Thursday, November 30, 2017

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• Waterloo releases Environmental Sustainability Strategy
• Cory Doctorow to talk canaries in the computing coal mine
• You put the giving in Giving Tuesday
• Remembering John New
• Thursday's notes

Waterloo releases Environmental Sustainability Strategy

A message from President Feridun Hamdullahpur.

I am pleased to announce the release of the University of Waterloo’s first Environmental Sustainability Strategy. This strategy outlines the approaches we will take to reduce our environmental footprint and leave a positive impact on our community and our planet.

The world faces a range of complex challenges. At the top of that list are fundamental shifts in our environment that threaten our world and our way of life.

From climate change to resource depletion, these issues require collaboration, innovative thinking, and bold responses. Organizations around the world, across all sectors, are intensifying efforts to integrate sustainability into their purpose and through their operations.

As a catalyst for change in the world, the University of Waterloo must be at the forefront of sustainability, not only because we are home to some of the top researchers in the world, but because we must set an example.

Waterloo’s sustainability strategy integrates feedback received from across campus in 2016 through an online survey, two open houses, and multiple events that resulted in three bold goals:

1. To be a leader in sustainability education and research
2. To operate the campus sustainably
3. To embed sustainability practices into campus culture

These are broken into 27 more specific objectives to guide campus action, several of which will create important shifts across campus. These include:

• Developing a roadmap to become carbon neutral by 2050
• Becoming a zero-waste campus by 2035
• Working with academic departments to identify pathways for integrating sustainability in our teaching and learning
• Engaging students and employees in efforts to make these changes possible

Some of these objectives are long-term, recognizing the substantial changes involved. Others focus on short-term improvements. Both are necessary.

The publication of our Environmental Sustainability Strategy is a significant milestone, but it is not our last. This document is not the end of the conversation. It is a roadmap that identifies the destinations we should be working towards to improve our University’s sustainability.

Although this document describes five foundational actions to build momentum, many aspects will require more detailed action plans. And, all aspects will require involvement from employees and students across campus.

I encourage you to read through the strategy and know that it is not a document that will sit on a shelf. This strategy will lead to action and I look forward to working with everyone on and off campus to ensure its success.

Cory Doctorow to talk canaries in the computing coal mine

As the last presentation in its series of 50^th anniversary events, the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science will host a free public lecture by Cory Doctorow, blogger, journalist and science-fiction author.

Doctorow's talk is entitled "Dead canary in the coalmine: we just lost the web in the war on general purpose computing."

"This is the decade in which the unstoppable temptation to solve your problems by breaking everyone else’s computers really starts to chomp on our collective butts," says the event description. "The World Wide Web Consortium just gave in to Netflix’s demand to break every browser in the world to make it incrementally harder to pirate TV shows, while this year at a summit in Ottawa, the Australians demanded that all the world’s crypto be sabotaged to make it incrementally easier to conduct mass surveillance."

"The general-purpose nature of computers, capable of running any program that anyone can conceive of, is an iron law of nature, not a fetish of mulish nerds who refuse to acknowledge the importance of catching bad guys or watching TV in the proscribed manner."

"The technical nature of this problem, the complexity of its contours, and the awful fallout from ill-conceived solutions make for a toxic brew. Any time you have a problem that is boring, complicated and important, you have big trouble."

"Computer scientists and technical people have a solemn, urgent duty to drag their less-informed peers into this debate, before it's too late."

"If we don't get computers right, everything else will go terribly, horribly wrong."

Doctorow is a co-editor of Boing Boing, a published author whose works include Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Little Brother, Makers, and Walkaway, and is a Fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In 2009 he was named Independent Studies Scholar in Virtual Residence at the University of Waterloo (Doctorow pursued an Independent Studies degree at the University of Waterloo in the early 1990s but left the program before graduating). He speaks and writes regularly on copyright, computing, and digital rights.

The free public lecture takes place on Monday, December 4 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Theatre of the Arts.

The event is free but you must order tickets to attend. Reserve your seat today!

Cory will be signing copies of his book following the talk. Books will be available for purchase on site from Words Worth Books.

You put the giving in Giving Tuesday

A message from the Office of Advancement.

The excitement this week was contagious as we launched Giving Tuesday with a special call to action from some very proud and generous Waterloo champions on social media.

More than 350* people made gifts on Tuesday, and we’re excited to share that your participation launched us way past last year’s total to just over $150,000* — the most we’ve ever raised on Giving Tuesday! Thank you!

A huge thank you is due to our Waterloo champions for matching donations during their special hours. They are: Cindy Forbes (BMath ’79),  Steven Woods (PhD ’96), Paul Salvini (BMath ’92), Jay Shah (BASc ’11), and Dan Langlois (MAcc '92). You’re awesome!

The Giving Tuesday movement is taking root around the world, in our communities, and, thanks to your thoughtful generosity, right here on our campus. You have helped achieve something powerful that you can be proud of and the world can be thankful for.

*Final accounting still in progress — numbers subject to change.

Remembering John New

A message from the Dean of Arts office.

The Dean of Arts Office has learned of the passing of one of our former deans, John New, on November 24, 2017 in Kitchener. Professor New was Acting Dean of Arts from January 1 to December 31, 1972, and served as chair to the Department of History. He established the PhD program in history, founded the journal Historical Reflections and was the author of the books Anglican and Puritan: the Basis of Their Opposition and The Renaissance and Reformation: A short History.

John New was born in Korea on February 10, 1936, and grew up in Korea, England and Australia. He graduated from the University of Melbourne and the University of Toronto, and has taught at Stanford University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Waterloo.

A gathering arranged for family and friends at Erb & Good Family Funeral Home will take place on Friday, December 1 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.. As expressions of sympathy, donations can be made to Doctors Without Borders or the Regional Food Bank.

Thursday's notes

Drew Piticco snapped this pic of some deer friends near Health Services. This odd number of even-toed ungulates may not be reindeer, but it's hard not to fawn over them as the holiday season approaches.

Members of the University community are invited to the Critical Media Lab Open House on Friday, December 1 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Three students from the XDM MA program—Julie Funk, Miraya Groot, and Caitlin Woodcock—will have their final projects on display in the lab, and they will be present to take questions and give demonstrations. 

Students from ENGL 760: Things in Philosophy and Literature, co-taught by Kevin McGuirk and Marcel O'Gorman, will also be showcasing their "things."

"There will be demonstrations of new CFI-funded equipment such as a laser cutter, 3D printer, brain wave interface controller, and MYO armband developed by local startup Thalmic Labs," says a note from Marcel O'Gorman. "Come and join us in imagining how to critically deploy these instruments in a manner suitable to humanists. CML Lab Technician Matt Frazer will facilitate the demonstrations."

"Finally, Professor Matt Borland, a CML collaborator from Systems Design Engineering, will invite us to play some of his experimental digital music instruments."

The event takes place at the lab's space at 44 Gaukel Street in Kitchener. Refreshments will be served.

The Stuff the Warrior Van Toy Drive kicks off tonight at the CIF Arena when the Warriors women's hockey team takes on Laurentian at 6:00 p.m. Unwrapped toys for less fortunate children will be collected onsite for the annual Knights of Columbus drive.