My letter about the Pension Fund of the University of Windsor provoked an insulting reaction that four statements in the second paragraph of my letter were "vague". "sweeping" or "blatantly untrue". It was not made clear which of these adjectives applied to which [or all] of my statements. I called Norm to find out. It turned out that his adjective "untrue" applied to "initial secrecy" about the PF and to "loss of money in the seventies". No proof that my statements were untrue was offered. Instead the material rebuttal was made in the form of data about the PF performance between 1985 and 1993, whereas I was talking about the earlier past.
"At first", i.e., after the founding of the University of Windsor in the early sixties, I had no
luck in getting
information about the state of the PF. Hence my reference to secrecy. It is well known that
in the
seventies, the second of the two decades when I was employed by the University, the
performance of the
PF was bad enough to replace its Canada Trust managers by other managers and these
again by still other
managers. In what way reference to the PF performance in the eighties makes my
statements about the
Fund's performance in the seventies "blatantly untrue" completely escapes me. The
adjective is just an
unfounded insulting outburst. I leave my rebuttal at that.
Val Cervin, Toronto.
I got the address from The Retirees' Newsletter. I also read there about plans to (push for) coverage of retirees benefits. I thought it might be of help to know that at Concordia (which, like Windsor, is not a very rich university) people who retire simply continue with essentially the same plan as before. They just remain members of the insured group. The only restriction is that the dental plan stops at 70. Otherwise retirees are covered the same way as people still in the work force. Another relevant datum is that Concordia provides all retired faculty with a $10,000 life insurance forever.
I enjoy reading The Newsletter. It is a satisfying window back to Windsor. Please tell Bill
Phillips that he
is doing an excellent job and besides me probably many other people are thankful to him.
Geza Szamosi, Montreal
Thank you for the latest issue (#15) of The Retirees' Newsletter. It has become quite
professional. I
would like to congratulate you and the other members of the Retirees' Association
executive, who are
doing such good work... I am at our Basilian Mission here in Saint Lucia, and am teaching
three courses
this year at the Saint Lucia College. By the way, they're looking for an economist.
Leonard Kennedy, C.S.B., Saint Lucia, West Indies.
(Thanks, Father Kennedy. Considering our winter up here, that opening for an economist looks reeeeel good! Bill Phillips)
This two-page document was sent in January from Carleton University to our Prof. Bruce R. McGarvey, who passed it on to The Newsletter. Any member interested can get a copy by sending us a self-addressed stamped envelope.
The basic idea seems to be to use the Internet to put retired professors from Canada in touch with persons teaching in universities in developing countries. At present a feasibility study is being done and interested people are asked to join.
Excerpts: A few months ago we received small grants from the Canadian Bureau for International Education to examine the feasibility of having retired professors in developed countries volunteer their time and expertise to work with professors in developing countries as team teachers or research consultants. We are writing to ask if you and some of your colleagues would consider participating in this project...
"We think it would be possible to solve some of the problems of higher education in developing countries with the time and talents of retired professors in developed ones. A few years ago this could have been done by flying retired professors to universities in the developing world. But the world has changed. There is now little money anywhere to support an airlift. On the other hand, we now have the Internet...". Anyone interested? Newsletter address is on page 4.
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