Newsletter OCTOBER 2003 Volume 30.2 Vikki Cecchetto, EDITOR

in this issue: MUFA Service Awards Computer Access Announcements MUFA General Meeting New Members Denis Shaw Barney Jackson Out-of-Province Medical Smile Housing

 

The MUFA Faculty/Librarian
Awards for Outstanding Service

The Executive of the McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) has confirmed its intention to sponsor the MUFA Faculty/Librarian Awards for Outstanding Service.  The purpose of these awards is to provide an annual recognition for faculty and professional librarians who have made an outstanding contribution to the University through the provision of exceptional service to faculty, librarians, staff, students or alumni.

Each year there will be a maximum of three awards in the amount of $1,500.  The awards are open to all members of the McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA).

Tom Davison (Mathematics & Statistics and Past President of the Association) has agreed to chair the selection committee, whose members will be drawn from faculty, professional librarians, staff, students, and alumni.  The Secretariat to the committee will be the MUFA Executive Director.

The period of the award is a calendar year.  In the months following the end of the calendar year there will be a call for nominations through the MUFA distribution list, in the MUFA Newsletter, and on the MUFA Web page.  The Committee will review the nominations.  Among the factors considered by the Committee will be enhancement of the reputation of McMaster University, provision of excellent service, demonstrated innovation, breadth and depth of impact, and strength of support in nominations.

The faculty/librarians selected to receive the awards will be invited to attend a special reception and will be presented with their awards at that time.  A brief summary of the rationale for their award will be published in the MUFA Newsletter and on the MUFA Web page.  Each faculty/librarian who was nominated for an award will receive a letter of commendation from the MUFA President.

 
 

Employee Acknowledgement
of Confidentiality and Computing Access

Earlier this year many of you who use McMaster’s administrative computing systems (MVS and Oracle) received a reminder from Computing and Information Services (CIS) that you were bound by the Guidelines on Access to Information and Protection of Privacy and the McMaster Code of Conduct for Computer and Network Users.  In order to confirm that you had read and understood these policies, you were asked to sign the form, Employee Acknowledgement of Confidentiality and Computing Access.

The MUFA Office received a number of calls expressing concern about the wording of the form.  In particular, there was confusion over the last sentence of the first paragraph, which reads:  “Breach of confidence includes intentional or involuntary unauthorized release of this [confidential] information and could lead to disciplinary action including termination of employment.” [our emphasis].  We were asked, how could someone be held responsible for “involuntary unauthorized release” of information?

MUFA representatives on the Joint Committee raised this issue and were assured that the statement was meant to apply to someone who could have and should have taken steps to protect confidentiality, but did not.  The statement is not intended to apply to involuntary unauthorized release that is beyond the power of the individual to prevent (for example, a virus that causes confidential files or e-mails to be sent to unauthorized persons, such as happened on campus recently).  The Joint Committee agreed that, so long as the intended meaning of the document was clearly understood by all involved and was on the record, it was not necessary to reissue the document.  The wording should be revised, however, before the form is issued again.

The Provost has conveyed the Joint Committee’s  understanding of the meaning and intent of the form to the Chief Information Officer.
 

More Committee Appointments Many thanks to the following individuals who have volunteered to serve the Association. Henry Jacek has agreed to work with the Alternative Commuting & Transportation (ACT) Office to investigate the possibility of  obtaining an HSR bus pass for McMaster employees.  Robert O’Brien will represent MUFA on the Labour Practices Advisory Committee.

Attention Retirees! A Message from the McMaster University Retirees Association (MURA) All retired members of McMaster University faculty and staff are members of MURA.  Many of you are not aware of the role we play in the University community and in fact many faculty and librarians do not realize we exist!  I hope you will make an effort to find out more about us. MURA was established twenty years ago to serve all University retirees and support McMaster in appropriate ways when volunteers are needed.  For example, we fund two scholarships in Gerontology annually: one in full-time studies and one in part-time studies.  Over the past few years our representative, Jack Evans, worked tirelessly on the pension surplus committee to bring the negotiations to a satisfactory conclusion.  We continue to have a voting member on the Pension Trust Committee. We publish a newsletter on our activities and encourage all retirees to join MURA for an annual contribution of $15 to help defray expenses.  We do no other fundraising and exist solely for the retirees’ benefit. We run bus tours, at cost, to many events such as the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, and popular theatre events in Toronto.  This has proven to be a popular programme as many of us do not wish to drive and find parking at such events!  However, the social aspect of MURA is only part of our purpose. Most of us enjoy the chance to renew the fellowship of former colleagues. We welcome your participation and hope you will join us at our Christmas luncheon at the Schwaben Inn at 12:00 noon on December 1, 2003.  There is no charge as everyone pays for their own meal from a selected menu.  If you have any questions, please phone Vice President Brian Ives at 905-634-8354 or me at 905-304-7158.  Mildred (Cihocki) McLaren  President, MURA

Flu Clinics Once again, Employee Health Services will be holding Flu Clinics.  The Clinics will be held on November 10, 11, 18, and 19 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm in the University Centre, Room 319.  Please bring your health card and your McMaster identification and wear a short-sleeved shirt.

