Thursday, February 27, 2020

Registration opens for the 2020 Advisor Conference

A message from the Academic Advising Professional Development Working Group

Registration is now open for the 2020 Advisor Conference taking place on April 28.

The Academic Advising Professional Development Working Group invites staff and faculty in advising roles from Waterloo campuses to register for the sixth annual conference. This year, advisors who register will gather to connect, share expertise, and enhance their skills through sessions offered under an Updating Your Advising Toolbox theme.

Highlights include a keynote address by Sue Fraser from the Centre for Career Action (CCA), a facilitated discussion on advisor communications and student preferences, and breakout sessions on topics like The evolution of drop-in advising (CCA), new OAT tools (CS), and new processes and partnerships in AccessAbility Services. The presidents of the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and the Graduate Student Association (GSA) will provide closing remarks.

Since its inception six years ago, a community of advisors, now known as the Academic Advising Community of Practice, has been collaborating to gather and build tools, opportunities, and resources that assist new and seasoned advisors in the vital work that they do to support students and to enhance the Waterloo student experience.

A tribute to Distinguished Professor Emeritus Mark Zanna

By his colleagues in the Department of Psychology

It is with heavy hearts that we note the passing of our dear colleague and friend, the incomparable Mark Zanna, professor of psychology at Waterloo for 39 years and a Killam Prize Laureate.

Mark loved social psychology and he was one of the field’s most brilliant thinkers and researchers. He had a particular genius for crafting experiments that cleverly disentangled confounds and ruled out alternative explanations. Mark is perhaps most famous for his legendary experiments with Joel Cooper that provided an ingenious model for how to test the influence of motivational processes that people may not be able to consciously report. But there are countless other examples of Mark’s exquisite craftsmanship as an experimentalist. Indeed, Mark’s research made essential contributions to nearly every topic in the field including his influential studies of the structure of attitudes, attitude change processes, ambivalence, cognitive dissonance, prejudice and stereotyping, self-fulfilling prophesies, and the psychology of alcohol and smoking.

Mark was a natural storyteller. His experiments were like beautifully crafted stories that provided deep insights into the workings of the mind, always situating those processes in an evocative social context. Mark loved to share stories about the process of discovery that recaptured the excitement of having an idea and then translating it into a research design. Given that Mark was a social psychologist, it is perhaps fitting that many of his stories about the inspiration for his research centred on how these ideas emerged through a discussion with a colleague or student or an observation from everyday life.  

Mark was also an incredible mentor who had a rare gift for nurturing others’ creativity. So many of us who knew Mark can share stories about how our research programs were transformed by a brilliant question Mark asked in a brownbag presentation or thesis meeting. Mark was a generous listener who showed a remarkable ability to discover an idea that had not yet occurred even to the person delivering a research presentation. Mark’s generative spirit is beautifully captured in his co-edited volume The Compleat Academic, which provides invaluable practical advice for emerging scholars. Given Mark’s generativity it makes sense that his students have gone on to be leaders in the field carrying forward his legacy.

Mark’s love for social psychology is also evident in the work that he did to promote innovation in the field by co-editing with James Olson the influential series Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. The many ground-breaking papers that were published under Mark’s editorship show his remarkable skill for identifying and championing promising ideas. Mark also made an indelible contribution to shaping the field by co-organizing The Ontario Symposium, which was the incubator for some of the foundational ideas for theory and research on social cognition and motivation.  

Mark received his Bachelor’s degree and doctorate at Yale University. Over the course of his remarkable career, Mark published over 150 articles in top psychology journals and many book chapters. Mark also edited several books, including the Advances in Experimental Social Psychology series. Mark was the president of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology and he served as an associate editor or editorial board member of several psychology journals. In recognition of his academic contributions, Mark received several distinguished honours, including the Canadian Psychological Association’s Donald O. Hebb Award and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology’s Donald T. Campbell Award. In 2011, Mark received the prestigious Killam Prize Laureate for the Social Sciences, one of Canada’s highest academic honours. Mark also served two terms as chair of the University of Waterloo’s Psychology Department and he was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus for 39 years of service at the University of Waterloo.

Mark’s enthusiasm for psychology was surpassed only by his love for his family and many friends. Mark and his wife Betsy were the heart of the University of Waterloo’s community. They had friends across the university including faculty, staff, and students. Mark and Betsy were also enthusiastic boosters of the athletic programs who loyally attended games and cheered on the teams through thick and thin. Mark’s love and deep pride for his sons and grandchildren were evident in how he would light up whenever he shared stories about their many activities and good works.

In the many ways that he exemplified the values of scholarship, family, and community, Mark truly was the compleat academic.

There will be a visitation at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home on Saturday, February 29 from 4pm to 8pm, with an opportunity to share remembrances or remarks at 6:30 p.m.

Update: To honour his remarkable legacy, Mark’s family has established the Mark Zanna Graduate Scholarship in Psychology.

Maker Expo exhibitors wanted and other notes

Have you considered being an exhibitor in the Maker Expo? The expo is a diverse family-friendly showcase of makers, artists & organizations who create amazing things in celebration of the do-it-yourself spirit. Exhibitors are individuals, groups, teams and organizations sharing their ideas and creations through interactive exhibits, demos and workshops. The three tenets are inclusivity, diversity and interactivity. There's something for everyone from a wide range of disciplines and walks of life. Visit the Maker Expo website for more details.

There are a number of events and activities this week at the Centre for Career Action:

• Centre for Career Action Workshops: See the Career Centre Events Calendar on WaterlooWorks for all upcoming student and employee workshops.
• CCA drop-in advising hours for February: Students can drop-in for résumé, cover letter and interview support from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

In a speaking event on Tuesday March 3, Professor Larry Smith, Director of The Problem Lab, author and TED speaker, will tell you How NOT to Waste the Next Decade of Your Life. Discover everything you wanted to know about getting promoted and building a thriving career, but were too afraid to ask as Professor Larry Smith guides you through valuable lessons on creating the career you've always wanted. The talk is from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in TC 2218. Register on WaterlooWorks.