Thursday, April 9, 2020

New Emergency Support Fund will help Waterloo students impacted by COVID-19

A message from the Office of Advancement.

When stories began to surface of the hardship Waterloo students were experiencing as a result of COVID-19, the University of Waterloo community — including alumni, parents, faculty, staff, retirees, donors and friends — reached out to ask how they could help.

On Monday, the University announced the creation of a special Student Emergency Support Fund to help students meet unforeseen expenses related to the pandemic. Building on the leadership of the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) in advocating for students affected by COVID-19, campus leaders partnered with them to create a fund to support all students: undergraduate, graduate, international, domestic, full-time and part-time to help meet academic and non-academic expenses.

The fund was launched with a $30,000 investment from WUSA’s Student Life Endowment Fund. This generous contribution will be matched by the University to honour the commitment and investment student leaders have shown in supporting students at this critical time. Students can check the GSPA and SAFA websites next week for more details.

In addition to this $60,000 investment, a fundraising appeal launched on Monday has so far raised more than $270,000 from almost 1,000 donors; a clear indication that our community members have opened their hearts to Waterloo students during this challenging time.

The campaign is ongoing, and anyone who would like to support it can make an online gift.

Questions? Contact Jessica Wroblewski in the Office of Advancement.

Moving forward with learning and development at OHD

A message from Organizational and Human Development (OHD).

Organizational and Human Development (OHD) understands that these changes to your working environment and the current health situation with COVID-19 can be stressful and impact employees in a variety of ways.  Our number one priority is to support you during these challenging times. As we navigate the days and weeks ahead, OHD will continue to deliver on this commitment by looking at new ways to deliver content and keep providing learning and development for the University community. OHD will be moving forward with its courses and programs in online versions for the spring term. We will be sharing more information on that project in May.

As well, we are going Beyond the Waterloo Staff Conference for April 2020 and providing an April Action Calendar that highlights key topics that would have been featured at the annual event. On this calendar you will find videos from the 2020 keynotes, online learning modules, informative articles, and more, that you can review daily for the entire month.  Also launching as part of this April calendar is a series of webinars for the University employees on a variety of topics, which will include short learning and development presentations and interviews with the Waterloo community.  These recorded Community Connect webinars will be online every Wednesday to view at your convenience and schedule.

Finally, OHD has also curated a list of online learning resources available from University units and several others through LinkedIn Learning that align with OHD's Core development programs,  as well as some courses that offer resources for working remotely that can hopefully assist during these usual times.

We hope you're staying safe, helping those around you, and finding time to care for yourself.

Yes, it's a long weekend and other notes

Tomorrow is Good Friday, a statutory holiday in Canada, which under normal circumstances would bear reinforcing in the Daily Bulletin with an extensive list of service and operational closures. However, these are not normal circumstances - with the University operating with limited services these days, it might be difficult to notice any change over the holiday weekend. But, if you know where to look:

• Food Services operations are currently limited to Mudie's in Village 1, which will remain open over Easter weekend, including Friday, April 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily.
• W Store and W Print will continue to accept online orders placed via wstore.ca over the long weekend. "Our team will resume online order fulfillment on Monday, April 13," says the note from Print + Retail Solutions.
• The Turnkey Desk remains open 24/7 over the weekend, and Food Bank hampers will continue to be available for pickup. The Student Health Pharmacy will be closed Friday.
• Central Stores will be closed Good Friday and resuming posted service on Monday April 13.

Speaking of Central Stores, here's a quick reminder of their operating schedule in general:

Effective March 24, Central Stores will be operating from Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., providing the following services:

• Receiving - all vendors, couriers and inbound mail. For questions email Receiving
• Shipping - only critical shipments*. For questions email Trevor Beatson
• Outbound mail - as arranged.  For questions email Rob McMurren
• Delivery - only critical supplies (primarily health/wellness and materials for active working labs). For questions email Joel Norris

All other items received will be held at Central Stores and delivered when full operations resume.

*Central Stores Shipping will only pickup "critical" shipments on an email basis.  All shipments must have the Agile Shipping form attached, or otherwise a completed waybill and commercial invoices for outside companies paying for the return shipping. All dry ice/dangerous good "critical" shipments will still have the regular 11:30 am cut off time.*

A basket full of Good Buddies of the University

"This is my puppy Teddy," writes Alyana Versolatto, communications and media specialist at the School of Accounting and Finance. "He helps me work from home by always being happy to see me and encouraging exercise breaks."

"This is my coworker Max," writes Susan Johnston, manager, business systems in the Office of the Registrar. "He protects me from squirrels, cats and birds, while I work. He also keeps an eye on people walking by and I am sure is checking for proper distancing. I don’t know how I’d survive without him."

“This is Lucy!" writes Marta Veenhof, PhD student in the School of Planning. "Umbrella cockatoos are very loyal and funny creatures but can be incredibly disruptive. It might seem like Lucy wants to help me mark for ENVS 178, but her way of helping is trying to rip out my MacBook keys. Plums will have to do, birdo!”

"Violet and Daisy, my chinchillas, assist with recycling," writes Professor Sarah Tolmie of English Language and Literature.

"Here is my good buddy and assistant, Simba the orange cat," writes Lorna Rourke, librarian at St. Jerome's University's, "reminding me that belly rubs are just as important as work sometimes!"

Stay tuned for more Good Buddies of the University after the long weekend!