The following are highlights from the Oct. 30 Board of Governors meeting

Refining Directions implementation

An extensive implementation plan for the University's Refining Directions document includes workplans prepared around the goals and critical success factors of the strategic planning document.

McMaster's long-term enrolment and related financial planning are immediate tasks of the document, said provost Ken Norrie to the Board of Governors.

A number of public information sessions will take place in January and February with the final report and recommendations to be presented to the Board and Senate next spring.

A 16-page summary of the strategic plan document will be available this month. The publication highlights the Unviersity's vision, mission, goals, targets and critical success factors. A one-page version will also be produced for use in information packages and to distribute to those who do not require a larger document. The summary will also be available on the McMaster Web site.

McMaster's performance in recent surveys

Fred Hall, associate vice-president academic and Phil Wood, associate vice-president student affairs, provided a report on three recent student surveys: the Canadian University Survey Consortium, the Globe and Mail report card and the Maclean's university ranking.

For the last six years, McMaster has participated in the Canadian University Survey Consortium (CUSC), which measures student satisfaction. Each year different subsets of students are surveyed: first-year students, students in their graduating year and students from all years. Last spring, students from their graduating year were surveyed and McMaster students gave a generally positive assessment of their school. Typically, the responses from McMaster students are more positive than from students from other groups, says the report to Board.

For the past two years, the Globe and Mail has published a University report card, which also measures student satisfaction. In 2002, McMaster was rated fifth, and in 2003, although there was no overall rating, McMaster fell to roughly eighth place.

In the 2002 Maclean's ranking, McMaster ranked tenth in the medical doctoral category. In 2001, McMaster ranked eighth overall and seventh in 2000. Only Queen's University and The University of Western Ontario consistently rank higher than McMaster in this category. The annual Maclean's ranking takes a measure of the undergraduate experience, comparing universities in three peer groupings. The 2003 ranking will hit newsstands next week.

Creation of STELCO/NSERC chair

A new research chair in steel product applications will be created in the Faculty of Engineering.

The chair, supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and STELCO, will enhance and expand steel related research in McMaster's Faculty of Engineering. According to a letter from provost Ken Norrie, the chair will enable McMaster to become a key centre for critical steel coating technologies. As well, STELCO will gain an advanced understanding of the requirements for producing high quality automotive steels, and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows will be trained in highly technological aspects of steel production and use.

Hourly pension plan funding

The University's contribution rate to the Contributory Pension Plan for hourly-rated McMaster employees, including Divinity College, will increase to 300 per cent, effective Nov. 1, 2003.

The Contributory Pension Plan for hourly-rated employees provides pension for 231 pensioners and covers 307 hourly-rated active members.

Children's Centre report

The McMaster Children's Centre is an irreplaceable on-campus day care that greatly improves the working life of many staff, faculty and students, according to an annual report presented by Krista MacDonald, president of the Centre's Board of Directors.

The financial position of the McMaster's Children Centre is healthy, with the main source of funding coming from fee-paying parents. Other funding sources include grants, fundraising and subsidies.

Located in Wentworth House, the centre is licensed for 63 children. Enrolment for the centre is healthy and the waiting list is long, the report says.

Health Physics report

The annual health physics report reviews the radiation safety program at McMaster.

“The objectives of the University's Radiation Safety program are to ensure the safety of the workplace and operations by maintaining doses as low as reasonably achievable and meeting or exceeding the requirements of federal and provincial regulations,” states the report.

During the period of July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003, all doses and emission were well less than regulatory limits and several Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) inspections occurred. While no incidents involving widespread contamination occurred in campus laboratories on the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, there was one security breach of a container in which crates of radioactively contaminated items were temporarily stored. No radioactive material was taken or tampered with and no spread of contamination occurred.