Monday, July 4, 2016

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• Canada Day Celebration a crowd-pleaser
• Jannet Leggett named Chief Ethics Officer
• Concert will benefit sexual assault support centre
• Ransoming the Wasteland and other notes

Canada Day Celebration a crowd-pleaser

On Friday, July 1, as Canada celebrated its 149^th birthday, the University of Waterloo and the Federation of Students thanked the community for its partnership and mutual support by hosting Waterloo Region's flagship Canada Day Celebration.

Close to 60,000 people gathered at Columbia Lake Fields Friday for a day filled with interactive family fun, delicious local foods, live entertainment featuring outstanding Canadian talent, and a spectacular fireworks display.

Check out the Storify for highlights from the celebration, and look for a wrap-up video later this week.

Jannet Leggett named Chief Ethics Officer

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jannet Ann Leggett as Chief Ethics Officer beginning July 4," says a memo from Vice-President, University Relations George Dixon distributed last week.

"Ms. Leggett has extensive, broadly based experience in ethics," Dixon writes. "As a Barrister and Solicitor, she spent 14 years specializing in privacy, ethics and regulatory compliance for both public and private sector organizations, most recently as Director, Customer Success and Ethics at NYMITY Inc., Toronto. She played a major role in the design and integration of ethics and privacy protocols for Canada's first multi-jurisdictional public health surveillance and research data repository of over one million patient electronic health records, an initiative that involved working with 11 academic medical institutions and 1,000 primary care physicians. In 2013, she was named Privacy by Design Ambassador by the Ontario Privacy Commissioner. She is also a recipient of the Privacy Innovation Award sponsored by teh International Association of Privacy Professionals."

Based in the Office of Research, the Chief Ethics Officer is key point of contact and ethical expert (i.e. chief ethics officer) for all ethics compliance activities involving research at the University of Waterloo. The position provides discreet and confidential advice and counsel to the Vice-President, University Research when handling sensitive ethical or research misconduct allegations to ensure the University’s legal, financial and reputational risks are minimized. The position also manages research integrity compliance and research misconduct allegations.

"Ms. Leggett brings substantive experience and knowledge of research ethics to Waterloo," Dixon writes. "I look forward to working with Jannet, and am confident that she will have your full cooperation and support."

Concert will benefit sexual assault support centre

A concert and variety show organized by a Waterloo staff member will benefit the Sexual Assault & Support Centre (SASC) of Waterloo this week.

“Michael Klein: Live!” is dedicating its Friday, July 8 concert in the Theatre of the Arts in support of the SASC, with 75 percent of ticket proceeds being donated to the organization.

The show features performances by Michael Klein, The Nathan Day project, and many others. Tickets are $20 and are available online at www.eventbrite.com and at the door. Klein, who works as an admissions officer in the Faculty of Engineering, is headlining.

The event takes place in the Theatre of the Arts from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

"The on-campus performance venue also highlights ongoing problem of sexual assault on college and university campuses across the country, as highlighted in many recent studies," says an announcement about the event.

Founded in 1989, the SASC provides individualized and confidential support services including counseling, advocacy, information and referrals, and emergency assistance to victims of sexual assault of all ages. All services are provided free-of-charge. For additional information, please send an email to Michael Klein.

Ransoming the Wasteland and other notes

A collection of writings about the science fiction and fantasy works by author C.S. Lewis, written by Distinguished Professor Emerita Nancy-Lou Patterson and co-edited by Emily Auger and Janet Brennan Croft, has been published by Valleyhome Books.

Patterson was a professor in Waterloo’s fine arts department from 1962 until her retirement in 1992, teaching art history while working as an active artist, poet and fiction writer. She also published extensively on her favourite research subject, the Inklings, a literary group of professors  and authors associated with Oxford University that included Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Many of her papers on C.S. Lewis's fiction have been gathered in Ransoming the Wasteland Volumes I and II, available as Kobo ebooks and in paperback from Amazon and Lulubooks.

Auger, who took one of her first art history courses from Patterson at the University of Waterloo, is a graduate of the University of Victoria's History in Art program. She taught Art History at various universities in Canada and the United States from 1987 through 2010, before returning home to Wellington County where she spends much of her time writing and publishing. Janet Brennan Croft is editor of Mythlore and head of Access and Delivery Services at Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick, NJ.

Waterloo Engineering alumnus Douglas Ruth has been elected President of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy in 2008 and has served on the organization's board of directors since 2013.

Ruth received a doctorate at Waterloo and has worked in the manufacturing sector and in the oil and gas industry. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba for 11 years, and served for 12 years as a member of the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. He is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and of Engineers Canada.

He will serve a two-year term.

The University of Waterloo Staff Association is hosting its third annual Golf Tournament on Thursday, July 7 at the Foxwood Country Club near Baden. A $10,000 Hole-in-One is being sponsored by Johnson Insurance, and prize sponsors include GoodLife Fitness, Canada’s Wonderland, Coldwell Banker, Bingeman’s, UW Food Services, Sue Fraser Crafts, Country Gardens, African Lions Safari and the Education Credit Union.