Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Waterloo pilots new polling tool - Vevox

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST).

The University has obtained a one-year enterprise license to pilot the polling tool Vevox, a simple to use real-time audience engagement platform that can support both academic and non-academic purposes. The results of this pilot, including feedback from testers, will inform the decision to proceed with the tool in an official capacity. Vevox became available for use beginning Friday, May 3. Training sessions will be scheduled throughout the spring term.

For a streamlined and enhanced user experience for instructors and participants alike, faculty and staff are encouraged to transition their use of polling tool(s) to Vevox. Note: Vevox will be contacting Waterloo users who have a current, active free or paid subscription to provide a refund (where applicable) and assist with the transition to the University’s enterprise license.

To get started, visit the Vevox tool guide on the EdTech Hub. You will be able to log in to Vevox via SSO (Single Sign-On) using your Waterloo username and password. The integration with LEARN will require more testing before being. Although Vevox can have graded questions, we recommend NOT using Vevox for grades at this time (especially for large classes) because the export does not have a unique identifier for each student's results, making uploading to LEARN challenging. Vevox has indicated that having identifiers in the export is planned for release in June.

iClicker will remain a centrally supported tool where students pay the licensing fee. iClicker may be a better solution for a course depending on the use case (especially where grading is important).

Read the full announcement on the EdTech Hub website.

Channel your inner artist to win a prize this nesting season

A message from Advancement.

In the spirit of nesting season, let’s celebrate the iconic (and maybe even slightly terrifying), Canada goose with an art contest!

Why geese? Because they're much like Waterloo students: bold, fearless and they leave a lasting impression.

All current faculty, staff and retirees of the University of Waterloo are invited to download the partial image, let your imagination take flight (pun intended) and draw the most original, epic or hilarious Canada goose.

Email your masterpiece (digital or scanned) to FSRgiving@uwaterloo.ca by 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28.

Three finalists will be chosen by the Office of Advancement and revealed in an email on Friday, May 31. Faculty, staff and retirees will vote for their favourite, and the grand prize winner will be announced by email and in the Daily Bulletin on Tuesday, June 4.

The grand prize winner will receive bragging rights, eternal campus fame, and a Nesting Season t-shirt from W Store. And everyone who enters the contest will receive a Faculty, Staff and Retiree Giving Program transparent sticker to show off your “heart” for Waterloo.

Here's what happened at the May meeting of Senate

A message from the Secretariat.

The University's Senate met on Monday, May 6. At the meeting, the following items were approved:

• Endorsement of the draft Values Statement arising from the values and culture initiative, with recommendation to the Board of Governors for final approval; 
• Amendment to the Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering – Co-operative Program to add a direct entry option;
• Amendment to the Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering and the Master of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering programs to update the graduate research fields in those programs;
• Creation of the new Academic Quality Enhancement Committee of Senate;
• Approve the awarding of the title associate professor, emerita to a retired faculty member; and
• Recommendation to the Board of Governors for the appointment of Alexie Tcheuyap as Dean of the Faculty of Arts for an initial five-year term commencing 1 July 2024 (the Board of Governors approved the appointment on May 7, 2024).

Additionally, Senate considered other business:

• Presentation from Carol Hulls, recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award; and
• Spring 2024 Convocation List of Honorands.

Senate also agreed to receive a representation from a student regarding the ongoing situation in Gaza, following which it discussed whether to consider two related motions.

For more information

Visit the Senate website to find the meeting agenda and related materials for all recent Senate meetings, as well as dates for upcoming meetings. The Secretariat will make Zoom links available to those wishing to attend meetings virtually.

If you have any questions, please contact the Secretariat at senate@uwaterloo.ca.

The University of Waterloo Senate is comprised of faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, governors, and administrative staff who are both elected and ex-officio members. This governing body of the institution is the highest authority on academic matters and meets regularly to discuss topics such as academic programs, educational policies, appointments, and other academic priorities.

More MFA thesis work on display at UWAG

The Fine Arts department will be exhibiting the work of two more Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students Ashley Beerdat and Charlie Star. The exhibition will run from Thursday, May 16 to June 1 at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery.

Ashley Beerdat - Becoming the Poem

"Becoming the Poem is an installation of landscape paintings that consider my relationship to nature and how to foster hope living in an ecological crisis," writes the artist. "As a first-generation diasporic artist of Guyanese descent, I engage with speculative imagination, by exploring the flora and fauna of the region that my parents are from in West Coast Demerara near the Amazon rainforest, along with my present geographic location. Through material driven processes, I embed myself in highly intuitive, sensory-based working methodologies that mimic the evolutionary path of nature. The outcome, an accumulation of deep time materialized through my body and the paint, collapses past and future representations of natural formations, presenting nature’s resilience and how it can rise above ecological disaster."

Ashley Beerdat is a painter, muralist and arts educator based in the GTA. She has a BA in Studio Art and Art History from Western University and is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. Her work is held in the City of Mississauga’s permanent corporate art collection and has been exhibited at the Small Arms Inspection Building, Latitude 53, the Artist Project, and Withrow Common Gallery. 

Charlie Star - In The Mix

In The Mix is an interdisciplinary exhibition that explores music of the Black diaspora. Through a site-specific, interactive installation that combines sound, music, collage, personal family photographs and archives, disc-jockeying, and experimental turntablism, representations of Black identity are explored and reimagined. Participating in remix culture, the use of both audio and visual samples from existing works are appropriated to create new works. In reimagining existing materials and incorporating personal experiences, the exhibition seeks to promote a more nuanced and varied understanding of the complexities of Black identity and diaspora. Astrology is further incorporated as a framework to analyze unseen elements behind musical releases, as well as to create sonic compositions that evoke ideas of time and space. The exhibition is brought together in a lounge-like environment that merges two series: the Afrosonic Listening Lounge and Astral Records.

Charlie Star is a multidisciplinary artist who draws inspiration from her unique experiences and perspectives as a biracial French-Canadian-Afro-Caribbean woman. Recently, she has exhibited with the Student Art Innovation Lab at the 2023 Lumen Festival and led collage workshops at the Art Gallery of Burlington. Both her academic and studio practice have been recognized by the Social Sciences and Research Council (SSHRC) and with the Sylvia Knight award. 

The opening reception will take place on Thursday, May 16 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG).

Wednesday's notes

The Sexual Violence Awareness Month Speaker Series continues tomorrow. "Join Women's Crisis Services of Waterloo Region hosted by SVPRO UWaterloo to learn from Lillie Proksch, Prevention & Community Engagement Specialist about the important work done in Waterloo Region to support women escaping domestic and sexual violence, and how those intersections impact UWaterloo students," says a note from SVPRO. The webinar takes place on Thursday, May 16 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on MS Teams.

Also tomorrow, you're invited to join the Faculty of Math for a screening of The Wedding Banquet, directed by Ang Lee, as part of the ongoing Queer Film Series. The screening takes place on Thursday, May 16 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The location will be shared with participants after they register.

Employers hosting Employer Information Sessions in the month of May include Persona, Definity, Trexquant Investments, Kensington Capital, BlackBerry and Formlabs. Make sure to register through WaterlooWorks and check the calendar for any updates.