Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Senior Leadership Video series continues with Provost Jim Rush

This is the second in a weekly series where the Daily Bulletin profiles the University's senior administrators and features short video interviews with members of Waterloo's senior leadership team.

Vice-President Academic and Provost James Rush serves as the university’s chief operating officer. Rush completed his PhD with distinction at the State University of New York Health Center at Syracuse in 1998 before pursuing post-doctoral work at the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Appointed to the provostial role in July 2018, Rush is a professor of physiology at Waterloo, having first joined the Department of Kinesiology in 2000. Recognized for his strong leadership, Rush previously held numerous administrative positions within the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences including the role of dean, associate dean graduate studies and research, and chair of the Department of Kinesiology. 

Rush is also a highly respected researcher, known for his work in the areas of cardiovascular research, particularly relating to the effects of hypertension, age, and exercise on blood vessel health.  His most recent work hopes to explain the mechanisms by which vascular function can be improved to prevent disease and preserve cardiovascular health.

Waterloo celebrates World Town Planning Day with interactive experience

The School of Planning is once again hosting its annual World Town Planning Day on Tuesday, November 6. To celebrate this event, high school students are invited to contribute to the development of a smart cities vision for the Region of Waterloo. Through interactive and engaging design exercises, students will have an opportunity to think about how technology and data can address challenges – e.g. mental and physical health, civic engagement, high school graduation rates - that youth face in Waterloo Region. Groups of university students and faculty will work with teams from participating schools.

Smart cities’ driven by the ‘Internet of Things’ have become the buzz words of early twenty first century urban planning. Captivated by the idea of urban districts that use digital technologies to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, provide more efficient and active modes of transportation, the goal of the smart cities movement is to transform urban life ultimately for the better.  At the forefront of these changes are today’s youth.  Smart cities are not places that are being imagined and built for today’s youth.  Rather, they are being shaped by young people who are already adept at living in a digitally connected world.

World Town Planning Day celebrates the role of the planning profession in creating livable communities. It is celebrated annually in more than 30 countries on four continents and has been celebrated for over 55 years. The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and its seven affiliates celebrate the valuable contributions that sound planning has made to the quality of life across Canada. World Town Planning Day highlights and recognizes the impacts of Planning in many aspects of our daily life.

Polls, they're not just for skiing, eh: Tracking the 2018 U.S. Midterm Elections

A message from the Survey Research Centre.

The United States midterm elections are taking place today, and they are a hot topic not only in the US but are being followed closely worldwide. The University of Waterloo has a connection to the midterm elections this year with our own Survey Research Centre being actively involved in helping to collect polling data for the New York Times Upshot.

Also known as the general elections, the midterm elections are held every 2 years near the midpoint of a president's four-year term of office. Midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance. The party of the incumbent president tends to lose ground during midterm elections.  Considering the partisanship of the American electorate and the competing views of the Trump administration within that electorate, everyone is anxiously awaiting the results of these elections.

Federal offices that are up for election during the midterms are members of the United States Congress, including all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives, and 33 or 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate. 36 governors are also elected during midterm elections. 

The Upshot section of the New York Times partnered with Siena College to conduct polls of dozens of the most competitive House and Senate races across the US, including the Midterm elections. The Upshot includes special features such as scoreboard-like data visualizations, where polls are updated in real time, after every phone call.  It gives readers a way to understand important and complicated national issues, such as the midterm campaign. The Survey Research Centre has been helping to contact the 55,000 registered voters in the 90 congressional districts who are eligible to be polled.

The polling survey takes between 4 to 6 minutes to complete, and consists of questions such as how likely a person is to vote in the election held on November 6^th and for which candidate.  In light of current political topics, respondents are asked about their support of the recent U.S. –Mexico –Canada  trade agreement, their support of tariffs on steel and aluminum, and also their support of the tax reform bill and other policies put in place by Donald Trump. The survey closed on November 4^th. Results of the polling can be reviewed on the New York Times' website.

The Survey Research Centre offers survey research services ranging from a simple consultation to a complete package of study and survey design, data collection and top-line analysis – all at a cost recovery price. It provides telephone call centre services, online survey hosting, survey programming and mail survey services. A free one-hour consultation is available to University of Waterloo faculty, staff and students.