University Watch
(December 2, 1999, Gazette)
SHealth
research pays back province: report
VANCOUVER – The dividends – economic and social – of the $62.8 million the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated teaching hospitals succeeded in getting for research this year have been outlined in a report recently released by the faculty.
“We commissioned this report to document the value of what we do here – our aim is to secure more provincial government funding for research,” Dean of Medicine John Cairns told UBC Reports. “Without this support, the quality of B.C. health care suffers and so does our goal of a knowledge-based economy in this province.”
The faculty is part of the Coalition for Health Research in B.C. that is asking the government to set aside $50 million annually for health research.
The requested new funds would be used to recruit and train researchers in B.C. and to cover operating costs such as research scholar grants, matching operating grants and project support and for the commercialization of technologies developed here.
The 38-page report, prepared by management consulting firm KPMG, describes how medical research contributes to the economy, to science and to society.
Using the model, it is estimated that the $62.8 million invested yields output in the B.C. economy of $94 to $118 million due to employment and activities such as the manufacture and sale of medical instruments and laboratory equipment.
Association
will represent non-union staff
TORONTO – A new association has been formed to represent professionals, managers and staff at the University of Toronto who deal with confidential information and are excluded from membership in a campus union, reports the U of T Bulletin.
Over
100 staff from what is known as the professional, managerial
and confidential (PMC) group met Nov. 4 and agreed to form an
association to represent their interests with university administration.
These employees had been left without formal representation after
some 2,500 other administrative staff members joined the Steelworkers
last year.
“We must now approach the university, that’s our next
step,” said Ursula Cattelan, an appointed officer with the
new association. “We now have a mandate and we will bring
that forward. Obtaining recognition by the university is the
next course of action.”
The association will represent its members on policy and policy development matters, salaries and benefits and dispute resolution, among other areas. Over the next year, however, the group will focus on obtaining official university recognition and recruiting more members. Membership is voluntary and open to all U of T employees with staff appointments and whose terms and conditions of employment are not covered by a collective agreement with Governing Council and the university.
UVic
selects next president
VICTORIA – The University of Victoria has selected its next president – Dr. David Turpin, currently vice-principal (academic) at Queen’s University in Ontario. The announcement was made Nov. 18 by UVic board of governors chair Brian Lamb.
Dr.
Turpin, 43, was selected from among 46 candidates after an extensive
eight-and-a- half- month national search. He’ll start his
five-year term on Sept. 1, 2000. He has earned wide recognition
as one of Canada’s pre-eminent scientists, an accomplished
teacher and one of the country’s most outstanding academic
leaders, the UVic Ring reports.
“We’re tremendously excited about the appointment,”
says Mr. Lamb. “David Turpin is a brilliant teacher and
researcher with an exceptional track record of accomplishment
in administrative leadership.”
Dr. Turpin has served as vice-principal (academic) at Queen’s for the past five years, and was dean of arts and science from 1993–1995. He obtained his PhD in botany/oceanography from UBC in 1980 and served as head of the department of botany at UBC from 1991–1993.
Dr. Turpin succeeds current UVic President Dr. David Strong, who will finish his second five-year term on June 30, 2000. Vice president academic and provost Dr. Penny Codding will serve as president pro tem from July 1 – Aug. 31, 2000.