Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Student Mental Health Forum takes place today

Students, faculty and staff can join the conversation at the Student Mental Health Forum at the Humanities Theatre today at 2:00 p.m.

Come learn how the Committee on Student Mental Health (CoSMH) is implementing the recommendations of the President’s Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health (PAC-SMH).

Speakers include President Feridun Hamdullahpur, Vice-President, Academic & Provost Jim Rush, Chair of CoSMH John Hirdes and various other representatives. Following the presentation, which includes the signing of the Okanagan Charter, there will be a Q&A period.

At an open-house style session follows the forum in the School of Accounting and Finance's Don Craig Atrium, where attendees can find out more about current mental health initiatives on campus.

Doors open at 1:45 p.m. There's still time to register.

If you can't make it in person, be sure to watch the livestream.

Fall Reading Week pilot to begin in 2019

by Anne Galang.

Fall Break is getting an upgrade next year to Fall Reading Week.

Last week Senate approved a three-year pilot of a four-day break following Thanksgiving Monday, effectively giving students an entire week off in the fall academic term. The pilot is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2019.

This month concluded the three-year pilot of the current two-day Fall Reading Break (the Tuesday and Wednesday after Thanksgiving). A working group made up of faculty, staff and students consulted with the campus community to learn how the break was received and recommended the next steps for the break.

During the pilot, the working group uncovered some issues with the short break. The partial week impacted courses that run only weekly or biweekly and caused confusion around the re-assignment of teaching days (Tuesday classes ran on the Thursday back from the break, and Wednesday classes on the Friday).

“While it was generally agreed that the idea of a fall break was a good one, the group did recognize a number of issues that prevented it from reaching its full potential for the benefit of our students,” says Professor Mario Coniglio, associate vice-president, academic. “The next steps we agreed upon were to seek Senate approval for a new three-year pilot starting in 2019 [for a full week break]. This would serve to align us with the approach taken by the majority of universities in Ontario.”

Extending the break, however, is not without trade-offs. In order to adhere to firm scheduling guidelines such as having 60 teaching days in the term and reserving an emergency day at the end of the exam period, other scheduling matters, such as exams, will have to be more flexible than they once were. If Labour Day is late (for example, September 6 or 7), in order to accommodate the full Fall Reading Week and 60 teaching days, exams may need to be scheduled on the first Sunday in the final exam schedule, or during one of the two study days between the end of classes and beginning of exams.

Despite these tradeoffs, the working group found strong support for extending the break to a full week. The student voice was very clear: Feds held a referendum, with 80 percent of respondents supporting the full week pilot. The Graduate Student Association also strongly endorsed the full week pilot.

Coniglio agrees that the Fall Reading Week pilot is a positive step for the University, but acknowledges it will take some work:

“Faculty, staff and students all have an important role to play to ensure that the Fall Reading Week supports student success at Waterloo like it is intended to.”

Velocity expands across campus in partnership with Waterloo Residences

A message from Velocity.

This year on their tenth anniversary, Velocity reflected on their history and dreamed up their future. Since 2008, they have provided a unique opportunity for students to live in an entrepreneurial environment right on campus through the Velocity Residence. It started as an experiment to see what would happen if 70 students lived together and worked on projects they were passionate about.

Beginning Winter 2019, you will see an evolution of their original program scaled across the entire Waterloo Residences portfolio. This means the exceptional inspiration, information, and guidance for entrepreneurs will be available to any student living in residence.

They’ve taken a page out of the very advice they give students and startups, to be nimble and evaluate the most impactful things they can do given current landscapes and the state of the world. Fuelling the expansion was the pursuit of problems, ideas, and solutions of global importance that companies can be built around. They want to continue their efforts in building a robust entrepreneurial pipeline on campus by engaging the entire community, this includes appealing to more women, faculties, and graduate students.  

The expansion is in collaboration with WERC (Waterloo Entrepreneurship Residence Connection), which is a community with mentors, resources, and events to help students grow their entrepreneurial skills and meet like-minded individuals. A sample of upcoming programming for Winter includes:

• EIRs (Entrepreneurs-in-Residence)
• Founder dinners
• Interest-based workshops
• Community building socials
• Themed meet-ups

To get involved, students need to simply opt-in for communications about upcoming events and programming. Velocity and WERC will be holding events in a variety of common areas to keep it accessible for all residents (MH, V1, REV, CMH, MKV, UWP, and CLV). Going forward, the Minota Hagey (MH) Residence will not be dedicated to only Velocity students, instead, it will be an exclusive upper-year community.

Velocity is very excited about these changes and the impact they can have in allowing any student in residence to tackle their entrepreneurial ambition. The evolution continues.

HR to host Workday mini town hall in November

A message from Kenton Needham.

Broad engagement and collaboration has been at the forefront of Workday implementation at Waterloo. Your Human Resources (HR) experience is a top priority and we want to hear from you!

HR will be hosting a Workday Mini Town Hall on Tuesday, November 27 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Hagey Hall Theatre (HH 159). Employees are invited to learn more about the transition to Workday, and the training and resources that will be available. Attendees will also have an opportunity to ask questions during an open discussion with our panel of Workday experts.

Panelists:

• Kimberley Snage, HR Project, Technology, and Analytics Director
• Daryl Dore, IST Director, Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
• Sean Oates, HR Projects and Technology Manager
• Shona Dunseith, HR Process Manager
• Lisa Yuhasz, Manager, HR Partners

If you’d like to attend the Workday Mini Town Hall, please register on the HR website. In the meantime, you can attend a Workday Wednesday Information Session to learn more about the employee self-service functionality available within Workday.

Did you know vacation requests can be submitted through Workday?

Workday will allow regular and temporary staff with an appointment of greater than one year to submit requests for absences, such as vacation, directly to their managers. The status of requests will be visible to both employee and manager, increasing efficiency and streamlining approval processes. With Workday, we’ll have a standardized system for staff vacation and absence that that aligns with University policy and Ontario legislation requirements.

Upcoming Training

Training is planned to begin in November and details will be available on the Workday website. Please visit the Workday training web page for updates. If you have any questions, contact workday@uwaterloo.ca.

Research ethics training and other noble notes

Have your research ethics questions answered: Throughout November and December an ethics advisor will be available to answer questions related to the ethics process, including submitting, renewing, and amending an application. Come prepared with your questions and a laptop. If you are submitting an ethics application to the WRDSB or WCDSB or have questions about this process, plan to attend the November 28 session.

Sessions will take place in EC5 3167 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on the following dates:

• November 7, 14, 21, and 28
• December 6, 12, and 19

For more information, please visit the Research Ethics website.

Plant Operations is serving notice that the north wing of the Physics building from EIT to Stair 125, encompassing all three floors, will be closed to occupants on Monday, October 29 from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to facilitate the removal of a 30,000-pound cooling tower from the roof of the building.

On Saturday, November 3, the Spanish department is hosting the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) - Ontario Annual Conference featuring a keynote address by Professor James Skidmore, director of the Waterloo Centre for German Studies. The conference takes place in the William G. Davis Computer Research Centre. More information can be found on the Spanish department's website.