Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Mackenzie, Ford named Athletes of the Year

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Athletics website.

The Department of Athletics and Recreation celebrated the 2018-19 Warriors season on Friday night at the 59^th annual Athletics Awards Banquet.

Top honours on the evening went to fifth year women’s volleyball star Claire Mackenzie and second year quarterback from football, Tre Ford.

“It was another outstanding season for our Warriors including several standout individual and team performances,” said director of athletics and recreation, Roly Webster. “It’s always incredibly fun to have 600 student-athletes together in the same room celebrating all that they have accomplished academically and athletically. I am very proud of each and every student-athlete that represented the Warriors with pride and passion this past season.”

Mackenzie was awarded the Marsden Trophy as female athlete of the year after a standout season with the women’s volleyball team. Mackenzie capped off an illustrious five-year career, winning OUA bronze on home court after leading her team to a program’s best, 17-2 regular season record.

Mackenzie finished the season sixth in the OUA in kills per set at 3.37 and was named an OUA west first-team all-star for the second straight season. Mackenzie completed her fifth and final season with 236 kills in 70 sets of action finishing with the most kills in program history (907). She went on to have a dominating post-season with 42 kills in three matches, leading her Warriors to a thrilling come from behind bronze medal win over Western in front of the home crowd at the PAC. 

Ford was presented the Totzke Trophy as male athlete of the year thanks to one of the most memorable seasons the football program has seen.

In only his second season as quarterback, Ford electrified the crowd on a weekly basis putting up eye-popping numbers, leading the OUA in touchdown passes (27), passing yards (2822), and completion percentage (74.1 percent, which is a new OUA single-season record). He also threw the fewest interceptions amongst all qualified passers (2), while rushing for 641 yards - good for sixth in the OUA.

Ford also shattered several school records including most passing yards in a single game, doing so twice with games of 463 yards (win over Windsor) and 472 yards (win over Laurier that clinched their first playoff berth since 2003).

Ford followed up his rookie of the year awards in 2017 by winning the 2018 OUA MVP award and was also named a first-team all-star.

Read the rest of the article, which has the full story on all the awards handed out at the banquet.

Staff conference registration deadline extended

"If you missed out on the opportunity to register for the annual Waterloo Staff Conference, you are in luck as we have extend registration until 12:00 p.m. on Friday, April 5," says a note from the OHD conference organizers. "Now is your chance to register for great workshops on topics including accessibility, huddle boards, transportation, sleeping well, learning through art, improv, and so much more!"

There will be plenty of room in the broadcast overflow rooms for the keynote addresses, OHD says.

There will be limited registration of open workshops (those with seats) available on the days of the conference at the registration desk in the Don Craig Atrium in the School of Accounting & Finance, Hagey Hall, or at the Science Teaching Complex.  

The annual Waterloo Staff Conference will be taking place on campus Monday, April 8, and Tuesday, April 9. For questions about the conference, please contact Mark Lisetto-Smith, coordinator, communications & events, Organizational & Human Development at mark.lisetto-smith@uwaterloo.ca or by calling extension 38257.

Board of Governors meets today; other notes

The University's Board of Governors will be having its second meeting of 2019 today at 1:30 p.m. in NH 3407. Among the agenda items:

• A motion to approve sabbaticals and administrative leaves for faculty members;
• Motions to approve increases to the Student Services Fee of 7.1 percent for undergraduates and 2.9 percent for graduate students;
• A motion for the Board to delegate its authority to approve the university’s audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended 30 April 2019 to the Board Executive Committee; and 
• a motion to approve the University's 2019/20 Operating Budget.

Norah McRae, associate provost, cooperative and experiential education will deliver a presentation to the Board.

There is still time to take the IST Web Development team's WCMS Survey.

"The IST Web Development team is working on the next version of the WCMS (in Drupal 8) and is looking for your feedback to help inform prioritization of future development and enhancements," says a note from IST. "The survey should take 2-5 minutes and will be available until Friday, April 5 at 4:00 p.m. Participants will be required to log in with their WatIAM ID and password to access the survey. Participation is voluntary and confidential." 

You can access the survey at https://uwaterloo.ca/web-resources/wcms-survey or visit the Web Resources website and click the “WCMS User Experience Survey” call to action button in sidebar of the home page. For any questions or concerns, please contact Tara Hillis by sending an email to tara.hillis@uwaterloo.ca.

On Friday, April 5 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., the graduating class of Knowledge Integration students will be presenting their senior research projects in the Environment 3 atrium. "Forming the capstone of their four-year undergraduate career, these projects represent an exciting synthesis of the diverse disciplines the students have explored through this one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary program," says a note from Knowledge Integration. Check out the capstone project abstracts online and drop by the Environment 3 atrium on Friday to check them out in person.