November 15, 2002

Friday, November 15, 2002

Former prof speaks at St. Jerome's
Recruiting women faculty, part 3
Parents brace for costs, company says
Sufficient unto the day

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[Downey]

Former prof speaks at St. Jerome's

Terry Downey (right), who was chair of UW's political science department until he heard the call of the west in 1999, returns tonight to give the annual Graduates' Association Lecture at St. Jerome's University.

He'll speak at 7:30 in Siegfried Hall, under the title "In Defence of Non-Conformity: Liberal Arts in the 21st Century".

Tonight also brings the presentation of the Father Norm Choate Distinguished Graduate Award for 2002. The winner is Michelle DiEmanuele, identified as one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40", a 1987 St. Jerome's graduate in political science.

DiEmanuele won recognition for her meteoric rise through the Ontario public service, as well as her current professional accomplishments and continuing promotion and support of St. Jerome's. In 1999, Report on Business Magazine included DiEmanuele in their survey of young achievers for her work as assistant deputy minister in Ontario's ministry of health. She is currently the vice-president (human resources and organizational development) for Brookfield Properties Ltd., one of North America's largest commercial property managers, and an active volunteer with the United Way of Greater Toronto and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

DiEmanuele has also continued to support St. Jerome's, most recently as one of the key volunteers in a campaign to promote the value of a liberal arts education.

Downey, giving tonight's lecture, is one professor whom DiEmanuele identified as being central to her success. He is now the president of St. Mary's College in Calgary.

His lecture will explore the impact of globalization on the liberal arts tradition of free inquiry, asking whether those homogenizing pressures will stifle that tradition. "It is incumbent on those who teach the liberal arts to encourage students to consistently challenge the prevailing orthodoxy," Downey says. Downey, himself a graduate of St. Jerome's, was the recipient, with his wife, Margaret, of the 1990 Distinguished Graduate Award.

The Choate award is named for a former president of St. Jerome's and has been presented since 1986 to graduates demonstrating distinguished achievement in their career, volunteer activities and commitment to St. Jerome's.

[Humanities in the background]
Wood from the maple tree felled on campus eighteen months ago, to make space for the new co-op and career services building, has been in storage ever since. But it will soon emerge in the form of an artwork in the new building. Monday is the deadline for entries in the contest for designs.

Recruiting women faculty, part 3

Several kinds of funds are proposed in the report of the provost's task force on female faculty recruitment, which was distributed on campus this week and is on its way to the UW senate for discussion.

"Many other Canadian universities," says the report, "have undertaken a wide range of creative strategies that are family friendly, many of which are specifically designed to attract qualified female candidates."

Not everything that needs to be done costs money, the task force adds. It calls for care in the hiring process, for example: "Don't let potentially qualified females fall off the short list too soon." It also suggests mentoring for young faculty members (of both sexes), efforts to tell potential faculty recruits what a good place Kitchener-Waterloo is to live, and sensitivity in working out teaching assignments for professors with young families.

But the task force does call for some budget allocations, as well as programs to which it doesn't try to attach a price tag. It recommends these programs:

"An internship program for at least one or two UW faculty women per year within the senior central administration", in roles such as "assistant to the president".
Postdoctoral fellowships for women in fields where there are few women faculty.
A "bridging fund" to let departments hire women sooner than they otherwise would -- a few years before someone is scheduled to retire, for example.
An "institutional fund to facilitate spousal opportunities", helping create temporary jobs for the spouses of faculty members whom UW wants to hire.

Some things are already working, says provost Amit Chakma in his memo presenting the task force report to campus. "Considerable progress has been made regarding the provision of institutional start-up funding and teaching reduction in the first year of appointment." He adds that some of the funding programs the task force has recommended will need "to be thought through further".

Parents brace for costs, company says

Ontario is now "the second most expensive province in which to attend university next to Nova Scotia", says an annual Guide to University Costs in Canada published by a company that encourages parents to save for their kids' education.

USC Education Savings Plans says its study tracks the cost of tuition, books and room and board at 37 top Canadian universities. (Statistics Canada does much the same, and reported in August that fees were up an average of 4.1 per cent this year across Canada.)

"Our projections indicate that in 18 years it could cost parents over $123,000 to put a child born today through four years of university," said Brian Munholland, president of USC, which says it has Registered Education Savings Plan investments from more than 225,000 Canadian families.

"This fall, it will cost University of Waterloo students an average of $14,156 for their first year of studies including resident housing and incidental expenses, just slightly above the Ontario average of $13,985. The study also shows an average annual 4.6% national increase in tuition fees over the last 25 years."

