Daily Bulletin

Good grief . . . it's the gang from the comic strip 'Peanuts', from Linus with his blanket (Matt Borch) to the crabby Lucy (Melissa Roe). The drama department's production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" opens tonight in the Theatre of the Arts and runs through Saturday; tickets are $10, students $8, at the Humanities box office.

A $309 million year for UW

Not quite two-thirds of the total is the university's "operating budget", from which most staff and faculty get their salaries and other expenses are paid. The financial statement shows total income of $192.8 million in the operating budget in 1998-99. Expenditures in the operating budget were $181.3 million, plus another $7.2 million shown as "transfers" for capital purchases, for a net surplus of $4.3 million in the operating budget.

(Figures in the financial statement are hard to compare with figures in UW's budget papers, which the board also saw yesterday. Things are recorded in different ways -- for example, the financial statement doesn't refer to the annual payment on UW's debt for the 1996 early retirement program, because the money is simply owed from the operating budget to another UW fund. That payment alone would take a big bite out of the $4.3 million apparent surplus.)

Besides the operating budget, UW's overall finances, that $309 million, include ancillary enterprises such as residences and retail services ($45 million in income last year) and "restricted and other specific purpose" funds ($71 million).

The biggest share of those special-purpose funds would be research grants and contracts, but the financial statement doesn't provide details.

It does break the total $309 million income down into six major categories: academic fees ($72.7 million), donations ($8.0 million), grants and contracts ($154.3 million), sales, services and other income ($60.4 million), income from investments ($7.5 million), and amortization of deferred capital contributions ($6.3 million).

More than half the total spending went to salaries -- $165.5 million -- and another $20.0 million went for employee benefits.

UW's net assets at the end of the year were $84.5 million -- about half in endowments (money that can't be spent, although the interest is used for various purposes) and half in capital assets (the cost of buildings, equipment and library books as they depreciate over the years).

Task force on learning technology

Teaching and learning over the World Wide Web is a big part of what the task force will look at, says Johnston. But not all "learning technologies" involve the Web: the group's terms of reference mention everything from videoconferencing to CD-ROMs. "An example of available modalities, along with a compilation of their merits and costs, is needed," says the mandate handed to the task force by COU.

It notes that although new technology can bring improvements to classroom teaching, "many learning technologies allow for effective learning outside of the classroom" as well. It speaks of the need for both university-level education and "advanced skill upgrading for graduates who are in the workforce".

And it alludes to one huge source of pressure: the expected increase in the number of people looking for university education in Ontario, on the order of 40 per cent within a decade. "The traditional classroom education will continue to be the main venue for university education," the COU memo says. "However, the growing enrolment demands may require supplementary approaches."

The enrolment crunch would be the wrong reason for putting new energy into electronic distance education, Johnston said last week. "Don't try to deal with that by substituting on-line learning for on-campus learning!" Anyone who wants to try it, he said, needs to remember that -- at least at first -- there won't be any financial savings, because of the huge cost of getting high-tech learning projects started.

And, he pointed out, young people graduating from Ontario high schools over the next decade will want the "experience" of going off to a university where they meet teachers and classmates face to face. A web education would be a poor substitute. He said he's all in favour of "reducing the distance between on-campus and off-campus learning", but "never replacing the on-campus, the best form of teaching."

Said the president: "From my point of view, this is learning-driven. We have a new set of tools that are as important to us as the printing press was five hundred years ago." Some of them involve teaching over the Internet, and some are improvements in how things are done right in the traditional classroom."

He said he "would expect this university to play a significant role" in developing learning technologies, and gave a particular nod to Tom Carey, director of the new LT3 (Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology), which will help faculty members find or create the right high-tech teaching tools. "How do we take best advantage of new technology that is available to us to enhance and advance learning?"

Leg inventions limp to market -- by Barbara Elve

David Winter, a specialist in human biomechanics, worked on the projects in the early 1990s. By the time he officially retired in 1994, "both had bombed out," he admits.

Despite the hoopla of media coverage that greeted the introduction of the "power assist ballet slipper" and the enthusiasm of amputees who tested the prosthesis, both are now "dormant, as far as I'm concerned," says Winter. He has tried in vain to find manufacturers for each, and "most obvious routes have met with closed doors."

With the assistance of UW's technology transfer office, he obtained a US patent for the ballet slipper technology, which inserts a leaf spring in the sole of the shoe to give a "mechanical energy assist to the small muscles that lift and lower the dancer" when performing en pointe, or on the tip of her toes.

The technology -- developed with Paula Dozzi, a master's student and dancer who is now a medical doctor -- not only has the potential to reduce the high rate of injury to ballerinas, but to extend the life of ballet slippers, as well. There's the rub, says Winter. The addition of a leaf spring would add about $5 to the cost of a slipper, and make it last three times as long. Manufacturers of ballet shoes are producing "a consumable item and they don't want to cut down on consumption. They're making enough money on the garbage they're throwing out now." Winter has been unable to find manufacturers for either product in Canada, so has approached major companies which produce ballet shoes and prosthetic devices in the United States.

And despite successful trials of the prosthesis -- with a unique arrangement of springs that makes ankle torque mimic what the normal ankle does during walking -- the product was rejected by the manufacturer because of the costs of retooling equipment. Likewise, his power assist ballet slipper means a company "would sell one-third to one-quarter the number of slippers" currently marketed, and "would make less profit. The dancer loses.

"That's my assessment. How can UW or myself fight something like that? I haven't got the time or money to do promotion." Winter's proposal: "There needs to be a user-friendly organization, which might have some government support, to take the prototypes, do market research and develop as a product.

"The level of Canadian innovation is relatively low in exploiting our technology for new jobs," he added, noting the technology was paid for by the taxpayers through federal and provincial research grants.

Because of the difficulties in getting the ballet shoe patented, Winter has not bothered going through the process for the prosthesis. "It could be copied by anyone now and we would have no benefit," he said. "But if someone stole the technology and manufactured it, I wouldn't be too mad because at least amputees would benefit from it."

Food, blood and music

That's the food; it's up to you to provide the blood, as a Canadian Blood Services blood donor clinic continues today and tomorrow in the Student Life Centre.

And the music? That would be a concert by The Three Cantors, tonight at 7:30 in the Humanities Theatre. The three cantors are Anglican priests who sing everything from beloved, ancient music of the church and contemporary anthems, to new, original compositions, spirituals, folk songs, and the best of Broadway", and they're here as a fund-raiser for local Anglican causes, including the Renison College building fund. Tickets are $20, students $12, from the Humanities box office (888-4908) or from Renison.

Other notes for today:

• The UW computer store has another of its Wednesday Demonstration Days in the south Campus Hall concourse, today showing off iMac, iBook and ThinkPad hardware.
• Training in the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, for those who haven't had it and need it before they can legally work in a laboratory, will be provided in a one-hour session at 10:00 this morning in Davis Centre room 1304.
• The career development seminar series continues, with a session at 2:30 today (Needles Hall room 1020) on "Interview Skills, Preparing for Questions".
• St. Paul's United College continues its "Journey Beyond Credit" series tonight with a talk by Mavis Fenn of the religious studies department, at 7:00 in MacKirdy Hall at St. Paul's. Topic: "To Die or Not to Die".
• Looking ahead, the drama department's offering a pre-Hallowe'en costume sale from 9 to 4 tomorrow in Humanities room 272.

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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