Daily News

posted on March 11: Tentative agreement for McMaster faculty

The University and the McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) have reached a tentative agreement. Negotiations began late in December and the tentative settlement was reached last week. In a joint statement, MUFA president Tom Davison and Joint Committee chair and Acting President Peter Sutherland said, "We're pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that will provide stability for faculty, students and the University." The details of the offer and ballots will be distributed to MUFA members on the Career Progress/Merit plan by March 14. The Joint Committee has scheduled an information session for faculty on March 26 and MUFA is recommending acceptance. Faculty members will have until March 28 to return their ballots. McMaster's current agreement with MUFA expires on June 30, 2002. (END OF STORY)

posted on March 7: McMaster receives $7.2M one-time payment for indirect research costs

The topics aren't that snazzy: heat, lights, maintenance, computer network wiring, library archiving, managing hazardous materials. Yet all of these areas are crucial to the day-to-day operations of a research-rich university. At a university like McMaster where $100 million worth of research was conducted last year, these indirect costs of research total millions of dollars. The federal government recognized this cost Wednesday in awarding the University a one-time payment of $7.2 million to help pay the indirect costs associated with federally-sponsored research. Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president research & international affairs, thanked the federal government, including Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who made the announcement at a campus ceremony. "This funding will go a long way in increasing our competitiveness, not just in terms of research output, but also in terms of enhancing the quality of education and recruiting and retaining highly-qualified faculty and students in our community," he said.

posted on March 6: Recycling program fully operational by September, forum told

The University is committed to having a complete recycling program in place by September. Participants at a campus recycling forum heard Tuesday that complete implementation of the recycling program has been hampered by a delay in delivery of bins. "We are disappointed with the progress to date with recycling," said Karen Belaire, vice-president administration. "There have been difficulties with the handling of the delivery of bins. We continue to press hard on that but it just hasn't been fast enough." Tony Cupido, the new director of physical plant, said that he is committed to implementing a full recycling program and has set September as a target.

posted on March 5: Telecommunications launches new online faculty, staff directory

McMaster's telecommunications department has developed a new on-line faculty and staff directory that is available from its Web site. The directory includes a search engine that allows users to search by a single field or combination of fields to find a department or person. When presented with the results of a search, users can click on the extension number to obtain a detailed listing of information for any individual department or staff member. The online directory also allows users to update individual listings. Telecommunications is in the process of adding staff members who have extensions other than those beginning with a "2" but are McMaster University employees, i.e.. "7" and "4". This is expected to be completed within a month. Please forward any comments or suggestions to Tara Pasalic at pasalic@mcmaster.ca. The McMaster CSO phone book, which includes student e-mail information, continues to be available.