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Thursday, March 31, 2011

  • Disclosure: $100,000 salaries for 2010
  • Top honour for chemistry prof; more notes
  • Teaching-learning conference April 27-28
  • Editor:
  • Chris Redmond
  • Communications and Public Affairs
  • bulletin@uwaterloo.ca

[spacer][Fans, some with Pakistan colours]

Fans packed the Student Life Centre in the early morning hours yesterday, waving national banners and cheering as they watched the play-by-play from the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium on the SLC's big-screen television. "It is only the biggest game in cricket history," one British commentator said, and the crowd was treating it that way. Photo by Steve Krysak.

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Disclosure: $100,000 salaries for 2010

The university is releasing a list this morning of the 906 employees who were each paid more than $100,000 during 2010.

It's something public-sector employers in Ontario have had to do every March since the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act was passed in 1996. Other universities, school boards, hospitals, colleges, municipalities, and the government itself are making similar information for last year public this week.

Most of Waterloo’s professors appear on the list, as the average salary of full-time faculty members in 2010-11 is $124,031, according to the office of institutional analysis and planning.

The $100,000 list also includes a number of staff members as well as senior administrators. It includes people employed by St. Jerome's University, Renison University College, Conrad Grebel University College and St. Paul's University College as well as by the University of Waterloo itself.

The figures are the amount of salary actually paid during the twelve months of 2010, which can lead to anomalies when somebody begins or ends a job in the course of the year. In 2010, Waterloo had two presidents: David Johnston for the first nine months of the year, Feridun Hamdullahpur for October through December. Both appear in the list. Johnston’s compensation includes payments representing administrative leave that his contract provided for when he left office; his salary figure is the highest on the chart. In second place is former provost Amit Chakma, as a result of similar compensation paid after he left Waterloo in 2009.

The third-place earner is dean of engineering Adel Sedra, and Hamdullahpur, who was provost before becoming interim president last fall, stands fourth.

In addition to the salary, a figure is given for taxable benefits received by each individual, for such extras as employer-paid life insurance and tuition benefits for dependants. For the first time this year, a number of faculty members are shown with sizeable benefits figures that are the result of living allowances at the United Arab Emirates campus in Dubai.

Past years' salary disclosure lists are available online.

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Top honour for chemistry prof; more notes

[Le Roy]A prominent chemist joins the ranks of Waterloo's "University Professors" this year, provost Geoff McBoyle announced at Monday's senate meeting. He is Robert Le Roy (right), a specialist in theoretical chemical physics who has been in the chemistry department since 1972. The position of University Professor — normally limited to 14 active faculty members — exists to recognize "exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence in a particular field or fields of knowledge". New recipients of the honour are chosen by the University Tenure and Promotion Committee, based on nominations, and are recognized at Convocation each year.

Hundreds of people will don team T-shirts and giant foam fingers as they convene at the Columbia Icefield this afternoon for the fifth annual Aftab Patla Memorial Cup. The annual game pits a team of kinesiology undergraduate students against a team of graduate students and professors, and features a pre-hockey afternoon of revelry complete with in-game raffles, "shoot-for-loot" contests and a silent auction. The puck drops at 5:00.The event honours Aftab Patla, a professor of kinesiology at Waterloo for 25 years who died in 2007 after a battle with cancer. Over the past five years, the event has raised more than $30,000 from alumni, faculty, staff, students and members of the local community. All proceeds go to the Aftab Patla Memorial Endowment Fund to benefit undergraduate students.

Registration will close tonight for the 2011 Staff Conference, to be held April 6 and 7. “Sessions are filling up fast,” a memo from the office of organizational and human development said on Tuesday. “The conference has some exceptional keynotes on the topics of coaching and mentoring, diversity and inclusivity, powerful conversations, discovering your passion, and self-engagement to find your purpose and goals. Room is still available in several workshops. With topics on Maintaining Mental Fitness for Life, Volunteering 101 (For Frantic Staff Who Still Want to Change the World!), and Human Resources: Plugged in 2.0, there is certain to be a session of interest. As well, OHD has again teamed up with UW Food Services to provide a delicious lunch menu. Come to Festival Fare (located in South Campus Hall) and choose from a variety of superb entries prepared by Chef Daniel Lemay for only $9. (includes beverage and tax). You may even be a lucky winner! After the conference, OHD will be drawing names to win great prizes that have been generously donated from both on-campus services and from WatCard off-campus flexible dollar locations. Be sure to register now and be part of the most anticipated on-campus staff event of the year!”

