Muse, 1989-03-31

              Favourable response despite some problems
Telephone registration now operational
By DAWN MITCHELL
The new $140,000 telephone
registration system was put in
place Monday, March 27 for the
Spring semester and Intersession
registration.
Glenn Collins, Registrar, said,
"The system is experiencing normal, or more than normal, start up
problems."
There are five organizations involved in the set up of the system.
They include the telephone companies, the supplier, the
Registrar's Office, Newfoundland and Labrador Comput-
ing Services, and Memorial
University Computing Services.
"When one problem is fixed in
one place, all the other groups
have to make adjustments," said
Collins. "This is just a test; a run
through to fix all the bugs," he
said. "We're giving it as much
attention as possible."
One student has experienced
those 'bugs'. Rick Rennie, a 4th
year History student, spent two
hours trying to register.
"I had no trouble getting
through the first time. It was a
matter of minutes," said Rennie.
He made a mistake, however,
and had to get out of the system.
When Rennie called back, the
computer asked if he wanted to
hear the help features.
"It only gave me two options,
and it didn't want either one," he
said. "I screamed at the computer
and it didn't respond, then the
silicon chip in my head got
switched to overload and I kicked
the garbage can."
Rennie had breached his
security code when punching in
his course numbers. It was
straightened out at the Registrar's
Office. "The people there were
really helpful," said Rennie. "If
you don't make mistakes, the system is a breeze."
Collins said his office has been
having problems with the computer not wanting to accept commands. Those students trying to
get through the Terra Nova Tel
lines were not able to connect
with the system until 9:00 Wednesday morning when the company came on line.
According to Collins, the system was also brought down Tuesday night to fix some of the bugs.
In spite of the problems, there
has been favourable reactions to
the system. "One student took the
time to call from the Great Northern Peninsula to congratulate us
[the Registrar's Office] on a job
well done," said Collins.
Instructional videos are being
televised on Channel 9
throughout the summer, and Collins urges students to watch it.
Four hundred and sixty students
have already registered. Collins
asked students to be patient and to
Provincial research funding down;
industry funding picks up slack
By HEIDI HARLEY
The total funding contributed
by external agencies to MUN's
researchers has increased 11 per
cent from last year, according to
the figures released by the MUN
Research Office in the annual Re-
search Inventory. This year
reseachers received $19 465 791
in operating grants, operating
contracts, equipment grants and
free use of off-campus facilities
and services.
Allowing for inflation, that's
about a 7 per cent increase in the
real value of the funding, according to Dr. Malcolm McCloud,
deputy director of the Research
Office.
An inspection of the breakdown of the figures reveals some
startling changes, however.
While federal granting agencies'
contributions increased an overall
4 percent, keeping pace with inflation, provincial government
contributions decreased by 32 per
cent. Research funded by the
private sector balanced out that
decrease, as business funding increased from $2.2 million dollars
to $3.9 million dollars, an increase of 85 per cent. Non-profit
organizations' funding fell slightly behind inflation with an increase of 3 per cent.
"There isn't really any particular reaon why the provincial
V
IN THIS WEEK'S MUSE:
1
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contribution is down this year,"
said McCloud. "It just seems that
each grant from the individual
departments choosing to fund research is down from last year."
The breakdown of money from
federal granting councils reveals
that there was a 14 per cent
decrease in the amount of money
awarded by the National Science
and Engineering Research Council, whose grants make up a
quarter of the total money MUN
researchers received. However,
McCloud said the decrease
reflects the fact that there were
two very large equipment grants
from NSERC in 1986-87 which
artificially inflated the figures for
last year.
"Really, there was more money
than usual last year, and the overall increase in federal money
shows that MUN researchers are
increasing their output and profile
nationally, since the federal
granting programs award money
on a competition-type basis," he
said.
McCloud also said the increase
in private sector funding is a
result of efforts by NSERC to encourage businesses to contribute
read the procedures manual.
The deadline for paying fees is
May 12. Students can go through
their local chartered banks or
come to "Fees Payment Day" on
May 12 at the University.
The bookstore is in the process
of ordering tone-generating
devices. Students can pick them
up for $25.
Telephone registration came into effect this week as students began
to register for courses in the Intersession, Spring and Summer
semesters. Long, crowded line-ups have been replaced by the cold
comfort of a solitary telephone booth. Just don't hit a wrong button
and watch out for those busy signals.
Photo by Rose-Marie Kennedy
to academic research. NSERC initiated a program five years ago
that arranged to pay a percentage
of a research program's cost if a
business could be found to foot
the bill for the remainder.
"For instance, here at MUN
there are two 'Industrial Research' chairs, one in Engineering and one in Earth Science,
funded entirely by NSERC and a
private company," said McCloud.
"Those positions benefit the
university but the university
makes no financial contribution
at all."
The Earth Sciences Industrial
Research chair receives $ 104 000
from NSERC and $50 000 from
PetroCanada; the Engineering
position receives $105 160 from
NSERC and $50 000 from Mobil.
Another position of that type is in
the works, according to McCloud.
The breakdown of research
funding by faculty goes as follows: Arts - $624,509; Business -
$36 038; Education - $12 848:
Engineering - 1 339 986
Medicine - $2 841 874; Science
$7 187 091; Schools - 30 983;
Research Divisions $6 741 776:
and Special Divisions - $650 686