Monday, November 2, 2015

Sharing Waterloo with the world: Contribute to this communications initiative 

by Sandra Banks, Vice-President, University Relations

Waterloo students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners are invited to provide input as we move forward on a communications initiative to expand awareness of the University and its reputation both nationally and internationally.

The brand refinement project will help us create a framework of tools, guidelines and visuals that everyone on campus can use to more effectively communicate our Waterloo stories.

The University of Waterloo has established a tremendous reputation over the years and our objective is to build on this. The post-secondary education landscape is becoming increasingly competitive and we know we must continue to be innovative in enhancing the University’s profile within local and global communities.

This project will enhance our ability to share the transformational ideas, research and impact originating at Waterloo and will support our strategic goal to be recognized as one of the top innovation universities in the world.

As a starting point, we have consulted with campus stakeholders in briefings and interviews and are working with a campus-wide Advisory Group of 27 communications colleagues.

The next steps are to engage students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners via on campus and online activities starting in mid-November. This will help us refine how we express our brand as well as to develop a multi-year communications approach and visual and written guidelines and tools.

The University’s logo with its distinctive shield, and the traditional University seal featured on diplomas and other official documentation, are not the focus of this project.

Find out more about the brand refinement project, including project leadership, deliverables, timeline and ongoing updates.

Provide your thoughts on the website feedback form and look for upcoming opportunities to join the conversation and share what Waterloo means to you. 

Through the looking glass: how do you use portal?

by the student portal team

Student feedback has been critical to the evolution of the student portal, and has driven the content and design since the beginning of the project. Now the portal team wants to learn even more from the users, through a portal survey, running November 2 - 18.

This is the first term that all students have access to the portal and they are using it in record numbers. It’s a good time to develop a better understanding of how students are using the portal, their preferred features, frequency of use etc., and what can be improved to make it a more valuable tool.

All students can complete the survey, from daily to more sporadic users. Staff and faculty are encouraged to share the survey with students. As surveys often require a little motivation, students have the chance to win one of 50 prizes of $10 added to their WatCard or a chance to win an iPad.

Passing the retiree torch for Keystone

by Carrie Nickerson.

Back in 1967, Bob Kerton chose the University of Waterloo from a number of teaching opportunities, because, in his words, “It was so confidently different from other universities. Students who choose Waterloo are also different, in most positive ways.”

Bob is familiar to many on campus, with an impressive resume as adjunct professor, distinguished professor emeritus and former dean of arts.

Although he retired six years ago, Bob still serves on two editorial boards, gives international lectures and is the principal investigator for a three-year government grant (SSHRC) that involves multiple universities, consumer groups and partners from the public and private sectors.

Bob also recently completed a term as the retiree’s representative for Waterloo’s Keystone Campaign. He revels in the generosity of retirees to help support Waterloo initiatives, particularly scholarships and bursaries. In the last three years, 26 scholarships and at least 30 bursaries were awarded to students, thanks to the support of Waterloo retirees.

Bob’s fondest memories of his time with Keystone were the opportunities to meet the award recipients and hear from them about the impact of retiree support. “When I met the students and learned about the very real potential of their talents, I got a good feeling that all of us at Waterloo are ensuring that the world will be a much better place.”

Having recently completed his tenure as the retiree’s rep, Bob has left some big shoes to fill, but feels confident his replacement, Lynne Judge, is up for the job.

For 25 years Lynn headed the Graduate Studies Office, recently retiring as the Director of Graduate Academic Services. Some of her greatest memories are of watching bright-eyed new graduates cross the stage to receive their hoods. Among those graduates were Lynn’s husband Martin, both of their children, some of her siblings and many friends.

Lynn cites a gap in funding for graduate students back in the 1980s for inspiring her to become a Waterloo donor. She feels Keystone provides a great opportunity for the University community to give back. As for why Lynn took on the role of retiree’s representative from Bob, she explained that Waterloo has played such a huge roll in her life, she could not just retire and “walk away”. “There is such a sense of community. There’s always something happening here. There’s always growth and change. It’s ever-moving.” Lynn says of the University. Through the Keystone Campaign, Lynn saw a great opportunity to stay connected and to rally other retirees to do the same.  

Way to go retirees and thanks Bob and Lynn for all you’ve done and continue to do for the University and for Keystone!

Tall tales about giraffes have Waterloo connection

With files from Independent Studies.

Two documentaries intended to make the public aware of the decreasing giraffe population both involve the University of Waterloo's Anne Innis Dagg, a pioneer in the study of giraffe behaviour.

Professor Dagg was in South Africa late last month filming and discovered that “the area where sixty years ago giraffe roamed over large territories has now been divided into residences, farms growing crops, and many private game reserves where so few giraffe still flourish. Today, about two million people live in small houses in the area.”

This species is in danger of becoming extinct in the wild; in the past fifteen years, their numbers in Africa have decreased forty per cent to about 80,000 animals. There are now far fewer giraffe in the wild than elephants, whose plight has been of great concern for many years.  

​CBC's The Nature of Things is expected to air its documentary Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants on the subject on Thursday November 5 at 8:00 p.m. 

The second production is an independent documentary, Pursuing Giraffe, produced by Alison Reid and Free Spirit Films that focuses on Professor Dagg and her decades of work with giraffes.

New notes for November

If your department or unit participated in Hallowe'en dress-up shenanigans on Friday, send in a photo. For starters, here's Gru and the Minions from Creative Services, and a motley crew from the Dean of Science Office.

If you happen to notice a sharp increase in the number of students openly carrying Nerf guns this week, do not be alarmed, as it is merely a sign of the termly game of Humans vs. Zombies that will be taking place on campus. I'll let the experts take it from here:

"HvZ is a week long, 24h game of manhunt that takes place on campus between 2 teams: The humans who are armed with nerf guns and socks and the zombies," says the Humans vs. Zombies Facebook page. "Humans try to get through their everyday activities on campus in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Zombies would like to have everyone join their team.
Events occur at various times during the day where you can work with your team to complete goals."