And there's another invitation from the OHD office: “The average person goes through four career changes in their lifetime; imagine 52 jobs in one year! Upon graduation, Sean Aiken trekked more than 74,000 kilometres across North America, slept on 55 couches, and raised over $20,000 for charity while working 52 jobs in 52 weeks in search of his passion. Now at the end of his journey, Sean is helping others find their passion. In 2010, he created the One Week Job Program which allows others to sample different careers. As well, he organized the Discover Your Passion Tour where he visited over 30 campuses across Canada to share his inspiring story through an entertaining multimedia presentation. Sponsored by Alumni Affairs, the Centre for Career Action, the Federation of Students, the Student Leadership Program and the Student Success Office, Sean Aiken will bring his inspiring story to Waterloo on April 6. All students, alumni and members of the university community are encouraged to attend the event in the great hall of the Student Life Centre from 2 to 3:30 p.m. There will be an opportunity to meet Sean and to purchase his book and DVD at the event. For more information, please contact ohdslp@ uwaterloo.ca or join us on the Facebook event page.”

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Teaching-learning conference April 27-28

Organizers of the third annual “Opportunities and New Directions” conference on research in teaching and learning say tomorrow is the deadline for early registration. The $145 fee, which goes up for those who don’t meet the deadline, includes everything from wine and cheese to the published proceedings of last year’s one-day conference. Details of this year’s event, scheduled for April 27 and 28, are online.

The annual conference gathers researchers in “the burgeoning field of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)”, says philosophy professor Shannon Dea, a member of Waterloo’s Teaching Based Research Group and one of the conference organizers.

This year’s event, she says, will include two keynotes, a plenary, and theme workshops “that explore not only new research about teaching and learning, but also how to make the results of this research public in a way that will inform both students and professors.”

While the first two spring conferences were each one day long, the event has garnered sufficient interest and participation that this year’s program will span two days, Dea noted. “This year’s iteration features around forty presentations and posters by over eighty researchers from a range of disciplines and career stages, from UW and beyond. They will present research on everything from digital story-telling, and virtual language laboratories to the benefits of using ‘economic incentives’ to motivate students, and the effects of parental leaves on graduate students’ completion times.”

The conference will be held in the new accounting wing of Hagey Hall, and is organized by members of the TBRG (chaired by Nicola Simmons of the Centre for Teaching Excellence) and supported by the office of the associate vice-president (academic).

OND opens with the President’s Colloquium, featuring Maryellen Weimer, the editor of the popular blog The Teaching Professor. Her talk is entitled  “Can Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning Actually Improve my Teaching?” She’ll speak at 9:00 on the morning of April 27. Unlike the rest of the conference, that talk is open to all Waterloo people at no charge, under the rubric of the Presidents' Colloquium, as it’s sponsored by the president of the university and the president of the faculty association. The talk will be followed by a reception and book signing sponsored by the faculty association.

As the conference continues, two other plenary sessions — one by Waterloo’s Simmons, and one by Julia Christensen-Hughes of the University of Guelph — will continue the discussion of how to get post-secondary educators to implement SoTL research results “on the ground”,  Dea says.

This year as last, she said, OND will feature a combined poster session and wine and cheese reception where conference attendees will be able to peruse such projects as Donna Ellis’s “Students’ Responses to Innovative Instructional Methods,” Shirley Hall’s “Integrating Principles of Community Engaged Learning Within the 3rd Year Landscape Architecture Design Studio,” and “Supporting Graduate Education Students’ Writing: A Case Study,” by Rosamund Stooke, Kathryn Hibbert, Lisa Faden and Holly Parkinson.

Attendees can choose to register for one or two days. The early bird registration fee for Waterloo participants attending both days is $145, which includes full conference registration, conference materials, refreshment breaks, hot buffet lunches, and the wine and cheese poster session.

CAR

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[And some supporting India]

The day's result: India defeated Pakistan 260-231 in the international semifinal, and will face Sri Lanka in the World Cup final on Saturday.

