Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Senior Leadership Video series continues with Vice-President, University Relations Sandra Banks

Sandra Banks joined the University of Waterloo as Vice-President, University Relations in April 2015 bringing with her extensive experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. At Waterloo, Banks leads the University’s broad range of Marketing, Communications, Government Relations and Community Relations initiatives.

In this role, Banks is committed to building strong internal and external relationships and a positive public profile that supports the University’s ambition to be one of the most innovative universities in the World.

As chief executive officer of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Banks led a three-year strategy of renewal and growth for this prestigious national showcase of world-class agricultural and equine competitions.

Banks spent 15 years at Coca-Cola Canada as vice-president, Public Affairs and Communications and was responsible for the company’s brand communications, stakeholder, media and government relations, corporate social responsibility and internal communications.

A graduate of Carleton University, Banks holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications.

Co-op supervision and U - Waterloo

A message from the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA)

As a member of the Waterloo community, you may have had concerns about the recognition and impact of the time and work you put into supervising co-op students. These concerns may apply to both what is written in your job description and within an interview setting when applying for supervisory roles.

In August 2015, the UW Staff Association (UWSA) formed a Working Group to review and gain a better understanding of these issues. Co-op supervisors (staff, faculty, graduate students) were surveyed to capture thoughts of what “supervising co-op students” means, what impact it has on their job and job description, the type of training received to prepare them to be co-op supervisors, and what benefit, if any, did it have when applying for supervisory roles. Exploring supervisor training, the challenges and differences between supervising regular full-time staff versus co-op students, and the co-op student on-boarding process were also determined to be important aspects to investigate.

The UWSA Co-op Working Group, a 5-member group made up of staff members across campus with diverse roles and levels of co-op supervision responsibilities, found gaps and inconsistencies in almost every topic area surveyed including supervisory training, on-boarding, daily supervision, and skills recognition for supervising co-op students. A final report with the Working Group’s findings and recommendations were approved by the Staff Relations Committee and is now available to the UWaterloo community.

The UWSA Co-op Working Group continues to meet to collaborate with campus partners to implement recommendations to align best practices across campus. University of Waterloo is the largest co-op employer and we aspire to be a model employer for all our stakeholders. If you are interested in getting involved with these initiatives, please contact UWSA at uwsa@uwaterloo.ca.

Spring 2019 CIHR project grant info session

Interested in applying for the upcoming Spring 2019 CIHR Project Grant competition? Join the Office of Research on Wednesday, December 5 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. to learn more about the program. The session will include a panel discussion led by faculty who have a breadth of experience with CIHR as early career researchers and established researchers, and as reviewers and grantees. The panelists include:

• Colleen Maxwell, Pharmacy
• David Rose, Biology
• Kelly Skinner, School of Public Health and Health Systems
• Tom Willett, Systems Design Engineering

The panel presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, as well as a presentation about partnership opportunities led by Vlad Loutchenok, Manager, Corporate Research Partnerships, Office of Research, and a presentation about the program and application process led by Leslie Copp, Director, Funding Agencies and Non-Profit Sponsors, Office of Research.

Light refreshments will be provided.

If you are interested in attending, please register.

Giving Tuesday, Velocity Fund Finals, and other notes

Today is Giving Tuesday, your opportunity to donate online during one of the following hours and watch as your gift could be matched by a Waterloo alumni champion. Make your gift to any area of the University and watch for updates on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook throughout the day.

The 23^rd Velocity Fund Finals take place today from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Waterloo students and alumni will pitch their innovative startups for the chance to win funding to grow their businesses, and to receive workspace in the Velocity Garage, Canada’s most productive startup incubator. The pitch competition will take place in the Student Life Centre, Great Hall. The $5K competition starts at 11:00 a.m., and the $25K competition starts at 1:00 p.m., with the event wrapping up at 3:00 p.m.

Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People has become an annual installation for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence at the University of Waterloo. Working with the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre, Professor Sorouja Moll initiated Bridge in 2016 to create a space for all University community members to learn about the crisis as they reflect, write a name on red fabric, and tie it to the bridge between Environment 3 and St. Paul's University College, as a gesture to name and remember the 4,000+ missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirit people in Canada. This research-creation initiative is part of a meaningful sustained collaborative intercultural practice between non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities. Everyone is welcome to participate in the Bridge installation today at 10:30 a.m. at the bridge between Environment 3 and St Paul's University College. The Bridge installation will remain for the duration of #16daysUW.

The University Christmas Project is up and running again this year. The project, run through Co-operative Education since the 1980s, involves departments and units across campus taking on families to sponsor for the holidays. Home Care Services has provided a list of over 300 children from low-income families in Waterloo Region, and for each child, the project co-ordinators are given a list of clothing that is needed and toys they would like. There are still more than 80 children without a sponsor this year. Anyone interested in sponsoring a child is invited to contact Shannon Taylor at smtaylor@uwaterloo.ca. Wrapped and labelled gifts can be dropped off at the Tatham Centre until December 14.

The next Portfolio & Project Management Community of Practice (PPM CoP) session will take place Wednesday, November 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in East Campus 5 (EC5) 1111.

Dave Kibble (IST) will present on Excellence Canada & Lean: Relevance to project and portfolio management.

No registration or previous project or portfolio management experience is required to attend. Visit the PPM CoP website for more details.