Friday, June 22, 2018

New research ethics system goes online in August

A message from the Office of Research.

A new research ethics system will be available for researchers to use beginning August 13. In preparation, the current research ethics system will close Friday, August 3 at 4:30 p.m.

Between 4:30 p.m. August 3 and 9:00 a.m. August 13 the system will be unavailable while all active applications are migrated to the new system.

While Office of Research Ethics staff recognize and appreciate the inconvenience this down-time will create, the new system will make submitting future applications more efficient. Applications and supporting documentation submitted will be managed completely online, using electronic approvals, automated workflows, and notifications.

The new web-based platform, Kuali, will support the development, review, and clearance of research ethics applications. The system was purchased to make it easier for researchers to focus on research. Supported by the Research Support Fund, the new system will allow researchers to accelerate the application submission process using an online form that will automatically present relevant questions. Researchers will also be able to collaborate through joint application development.

Training documentation and sessions will be offered in the coming weeks. To stay up-to-date, please visit the Kuali webpage.

Waterloo thanks Tom Jenkins for his three years as Chancellor

by Lucas Dunlop.

Tom Jenkins (LLD ’13), the University’s 10^th chancellor, has come to the end of his term.

Having filled the role since 2015, Jenkins has awarded thousands of honours to University of Waterloo students. The position of chancellor, regarded as the ceremonial head of the University, presides over convocation ceremonies and has the power to confer degrees upon graduation.

When asked what advice he’d give to graduates, Jenkins said: “I’d tell a new grad to go big or go home. Do it before you have a mortgage and a family, just go for it. Whatever your passion is, do it.”

Jenkins, chair of the board at OpenText Corporation, was an early supporter in establishing the Stratford campus. He and wife Toby Jenkins (BES ’82) have also supported the University of Waterloo with contributions of more than $23 million, including gifting a building in the David Johnston Research and Technology Park to the University in 2012.  They have additionally directed their support to the David Johnston International Experience Awards and the Games Institute.

“Waterloo means everything to me,” said Jenkins. “When I moved here, I felt like I had come home… it allowed me to blossom in my career and be who I wanted to be.”

“It has been a distinct privilege to have worked with Tom,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor. “Tom has made immeasurable contributions to the University of Waterloo community and for this, I extend my sincerest gratitude to him.”

Following the end of Jenkins’ term on June 30, Dominic Barton, managing director of McKinsey & Company, will assume the role of chancellor.

Strat plan consultations build a bridge to 2020

More than 350 members of the University community participated in the Bridge to 2020: A Look Back, A Look Ahead event either in person or online this past Monday.

In his opening remarks, President Feridun Hamdullahpur took the audience right back to 2012, when the process for creating the 2013-2018 strategic plan began. "We wanted to do something different, something that we would call our plan, created by the entire University community," Hamdullahpur said. "A plan that would have significant, meaningful content, a plan with well-identified series of implementations and a plan that clearly put our accountability to the forefront."

That plan has since been implemented, and the president shared some of the plan's signature accomplishments while highlighting the extensive consultations with stakeholders in the University community that informed the plan, including 3,400 submissions - a tradition that he was eager to continue as the conversation shifts to the University's next strategic plan.

“The exciting part is that the world is moving ahead,” said Hamdullahpur. “The world has moved quite fast, and the changes between 2012 and now are enormous. We need to see how we can align this institution so that it will continue differentiating itself in the most meaningful and respectful way. To do that we need to be at the front edge of innovation and translate that to what we do with our students and our research.”

Next, event host Sandra Banks introduced Daniela Seskar-Hencic, director of strategic planning and evaluation, who took the event attendees through the strategic planning timeline and explained how the broad consultation phase would begin in earnest in the fall of 2018, with the Bridge to 2020 event serving to give the campus community a starting point for their deliberations.

Seskar-Hencic explained how more than 100 faculty, staff and student representatives worked to prepare seven issue papers as part of the evidence for the Strategic Plan to develop a common foundation of evidence and to create thought provoking questions to engage and generate discussion among the University community. The issue papers covered the following topics:

• Empowering People; 
• Graduate Studies;
• Internationalization;
• Learning Environment;
• Leveraging Resources;
• Research Excellence; and
• Undergraduate Learning.

Seskar-Hencic introduced each of the seven issue paper leads who gave a short, single-slide overview of their work and later were stationed at seven consultation stations in Fed Hall's Columbia rooms, where attendees could read summaries of the issue papers, ask questions, and give their feedback.

Following the issue paper lead presentations, the event moved into the consultation phase, with attendees reviewing the summative progress of the 2013-2018 strategic plan, including specific faculty contributions, and engaging the issue paper representatives and members of the Strategic Plan Advisory Committee in breakout discussions.

The Bridge to 2020 website has an online feedback form for each issue paper and for general feedback.

A video recording of the presentation portion of the event is available on YouTube.

Retirement reception for Dan Parent; other notes

Friends and colleagues of University Architect Daniel Parent are inviting you to join them for a retirement reception in his honour on Wednesday, June 27 in the DC 1301 fishbowl.

Parent has worked at Waterloo for 27 years and has been a key figure in the University's growth as the director of design and construction services and major projects, including (but not limited to) the Centre for Environmental and Information Technology, Mackenzie King Village, the Tatham Centre, Columbia Lake Village North, the Energy Research Centre, the Quantum-Nano Centre, the Research Accelerator Centres, Engineering 5, 6 and 7, the Science Teaching Complex, Mathematics 3, Environment 3, the School of Pharmacy, the Stratford Campus, the Integrated Health Building, and Claudette Millar Hall, to name a few.

Parent's retirement celebration begins at 2:30 p.m. and runs until 4:30 p.m.

The University Club will be celebrating Canada's diversity with a special menu that runs from Tuesday, July 3 to Friday August 10.

"As Canadians we welcome everyone around the world to visit, stay a time and maybe even settle here to become a part of our next generations,” says a statement from Food Services. “We value their contributions from language and culture to the unique flavours of their traditional foods. To celebrate our country and its love of others we will be serving a menu filled with those unique flavours for you to enjoy.”

Check out the lunch menu’s offerings (PDF). The menu is available from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. daily.