Provost presents priorities

The agenda said he was summarizing an annual progress report on the 1997 "Building on Accomplishment" plan for the university, but he went well beyond that. Chakma packed so much into his PowerPoint presentation that I had trouble scribbling notes on it all, but here are some of the main things he said:

The budget: Times are hard and "no relief is in sight," said the provost, calculating that if nothing is done, UW would have to chop spending by about 4 per cent a year in each of the next three or four years.

"We have to look at diversifying our income quite seriously," he said, and that includes bringing in private donations -- the goal is to have $50 million a year coming in from alumni and others by 2004.

"We need, all of us, to buy in, to do our part," he said, noting that among other things, management is looking at proposals for additional "cost recovery" academic programs like the existing technology management graduate program and software diploma.

Student recruitment: "Some of our efforts are paying off," said Chakma, pointing to an overall enrolment increase this year (by about 2.2 per cent) and a sharp increase in the number of international students, although figures aren't final yet. "Enrolment pressure continues to be there," he said, adding that government funding is nowhere near enough to pay the cost of educating the new students who are beating at the doors of universities.

Someone asked him how UW will be dealing with the "double cohort" of high school graduates expected to appear in September 2003. "Clearly," he said, "we have a responsibility to our Ontario double cohort students, but that's not enough."

Academic innovations: "New developments," said the provost, "must be in areas of strategic importance -- high quality, and affordable." Work is going into planning a new "business, innovation and technology" program, he said. He also mentioned a proposed Institute for Quantum Computing, and told senate that three faculty members in theoretical physics have been appointed "in partnership" with the new Perimeter Institute.

Internationalization: Not only are there more foreign students than in the past, Chakma said, but the number of UW students who went overseas -- for co-op jobs, exchanges and other university-sanctioned programs -- reached 750.

Priorities: The provost rhymed off eight of them for the coming year:

• Income diversification
• Student financial aid
• Enrolment growth management
• Residence capacity
• Graduate enrolment growth
• Faculty and staff retention
• Technology-enhanced learning
• North campus research and technology park

The winning team in last year's "Watcase" exercise for fourth-year accounting students, along with teachers and judges

'Borderline frightening' as profs retire

It's one of a series of reviews that, over a seven-year cycle, are meant to cover all UW's undergraduate programs. The first four reviews were tabled early this year and five more have now been made public -- accountancy, physics, computer science, Germanic and Slavic, and political science.

Details of the four other program reviews will be coming in the Daily Bulletin in the next few days.

Reviews are done through a combination of "self-study" and a visit by a team of experts from other institutions. The review team for the accountancy school reports that "perhaps the most serious current need" is for more space. The existing space, in the Humanities building, is called "quite inhibiting and limiting a number of high quality teaching initiatives", and the final report says that "The School agrees that it does not have adequate case study room to teach its classes."

The review team commented that the retirement picture for the school is "borderline frightening", with three senior scholars who have been academic and professional leaders scheduled for retirement within three years. Says the report: "The review team also noted that recruitment of new faculty is a major challenge for the School, as it is for other business programs, because of the need to meet salary and research support expectations, and to compete with the private sector. The School has expressed concern about its ability to compete in recruiting new faculty relative to the higher salaries and research support offered by competitor Canadian and American universities."

With 23 faculty members, the school has 750 undergraduate students majoring in accounting, offers graduate programs and "is being stretched to the limit" in providing service teaching to support the business programs in various parts of the university.

The review team observed that "The School has developed a close relationship with the accounting profession and has become one of the, if not the, premier accounting schools in Canada." It has the largest complement of accounting researchers at any Canadian university. "Independent studies have concluded that the School of Accountancy is one of the highest quality accountancy programs in the country. . . . the School has developed a curriculum that pays careful attention to the traditional academic standards while simultaneously preparing students for qualifying as professionals." The review team noted that "the quality of students entering the programs is of the highest level."

It says the school "has a strong research track record", but, "with some exceptions, there appears to have been a slow down in publications by senior professors and other tenured faculty. The review team recognized, however, that Accountancy faculty, as for all faculty in professional programs, have to search for balance between publishing in academic journals and staying engaged with their profession. . . . A resurgence of research effort by highly established professors would be beneficial."

The school notes that it's launching a fund-raising program "to address shortcomings related to classroom space and facilities, faculty hiring and retention, and other issues raised during the program review". It also reports that the school is "in a transition period", with "some key decisions about curriculum" depending on changes that are expected shortly in the requirements set by the professional governing bodies.

Coming up at meetings today

Senate undergraduate council will meet at 1:30 p.m. in NH room 3001. A major agenda for that item is the proposed curriculum for math students taking the new health informatics option, which has already been approved for students in applied health sciences.

The executive committee of the board of governors will meet at 2:30 in NH room 3004. The agenda there is to organize business for the October 30 meeting of the full board, including a budget update, a Campaign Waterloo briefing, the 2000-01 annual financial statement, and so on and so on -- including a construction tender for the renovation of Eby Hall (the "west tower") of UW Place next year.

And a little of this and that

Co-op students in the accounting program will get the news about winter jobs this afternoon -- job match results will be posted at 3 p.m., the co-op department says.

Looking ahead to tomorrow: there will be a surplus sale at central stores from 11:30 to 12:30 at East Campus Hall.

Also tomorrow, Ron Baecker of the University of Toronto, and founder of Expresto Software, will be at UW to describe "a new approach that allows the creation, Web access, and Internet transmission of structured, navigable, searchable video documents". He'll speak at 4 p.m. in the "Flex" lab, Dana Porter Library room 328, sponsored by the LT3 technology centre.

I've dropped a number of hints that fall convocation will be held this Saturday, but here's a formal reminder. UW's Eighty-Third Convocation will take place in two sessions, at 10 a.m. (for applied health sciences and arts) and 2 p.m. (for the other faculties). I will, of course, be saying more about convocation honours and celebrations as the week goes on.

Coming soon:

• Renison College's annual East Asian Festival, October 25-27.
• You@Waterloo Day, an opportunity for potential students and their parents to visit UW, October 27.
• Broadcaster Pamela Wallin will read at the UW bookstore at noontime October 30.

CAR