Wednesday, July 20, 2016

New staff Mission Critical process announced

"I am delighted to announce an upcoming change to the Mission Critical process that will eliminate some steps in the recruitment process," says a memo from Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard that is being distributed to campus hiring managers today. 

"Launching on Wednesday, August 17^th along with a new recruitment system, the Mission Critical paper based process will be fully automated for creating the job requisition, and all approvals. Provost approval will be required for new roles and replacement roles where additional operating funds are required. For replacement roles where no changes to the funding are being made, the job requisition will be approved by department heads and the respective Executive Council member and forwarded directly through the system to Human Resources. This new process will impact regular ongoing Staff roles as well as secondments."

The provost's memo notes that Faculty hiring process is not changing.

"Some key benefits of this new system include faster approval time, increased insight into the status of the approval, and improved tracking of approved roles," writes Orchard. "Job requisitions will be created and submitted through the system, and net-new roles will be evaluated by Job Evaluation prior to receiving electronic approval by department heads and EC members. Approvals are quick and easy; the website is mobile responsive, meaning they can be completed on a mobile or tablet device."

"In preparation of the new process, we encourage departments looking to submit Mission Critical paperwork do so by Friday, July 29, 2016. It is important to note that I will not be signing any Mission Critical paperwork during the month of August, similar to previous years. The paper-based Mission Critical process will cease Friday July 29^th, 2016. This downtime will assist with the launch of the new UWaterloo Talent Acquisition System (iCIMS)."

"We look forward to a more agile process to bring top talent to the University of Waterloo," Orchard concludes. "Stay tuned for more information from the Human Resources department regarding the launch of the new recruitment system."

Pharmacy students lead workshops for Kids and Medicine safety program

by Alana Rigby.

Candy or medicine? The difference between colourful pills and tasty treats was the subject of much discussion when pharmacy students Sarah Blythe and Katie Gammage reached out to the community as part of the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) Kids and Medicine program.

Blythe and Gammage spent their co-op term with CPhA in Ottawa. As part of their work term, they led Kids and Medicine workshops aimed at elementary school students. Kids and Medicine connects pharmacy students with classrooms to promote safe medication use.

“It felt great to reach out to the community!” said Gammage. “It was amazing to see how interested the kids were in pharmacists and medicine safety and it was nice to get the chance to hear and answer their questions about medicine.”

Second year students Blythe and Gammage presented at Vincent Massey Public School, instructing and entertaining an audience of kindergarten students.

“This was a very interactive presentation where students could learn and share their experience with medicine, talk about their allergies, stay safe… and ask about what pharmacists can do to help people,” commented Bettina Desbordes, a senior kindergarten teacher in the early French immersion program at Vincent Massey.

But the program benefits more than just the audience. As Blythe indicates, it’s an educational experience for presenters as well.

“Presenting Kids and Medicine is a very rewarding opportunity that makes me proud to be a future pharmacist.”

Creating Content at CPhA

When they weren’t in the classroom, Blythe and Gammage were busy researching and writing at CPhA as members of Public and Professional Affairs department. Blythe developed monthly issues of Live Links, a publication that summarizes recent articles on pharmacy practice, and Gammage created The Translator, a quarterly online publication that examines four new studies on pharmacy research and explores implications on pharmacy practice.

The students also developed resources that CPhA provides to their pharmacist members. They contributed a variety of publications such as continuing education programs, influenza guides, and documentation on the diverse scopes of practice across Canada. The impact of their work is far-reaching.

“It is amazing to know that the content we help produce will be used across the country even though each province and territory has a different approach to pharmacy practice,” said Gammage.

Co-op terms provide students like Blythe and Gammage with the ability to explore different types of pharmacy practice, whether that means working in an underserved community, in a hospital, or in a professional advocacy and support role like at CPhA.

The University Waterloo School of Pharmacy, part of the Faculty of Science, is the only pharmacy program in the country that offers co-op in addition to the clinical rotations that are required of all PharmD pharmacy programs. It is one of only two schools in North America that incorporates co-op into pharmacy education.

Systems design students to demonstrate projects

Today, Systems Design Engineering students will exhibit product designs themed around X Prize competitions past and present.

14 student groups in a third-year Systems Design Engineering course will present and demonstrate various product design prototypes as part of an exhibition that runs from 12.30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. in the Davis Centre fishbowl.

Most of the student groups were required to select a design topic from the collection of X Prize competitions. The range of projects include waste reduction, home water monitoring, water transportation in the third world, minimizing driver distraction, earthquake disaster preparedness, locating lost personal items, retrofitting vehicles for natural gas, electrifying roadways, safety for women, intelligent bots for web shopping and managing Alzheimer’s.

Each group went through the design process three times, sprinting to refine the prototype based on how well it met the stakeholder’s needs.

Students will demonstrate their refined prototypes as well as provide presentation material that highlights the problem space, current solutions and shortcomings.

For more information, contact the course instructor Professor John Zelek at jzelek@uwaterloo.ca, extension 32567.

Christmas in July and other notes

Jingle all the way to the University Club's Christmas in July buffet.

The menu for the lunch buffet, which runs today from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., contains all the freshness of summer with the flavours of Christmas.

It's not too late to make reservations by calling extension 33801.

As the Pokémon Go craze continues, the media has begun to report about distracted Pokémon trainers falling off cliffs and causing traffic collisions. These are extreme cases, and thankfully nothing of the sort has been reported on campus as of yet, but...

Reports have surfaced of Pokémon Go players entering lecture halls while class is in session, capturing a monster with their phone, and then leaving. That's something Team Rocket would do. Don't be like Team Rocket.