The Retirees' Newsletter
The Retirees's Association ( Faculty, Librarian, Administrator), University of Windsor, Windsor, Ont. Canada

Vol IX, No. 5, December 1999

SENATE BEGINS REVIEW OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMS 5-YEAR PLAN PANELS NAMED BY PRESIDENT

The Program Development Committee of Senate (PDC) moved quickly on the Five Year Plan Process. The first wave of 12 plans were submitted to Senate by the September 15 deadline and have been reviewed by a panel which includes external advisors. The deadline for the next wave is December 15.

President Ross Paul has appointed Dr. Nicole Begin-Heick to the panel to review Five Year Plan Proposals from the College of Engineering & Science. Dr. Begin-Heick is a Biochemist and former head of the Ontario Council for Graduate Studies. She has agreed to sit as external reviewer for both rounds of submissions.

Proposals from the College of Engineering & Science to be reviewed in the first round were submitted for Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics and in Engineering: Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering.

For the Five Year Plan Proposals from the College of Arts & Human Sciences, the president has announced that Dr. Maurice Yeates has accepted the appointment to the PDC Review Panel. Dr. Yeates is a geographer and also a former head of OCGS.

Proposals from the College of Arts & Human Sciences to be reviewed in the first round were submitted for Communication Studies, English, History, Political Science, Kinesiology, Psychology, and Sociology & Anthropology

The PDC of Senate at a special meeting brought forward recommendations regarding 12 five-year plan proposals from academic areas. It recommended each plan be placed in one of three categories: invest, maintain, or redirect. Senate will either accept or reject the recommendation.

In the invest category, PDC recommends the plans from Chemistry and Biochemistry, Communication Studies, Computer Science, Kinesiology, Psychology, and Sociology and Anthropology. Recommended to be maintained are Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, English and Political Science. Recommended to redirect are the plans from History and Physics.

President Ross Paul said that the University of Windsor is two or three years behind some competitors in dealing with these issues. "Despite the tough times that universities have been through, this is a time of opportunity. A working group of the Council of Ontario Universities and the Ontario government is planning how to prepare for a 40 percent increase in enrolment over the next 10 years," he said.

However, the president warned that to be competitive the University of Windsor needs a clearer identity through some "cathedral" programs that will attract students from beyond the local area.

UNIVERSITY BUDGET COMMITTEE ALLOCATES FACULTY POSITIONS

The Budget Committee has acted immediately on the Senate recommendations pertaining to the six program areas discussed at the Senate meeting. As a result, up to 17 tenure-track faculty positions, including vacancy replacements, will be advertised in the following areas:

Chemistry and Biochemistry; Communication Studies; Computer Science; Kinesiology; Psychology; and Sociology (Criminology). In addition, the Colleges will be making decisions about the allocation of 15 limited-term appointments over the next couple of months.

SENATE REJECTS PDC RECOMMENDATION ON HISTORY PROGRAM DESIGNATION

The University of Windsor Senate rejected a recommendation from its Programme Development Committee to designate the five-year plan from the History program in its "redirect" category.

Of 12 program recommendations that came to Senate, at a series of special meetings to consider recommendations on five-year plans, the History plan was the only one to be rejected. The plans from Physics and Political Science have been withdrawn from the current round to be resubmitted in the next round with additional information. Senate also accepted recommendations to put Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences and English in the "maintain" category.

NEW STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN OPERATION

University of Windsor students now have access to a state-of-the-art system that will greatly improve the way that they communicate with several offices of the university administration, including how they register for courses.

Beginning with registration for the Fall semester, the University of Windsor was one of the first universities in Canada where all students selected and registered for their courses online through the internet.

The new Student Information System, or SIS, went "live" recently with a large menu of powerful tools that allowed students to know more about their current academic and financial status in the university than ever before.

It will let students inform the university about themselves more efficiently than in the past. For example, students will be able to change their current contact address and phone number when they move, and will even be able to do this ahead of time by giving an effective date for an address change.

The Board of Governors, University of Windsor named the system "The Frank L. Smith Student Information System" when it was launched on October 28, 1999

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