Link of the day

Robert Bunsen at 200

When and where

Library extended hours during exam season: March 27 to April 21, Davis Centre library open 24 hours (except Sunday 2 to 8 a.m.), Dana Porter Library open 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

General application deadline for September 2011 admission is March 31 (subject to earlier deadlines for selected programs and for Ontario high school students).

PDEng alumni lecture: “Skills That They Do Not Teach in Engineering School but Are Required for Career Advancement” 11:30, Davis Centre room 1302.

Hug Me fund-raiser for Sick Children’s Hospital (attempt to break world record for most hugs in an hour) 12:00, Student Life Centre.

Surplus sale of furniture and equipment 12:30 to 2:00, East Campus Hall.

Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation presents Mike Batty, University College London, “Complexity, Scaling and Cities” 2:30, Environment 1 room 221.

School of Computer Science Distinguished Lecture: Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University, “MacArthur genius” award winner, “Computational Perspectives on Social Phenomena in On-Line Networks” 3:30, Humanities Theatre.

Chemical engineering seminar: Stefan Spiegel, editor of Macromolecular Journals, “Scientific Publishing and an Editor’s Responsibilities” 3:30,  Doug Wright Engineering room 2529.

Graduate Student Association annual general meeting 5:00, Rod Coutts Hall room 301. Details.

Mathematics Society general meeting regarding finances, budgeting process and bylaws, all undergraduate math students welcome, 5:30, Math and Computer room 3001.

Splitting the Sky (John Hill) speaks on “The Sun Dance and the Gustafsen Lake Standoff”, sponsored by department of religious studies, 7:00, Hagey Hall room 373.

Fine Arts Film Society showing of “California Dreamin’ (Endless)” (Romania, 2007) 7:00, East Campus Hall room 1220.

Orchestra @ UWaterloo spring concert, “Jupiter & Co.”, music by Mozart, Dvorak, Bartok, Wagner, 8:00, Humanities Theatre, admission free.

Information systems and technology professional development seminar: Dani Roloson, “iPad at Waterloo” Friday 9:00, IST seminar room.

Philosophy Graduate Student Association 18th annual conference, Friday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Hagey Hall room 334 and 373. Details.

International Spouses get-together: “Making Pasta the Italian Way with Elena” Friday 12:45,  Columbia Lake Village community centre.

Institute for Quantum Computing distinguished lecture: Don Eigler, IBM Fellow, "Classical Computation in Quantum Spin Structures" Friday 2:30, CEIT room 1015.

Athletics Banquet Friday, St. George Banquet Hall,  Waterloo, tickets $35 from athletics department office.

Relay for Life at St. Jerome’s University in support of Canadian Cancer Society, starts Friday 7:00 p.m., for twelve hours.

Instrumental Chamber Ensembles spring concert Friday and Sunday 7:30 (two different concerts), Conrad Grebel UC chapel, admission free, reception follows.

‘Open? A Story of Refugee Claimants in Canada’ play by peace and conflict studies students, Friday 7:30, Conrad Centre, 36 King Street West, Kitchener. Details.

Poet and songwriter Dawud Wharnsby live concert, “bridging nations and tribes”, presented by Studies in Islam program, Friday 8:00, Theatre of the Arts, tickets $10 (students $5) at Humanities box office.

Elmira Maple Syrup Festival bus trip sponsored by International Student Connection, Saturday leaving 9:30 a.m., tickets $5 at Federation of Students office.

Energy and Heritage Buildings Workshop sponsored by Heritage Resource Centre, Saturday-Sunday 10:00 to 4:00, REEP House, Kitchener, fee $225, information hrc@ uwaterloo.ca.

Chamber Choir and University of Waterloo Choir spring concert, “The Glory of Light”, Saturday 8:00, Benton Street Baptist Church, tickets $10 (students $5).

Stage Band spring concert, “Give It All You’ve Got”, Sunday 2:00, Conrad Grebel U College great hall, $10 (students $5).

Last day of classes for the winter term Monday, April 4.

Faculty association spring general meeting Tuesday 2:00, Math and Computer room 4020.

Board of governors Tuesday 2:30 p.m., Needles Hall room 3001.

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