MUFA General Meeting
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
2:00 pm, Hamilton Hall 104
 

New Members

Christina Baade Martin Beckman Deanna Behnke-Cook Robin Cameron Jennifer Durley David Emslie Larissa Faulkner Jane Foster Emily Freeman Cynthia Grant Celina Gray Joseph McDermid  Kostelena Michelaki

Communications Studies Classics Kinesiology/Sociology Biology Ctre for Leadership in Learning Chemistry Communications Studies Psychiatry & Behavioural Neuro. Geography & Geology School of the Arts Classics Mechanical Engineering Anthropology

Ilinca Nicolescu Jean Noble Darcy Otto Julie Park Cashman Kerr Prince Bartosz Protas Nigel Raab Stephanie Ross Kamran Sartipi Greg Slater Sandy Thorburn David T. Wright

French English Philosophy English Classics Mathematics & Statistics History Labour Studies Computing & Software Geography & Geology School of the Arts School of the Arts

 

Denis Shaw Professor Emeritus School of Geography & Geology October 6, 2003

The following is an excerpt from a eulogy delivered on October 10, 2003 Denis Shaw grew up in Lancashire, and attended the King Edward VII school in St Anne’s: in later life he could put on a pretty convincing Lancashire accent when he wanted. As a boy, he developed an interest in science and used to do chemistry experiments on his mother’s gas stove. He finished school too early to enter Cambridge, so spent his last year studying classics. Entering Emmanuel College, Cambridge he originally intended to study physics: his BA was awarded in 1943, and Denis then left to join the air force. He served three years as a Signals Officer: his first posting was to the south of England, whereas one of his friends was to be sent to Canada — by mutual consent he and his friend exchanged postings.  Such was the almost random event that first brought him to Canada, though most of his time in the Air Force was actually spent  in  Jamaica. His travels, and his convic-tion that his theoretical abilities were not in the first rank,  convinced him to switch from physics to geology.   After demobilization (if I understand the timing correctly) he returned to Cambridge, where he obtained an MA in 1948.  Not long after this, he made arrangements to join the department of geology at McMaster, and to enrol for a doctorate at the University of Chicago.  In his acceptance of the Mineralogical Association of Canada Past Presidents Medal, he recorded that he managed to get his doctorate without taking a single graduate course — a feat that would no doubt be impossible nowadays.  The PhD was completed in 1951. In January 1949, he had joined the geology department at McMaster — at that time it consisted only of Denis, two other part-time assistants and Herb Armstrong.  The year that Denis was appointed,  McMaster graduated its first  B.Sc.s in geology (earlier degrees were BAs and MAs).  Herb was already deeply involved in administration, and became Dean of Arts and Sciences in 1950, so Denis served his first stint as Chair of Geology from 1953 to 1959.  He served again from 1962 to 1966. Sabbaticals did not come regularly in those days and Denis had to wait for his first until 1959-1960, when he spent a year at the Ecole Supérieur de Géologie Appliqué in Nancy.  While there he taught a course in geochemistry and wrote it up as a book (“Interpretation géochimique des éléments de trace dans les roches cristallines”, published by Masson in 1964). Unlike many academics who visit France, Denis became fluent in French – though he told me that the secretary who typed the MS of his book, remarked to him as he was saying goodbye, that it was a pity that his French was still so bad! He took his second sabbatical in Geneva 1966-1967, and published several articles in French. Denis was intensely loyal to McMaster.  He served as Dean of Graduate Studies from 1978 to 1984, a job that I doubt he much wanted. He  was forced unwillingly into retirement in 1989.  Since then he continued to work at the University almost daily (and to play squash and tennis, his favourite forms of athletic relaxation) until prevented by ill-health last summer.  He also continued to produce original research in geochemistry.  His life time publications number more than 130, not including abstracts, book reviews and so on.  His research continued to be supported by operating grants from NSERC, which he received for 25 years from 1978 (the first year that geologists were eligible to apply) up to 2003. He received many honours: fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada and their Miller Medal; Presidency of the Mineralogi-cal Association of Canada, and their Past President’s medal; and most recently the Distinguished Service Award of the Geochemical Society. Denis was an intensely private man: though always friendly, and willing to tell stories,  he almost never talked about his early life, and only talked  about his personal interests, once he had established that you shared them.  I remember an undergraduate telling me that although Dr Shaw was a good teacher it was a pity he led such a boring life — his only interest was geochemistry! No doubt most people here know that was a gross misjudgement: Denis was interested in art, theatre, and music (he owned a baby grand, and took lessons again after he “retired” from teaching), and he read widely in literature, and the philosophy and history of science. He played squash, badminton, tennis (and, in the early days, a little golf). Denis was, however, a real research person.  When I was first appointed to McMaster, he was Chair, and had an office not far from my own, on the top floor of Hamilton Hall (a building which Geology shared with Nursing and Biology) so I had an opportunity to observe him at work.  What impressed me was the way that he managed to pursue his laboratory investigations in spite of heavy teaching and administrative duties, and constant interruptions by students.  He was a very well-organized person, something that was well exemplified by his impeccable blackboard technique.  He must have been the easiest lecturer to take notes from of any teacher I have ever known.  He summed up his approach to geochemical research in three exhortations: (i) “keep the rocks firmly in mind”; (ii) remember, that as Frank Tuttle wrote, “the minerals are the archives of the rocks”; and (iii) “keep filing [your] fingernails, while waving [your] arms” – by which he meant, narrow your research to problems that can contribute results of broad significance (perhaps the geochemical equivalent of “think globally, act locally”). Denis was also a very equable person, not easily roused to anger.  One of his early misfortunes was to become Chair of the Parking Committee – many were the irate, emotional, or indeed irrational faculty members I saw and heard visiting his office, but Denis NEVER shouted back.  I resolved I would quit the University before I agreed to sit on that committee, let alone chair it! Denis had a personal STYLE that was all his own, even though I sometimes thought (enviously) that it was, in part, the Cambridge style.  Sparse, elegant,  given to understatement, self-deprecation and wry humour.  Though he was dedicated to one particular path in geochemistry (the use of trace elements) he was innovative, well aware of new developments in science and never afraid to learn new research techniques.  Denis dressed in a distinctive way, much given to tweeds — tweeds are (or were) not unusual for an academic, but most professors looked sloppy, whereas Denis’ tweeds looked smart.  Denis was fond of unusual cars:  I remember a Citroen, that he brought back (at enormous expense!) from France — one of those models which raised itself from the ground before it started to move and sank gently down when it stopped. A good part of Denis’ professional life was given over to editing: including the Handbook of Geochemistry, the Science Section of the Royal Society of Canada, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Meteoritics, and the Comptes Rendus of the French Academy of Sciences.  But mostly he was Executive Editor for Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta for a record 18 years (1971-1988).  This journal is the archival journal of the Geochemical Society, and probably the leading journal of geochemistry in the world.  When he stepped down, Denis arranged to have the McMaster Archives designated as the official archives for the Geochemical Society: alas, he had only just started to work on a history based on these archives, but there exists an unpublished MS giving a few of his interesting discoveries.  Denis was an excellent editor, and managed nevertheless to remain well-loved by the geochemical community  — this alone speaks worlds for his judgement, temperament, and good humour.  It was my privilege to know Denis for 48 years.  I only wish I had the words to express to you how much I enjoyed and profited by the experience. Gerard V. Middleton Professor Emeritus, Geography & Geology

