TO: Board of Governors

FROM: Dr. Paul Davenport

DATE: January 20, 1999

SUBJECT: President's Report to the Board of Governors -- January 1999

____________________________________________________________________________

The President's Report to the Board of Governors for January 1999 will consist of the following items. I also append a list of my activities during December and January, with events scheduled subsequent to this date indicated as tentative by an asterisk.

1. Recommendations on Faculty Budgets, Student Aid, and Fees. Our traditional budgetary planning process at Western calls for the circulation in January of a document outlining basic recommendations for Faculty budgets. In this year's document, we also outline our commitment to student aid and present recommendations on tuition fees. The Provost will present the substance of these recommendations to the Board.

2. Meeting with Prime Minister Jospin of France. On Wednesday, December 16, 1998, I was among a group of Canadians invited to meet and discuss current bilateral issues with the Prime Minister of France, Lionel Jospin. Among those present were Denis Bauchard, Ambassador of France to Canada, Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and John Ralston Saul, journalists Jeffrey Simpson and Laurier Lapierre, and the French Minister of Culture and Communications, Mrs. Catherine Trautmann. That evening, at a dinner in honour of M. Jospin hosted by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, I was seated with the Speaker of the Senate of Canada, Hon. Gildas L. Molgat, Mr. Christian Pierret, State Secretary in Charge of Industry of France, and the President of the "Region Ile de France," Mr. Yannic Bodin. At both events, part of the discussion centred on the importance of the collaboration between French and Canadian universities in research and student exchanges.

3. Government Relations. A meeting has been scheduled on Western's campus including the administration, faculty, staff, and student leaders represented in the University's "Unity Group" and regional members of the provincial legislature to discuss actions which the Government of Ontario should take to reverse the severe underfunding of Ontario's universities. Among the ideas to be advanced by the Unity Group will be the "2000 for 2000" initiative, presented as part of the Report of the President in November 1998.

4. Update on the 125th Anniversary Campaign. Proposals for campaign funding from the Faculties and Departments were reviewed at a recent retreat of the President and Vice-Presidents and are being further refined within the units before priority ranking is brought forward for consideration by the Senate and Board of Governors in the spring.




Activities of the President

December 1998 - January 1999

On Campus

December:

1 COU Task Force on Degree Granting Institutions - teleconference

Holiday Reception - Foundation Western: Windermere Manor

2 Annual Planning Meeting: Faculty of Health Sciences

Brad Evanson, National Post - interview

President's Committee for the Safety of Women on Campus - luncheon

Official Opening: Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children - University College

Reception for Royal Society members - Gibbons Lodge

3 Wieder Foundation reception - Somerville House

Annual Planning Meeting: Faculty of Science

Faculty Association Scholarship reception - Somerville House

4 Annual Planning Meeting: Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry

Senate

7 Annual Planning Meeting: Vice-Provost and Registrar

Annual Planning Meeting: Vice-President (Research)

8 Annual Planning Meeting: Vice-President (External)

London Economic Development Corporation: Board of Directors meeting

and reception - Windermere Manor

9 Alumni Tour information session: Chateaux of the Loire - Gibbons Lodge

10 COU Task Force on Degree Granting Institutions: teleconference

14 Faculty Council meeting: School of Dentistry

15 "Jazz with Dr. D." - CHRW radio

Holiday Gathering: External staff

16 Annual Planning Meeting: Richard Ivey School of Business

18 Celebratory Gathering for Professors Peter Norton and Xialoin Wu, in President's Office

January:

5 Pat Morden, Morden Communications - Interview

7 President/Vice-Presidents Retreat - Windermere Manor

8 President/Vice-Presidents Retreat - Windermere Manor

Dr. Walter Petryschuk, IMTI-NRC, Retirement reception

11 Professor Valentin Pavlovski, Linguistic Institute, Minsk - luncheon with Dr. Clive Thomson, Department of French

14 Deans' Meeting

15 Memorial Gathering: Professor Kristin Brady - Conron Hall

18 Karen McBride, AUCC International Division

19 Luncheon with St. Andrews Exchange Students - Somerville House

*21 Geno Francolini, lunch with Ted Garrard

Deans' Meeting

*22 Senate

Meeting with Student Groups: Tuition Fees and Student Aid

*28 Open Meeting on University Budget

Board of Governors Update on Ivey School of Business

Board Strategic Issues: 1999 Strategic Issues schedule

Board of Governors

*29 Mitch Baran, Mac and Pat Cuddy, Deans Weedon and McMurtry, and Professor Jane Rylett, with graduate student awards recipients - Somerville House

In London

December:

5 Physical Plant Christmas Dinner and Dance - Maltese Canadian Club

12 Holiday Gathering: Marion and Earl Orser

Paul Beeston Order of Canada celebration - Home of A.H. Little

14 John Drake, with Ted Garrard - Fullarton Street

23 Holiday Gathering: Ina and David Weldon

Off Campus

December:

10 Toronto: Council of Ontario Universities: Executive Heads

11 Toronto: COU Council Meeting

Robert Haynes, with John Lutman (University Library System): Haynes book collection and lunch

Hon. David Johnson, Minister of Education and Training: Report on Degree-Granting Institutions, with COU colleagues

16 Ottawa: Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France: meeting at French Embassy, including Ambassador Denis Bauchard, Margaret Atwood, John Ralston Saul, Jeffrey Simpson, Laurier Lapierre, and French Minister of Culture and Communications Catherine Trautmann

Dinner in Honour of Prime Minister Jospin, hosted by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, with Hon. Gildas Molgat, Speaker of the Senate of Canada, French Industry Minister Christian Pierret, and the President of the "Region Ile de France," Yannic Bodin

17 Ottawa: Luncheon hosted by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin of France

January:

*23 Houston: Dr. Malcolm Sharples (BSc '67)

Dr. Roger Basu (PhD '83- Engineering)

Alumni Dinner - Houstonian Hotel:

Dr. Leigh and Mrs. Barbara Naftolin (MD '63)

Dr. and Mrs. Bob Maidenberg (MD '61)

Dr. Michael Gannon (MD '70)

Dr. Marion Gannon (MD '69)

(All meetings with Ted Garrard; alumni dinner with Dean McMurtry and Martha Powell)

*24 Houston: Joe Baylis (LLB '80), Sr. VP, Battle Mountain Gold Co.

Stuart Hemming (BA '75), Cambrian Consulting

Alumni Reception, hosted by Dr. Bob Maidenberg

(All meetings with Ted Garrard; alumni reception with Dean McMurtry and Martha Powell)

*25 Dallas: David Nourse (BA 94)

Dr. Bill Graham (BSc '66, MSc '68)

Jack Matthews (2001 Canada Games)

Mrs. Janet Brenneman (BA '67)

Greg Utas (BSc '79), Nortel Networks

Sarah Saunders (MBA '88), Director, Product Marketing, Nortel Networks

Alumni Reception hosted by Dr. Masashi Kawasaki

(All meetings with Ted Garrard; alumni reception with Dean McMurtry and Martha Powell)