Friday, January 27, 2017

Ray Darling to be University of Guelph's registrar

University Registrar Ray Darling will be returning to the University of Guelph, where he studied and started his career, to lead their Registrar’s Office, according to a memo circulated by Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard to Executive Council yesterday.

"Ray joined the University of Waterloo in 2014 and has provided leadership on a number of initiatives including the fall break pilot, the Needles Hall student service transformation, classroom scheduling, strategic enrolment management, the implementation of gender neutral identification at the OUAC, and systems development," Provost Orchard writes. "He is particularly proud of his team in the RO and the work they do to support the University community."  

Darling will remain at Waterloo until February 24 before starting his new role on March 1, 2017.

An Acting University Registrar will be announced in the very near future.

"On behalf of the University of Waterloo administration, faculty, staff, and students, we wish Ray all the best in his new position," Orchard's memo concludes.

Waterloop team heads to SpaceX competition

Waterloop - a student design team building a commuter pod to one day take you from Toronto to Montreal in 30 minutes - will test their prototype at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition from January 27 to 29.

About 150 students from all six of Waterloo’s faculties have contributed to the Waterloop team.

Waterloop’s technical lead Yazan Obeidi and another team member transported the prototype, named Goose 1, to SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California this week. The team will compete against 23 finalists from around the world including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Obeidi said this week’s competition is just “the start of a new era for Waterloop.” The team will continue to develop their prototype in preparation for the next SpaceX competition in Summer 2017.

“That’s the great thing about being on a student design team. It’s not just about solving equations,” said Obeidi. “You go out and lay down 300 feet of track and find out what happens when you are only slightly off center,” says Obeidi. “You have to tear it down and build it again.”

Nominations open for distinguished, exceptional teachers

Do you know an awesome professor or student teacher (grad TA, undergrad TA, lab instructor, etc)? Here’s your chance to nominate him or her for the Distinguished Teacher Award (DTA) and/or the Amit and Meena Chakma Awards for Exceptional Teaching by a Student (AETS).

• Nominations for the DTA are due on Friday, February 3, 2017
• Nominations for the AETS are due on Friday, February 10, 2017

For more information, visit the Centre for Teaching Excellence in EV1 325 or call Verna Keller at extension 33857.

Remembering Andrew Telegdi​

Andrew Telegdi, University of Waterloo alumnus (BA Psychology '80) and longtime local politician, died on Monday, January 23.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Telegdi and his family fled the country during the 1956 Hungarian revolution, and settled in Canada as refugees.

Telegdi attended the University of Waterloo in pursuit of a psychology degree and got involved in student politics with the Federation of Students. In January 1973, Telegdi was elected as a student representative on the Campus Centre Board, a body that made decisions about programming and services in the Campus Centre (now the Student Life Centre).

Telegdi threw his hat into the ring to run for President of the Federation of Students, facing incumbent Shane Roberts, who embodied the "radical activist philosopher king" mode of student leader fashionable at the time. Telegdi's campaign focused on some of the more down-to-earth issues facing students at Waterloo - perennial parking problems, a student housing shortage, and the lack of a permanent undergraduate student pub in the Campus Centre. Telegdi beat Roberts by 400 votes.

Telegdi's win highlighted the split in student politics, that continues even today, between a focus on political activism and a focus on the lighter side of the student experience, including clubs, events, and services. This divide was the subject of lengthy Student Council meetings, with issues-based student leaders deriding a focus on social events and concerts as "sandbox politics" while others claimed that radical politics were losing their relevance on campus.

“Federations in the last few years have been lopsided," Telegdi wrote in a statement in the Chevron in March 1973. "Either entertainment was emphasized (called sandbox) or education-politics was emphasized.  When one was emphasized the other was ignored. There is no reason for such a narrow-minded policy! The Federation can and should serve the interests of students in many different ways...” 

Telegdi's Feds presidency featured activities both in and out of the sandbox. He pushed Students' Council to issue a statement decrying the 1973 coup in Chile, while at the same time agitating for a student pub on campus.

He found himself the unlikely defender of pinball machines, of all things, after a moral panic and misapplication of a gambling law against slot machines threatened the closure of game rooms across Waterloo region by the end of December 1973. Telegdi publicly installed a pinball machine in the Campus Centre and dared the "morality squad" to bust him.

Another highlight was the "Tent City" erected outside the Campus Centre to protest the shortage of student housing in Waterloo Region. There was a severe restriction in the supply of quality off-campus housing in that era, with many landlords accused of discriminating against student renters, or offering sub-standard accommodations. As many as 500 students were searching unsuccessfully for apartments in the summer of 1974. The "Housing '74" tent city project aimed to temporarily house students and draw attention to the issue, and draw attention it did, with local and national media coverage. 

After his second term as Feds president ended, Telegdi founded an organization called Youth in Conflict with the Law, an agency that helped youth and young adults who were out on bail. He was director of the organization from 1976 to 1993, and again from 2013 to 2017.

From 1985 to 1993 he held municipal office for the City and the Region of Waterloo.

In 1993, Telegdi, along with Waterloo History professor John English, became the first University of Waterloo alumni elected to federal office, representing the riding of Waterloo, which would later be renamed Kitchener-Waterloo. As MP, Telegdi visited campus regularly on government business and remained a familiar face at Waterloo. His time in government was marked by a keen interest in social justice issues including citizenship, immigration, and human rights.

He held the riding by comfortable margins through the 1997, 2000, 2004, and 2006 elections, before losing the seat to Peter Braid by 17 votes in 2008. In 2011 he contested his old seat but was again defeated by Braid.

Telegdi's most recent run for public office was in 2014, when he unsuccessfully ran for Waterloo regional councillor.

There has been no shortage of the supply of tributes to Telegdi from his former colleagues on Parliament Hill.

There will be a visitation today from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home. The funeral will be at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 28 at Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo.

Top photograph courtesy of University of Waterloo Library, Special Collections & Archives.