The following is an excerpt from a eulogy delivered on October 14, 2003 Bermers (“Barney”) W. A. Jackson had a long and distinguished career at McMaster University.  He grew up in Hamilton mainly, and attended McMaster where he earned his BA and MA in English literature.  He was a Master at Pickering College for some 13 years, and then went on to Oxford where he earned a DPhilOxon.  He joined the English Department as an Assistant Professor in 1956. When I came to McMaster in 1972 as the new Dean of Humanities, I soon discovered that Barney was one of the elder statesmen of the University.  He was valued as a close adviser to the English Department, and as a member of the most senior and august committees of the University.  At various times he was a member of the Senate, and of the Board of Governors.  He served as President of the Faculty Association [1968/69].  I never understood why Barney was never named to the Department Chair or a Deanship.  He was a man of excellent judgement, cool good sense, evenness of temper, and a kind of elegant courtesy. He helped to found, and for many years directed, the Shakespeare Seminars at Stratford.  Besides the opportunity to see a great number of plays in a week, to hear lectures and participate in tutorials on these plays, the seminars were invaluable for Barney’s wise and informed leadership, and for the number of distinguished scholars he was able to attract to Stratford. Besides all of that, he was great company, and I still remember with fondness the wonderful New Year’s Eve parties at Barney and Maire’s hospitable home.  One year at a lunch together we impulsively decided on very short notice to spend reading week with a junket to Myrtle Beach.  The four of us — Barney, Maire, my wife Jayne and I — traveled together in his cool Citroen for a lovely week of unseasonably warm weather.  Barney and Maire played golf (of course) every morning while Jayne and I walked and read on the beach. In a later year we were invited to spend a week with Barney and Maire in their rented condo on the Florida coast.  More golf, more beachbumming, and more relaxed hospitality.  Thinking about it now, I marvel at the warmth of our relationship, since Jayne and I did not share either of Barney and Maire’s favourite pastimes — golf and bridge. For many years at the University I found myself depending a good deal on Barney for his sage advice and counsel.  After we both retired within several years of each other, we continued to see each other in warm fellowship.  And later still, to offer such solace as we could when Maire died, and when Jayne was stricken with Alzheimer’s. Now it is difficult to imagine life in Hamilton without Barney.  But that is the sad challenge that faces us now.  Alwyn Berland,  Professor Emeritus, English

