Daily Bulletin

The Red Room is turning purple. Andrew Wardach was on the job last week to paint the new classrooms that have been constructed out of the former machine room in the heart of the Math and Computer building.

Debate on the tenure policies

The two drafts -- Policy 76 and Policy 77 -- got about an hour's discussion at the monthly meeting of the UW senate on January 17, and two points got most of the attention:

• Should there be student representatives on the faculty-level committees that consider tenure recommendations from academic departments? (The new policy does put two student representatives -- non-voting -- on the university-level committee that advises the president on tenure cases, and Christine Cheng, president of the Federation of Students, said she found that "very gratifying". But faculty-level committees won't have student representatives.)
• Is it fair that young faculty members have no opportunity for a formal appeal process if they're told at the end of a three-year probationary term that they are not "making satisfactory progress towards tenure" and won't be reappointed? (Three years later, when they actually apply for tenure, an appeal process is available.) Environmental studies senator Len Guelke said he thinks eliminating the present appeal process at the end of the first term will "weaken individual rights and weaken justice".

Apart from the issues of student representation and appeal processes, one significant change in the new policies is that promotion from assistant professor (the usual starting rank) to associate professor will now come automatically with tenure, rather than being a separate business.

And Fred McCourt, president of the faculty association, spoke with satisfaction about another change: tenure appeal committees now are supposed to be made up of people who know something about the academic field of the faculty member who is appealing. That way, tenure decisions can be based on the quality of someone's teaching and research, not on quibbles about procedure, he said.

Questions in the library Here's news from the library, more specifically from Jackie Stapleton in the Davis Centre: "From January 24 to March 27, weekly drop-in sessions are scheduled for students using the Dana Porter Library or the Davis Centre Library. Encourage your students to come with questions related to term papers, assignments and projects when they need instruction such as searching TRELLIS, locating journal articles, how to begin their research etc. While this is similar to the assistance provided at the Information Desk, staff wearing 'Ask Me' buttons in the computer areas are prepared to spend more time with each individual. Hours: Mondays 4 to 5 p.m., Davis Centre; Tuesdays 3 to 4 p.m., Dana Porter."

'Kids in traffic' paper brings award -- by Barbara Elve

The award was shared with Alison Smiley (MSc and PhD in systems design at UW) and Wendy K. Dunk, who co-authored "Identifying Gaps in Child Pedestrian Safety: Comparing What Children Do With What Parents Teach". The paper, published in Transportation Research Record, was selected from some 350 peer-reviewed submissions.

Finding herself in systems design, where she specializes in cognitive ergonomics, is really "a situation of happenstance," says MacGregor. After her first work term in the road safety branch, systems section, at Transport Canada, she returned to complete the remainder of her work terms at the same place. While in Ottawa, she met systems design students from UW who inspired her to take some systems design courses in human factors and ergonomics as a psych undergrad. That led to a Master's and PhD in industrial engineering at the University of Toronto, before she returned to UW to join the faculty in 1996.

She specializes in cognitive ergonomics, exploring the information processing demands of a task. Employing both psychology and engineering, she analyzes where people are having a problem and how to design displays or devices to make the task easier. "I teach students how to design from a user-centred perspective and how to do usability testing on those designs."

Usability testing is most often used in computer applications, but "it's starting to trickle into other engineering departments," she says, with an increasing number of students from other engineering departments signing up for her systems design course in Design of Human-Machine Systems, which takes a user-centred perspective.

While traffic systems have been one of MacGregor's main areas of interest to date, her work in that area includes the application of navigational tools to virtual environments. Such systems can be used to train people, such as firefighters, in maneuvering through unfamiliar space.

Her prize-winning child pedestrian safety study, funded by Foundation MAIF, Paris, is the first research project outside France to receive funding by the foundation. Findings from the study will be used to produce educational brochures for parents in France, and the Transportation Research Board has expressed interest in a similar educational initiative for a North American audience.

Among the findings:

• At intersections without signals, 33 per cent of unaccompanied children (ages five to 12) in the study performed no search for traffic before crossing.
• Only about six per cent of unaccompanied children looked behind them for turning vehicles before crossing.

SPSS CD is available Carol Vogt of the information systems and technology department sends word that "we have succeeded in licensing SPSS (Base and Advanced Statistics) for student use. This is a fully functional version, not limited to a maximum number of variables. "This CD is available to students (and only to students) at a cost of $23, from the CHIP (MC 1052). At the present time, there is only a PC version. It joins the Math at Home CD, which contains a licensed copy of MathCad and Matlab, also available from the CHIP for $15. (Math at Home comes in both PC and Mac versions.) "While students are in the CHIP acquiring these CDs, they can also pick up the Home Use CD for $15. It contains copies of web browsers, email clients and a variety of other packages, but it also has a licensed copy of Norton Antivirus software, more than a bargain at $15. "We are attempting to assemble a comprehensive set of software for students to use on their own computers, and to make it available at prices affordable to students. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements."

The talk of the campus

Geoffrey Fong of UW's psychology department is the speaker today in the noon-hour series sponsored by Kitchener Public Library (and held at KPL's main branch downtown). His topic: "Errors and Biases in Reasoning: Examples and Explanations from Everyday Life and Science".

The career development workshop series continues. Today brings "Interview Skills: The Basics" at 1:30 p.m. and "Interview Skills: Preparing for Questions" at 2:30, both in Needles Hall room 1020.

The philosophy department today presents Allan Nadler of Drew University, speaking on "Images of Spinoza in Modern Jewish Thought". His talk starts at 3:30 in Humanities room 334. Tomorrow, Nadler will be giving the next talk in the Jewish studies "Distinguished Guest Lecture Series": he'll speak at 8:00 Tuesday night on "From Elisha to Spinoza: A Brief History of Heresy in Jewish Thought".

The WatCHI group presents a talk today by Nick Hoh on "Working in User Interface Design": 5:30 p.m., Davis Centre room 1304.

The city of Waterloo will be holding a public meeting tonight to discuss two developments of some academic interest:

• An official plan amendment to bring all the scattered campus of Wilfrid Laurier University into a single zoning classification.
• A zoning change and "plan of subdivision" for the Resurrection College lands on the west side of Westmount Road, across from St. Jerome's College, where a neighbourhood of 47 houses is proposed.

Happening tomorrow, in addition to the Jewish studies lecture, already mentioned:

• A noon-hour "Visionary Seminar" at Wilfrid Laurier University, with teleconference connections to other Ontario universities, in which John Cleghorn of the Royal Bank of Canada "will present his vision of the financial services industry with a specific focus on entrepreneurship". Tickets for the event are available for UW people from Sue Gooding in the dean of engineering office, phone ext. 3137.
• The faculty association will hold a special general meeting at 3:30 p.m. in Math and Computer room 4059. Agenda: "Meet your salary negotiators."
• Semion Sharetski, an opposition leader in the Republic of Belarus (formerly part of the Soviet Union), will speak at 1:30 tomorrow on "The Political Situation in Belarus and Its Danger for Peace". Opponents of the country's current president, Alexander Lukashenka, identify Sharetski as "acting president" of Belarus; he lives in exile in Lithuania.

Finally . . . today's the last day for several weeks that you can enjoy a ride on the Engineering Lecture Hall elevator. First thing tomorrow morning, the elevator will be taken out of service for major repairs, the plant operations department says.

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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