Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Branded resources available as Spring Term goes virtual

Marketing and Strategic Initiatives has developed a resource package for the upcoming Spring Term, when students will return to a virtual campus.

"When physically on campus, students are immersed in the Waterloo experience: they see street banners, the main gate sign, iconic buildings and spaces and other students wearing Waterloo colours and clothing. In that spirit, we’re providing you with tools that you can use to enhance the Waterloo digital environment and keep us all connected as we work and learn at a distance," writes Tony Frost, associate vice-president, marketing and strategic initiatives, in a memo circulated to University employees today.

"Resources include:

• Bring on Spring Term – a video that acknowledges the disruption we have faced and celebrates the unity, resiliency and ingenuity demonstrated by students and employees as we continue to adapt to our current situation. Please feel free to share this on your own social media channels, by email or in your next team meeting.

• Images for LEARN, Teams and WebEx – to create a more consistent Waterloo-focused experience giving you the chance to download image banners featuring popular campus spaces and faculty colours to use as backgrounds or banners in LEARN. Many of you will be able to use these banners as custom backgrounds for video conferences. We’ll work with IST make these backgrounds available as standard in Microsoft Teams and share instructions on how to use them as soon as the tool allows.
• Courseware development support – we’ve partnered with the team behind the Keep Learning site  to share existing resources and downloads on our Brand site that includes PowerPoint templates, Word doc templates, icons and more. Using these branded templates is another way you can help create a sense of Waterloo even while we are working and learning remotely.
• #UWaterlooCommunity social media campaign – starting next week, we’ll be encouraging students to share photos of their own virtual campus or workspace using the #UWaterlooCommunity hashtag. We hope to see some great images of students and employees in their Warrior gear, using Waterloo templates online and more. Students have a chance to win a $50 W Store giftcard so we’re hopeful you’ll participate and encourage others to join the fun. Stay tuned to our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts for more details next week."

If you have any questions about these resources, how to use them or suggestions for others, please send an email to tony.frost@uwaterloo.ca.

Mudie's in V1 is here for the students

By Brian Holland, Mudie's supervisor. This is the latest post on the Food Services blog.

By March 21, 2020, the majority of students had vacated their residence rooms and campus was quiet. However, we, the staff at Mudie’s Eatery in Village 1, continue to work and serve those students  who remain on campus. Continuing to offer our full menu and excellent customer service – with some new rules in place:

1. Only allowing five students in the servery (cafeteria/restaurant area) at any time;
2. Pink neon tape on the floor to promote physical distancing and proper space between people;
3. Several hand sanitizing stations to promote cleanliness, including one at the entrance which students are required to use prior to entering;
4. Cashiers will monitor the seating areas and manage the number of people to ensure physical distancing.

What used to be self-serve areas are now full service, with staff continuing to be extremely diligent in using the proper utensils and washing their hands frequently. Through to the end of exams, we offered full breakfast as well as omelet station, pastries and cereal. Our cooks are still preparing freshly made entrees and side dishes every day and our full selection of grill items are also available. We have transformed every area including the coffee into full service stations to minimize customer contact and promote cleanliness. 

Students, staff and any other customer has been extremely receptive and respectful to the new “normal” at Mudie’s, seeing few violations of the new rules. 

Management has staggered the schedule and have been effectively managing employees so that there are never more staff than what’s needed on the floor.  This has helped us to maintain good physical distancing practices and assuring our staff that we take their safety as a top priority.  This small step has been well received by our amazing employees who continue to show up and happily serve our customers every day.

We, as a team here in Village 1, are happy and proud to continue feeding our students and customers with the same level of service they have come to expect from us. We are committed to their well-being and will continue to provide support and nourishment until all residents have re-located to suite-style rooms. 

Map the System awards student changemakers

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement's website.

Twenty-eight hard-working teams harnessed the power of systems thinking to map out important problems for the University of Waterloo’s second annual Map the System competition. Congratulations to Emma McDougall, Kaitlin Webber, and Sam Petrie, who won first place for their research into the socioeconomic transformation of neighbourhoods along the new light rail corridor in Waterloo Region.

The second place team, Jessica Bloom, Jamie Dardarien, Komal Dhawan, Zinneerah Amir Memon, and Mary Allysa Misola, focused on the detrimental environmental impacts of the global fashion industry. Completing the virtual podium, Bailee Ziegenhagel, Graeme Robinson, Heidi Soper, Jessie Huang, and Kelsey Ng came in third place with their submission on the environmental impacts of supermarket food waste in Ontario. Problems explored by other Waterloo teams included youth homelessness, the gig economy, gender inequality, and e-waste.

In addition to being the Waterloo campus nominee for the Canadian Map the System finals, the winning team will receive a $2,000 prize thanks to the support of Kindred Credit Union. Sarona Asset Management provided the second place prize of $1,000, and the W Store sponsored the $500 third place prize. The Centre for Peace Advancement is grateful for these sponsors, as well as our campus partners: St. Paul’s Greenhouse, the Faculty of Environment, the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, and the Conrad School for Entrepreneurship and Business.

Map the System is a systems thinking competition that invites students to look deeper into the complex social and environmental problems found in the modern world. Organized by the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University, this competition offers Waterloo students the chance to compete at a campus, national, and global level. The Centre for Peace Advancement’s emphasis on creative and collaborative peacebuilding fits well with the competition’s desire to have students think differently about global challenges.

Read the rest of the article on the Kindred Credit Union for Peace Advancement's website.

Sustainability Certificate available in Spring Term

A message from the Sustainability Office.

The Sustainability Office is excited to offer the Sustainability Certificate once again to all University employees for the upcoming spring 2020 term. This series of courses is intended to help Waterloo embed sustainability into campus culture, one of the major goals of the University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy. It includes seven modules that cover key local and global sustainability issues, what the University is doing, and tools and resources for employees to integrate sustainability into their own departments, homes, and beyond.

Sessions will be held remotely through Microsoft Teams, and registration will be managed through Workday. For a list of session dates and more information, please visit the Sustainability Certificate webpage.

New this term, The Sustainability Office is launching a new version of the series on LEARN to support independent learning. The course will include the same content as existing sessions, but learners will complete in-course quizzes and reflections in the place of group discussions and activities. The series will open in early June and close at the end of August for the pilot offering. More details will be shared in the coming weeks. (Please note that, at this time, employees can’t mix and match sessions from each stream.)

Once more, with feeling: some Good Buddies of the University

"Violet listens carefully for news about the status of fall term," writes Professor Sarah Tolmie of English Language and Literature.

"This is Spooky who reminds me to take nap breaks!" writes Monika Mikhail, a 4A Chemical Engineering student. He has been an excellent work from home supervisor!"

"This is my grand kitten Gus," writes Pat Kahlmeier, health information assistant in Campus Wellness. "He moved in with us this past December from Nova Scotia with his parents. He likes to supervise and sleep on the job with me downstairs in the rec room while I'm working."

"Not all buddies are cats and dogs," writes Professor Brendon Larson, associate dean - undergraduate studies in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability. "As I prepare for my (online) nature course this spring, ERS283, I’m keeping an eye on encouraging signs of spring in my backyard, including the arrival of many migrant birds and this resplendent Mourning Cloak butterfly, which is one of our few butterflies that overwinters as an adult."

"This is Mateo, my playful companion, who makes sure that I get a little exercise throughout the day," writes Boon Khoo, manager, immigration consulting in the Student Success Office,