Thursday, September 10, 2015

Orientation continues with Monte Carlo, Black & Gold Day

A message from Orientation.

Orientation continues to build excitement on campus among all new students. Since the programming began on September 4, new students have received a special greeting from President Feridun Hamdullahpur, been inspired by a motivational speech from Olympic gold-medallist Heather Moyse, and enjoyed an array of events including scavenger hunts, and the popular play, Single and Sexy.

​Casino-themed Monte Carlo is tonight, and access to the Student Life Centre will be limited from approximately 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Tim Horton’s, International News, and the Turnkey Desk in the SLC will remain open.

On Friday first-year students will attend the conference-style event, Experience Waterloo. At Experience Waterloo, students can log in to the student portal to create their own schedule by picking and choosing up to five sessions. They’ll have the chance to make connections on campus and win cash during James Cunningham’s Funny Money session.

Saturday’s Black & Gold Day starts off with a fun-filled carnival at 10:00 a.m. and students will be decked out in free swag to help them show their Warrior spirit. Starting at 1:00 pm the entire campus community is invited to cheer on the women’s rugby team as they compete for victory on Warrior Field. After the rugby game, students will head indoors for Togas at Twilight. Held at various locations on campus, this promises to be an engaging night that features video games, a Coffee House, and dancing.

Questions about Orientation?

Contact orientation@uwaterloo.ca, and follow along during the week on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

Lean Higher Education conference kicks off today

The two-day international Lean Higher Education Conference starts today. The conference is being hosted by the University of Waterloo in partnership with the Lean HE Hub (UK). Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard and Associate Provost Marilyn Thompson will formally open the conference today at 9:00 a.m. at Federation Hall.

More than 170 attendees from three continents will be on campus for the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with Lean practitioners from other universities and colleges internationally—some who are advanced in the Lean journey and others who are at the beginning.

The theme of the conference is Driving Lean Change in Higher Education and will explore successes, approaches to implementations, tools, and techniques, and overcoming roadblocks through four key ideas: 

• Beginning the Lean Journey;
• Lean:  Tools, Tips and Techniques;
• Driving Lean Change; and
• Building Capacity and Partnerships.

The conference is one of the first Lean conferences on the topic of higher education in Canada. The conference's roster of speakers includes Professor William Balzer author of Lean in Higher Education.

There will be a broad array of participating institutions attending and presenting at the conference that are currently using Lean methodology within higher education.  Plenary sessions include:

• The University of St. Andrews Lean Model: Frameworks, Lean Tools and Techniques, and Lessons Learned – University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland.

Workshop sessions include:

• Lean model cell: Driving fast and radical change - HAN University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands;
• "We are the Champions!" Creating internal resources to drive your Lean efforts - Des Moines Area Community College;
• Where is the evidence-based support for Lean Higher Education? The research, the challenge, the opportunities? - Bowling Green State University, Ohio;
• From Integrated Project Delivery to Lean Operations – St Jerome’s University; and
• "Lean in" to Get a Better Understanding of How Long It Takes to Deploy a Computer, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Panel discussions include:

• What Works Here? Lessons Learned and Shared Experiences – Carleton University, University of Notre Dame, University of Michigan.

Conference attendees and steering committee members have already toured the Communitech Hub and attended presentations from Waterloo Velocity entrepreneurs.

Other activities include a Taste of Oktoberfest dinner event, which will occur tonight, complete with keg tapping, mascots, and Bavarian dancers for the conference's international visitors.

The conference's full agenda has been published online. Full descriptions are available on the Lean conference website.

Follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #LeanHE2015.

Library's Robert Southey Collection nears completion

"Special Collections & Archives is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of The Origin, Nature, and Object of the New System of Education written by Robert Southey (1774-1843), published in 1812," writes Rose Koebel. "Southey was an English Lake Poet of the Romantic school and was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1813 until his death."

Special Collections & Archives now holds all but three of Southey’s published works thanks to this new acquisition. The works are part of the Bertram R. Davis "Robert Southey" collection.

"The Library is very grateful to Dr. Warren and Mrs. Mary Ober whose generosity made this acquisition possible."

Thursday's notes

Orientation continues today with the Engineering Junkyard Wars events on the Village 1 Green, where engineering students will display their ingenuity and teamwork skills as they build functional devices from the junk piled up for the occasion.

Save the date: A Strategic Plan Mini Town Hall has been scheduled for September 23 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in QNC 0101 on the subject of Teaching, Learning, and Community Space.

Among the speakers at the town hall event will be Associate Provost, Students Chris Read, Associate Vice-President Academic Mario Coniglio, Director, Graduate Academic Services Sarah Hildebrandt, Graduate Student Association President Maya D'Allesio, and Federation of Students President Chris Lolas.

The event will be livestreamed.