Friday, August 19, 2016

Coming soon: The Daily Bulletin in your inbox

The redesign of the Daily Bulletin is moving into its next phase this summer with the introduction of an e-newsletter version.

Beginning this month, faculty and staff members will find their uwaterloo email addresses subscribed to a MailChimp-based e-newsletter that will contain highlights of the day's feature articles, photos, and links to more information.

Whose bright idea was this, you might ask? Why, yours, dear reader! In the Fall 2015 Daily Bulletin Reader Survey, nearly 60 per cent of respondents indicated that they would like the option to subscribe to a Daily Bulletin email digest of some kind. And although the plural of anecdote is not fact, it is worth mentioning that an e-newsletter subscription option is far and away the most frequently requested feature sent via email to the Daily Bulletin by readers.

And don't worry—if you really don't want to get a daily dose of Vitamin DB in your morning mail, you can opt-out by unsubscribing. But you would be hurting the Daily Bulletin editorial team's feelings if you did. 

The Daily Bulletin e-newsletter will also be available to undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, retirees and other community readers on an opt-in basis, with a simple subscription form. A marketing campaign in the fall will present this option to those various audience groups.

This e-newsletter is an addition to, and not a replacement for, the web-based Daily Bulletin, which has been online in some way, shape or form since May 1993.

A step forward for equity

This is an excerpt of an article was originally published on the Office of the President's blog.

Earlier this month we took another important step forward for equity at the University of Waterloo. I want to close the loop with our campus community on this important issue.

As part of the university’s last faculty salary settlement, reached a little over a year ago, the University of Waterloo and our Faculty Association worked together on a review of faculty pay equity at the university. This is a best practice in our sector and in many large, progressive organizations.

On August 3, the working group — having reported its findings to Ian Orchard, our provost, and Sally Gunz, president of our faculty association — connected with all UWaterloo faculty via email to provide an update on their important work. The committee undertook a rigorous analysis of pay equity at the university to discover any instances or structural issues with faculty salaries. As a result, the university announced a $2,905 pay increase for  all female faculty.

(If you haven’t seen all the information yet, you can access the full documentation, including research methodology, at the provost’s website.)

I want to thank the committee – comprised of outstanding faculty members and university administrators – not only for their solid findings and recommendations, but also for modeling a remarkable level of collegiality, collaboration, good faith, and professionalism.

I also want to take a moment, now that the committee’s outcomes have been reported to faculty, to underline the importance of equity — in all its forms — to UWaterloo.

I’ve received lots of positive messages about this salary adjustment, both from within the university and from the outside. And I’ve also heard the concerns out there, which I validate and share. It’s disappointing that such a pay gap between men and women would exist in any organization, let alone the University of Waterloo, which is increasingly known around the world for our leadership on tackling equity issues.

Read the rest of the article on the Office of the President's website.

Faculty, staff fitness classes and other notes

UW Fitness is offering several new specialized weekly small group exercise programs for Waterloo faculty and staff beginning in September in addition to its regular twice-weekly small group training sessions.

"Thanks to funding from the UW Staff Association’s Staff Excellence Fund, UW Staff receive a 50 per cent discount on up to 2 of the following new “Learn To” programs!" says a note from UW Fitness. "Take advantage of the private on campus facility under the guidance of our certified staff."

Check out the UW Fitness website for more information and scheduling details.

Send an email to fitness@uwaterloo.ca to register or call extension 36841 for more information. Spaces are limited.

Classes include:

• Learn To Spin
• Learn to Nordic Pole Walk
• Learn Effective Resistance Tubing Workouts
• Learn to Exercise with the Stability Ball
• Learn TRX Suspension Training
• Learn to Run

The road between the Tatham Centre, the School of Accounting and Finance, and Arts Lecture Hall will be closed for the installation of new catch basins and storm sewers between August 22 and August 26, according to an announcement from Plant Operations.

The area affected includes the Theatre of the Arts road to the South Commons redevelopment site. A gravel base will be put down first and paving will occur at a later date. The area will be fenced off during this work.

In the new positions available listings for Wednesday August 17, two of the roles were posted without their full USG range. Please note these roles still displayed the correct USG ranges on the internal job listings page on the Careers website. The Daily Bulletin regrets the error.

Human Resources advises the campus community that the correct posting details for the positions are:

• ID# 2016-1165 - Records Specialist - Graduate Studies Office, USG 6/7
• ID# 2016-1166 - Information Systems Specialist - Information Systems & Technology, USG 9-12

Please visit the Careers website for an up to date listing of all internal and externally posted roles.