Thursday, June 23, 2016

A word of thanks from the President

A message from Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor.

I want to thank the UWaterloo campus community, and our partners in the Waterloo region and around the world, for all your well wishes as I look ahead to my second term as president. I appreciate all the kind messages.

I’m humbled by the invitation to serve a second term, and to keep working shoulder to shoulder with an incredible community of academic, administrative, student, and civic leaders to deliver on Waterloo’s mission and mandate.

Our strategic plan gives UWaterloo a great foundation to build on, and in the near term we’ll continue implementation with a specific focus on:

• enriching the campus experience for our students, faculty, and staff, to develop the most intellectually stimulating and collegial environment possible;
• building on our signature strength of experiential and co-operative education;
• attracting the top students, faculty and staff from across Canada and around the world; and
• being a champion of collaboration to further Canada’s innovation agenda.

That’s an ambitious agenda. It’ll take a terrific team and many great partners.

Which is exactly why I know we can achieve it.

François Paré receives honorary doctorate

by Wendy Philpott. This is an excerpt of an article originally posted on the Faculty of Arts news site.

The Faculty of Arts is very proud to announce that Professor François Paré, University Professor, (French Studies) received an honorary doctorate from the Université Laval on June 18 for his career as “a leading figure in the Francophone communities of the Americas and beyond.”

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and holder of numerous other national distinctions, Professor Paré has been recognized for many years as a groundbreaking scholar in the field of minority literatures.

“His teaching and publications have inspired many generations of scholars and students and he is considered, in Canada and abroad, as the scholar who changed our vision of minority cultures and literatures,” says Guy Poirier, chair of French Studies.

Professor Paré’s scholarship breadth includes examination and public dissemination of Franco-Ontarian literature - from writers documenting early French-Aboriginal contact in the 1600s to the latest in contemporary publications.

Related to his research on minority language communities, he proposed an ecology of cultures and languages for which he developed strategies to maintain linguistic diversity that resist the threat of a monoculture implied by economic globalization.

The honorary degree recognizes not only Prof. Paré’s work over the past 35 years, but the vital importance of his research field for Canadian and Québécois societies.

“It was extremely moving for me to address a cohort of graduating students in my own language and in my native province,” he says of the convocation event last week. “I talked to them about filiation, that is, the transmission of one’s language and culture from one generation to the next. All minorities, whether Aboriginal, French Canadian or immigrant, fear for the loss of permanence that threatens the very existence of the community.”

Read the rest of the article on the Faculty of Arts news site.

Mary Thompson receives honorary degree from VIU

This story excerpts an article originally posted on the Vancouver Island University website.

Earlier this month Distinguished Professor Emerita Mary Thompson received an honorary doctorate from Vancouver Island University.

Thompson was honoured for her work with social and health scientists to evaluate government policies and measures that help prevent illnesses and early deaths.

“Statistics is all about working on real-world issues that are important to the public, which is something Thompson has done throughout her career,” says Professor Don Noakes, Dean of Science and Technology at VIU and nominator. “She’s well-recognized as one of the leading educators in the field of statistics. She’s made significant advancements in terms of methodologies and practice, but some of the areas she’s been working in, such as the health and social impacts of tobacco use, are significant both nationally and internationally.”

Thompson, a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Statistics at Waterloo began her career here as a sessional lecturer, progressing to chair the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science and co-founding the University’s Survey Research Centre before retiring in 2009.

"More recently, she helped found the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute, a national organization devoted to further developing the statistical sciences research and promoting collaborative research," says the honorary degree announcement on the VIU website.

Thompson designed the sampling and data collection methods for what became the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project, which wanted to use surveys to evaluate the impact of tobacco control measures implemented by different governments in response to the World Health Organization’s 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“My role in the ITC Project is to try to ensure the statistical soundness of the findings,” said Thompson, who is director of the project’s Data Management Centre. “The overarching questions are how governments should design and implement policies so as to limit the uptake of tobacco use, help those who use tobacco to reduce their consumption or to quit, and reduce environmental tobacco smoke.”

"Through the ITC, she’s helped investigate the role of health warning labels on cigarette packages, the feasibility of smoke-free laws, the impact of advertising and packaging restrictions, the role of taxation and pricing systems and, most recently, the regulation of e-cigarettes," the VIU story continues. "This work has influenced the design of cigarette packages, such as figuring out when health warning labels should be refreshed to stay relevant, and what kinds of messages are most effective to include."

Read the rest of the article on the Vancouver Island University website.

Dean of Engineering will not seek a second term

"Pearl Sullivan’s term as Dean of Engineering ends 30 June 2017, and after much reflection, Dean Sullivan has decided to not seek renewal of her term as dean," writes Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard in a memo circulated to the Faculty of Engineering last week. "Under Policy 45, the University will now form a nominating committee to select the next dean, and further communication on the search process will be forthcoming under separate cover."

"I would like to thank Pearl for her outstanding service to her Faculty and to this University in her role as dean," the provost writes. "She has consistently brought her tremendous energy, passion and insight to the issues at hand, and in her role has been a champion for bringing the full range of educational, research and entrepreneurial opportunities to all members of the University community and especially within the Faculty of Engineering."

Thursday's notes

Access to East Campus across the ION tracks has been closed off for a few days as GrandLinq continues its construction work, according to Plant Operations.

Pedestrians should use the University Avenue crossing, Columbia Street, or the Engineering 5 bridge over the tracks. For more information check out the ION-related travel disruptions news site. (Photograph courtesy of the @UWaterlooLife twitter account)

Waterloo Fire Rescue, Housing and Residences, and UW Police will be engaging in fire training outside Beck Hall at UWP on Monday, June 27 and Friday, July 8 at approximately 1:00 p.m. on both days. Constables will be on site during the fire drills, and hoses and other equipment will be set up at Beck Hall during the exercise.