UW will co-sponsor Catholic degree

UW will be offering a degree program in theology for the first time, as the university senate last night approved sponsoring the Master of Catholic Thought graduate program jointly with St. Jerome's University.

St. Jerome's launched the MCT program last year, exercising its degree-granting right for the first time since it became federated with UW more than four decades ago. But as a St. Jerome's activity the MCT has not been eligible for government grants. "All our funding comes through UW, so there has to be an attachment to UW in order for us to receive the provincial funding," the college's acting president, Myroslaw Tataryn, told senate last night. The program will now be "offered conjointly" by the two institutions.

The MCT is not a research degree, leading students on to a PhD, and is not a qualification for priests (who usually earn a Master of Divinity degree from a seminary). The St. Jerome's web site explains that the MCT is intended "to respond to the need for Catholics who provide leadership in areas such as health care, social services and education to be theologically informed about Roman Catholic life and thought. As the Roman Catholic university in the Diocese of Hamilton, we want to provide a quality, master’s-level theological program for persons who live and work within this diocese. We also want to serve those Catholics and non-Catholics alike who, for personal reasons, want to pursue a deeper knowledge and appreciation of the Catholic tradition."

In a news report when the program was created 18 months ago, an expert on Catholic education pointed out that because of a continuing shortage of priests, "Very dramatically the leadership of our Catholic institutions in the last 20 years has devolved to the laity," and such lay people are the market for MCT training. The program is offered only on a part-time basis.

Students take five core courses (in "The Books of the Church", "Foundations of Theology", "Catholic Moral Life and Thought", church history and liturgy) and five elective courses, as well as doing "a master's level essay or project".

UW already offers undergraduate and graduate programs through the religious studies department, but has not had programs in the theology of one particular religious group. Conrad Grebel University College, the Mennonite institution affiliated with UW, has a Master of Theological Studies program in the Mennonite tradition, similar to the MCT, as well as being involved in professional theological education through the Toronto School of Theology.

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Prof's study of business decisions

from the UW media relations office

Why do some businesses succeed, while others fail? That's the type of key question being studied by UW researcher Moren Lévesque. A professor of management sciences, Lévesque also holds the Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Technical Entrepreneurship, funded last spring by the federal government.

Lévesque said that small businesses and entrepreneurial firms are essential for the long term competitiveness of Canada because they contribute significantly to the creation of employment.

In Canada, only half of new business ventures survive for five years and by the end of a decade only 20 per cent are still in operation. "My work on the dynamics of the growth, survival and exit of businesses will enable entrepreneurs to make better strategic decisions in the hazardous early years of a firm," she said.

She also explores some intriguing questions: Will an economy with an old or a young population possess a different capacity for generating new businesses than one with a less skewed age distribution? What is the impact of entrepreneurial activity on economic growth, and what role does entrepreneurial activity play depending on the degree of a country's development? Lévesque collaborates with colleagues across Canada and elsewhere to develop models that will help answer such questions and deepen understanding of entrepreneurial decision-making. As a result, she and her collaborators will be better able to help Canadian firms stay open for business.

While entrepreneurship has seen numerous research developments, it still lacks a definition of its own domain, as "theories of entrepreneurship are almost non-existent," Lévesque said. "This research is likely to stimulate innovative, crosscutting, interdisciplinary research on societal problems and has the potential to impact public decision-making and actions."

Her research interests cover describing and prescribing decision-making in new business formation, which she considers crucial to increasing the likelihood of a firm's survival. She explores time-allocation decisions between waged labour and entrepreneurial activities over a person's career, along with time and financial allocation decisions by entrepreneurs and their stakeholders.

"As new technologies are developing at an astonishing rate and technology transfer has been facilitated in numerous institutions, the assessment of business prospects — that is, the decision to accept or reject a prospect — has become popular among prospective entrepreneurs," Lévesque said.

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United Way reaches goal, and more

"We have reached our goal!" writes Karen So from UW's United Way office. As of Monday morning, she says, "we have brought in $150,686 in personal donations and $14,377 from special events all across campus. Hence, we are now at $165,063!" The goal for the campaign this fall — which officially ended October 31 but has dragged on to bring in the last few gifts — was $165,000. The success comes, says So, "thanks to the support of more than 534 UW faculty, staff and retirees across campus and the proceeds of many exciting special events. Donations can still be delivered to the campus United Way office before it closes on December 8, so do forward your gift soon. For more information on who and how you can help, please go to the UW United Way website."

Avvey Peters (left), UW's director of government relations (officially "senior director of government relations and development") for the past year, will be leaving the university at the end of December. She won't be far away, though, in her new position as executive director of communications and government relations for Communitech, the local association of high-tech companies. The agency has its offices in the Accelerator Centre building on UW's north campus.

A committee will be set up shortly to look at the position of dean of engineering: Adel Sedra, who became dean in 2003, is approaching the end of his term, so that it's time to strike a nominating committee under Policy 45. Seven of the 13 committee seats go to elected faculty members, customarily one from each department — but with the arrival of the School of Architecture last year, engineering now has eight academic units to be considered. Solution? UW's senate last night authorized an exception, adding one member to the committee in engineering this time round. Provost Amit Chakma said more extensive changes to the policy are under consideration in the Faculty Relations Committee, but they won't be along for some time yet.

E-mail arrived yesterday from one of the Daily Bulletin's many overseas readers: M. Jagadesh Kumar, professor of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. "I was a post-doctoral fellow in the ECE department during 1991-94," he reminded me, "working with Professor David J. Roulston. . . . I have fond memories of Waterloo, and even after 12 years of my return to India, I keep a watch on what is happening there." Kumar — who got some publicity in UW's Gazette while he was here, for his work in setting up a communications network for expatriate Indians — added some current news: he's been named one of the editors of the journal IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, as well as receiving a gold medal for "distinguished contribution" from the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (India).

And speaking of matters IEEE: the engineering faculty's e-newsletter reports that Weihua Zhuang, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the IEEE's Transactions in Vehicular Technology. Her two-year term will start in January 2007. IEEE Transactions in Vehicular Technology is a scholarly journal covering advances in transportation systems, mobile communication, and vehicular electronics.

And . . . I noted yesterday that "the third floor link" between Math and Computer and the Davis Centre is to be closed this week for flooring repairs. Well, nothing is ever simple, is it? A follow-up quickly appeared on the newsgroup uw.general: "Is that the link between the 3rd floor and the 2nd floor, or the link between the 4th floor and the 3rd floor? The Davis Center has floor numbers that are off by one with respect to neighbouring buildings, resulting in these horizontal links causing floor number changes, and even stranger, a stairwell connecting with Engineering in which both top and bottom are labeled as the 2nd floor."

CAR

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