UW Gazette, November 26, 1997 The arrival of some 70 new faculty members in the past year has made an immense difference to UW, last week's "state of the university" meeting was told - three times. Board chair Paul Mitchell, provost Dr. Jim Kalbfleisch and president James Downey all said much the same thing. "Their arrival has had a palpable effect on morale," the president said. Downey added: "The credentials of those who have joined us are tremendously impressive, and their arrival has given a lift to our spirits." The president, whose turn on the program included some lyrical words about UW's attention to its roots during the 40th anniversary year, went on to say: "I feel a surge of movement ahead this year for the first time in the years I've been here." And Kalbfleisch said UW has moved from "mourning" at the time of the Special Early Retirement Program last year to "a spirit of rebuilding" now. The provost told the open meeting - attended by about 200 people in the Theatre of the Arts - that Waterloo has come through "a hectic and chaotic year" with retirements, hiring, people learning new jobs, and departments overhauling their curriculum. In addition, there have been new efforts in student recruitment, work on computer systems, and cooperation with Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph that will create "essentially one library" when a new system is introduced in the new year. Kalbfleisch also reported briefly on plans to implement recommendations from the Fifth Decade Plan. There are 38 recommendations, many with several subsections, he pointed out, adding, "We have action well under way on about half the recommendations." Some of what was said at Thursday afternoons meeting: Paul Mitchell The board chair described the duties of the board of governors (by law, UW's top governing body) and the issues that have preoccupied it in the past year, including budget- cutting and the need to be accountable in many directions. The Ontario government is about to introduce a Public Sector Accountability Act, Mitchell said, which will require agencies that spend public money to explain themselves in terms of "measurable performance indicators". He said, "How this legislation will affect universities is yet to be discerned, but it is coming." Mitchell reminded his audience that UW survived "an unprecedented cut" in its government grants last year, and "we have been fully engaged in a process of program adjust ment and personnel renewal," including the arrival of those dozens of new faculty members. "We have made good on seemingly insurmountable challenges," he said. Among other matters to keep the board busy in the past year were plans for developing the north campus into a research and technology "park", and a "more structured" way for the board to evaluate the president of the university and compare his goals with his results. Jim Kalbfleisch The provost repeated Mitchell's observation about financial hard times, noting that since 1993 UW has lost about one-quarter of its annual government grant. Half of that money has been made up through tuition fee increases, he noted; to make up for the rest, UW has cut its spending dramatically. Meanwhile, he added, costs keep going up. For example, "there's been double-digit inflation every year in the cost of books" for the libraries. "Our funding of operating expenses is at a perilously low level, and our costs continue to increase." Kalbfleisch noted that "we have been able to avoid the widespread layoffs that we've seen in some of our sister institutions," largely through the massive retirements of last summer. As a result, he went on, many people have taken on new duties, and there's been a period of confusion that may now be coming to an end. Another effect of the retirements and new hiring, he said, is that it's been "a year of great change in the curriculumÉ many departments have completely reviewed their course offerings," he said, to match the expertise of the professors they now have. And it's not all cuts: there are some major new programs, including a master's degree in taxation, a distance education program in the management of technology, and a Bachelor of Social Work program. At the same time, Kalbfleisch said, UW has put new effort into recruitment, including involvement in many education fairs overseas; has started a process of planning its applications to the new federal research funding program; and has worked away on new computer systems. He mentioned the much-publicized "year 2000" problem that will make many computer programs fail after December 31, 1999. "We will make the necessary changes in time," he promised. "We are organized to do that." Kalbfleisch then spoke briefly about the Fifth Decade report, the fruit of two years' work by a Commission on Institutional Planning which he headed. Some things have been done already, he said, such as work to improve student recruitment, and reorganization of the office of development and alumni affairs. Others are coming along, he said. For example, one recommendation from the Commission calls for measures to help graduate students develop teaching skills. The dean of graduate studies and the director of the teaching resource office are working on a plan, "which we hope will be ready to look at in the winter term", he said. Similarly, a "discussion paper" on teaching and learning technology - from the associate provosts for "academic and student affairs" and "information systems and technology" - will be ready soon, Kalbfleisch said. And he said a program will be announced shortly for research support to help new faculty members get started in their work. James Downey "Universities are founded only once, but they are built continually," the president said, praising faculty, students, staff and UW's outside friends, including the members of the board of governors, for the work they do. "I believe we have made a bit of a discovery about ourselves during our 40th year," said Downey, "and the discovery is that we have a history!" The university's past is important not only because it provides an excuse for an anniversary celebration, he said, but because what was done in earlier years explains how UW got to be the sort of university it is. "As a practical matter, we can't live either in the past or in the future," he reminded his listeners, but looking at the past has a value - and is getting to be more difficult all the time. "Many of those leaving" through early retirement last year "did not need history," he said. "They had memory." Turning to the present and future, he spoke enthusiastically about the arrival of new faculty members, and maintained that non-academic departments are also showing new vigour after the tough times of budget cuts, staff losses and adjustment to increased demand. He said he's optimistic about things outside the university, too, particularly the prospects for better funding of research, with everything that means both for life on campus and for developments that will make Canada a better place to live. The introduction of the Canada Foundation for Innovation - to which UW will soon be applying for big dollars, matched by private sector money - "is, I believe, the dawning of a new and a better age for the research envi ronment", he said. Development of the north campus is another aspect of the same bright morning, although the president warned that "it will likely be years, rather than months, before a technology park actually takes shape." He called the Fifth Decade report "a sound and useful documentÉ which neither divides nor disappoints". It's true that the report doesn't call for huge changes, he said, but that's as it should be; he suggested that nursing (continual care) rather than medicine (major intervention from time to time) is the right model for looking after an institution. "Not all is as it should be at Waterloo," he conceded. "There is indeed room and need for improvement." Among the problems he cited: a stalemate in revising major policies; continuing erosion of enrolment, especially among graduate students and part-time students; and, inevitably, shortage of money. But there's a good basis for working on the problems together, he said, mentioning in particular the "heroic efforts" that were made last summer and that led to successful salary agreements between UW's management and all the groups of employees: faculty, staff, union and teaching assistants. Waterloo, he said, enjoys "a climate of trust, openness and distributed leadership" that makes it possible to move forward.