate also declared that when a completed thesis is deposited, the university has the right to make it available "including network-based electronic indexing and circulation". In other words, the thesis might be made accessible over the Internet, not just on paper or in microfiche form. Like most North American universities, UW has PhD theses put onto microfiche by Bell & Howell Information and Learning, formerly University Microfilms, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Theses are also available in the National Library of Canada and in UW's own library.

Electronic theses have been under discussion at UW for several years. A working group representing the library, the graduate studies office and other departments presented a report on the subject in 1997.

The day's events at Waterloo

The physics department presents a seminar today by Joseph Sanderson of University College, London. He'll speak at 1:30 (in Physics room 308) on "Small Molecules in Intense Laser Fields".

The career development seminar series for this term winds up with two sessions this week on interview skills. Today at 1:30, it's "Selling Your Skills"; Thursday at 10:30, it's "Preparing for Questions". Both seminars take place in Needles Hall room 1020.

And the tourism lecture series continues, with a talk today by Geoff Wall of the geography department. He'll speak (3:30 p.m., Arts Lecture room 113) on "Tourism in the Coastal Zone: Perspectives from Hainan, China".

The "ACM SigCHI chapter" at UW -- a group interested in human-computer interaction -- announces "a presentation and reception by Nortel Networks" today at 6:00 in Davis Centre room 1302. Mike Ateyo of Nortel "will be giving a talk about their work, processes and corporate culture. Students involved in human factors, human-computer interaction or other related fields will find the session valuable." Tomorrow, Ateyo will be available for one-to-one interviews "to discuss specific job opportunities": students interested can sign up in Engineering II room 1303G.

The St. Jerome's Students' Union is holding a by-election for the position of vice-president. Nomination packages can be picked up at the SJSU office; nominations close Thursday at 4 p.m. For information: 884-8111 ext. 249.

This Friday will be the deadline for proposals for "an art show that celebrates the diversity of our campus", being organized by the Federation of Students. "Students are asked to submit proposals outlining the piece they would like to enter into the exhibition," says Chris Harold, vice-president (internal) of the Federation. He can be reached at ext. 3780 for more information.

And something I should have mentioned in Friday's Bulletin: Friday was the day for an induction ceremony welcoming 60 new Fellows, including three from UW, into the Royal Society of Canada. The new Fellows from Waterloo, announced earlier this year, are Paul Thagard of philosophy, Mark Zanna of psychology, and Graham Gladwell of civil engineering.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Friday's Bulletin
Copyright © 1999 University of Waterloo