B. W. A. (Barney) Jackson Profesor Emeritus English October 9, 2003

For Your Information Out of Province Medical Coverage Reimbursement for medical services received outside the province is limited to the payment of expenses beyond those covered by OHIP up to the reasonable and customary charges for treatment of an illness of the same nature and gravity in the location where treatment is provided. Out-of-province medically necessary services include all emergency services plus certain Maintenance and Preventative Services.  Maintenance Services would include the care of someone whose condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure has been diagnosed and is undergoing regular treatment before leaving the country.  Preventative Services are those which promote the prevention of medical conditions through regular checkups which may include such services as pre-school immunization and regular medical checkups for children or regular care during a normal pregnancy and delivery. Claims for non-emergency services are processed through Sun Life.  This coverage does not replace OHIP and claims should be processed through OHIP before being submitted to the University's Plan.  A procedure to assist you with such claims can be obtained through your Area Office. Teaching staff and Librarians are covered under the Blue Cross Deluxe Option "Health Plan While Outside Canada" for  emergency medical expenses up to a lifetime maximum of $1,000,000 for any one trip up  to 120 days.  In the event of a medical emergency, the plan member should contact the Medical Alarm Centre indicated on the Blue Cross Card.  Claims in excess of $200 will be coordinated with OHIP through Blue Cross.  The employee may be required to pay for expenses less than $200 and submit to Blue Cross for reimbursement.  A procedure to assist you with such claims can be obtained through HR. For any trip which is for periods beyond 120 days, an application must be sent to HR for extended coverage. This coverage is provided only in those situations where the employee is travelling on University business. A $50 processing fee is charged; the University will pay the premiums.  Continued coverage under these programmes while travelling is dependent on having OHIP or equivalent coverage. At retirement, members in the Major Medical Plan are provided with out-of-province emergency coverage with a $10,000 limit per claimant's lifetime.  This policy does not include reimbursement for Maintenance and Preventative Services while out of the province.  Only emergency services will be considered and expenses will have to be paid for by the member and submitted to OHIP and then to Sun Life for consideration.  It is recommended that all retirees purchase emergency out-of-province coverage when they are travelling outside the province.

 

At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.”  In response to Mr. Gates’s comments, General Motors issued the following press release (by Mr. Welch himself, the GM CEO), “If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice daily.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally, executing a maneuver, such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

4. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought “Car95" or “CarNT”.  But then you would have to buy more seats.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would be replaced by one “general car default” warning light.

7. New seats would force everyone to have the same size bottom.

8. The airbag system would say, “Are you sure?” before going off.

9. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

10. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need nor want them.  Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50% or more.  Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

11. Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

12. You’d press the “start” button to shut off the engine.
 
 
 

Sabbatical House for rent (fully furnished).  2-storey family home on a beautiful street 10 minutes’ walk from McMaster University and Hospital.  3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, main floor study, 3rd floor study/TV room, and recently refinished basement.  Hardwood floors in living and dining rooms.  Ceramic tile floors throughout the basement.  Central air, gas fireplaces in living room and main floor study.  Lots of light.  Perennial gardens with mature trees in a fenced back garden.  Westdale location close to shopping, bicycle paths, and the Royal Botanical Gardens.  Non-smokers only.  References required.  Monthly rent: Cdn $1650 plus utilities (approx. $300/month).  Available July 2004 through August 2005.  Contact Michael O’Donnell, odonnell@mcmaster.ca. Apartment for Rent.  Newly renovated NY-style upper floor apartment on the second floor of Victorian home.  Features 11' ceilings, hardwood floors, Jacuzzi tub, parking, front-door access (private entrance), French doors, large new windows throughout, lots of natural exposed brick.  Beautifully done!  Close to University, Dundas Valley Trails, Dundas School of Art & Library, bus routes, shopping.  Rent is negotiable for short, mid or long range.  Contact Deborah or David at 905-628-5468.

November 4, 2003
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