Wednesday, June 12, 2019

The fine Art(s) of Convocation

The Faculty of Arts takes centre stage at Convocation today with three ceremonies: the first at 10:00 a.m., the second at 2:30 p.m., and the third at 6:30 p.m. Over the course of the day, 1,085 undergraduates, 165 Master's, and 23 PhD candidates will receive their degrees.

The morning ceremony, at 10:00 a.m. this morning, will feature graduands from the Faculty of Arts at the University as well as those from the Affiliated and Federated Institutions of Waterloo. 467 undergraduates, 60 Master's, and 9 PhD candidates will cross the stage. Watch the livestream.

Bearing the mace will be Katherine Bergman, President and Vice-Chancellor, St. Jerome’s University.  Michael Klein will sing the national anthem.

Judi Jewinski will be named Honorary Member of the University. Jewinski is a graduate of Waterloo where she earned her Honours B.A. and M.A. (1975) in English. She dedicated 47 years of service to the University of Waterloo and its affiliated and federated institutions as a teacher, consultant, and administrator. The first manager of the University of Waterloo’s Writing Clinic, Judi also served as Lecturer, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English, and eventually Administrative Dean at Renison University College. In 2013 she was appointed as the Special Advisor to the Provost on English Language Competency. Jewinski has also published several books and publications on proper English usage.

Si’Yam Lee Maracle will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa and will address Convocation. Lee Maracle is a member of the Stó:lō Nation. She has won numerous awards including The Order of Canada in 2018, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in Ontario in 2014, and the Canada Council Mentor Award in 2010. In addition to her awards, Lee Maracle has held several academic posts, including Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University; Writer-in-Residence at University of Toronto’s First Nations House; Traditional Cultural Director for the Indigenous Theatre School in Toronto, and, the Stanley Knowles Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at the University of Waterloo. She currently teaches Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto.

Amandreo Vasquez Cortes will deliver the Valedictory Address.

Randy Harris of the Department of English Language and Literature will receive the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision. Harris has been a valuable member of the Department of English Language and Literature since 1992. Throughout his career at Waterloo, he has supervised seven doctoral and five master’s students. He has demonstrated a remarkably strong commitment to graduate studies and graduate students, including the time he served as the Associate Chair Graduate Studies. He was instrumental in developing the department’s unique PhD program, which combines literary and rhetorical studies. Harris is a renowned scholar of Rhetoric with research interests as diverse as Rhetoric of Science, Linguistics, Figuration, Interaction Design, Rhetoric and Cognition, and Human Computer Interaction. His own enthusiasm for research that is collaborative, crosses disciplinary boundaries, and engages diverse audiences is exemplary and inspiring.

Professor Harris’s mentorship can be characterized as comprehensive and consistent: he supports and trains the whole person. He nurtures students’ intellectual development as researchers; he encourages them to tackle problems that personally engage them and to explore novel modes of disseminating their knowledge; he mentors students as professionals who will go on to a variety of careers both inside and outside of academia; he involves them in his own grant-funded research projects as collaborators and sometimes co-authors (a practice that is uncommon in the Humanities); and he continues to advise and support students even beyond graduation. Harris genuinely cares about the students he mentors. He goes out of his way to ensure that their experience as graduate students at the University of Waterloo is the best it could possibly be.

Qidi Hu will receive the Governor General’s Silver Medal.

Clare Bermingham will be named the University Finalist for the Governor General's Gold Medal.

The Warren Ober Award for Outstanding Performance by a Graduate Teaching Assistant will go to Taylor Valnion.

Monday afternoon

The afternoon Convocation ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m. 345 undergraduates, 90 Master's, and 12 PhD students will receive their degrees. Watch the livestream.

Professor Colin MacLeod, chair of the Department of Psychology, will bear the mace at the head of the Chancellor's procession. Birgit Moscinski will sing 'O Canada'.

Antoni Cimolino will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters. A graduate of Windsor’s BFA program, Cimolino began his career at the Stratford Festival in 1988 as an actor. He became the Festival’s Executive Director in 1998 and its General Director in 2007; in 2013 he was appointed Artistic Director. Cimolino has established the Stratford Festival as a signature venue for internationally celebrated artists, making the work of Shakespeare and other dramatists more accessible and available than ever before. Under Cimolino’s management, the Festival has substantially grown both its endowment fund and its audience engagement. In 2015, his leadership within Canada’s theatrical and artistic communities was recognized with his appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada.

Stavros Stavroulias will deliver the Valedictory Address.

