Daily News

April 20, 2001

The deadline is drawing near for members of the McMaster Employees' Pension Plan to cast their vote pertaining to the pension surplus sharing proposal. The deadline to send in your authorization/ballot is (Monday) April 30 and it is important if you wish to be included in the sharing agreement to get your vote in by that time, said Les Robb, chair of the McMaster employees' pension surplus committee. "The committee urges you to get it in as soon as possible." Robb said more than 3,600 "Yes" votes and 2 "No" votes have been received so far. He said there is support from more than 80 per cent of those eligible in both the Active and Inactive groups. "In the last two weeks we have gone from under 70 per cent to over 80 per cent support and we fully expect to reach the 90 per cent goal by the end of the month," he said.

April 20, 2001

In preparation for Monday's vote on the final offer, Human Resources distributed personalized information packages to MUSA members this week. To ensure the University community is kept fully informed and has the complete and up-to-date information about the final offer, the documents which were included in these packages are being made public and may be viewed by clicking here. (Note: The packages included an explanation of what the offer means to each employee in monetary terms. A blank sample of this document is shown.) See also: Frequently Asked Questions About the Final Offer and Vote See also: What is the Question for MUSA Members on Monday? Find Out

April 19, 2001

Three researchers at the University's vision lab have discovered that a baby's ability to see at birth and in the first months of life is . . .

April 19, 2001

MUSA members will head to the polls on Monday, April 23 to cast their votes on a four-year contract offer proposed by the University. The vote is being supervised by the Ontario Labour Relations Board. University President Peter George says that in the days leading up to the vote, the University's goal is to ensure that all voters have the complete and up-to-date details of the final contract offer to make an informed decision. Earlier this week, human resources sent each MUSA member a copy of the final offer and a letter from the ministry of labour. The Ontario Labour Relations Board requires that the offer be distributed to union members prior to the vote in the form in which it was presented to the union. Today, members will receive, at their homes, a personalized information package explaining what the offer means to them individually. Any member who does not receive the package should contact his/her area HR office. "I hope that each and every staff person who is a member of MUSA will take the time to read and assess the University's offer and what it means to them. I also hope that they will take the opportunity on Monday to go out and vote," says George. Staff will be provided with appropriate time off work to cast their votes on Monday. Polling station information is listed below. Proxy voting is not permitted. The vote will succeed if 50% plus one (of those who cast ballots) vote yes. The University's final contract offer can be found on the Human Resources Web site. A list of Frequently Asked Questions About the Vote and Final Offer is also posted on the site and is accessible from the "Worth Mentioning" section of the Daily News. Polling times and locations Poll 1: 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., First Floor Lobby, Ewart Angus Centre Poll 2: 1-5 p.m., First Floor Lobby, Togo Salmon Hall Poll 3: Travelling poll to area hospitals, as follows: 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Conference Room "A" (Cafeteria), Henderson Hospital 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Conference Room F134, Fontbonne Building, St. Joseph's Hospital 2:15 p.m.-3:15 p.m. Pillar's Room (Cafeteria), Hamilton General Hospital 4 p.m.-5:15 p.m.Patterson Boardroom, Chedoke Hospital Voting will also take place at McMaster sites in Sioux Lookout, Thunder Bay, Collingwood and Chalk River.

April 19, 2001

April 19, 2001

The Board of Governors has approved the design and tendering work for two campus renovation projects, totalling about $7.9 million. Renovations and upgrades will be . . .

April 18, 2001

The new McMaster University Student Centre (MUSC) will now likely open in January 2002. The $34 million building — funded mainly by past, present and . . .

April 18, 2001

We wish to inform MUSA employees who returned to work on April 9 that a special pay for the period April 9 to 15 will be deposited into your bank accounts on Thursday, April 19. This deposit is an estimate of your net pay for the five working days included in this period. Your May 15 pay deposit and statement of earnings will be adjusted to reflect this special pay as well as, for those who receive a mid-month advance, the April 30 mid-month advance. (END OF STORY)

April 17, 2001

Two students in the Arts & Science Program are leading the call for McMaster to adopt a comprehensive environmental policy. Kate Parizeau and Michael Law, . . .

April 17, 2001

Two McMaster students are helping distribute a survey produced by the Harvard Centre for Cancer Prevention that aims to educate students about cancer. Nada Albatish . . .

April 17, 2001

The goal for McMaster's new Software Quality Research Lab (SQRL) is to become a leading source of expertise on software quality assurance. A team of researchers, software professionals and graduate students will work together to: 7 conduct academic research related to software quality 7 provide courses for developers on how to inspect and test software 7 cultivate personnel who are highly trained by supporting graduate theses on software quality assurance 7 provide software quality assessment with and for industry on a contract basis 7 perform joint research with developers. SQRL will include testing experts who will make their expertise available to the quality assurance projects and conduct research on new testing methods and tools, says David Parnas, director of the software engineering program. Security will be a high priority for research, Parnas said. "One only has to follow the TV news to recognize that high quality software must be secure against attempt to misuse a system, deny service to legitimate users, or steal information from a system," he said. "Research in this area has been extensive but, except for work in cryptography, little of it has helped industry."

