Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Creative staff ideas garner accolades

University of Waterloo alumnus Pampa Dey, now an assistant professor at Universite Laval, who was featured in an award-winning video on women in STEM disciplines.

A message from the Office of Advancement.

Waterloo staff have earned special honours from the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards and the CCAE Prix d’Excellence.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is an international membership association serving educational institutions and professionals who work in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) is the equivalent association for Canada. Both organizations host annual awards programs to recognize creative ideas that advance our institutions.

This year, Engineering Advancement’s Waterloo Engineering 7 Building Official Opening and Campaign Closing won gold in the CASE category of Special Events: Single-Day Events.

The official opening of Engineering’s newest building capped off the Educating the Engineer of the Future campaign, which topped $100 million in private sector donations from alumni, corporations and foundations. The event included introductions to emerging technologies, interactive encounters with robots, self-guided tours and a steady stream of stories about the people and technology shaping our future. Engineering also revealed the identity of a transformational donor, Chamath Palihapitiya (BASc ’99), who gave $25 million to the campaign.

Meanwhile, University Relations won silver from CASE for the video Women in STEM: From a Remote Village in India to a PhD in Engineering.

Created for the Spring 2018 edition of the Waterloo Magazine, the video navigates the global issues of girls’ education and women in STEM disciplines. It was featured in multiple campaigns, launching on social media during convocation as a way to build pride and engage our alumni audiences. It was later embedded on the Global Impact website, and then became part of the Fall 2018 Brand Campaign.

At CCAE, Pharmacy Advancement’s #Pharmacy5in5 Campaign with the Ontario College of Pharmacists (OCP) won gold for Best Use of Social Media.

Pharmacy5in5 is a free online learning tool that allows pharmacy professionals to test their knowledge on important health topics. The School collaborated with OCP, a major donor, to deliver a year-long campaign promoting the resource on their social media accounts. The campaign resulted in significant user growth, leading thousands of pharmacists to use the site.

These awards showcase Waterloo’s strategic planning and creativity on the national and international stage. Congratulations to all of the winners for their hard work and dedication.

Federation of Students launches rebranding initiative

A message from the Federation of Students.

We have been serving, empowering, and representing students for over 50 years, and while that won’t change, our name will: we will now be known as the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association, or WUSA.

Our new name reflects what we are and who we serve, two challenges we often have to overcome with the Feds brand.

This rebrand is about more than just a visual change for students; the goal is to change the way they think of everything we do and how they interact with us at every level of their experience. Our rebrand is an opportunity to revisit our purpose as a student union and to realign how each of us contributes to the fulfilment of that purpose in our roles.

The rebrand will be ready for a full launch in the fall, with a soft launch taking place over the spring term. We will start using our new name with incoming first-year students over the summer in our Orientation communications, while the visual elements, including the logo, will launch at the end of July in preparation for September.

This phased rollout will allow for us to introduce ourselves with our new brand to incoming students who don’t already know us, while preparing us to re-introduce our new brand to returning students in the fall.

As we finish up our student consultations, please consider helping us to spread the announcement of our new name and encourage students to follow @fedsuw on Instagram to stay updated on all the changes that are happening.

We are excited about this change and thank you for your support!  We will share our final results through the Daily Bulletin later this summer, so stay tuned.

Should our rebrand affect any student communications that are developed by your department that have not yet been addressed, or you have any additional questions, please connect with Director of Marketing and Communications Melissa Thomas.

Wellness Collaborative launches today and other notes

The University’s Wellness Collaborative launches today with a special event at Federation Hall.

The Wellness Collaborative is being launched as part of the recommendations provided by provided by the President’s Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health and is one of the commitments of the Okanagan Charter. It aims to bring together partners across campus to promote existing wellness initiatives, identify needs, and set shared wellness priorities for all members of our campus community including students and employees. 

The Collaborative will jointly mobilize the Charter’s commitments and the Healthy Workplace Statement. 

Speaking at the event is Matt Dolf from UBC Wellbeing, who will share the story of UBC’s adoption of the Okanagan Charter, including the role of various campus partners and how they have contributed to a culture of wellbeing. The event kicks off at 9:00 a.m. today in Federation Hall.

The SRC has moved. The Survey Research Centre (SRC) has moved to 375 Hagey Boulevard, Suite 302. The SRC continues to provide survey research services to University of Waterloo researchers and others within the academic community. The SRC's contact information remains the same after the move with only a change to their location. Please contact  ext. 35071 to request a quote or if needing assistance with study methodology design, survey development, survey data collection or data analysis. "The SRC looks forward to continuing to support researchers, in addition to expanding its offerings through workshops and other events," says a note from the SRC. Learn more about the Survey Research Centre.

The University Club will be closed from June 29 until August 6, reopening on August 7.