Rebekah Janelle Smoot-Enns will be named the University Finalist for the Governor General's Gold Medal. 

Alex Huynh will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.

The Reginald A. Haney Award for Outstanding Student Graduating in the Legal Studies Program will go to Jessie Rowe.

Professor Andrew Houston will receive the Distinguished Teacher Award. Houston is widely known in the Department of Communication Arts as an “inspiring mentor”, a “gifted teacher” and a “generous collaborator”. Students have described Professor Houston as “warm, welcoming and eccentric”. They also appreciate the “consistent care, compassion and support” that he provides them with; which follows them well beyond graduation. His dedication and passion for theatre arts has had lasting impacts on several of his former students; including those who have since moved on to pursue occupations in different fields. Additionally, he uses his strong network of contacts to provide them with opportunities to further their careers. It is noted by many students that his most outstanding quality is his ability to engage diverse learners in his lessons. As one student commented: “He makes sure to teach each concept by explaining it in multiple different ways, so that everyone understands”. One of his peers noted that his dedication to collaborative pedagogies “enriches and strengthens the department, the work of his colleagues, and the university as a whole”. Houston is highly regarded by students, alumni, colleagues and local artists in the community.

Monday evening

The evening Convocation ceremony for Arts gets underway at 6:30 p.m. 273 undergraduates, 15 Master's, and 2 PhD students will cross the stage to receive their degrees. Watch the livestream.

Bearing the mace will be Duane Kennedy, Associate Professor in the School of Accounting and Finance. Julie-Anne Desrochers will sing the national anthem. 

Kevin Dancey will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. Dancey is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the International Federation of Accountants. His contribution to the Canadian and global accounting profession resulted from his roles as Canadian Senior Partner and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Assistant Deputy Minister, Tax Policy with the Department of Finance, President and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and as the first President and CEO of the newly formed Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.  Most significantly he oversaw the unification of professional accounting in Canada, the most significant event to impact Canadian accounting profession in the last fifty years.

Jacqueline Audrey Sue will deliver the Valedictory Address.

Steven Balaban will receive the Distinguished Teacher Award. Balaban, a lecturer in the School of Accounting and Finance, has received many praises from not only his students and his fellow colleagues in the Faculty of Arts, but also from his colleagues in other faculties. Balaban influenced the careers of several of his students, and continues to be a mentor to them long after their graduation. His peers admire the efforts he has made to incorporate new and interactive learning techniques into his lesson plans, such as problem-based learning and experiential learning. His students also really appreciate his efforts, as one student noted: “His lectures never felt like lectures, but rather interactive discussions”. Balaban shows genuine interest in seeing his students succeed, and many have commented on the integral role he has played in their professional and academic success. His lessons are known to emphasize “the importance of personal development, teamwork, communication, and relationship building”. Balaban has been described as “passionate”, “engaging” and “humble”. Additionally, it is noted that his most admirable quality is “his constant desire to improve his teaching abilities and the learning environment”.

Mia Yang will receive the Alumni Gold Medal.

Accessibility photo shoot seeks participants

Human Resources is looking for volunteers to participate in an Accessibility Photo Shoot on July 11, 2019. As part of the University’s commitment to achieving barrier free accessibility for persons with disabilities studying, visiting and/or working at Waterloo, HR wants to capture photos to showcase a diverse population and better represent the campus community.

Photos will be used for marketing, training, website, and print materials and they are looking for faculty, staff, students, and community members that represent diversity in ability, age, gender, and ethnicity.

Read more about the Accessibility Photo Shoot

Wednesday's notes

After 30 years of dedicated and professional service to the community, UW Police Sergeant Patrick Ulett has decided to hang-up his cuffs and uniform. Friends and colleagues are invited to join Police Services on Wednesday, June 26 between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the University Club to bid him farewell. Those wishing to attend are respectfully requested to RSVP to Lisa Ringuette at lisa.ringuette@uwaterloo.ca or by calling ext. 33630 prior to Wednesday, June 19. Light refreshments will be served and a cash bar will be available.

De crane, boss, de crane: From Monday June 17 to Wednesday June 19 there will be a crane parked at the Physics building craning material onto the Physics roof to complete the installation of a new chiller, according to an announcement from Plant Operations. It will be parked close to the Physics one-storey mechanical room and will block the EIT loading dock ramp. The roadway between EIT and the CIM building will be blocked off at both ends for this work, which will be carried out from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. over the three days.

The contractor will have personnel on hand to control traffic. The crane will be parked in this location by Physics for all three days, and as such there will be limited access to the E3 and E2 loading docks as barricades will stay in place.