April 16, 2001

Senate approved two new fields of study for the Department of Civil Engineering's master's and PhD programs and two new graduate diplomas in electronic commerce at its meeting on Wednesday, April 11 . The Senate approved: the Department of Civil Engineering's decision to offer master's and PhD program degrees in computational mechanics and water resources/environmental engineering. These two fields of study, in addition to structural engineering, represent the Faculty's main research areas. The Department of Civil Engineering has four faculty members with expertise in computational mechanics and most of the faculty use computer applications in their research, the majority using computational mechanics. The decision to offer graduate degrees in water resources/environmental engineering was made after the department received permission to hire an additional 1.5 faculty members in the water resources area. According to Graduate Council's report to Senate, this field of study has a long history at McMaster and was previously offered as a graduate program in 1993. two new graduate diplomas in e-commerce. The diplomas will give students the opportunity to study the technology and management of e-commerce. They will be open to students who have completed at least their first year of an MBA program and have some computer programming experience. The two graduate diplomas will build on each other. changes to the way the Faculty of Engineering designates its master's degrees. Starting November 2001, master's degrees requiring a thesis will be changed from Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) to Master of Applied Science (M.A.Sc.). Non-thesis master's degrees in the Faculty of Engineering will retain the M.Eng. designation. (END OF STORY)

April 16, 2001

The following items are highlights from the April 11 Senate meeting: President's Report on Labour Dispute University President Peter George gave Senate an update on . . .

April 11, 2001

Payroll services will be providing, as soon as possible, a special advance to MUSA members who returned to work on April 9. "We understand that many of our employees who came back to work on Monday may be experiencing financial hardship and we are working hard to ensure that they can be compensated in advance of our normal payroll dates," says Bob West, director, financial services. The special advance will be based on an estimate of what each employee would net in five days' pay (representing the work period April 9-15). Staff will be notified next week of the exact date that this pay will be deposited into their bank accounts. In addition to the special advance, the regular mid-month advance will be deposited on Monday, April 30 into the bank accounts of all MUSA employees who normally receive this advance. MUSA staff who returned to work on Monday were not included in the April 12 payroll deposit. "There are two reasons we just couldn't do this," says West. "First, we had to transfer the deposit early due to the Good Friday holiday so we could meet the bank's deadline. Second, significant and highly specialized programming changes were required to include these staff. Our system is not built in a way that allows us to make significant modifications on such short notice." West says programming changes must also be made to implement the special advance and as soon as this is done staff will be advised of when they will receive the advance. Payroll considered issuing manual cheques but determined it was unable to do so under the current configuration of the system.

April 11, 2001

C is for concentration: Students at McMaster University are busy writing exams this week as the exam period began Monday. The exam schedule extends to . . .

April 11, 2001

The Ontario Labour Relations Board will conduct a vote on the University's final offer on Monday, April 23. Polling times and locations follow: Poll 1: . . .

April 10, 2001

MUSA members will have the opportunity to vote on the University's final contract offer. The Ontario Labour Relations Board this afternoon (Tuesday) agreed to the University's request to hold a supervised vote. The vote will be held Monday, April 23. "A vote on the final contract offer gives all MUSA members the opportunity to make their own choice," says McMaster President Peter George. "We hope they will take the opportunity to become fully informed about the final offer before casting their ballots." The University requested the supervised vote after MUSA indicated it would apply for compulsory arbitration. George believes "the vote on the final offer provides for a more timely and speedy resolution to the labour dispute. It enables employees to enjoy sooner the improvements in wages and working conditions that it offers." The University considers compulsory arbitration to be a less preferred option since it would mean a third-party resolution to issues by individuals who are not as familiar with the University. Full details of the vote and how it will be held will be made available as soon as they are finalized. The University final contract offer can be found at the following web site http://hr.mcmast er.ca/data/hrinfo/emprel/

April 9, 2001

Human Resources has posted a list of answers to frequently asked questions about the return to work this week of University employees who are members . . .

April 6, 2001

Meningitis Information Clinic If you missed the Meningitis Information Clinics held April 4 & 5 in Hedden Hall, and would like to receive more information, . . .

April 6, 2001

CANCELLATION OF EXAM IN HUMANITIES 2CO3 (Dr. Hitchcock's Section only) Since the Office of the Registrar has not received a final examination for Dr. Hitchcock's . . .