Daily Bulletin

Non-credit courses are announced

The course -- one of a dozen new offerings announced in the Spring 2001 calendar -- takes an interactive approach to dealing with ethical dilemmas in practical work-related scenarios.

Other new professional development courses:

• The Five Dimensions of Coaching focuses on providing "action-oriented leadership while building and maintaining a highly motivated environment";
• Frontline Service "presents a framework for improving service where it really counts -- at the point of contact with the customer";
• Effective Negotiating Strategies aims "to achieve win-win results in both everyday situations and high-stakes bargaining";
• Hiring the Best: Interviewing and Selection Skills for Managers to "enable managers to think strategically about the skills and characteristics people need to succeed in their organizations, and to effectively prepare for and conduct the selection process";
• Overcoming Negativity in the Workplace deals with responding "effectively to the trials and tribulations" of the job and responding to "people who appear to be overly negative".

Offered for the first time online are 101 Tips and Tricks for the iMac and Macintosh, Introduction to Windows 2000 Professional, Travel Writing and Write Your Life Story.

Scores of other courses -- provided both in the classroom and online -- are offered again this term. Private in-house training courses can be tailored for the needs of organizations, and even classes for children are available.

For those pursuing the ultimate hands-on experience, a study tour of the Baltic will be held in August, either for personal interest or for credit.

Registration can be completed by mail, by phone (ext. 4002), by fax, on the web, or in person at the new 335 Gage Avenue location in Kitchener.

Nominating committee for dean of ES

Geoff McBoyle, geography professor and dean of environmental studies since July 1997

Nominations are requested for the following seats on the nominating committee (at least three nominators are required in each case):

• One faculty member elected by and from the regular faculty of the faculty of environmental studies.
• One staff member elected by and from the regular staff of the faculty of environmental studies.

Surprise: education means higher earnings

The study -- done by David Green and Craig Riddell of the University of British Columbia -- is based on Canadian data from the International Adult Literacy Survey, done in 1994. The study measured the "literacy" skills of 5,660 Canadian adults, measured in three ways: "prose" ("the ability to understand and use information from texts such as editorials and newspaper articles"), "document" ("the ability to find and use information from documents such as job applications and maps"), and "quantitative" ("the ability to perform arithmetic functions such as balancing a chequebook").

It's already known that "Literacy skills have an important impact on a range of labour market outcomes," says a StatsCan summary of the study's findings, "but the relationship is a complex one. Internationally, wage returns to literacy appear to be highest in countries, like Canada and the United States, where the demand for literacy skills is high and where literacy levels are highly variable.

Education makes other economic differences: a bachelor's degree almost doubles a family's average net worth, says another StatsCan study.

"This study attempts to isolate the impact that literacy has on the wages of Canadian workers. The findings confirm the importance of literacy to individual economic success."

Some of the highlights:

• "Literacy has a large impact on earnings, and accounts for about one-third of the estimated 'return on education.' Each additional year of education raises annual earnings by about 8.3%. Of that, about 3.1 percentage points result from the combined influences of education on literacy and, in turn, literacy on earnings."
• "Educational attainment appears to have a much larger impact on literacy than work experience. Results suggest that general labour market experience has little net effect on literacy."
• "Results also provide some support for the view that literacy skills may play a role in how well immigrants adjust to their new labour market. The small number of immigrants in the sample precludes a stronger conclusion about the relationship between literacy skills and the earnings pattern of immigrants relative to the native-born. Further research is needed in this area."
• "Individual earnings and the education level of parents are positively linked. However, there is little evidence that the educational attainment of parents exerts a positive impact on the child's earnings as an adult, once both educational attainment and literacy skills are taken into account. This suggests that the positive association between parents' education and individual earnings is due principally to the influence of parents' education on the literacy skills and educational attainment of the child."

The talk of the campus

This year's speaker for the Friends of the Library "Authors Event" next month will be Pamela Wallin (left), broadcaster, author and member of the UW board of governors. Wallin's talk "A New Perspective: The Media Is You" will be given Wednesday, May 9 at noon in the Theatre of the Arts, Modern Languages building. It's the ninth annual May lecture sponsored by the Friends "to celebrate the creative process alive and well at UW", says Mary Stanley in the library office. "It is a time for the entire campus to come together to be inspired, entertained and applaud the creative works of our campus community."

And Stanley sends a reminder that books, art and music will all be on display during the annual Authors Event. "The Library is still interested in hearing from anyone on campus who, in 2000, wrote a book, composed a musical work, were recognized for their photography or design work, or mounted an art show." Anyone who would like such work to be included in the upcoming display can contact Stanley at ext. 6019 or e-mail mstanley@library.

Thursday is the deadline, as the staff association looks for nominees for its executive committee, including a president-elect. Nomination forms were circulated a few weeks ago, and detailed information is available from the staff association office.

Scheduled for tomorrow morning: a three-hour workshop on course design sponsored by the teaching resources and continuing education office. "During the workshop," says a summary, "you will learn about setting course learning goals, planning feedback and assessment, and choosing teaching strategies, all in relation to factors such as the context of the course, your students, and yourself as an instructor. Then you will test out your larger design by designing one class." More information: ext. 3132.

An invitation from the local Volunteer Action Centre: "Make a splash by helping with the Waterloo Wellington Children's Groundwater Festival at Doon Heritage Crossroads. More than 4000 students (grade 3 to 6) will be participating in this week-long festival which runs May 28 to June 1. This fun, educational event teaches students and the community about respecting and conserving our valuable water resources to ensure a reliable water supply for the future. Volunteers are needed one day during the week from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., to work with small groups of students at over 40 activity centres. They provide training, free lunch, T-shirt, and snack! Call now to join the excitement." The number at the VAC is 742-8610.

And finally . . . math student Aylwin Lo, who was mentioned in the Bulletin on Wednesday in the context of his plans to head to Québec City, sends a couple of corrections to what we said: "I'm on co-op right now, not starting a term this month. And I'm considering being a teacher, but not planning on it. It's a minor distinction, but hey . . . I like accuracy." And so do I.

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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