Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Ice to see you: the University is closed today

Winter has regained its icy grip on Waterloo Region this morning with a torrent of freezing rain. In response to the severe weather conditions, the University of Waterloo has closed its campuses today.

We're not the only ones: Wilfrid Laurier University, Conestoga College, and the University of Guelph have all closed their campuses today, as well as the Waterloo Region District School Board and Waterloo Catholic District School Board.

According to the university's weather guidelines: "closed" means: classes are not held; meetings and other scheduled events are cancelled; scheduled examinations are cancelled, to be rescheduled; deadlines for assignments and other submissions are postponed until the same hour on the next business day on which the University is not "closed"; staff, other than those providing "essential services," are not expected to be at work, but are paid for a normal day.

"Essential services" are defined to be: food service in the residences; policing; the central plant; residence life staff; snow removal; emergency repair and maintenance; animal care. Staff providing "essential services" will be so designated by their Department Heads, who are responsible for assigning duties to be carried out and making reasonable arrangements for the protection of such staff.

The closure extends to the University's satellite campuses in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Stratford. University of Waterloo libraries are also closed.

The Early Childhood Education Centre located in the Department of Psychology and the Bright Starts Early Learning Centre on the North Campus are also closed.

The University's Optometry clinics are closed as well.

Campus Wellness locations are closed today and all appointments scheduled for February 6 have been cancelled, according to a notice on the Campus Wellness website. People with cancelled appointments are asked to call to reschedule once Campus Wellness reopens on February 7.

Co-op interviews have been cancelled and will be rescheduled.

Students should check LEARN and their email for messages about rescheduling.

As always, the doors to the Student Life Centre will remain open, though the only business operating today is the CIBC bank branch in the basement, and the Turnkey Desk in the SLC will be open and staffed. All other businesses are closed.

The Turnkey Desk in the Davis Centre will be closing this afternoon.

Notice of the campus closing is posted on the University's website. Please check the website for updates as they are available. The University's Twitter account will also have up-to-the moment details.

For more information, read Waterloo’s weather and emergency closing guidelines.

Alumni event goes to the edge of spacetime

Professor Avery Broderick presenting “Images from the Edge of Spacetime.”

A message from the Faculty of Science.

Touted to be the event horizon of the year, “Images from the Edge of Spacetime” treated Vancouver alumni to an interactive and fascinating lecture on black holes by Waterloo astrophysics professor Dr. Avery Broderick.

A capacity crowd of 120 local alumni and friends gathered to listen as Professor Broderick discussed international efforts to interpret horizon-resolving images of numerous supermassive black holes. According to Broderick, almost every galaxy has at its core a supermassive black hole, millions or even billions of times more massive than our sun. Despite composing a small fraction of the galactic mass budgets, they set the stage for astrophysical dramas that dictate the fates of their hosts. Though black holes are in theory the ultimate manifestation of strong gravity’s impact on the visible universe, placing these exotic phenomena on concrete empirical footing has been impossible.

The evening kicked off with a warm welcome from Professor Will Percival, Director of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics and the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Distinguished Research Chair in Astrophysics. “Astrophysics fascinates everyone on some level,” says Percival, who also acted as Masters of Ceremony for the evening, “I’m pleased but not surprised by the turnout. Waterloo is working on some very exciting physics. I’m glad that we’re able to keep our alumni up to date on what’s going on.”

Alumni stayed on for a bit of social connecting after the talk, with many requesting additional lectures such as this to be held in the future.  “Lot of interest… so many questions,” laughed Broderick following the reception, “I’m happy people enjoyed hearing about my work.”

The evening ended with a hint that an important announcement from Broderick’s camp regarding black holes might be coming in April. Alumni were also advised that Waterloo would return with another Vancouver event April 25, 2019, “Imagining Canada’s Future Cities”.

New immigration videos will help students

Immigration consultants at the Student Success Office have launched a series of YouTube videos to help guide international students through the application process for key documents.

Topics include:

• Creating an IRCC account
• Applying to extend your study permit within Canada
• Applying for a co-op work permit once you are in Canada
• Applying for a post-graduation work permit within Canada

The first two videos were published in 2018 and collectively received 5000+ views within the first six months. Their success led the team to create additional videos on related topics so that students have an easy reference guide for common questions to their application concerns. 

“We are pleased that these videos are filling a need for our student population.” Boon Khoo, immigration consulting manager said. “There are too many international students at Waterloo to be able to meet with everyone in-person, but with these videos, we are able to explain the application process to every Waterloo student who may need it.”

In addition to watching the videos, students can speak with the immigration consultants during same-day appointment hours Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Student Success Office.

Wednesday's notes

Plant Operations will be working to ensure that walkways and roads on campus will be sanded/salted as the freezing rain continues throughout the day. Be careful out there, and remember what the Safety Office says: get a grip and don't slip.

I was going to put a notice in today's Daily Bulletin announcing that the LGBTQ+ Making Spaces workshop originally scheduled for today had been cancelled, but that was before the University announced its campus closure, so it looks like more than a few on-campus events will likely not happen, or be postponed.

Notes about event cancellations are beginning to come in, including today's Noon Hour Concert featuring renowned pianist Steven Vanhauwaert. Additionally, the P4E Job Fair at RIM Park has been cancelled today. The planned tour of the Gustav Bakos Observatory, which usually takes place on the first Wednesday of the month, will be rescheduled.

Voting in the Federation of Students elections will continue as scheduled.

Stay tuned to the Daily Bulletin for more information.

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include Scotiabank (Technology), Scotiabank - Enterprise Functions, PlanGrid, Zynga, Inc., Twine, Snowflake Computing, Embark Trucks, EY, KPMG MSLP and CIBC. Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.