This year, USC added a new component to its guide by collecting statistics on Graduate program fees. "Our preliminary analysis shows that the 12 reported Canadian universities offering full-time MBA programs have one to four year courses costing between $2,600 and $17,000 per year, excluding the cost of books and residence," said Munholland. "With more and more employers looking for a second degree, it appears that Canadians will have to factor in the cost of schooling beyond the traditional B.A."

USC and other members of the RESP industry, through their national association, have been encouraging governments to implement provincial top-ups to the federal Canada Education Savings Grant, which currently adds 20 per cent on the first $2,000 of an annual RESP contribution to a maximum of $400 per child per year.

Monday brings the fast
The Muslim Students Association will hold a "Campus-Wide Fast" on Monday as part of a national event aimed at raising thousands of dollars for shelters, food banks and soup kitchens.
During Ramadan, Muslims fast during daylight hours for religious reasons. On Monday they're inviting non-Muslims to join them, first for the fast and then for dinner with Muslim families after dark. Local businesses will donate $2 for each student who agrees to take part.
Funds raised at UW will go to the House of Friendship agency. A pledge form for participants is available on the MSA web site.

Sufficient unto the day

An open house is scheduled today to show off the renovated language labs in the Modern Languages building. Ceremonies take place in the nearby Environmental Studies building, room 250, at noon, and then the newly upgraded labs will open their door for tours from 1 to 2 p.m. On display will be two 25-workstation computer labs (ML 109 and ML 113) on the Nexus Windows 2000 domain, as well as a drop-in study lab (ML 110) with three computer workstations and a variety of audio-visual material for language learning.

The pensions and benefits committee meets for most of the day today (8:30 until 2:00, in Needles Hall room 3004) to hear reports from the firms that manage the pension fund investments. . . . Something called "Art Means Business", a three-day training program for visual artists, gets going this afternoon in the Arts Lecture Hall. . . . The Touring Players perform "Beauty and the Beast", for groups of schoolchildren, in the Humanities Theatre at 10:00, 11:45 and 1:30 today. . . .

The finals of the Sandford Fleming Debates for engineering students are scheduled for 12 noon today in the lobby of Carl Pollock Hall.

Ancient history is -- obviously -- not dry stuff. Sheila Ager of the classical studies department speaks today, and "will examine the colourful family history of Cleopatra's antecedents", at 3:00 in Modern Languages room 246. Oh, the title is "All in the Family: Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty".

In the philosophy department colloquium series, Chris Viger of the University of Western Ontario speaks today on "What Consciousness Might Be For" (Humanities room 373, 4 p.m.).

It's open stage at the Graduate House tonight, with Front Plates of Justice. . . . A group from the UW staff association will be front and centre tonight for "One Night With You", Robin Kelly as Elvis Presley, at the Black Forest Inn. . . . Pigeon Hole plays the Bombshelter tonight. . . .

There are two more performances of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the major fall production of UW's drama department: tonight and tomorrow night in the Theatre of the Arts. "Shakespeare's perfect play," the poster reminds us, "brings together inexperienced but energetic young lovers, cautious but willing middle-aged lovers and a world of fairies/spirits who know too well how easily love can be turned into something comic or tragic." Showtime is 8:00; the Humanities box office (888-4908) has tickets.

Water will be shut off in the Columbia Icefield and the north campus day care centres Saturday morning from 8:00 to 10:00. . . . A workshop on moccasin making is scheduled tomorrow in the earth sciences museum; call ext. 6957 for details. . . . The Muskoka Club will hold "a James Bond themed semi-formal" on Sunday night at King Street Trio on University. . . . The annual fall sale of the Waterloo Potters' Workshop, involving many UW people, will be held today from 1:30 to 9:00, Saturday from 10 to 5 and Sunday from 12 to 4, at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex. . . .

The Da Capo Chamber Choir, based at Conrad Grebel College, will give its next concert, titled "Lux Aeterna", on Saturday at 8:00 at St. John the Evangelist Church (corner of Duke and Water Streets in Kitchener). The concert features the premiere of Barrie Cabena's "Requiem for the Victims of Terrorism", and also includes Edward Elgar's "Lux Aeterna", Leonard Enns's "God was a child curled up", and Henry Gorecki's "Totus Tuus". The guest choir is the Grebel chapel choir, and guest organist is Marlin Nagtegaal. Da Capo consists of 18 singers, and is conducted by Leonard Enns, UW professor of music. Tickets are available at the door for $10 and $15.

The Computer Store has announced two "lunch and learn" sessions for next week. Monday at noon, people from Acer will talk about the TravelMate C100 Tablet PC; Tuesday, Apple will provide information about "Jaguar", otherwise known as OS 10.2. RSVPs for these sessions go to Noemia Fernandes, noemia@uwaterloo.ca.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
November 15, 1958: The University of Waterloo Act comes into force.