Thursday, May 7, 2020

Co-op students help Waterloo transition to online courses

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Hire Waterloo website.

The University of Waterloo is leveraging more than 300 co-op students to support faculties in the development and delivery of new online academic courses.

“Everyone’s ‘new normal’ requires a new approach, a fresh perspective,” says Norah McRae, associate provost of co-operative and experiential education. “Our university, like others, has been transitioning to increased online course delivery. Now, more than ever, we can leverage the strength and talent of our co-op students to move forward together as an institution.”

The majority of the roles are funded in part by the Student Work Placement Program (SWPP), which provides up to $7,000 of a student’s salary. SWPP was recently extended to include post-secondary educational institutions, and Waterloo received pre-approval for 300 SWPP positions. To qualify, students must be Canadian citizens, permanent residents or have refugee status. The University has provided additional funding for 20 positions that will be made available to international students. 

“This is an unprecedented time for federal funding to support students in the workplace,” says McRae. “The funding provides a remarkable boost for the University and for all employers who leverage it. The message is clear: young talent is a critical part of the workforce.”

McRae notes that many employers have already hired Waterloo students for the Spring 2020 work term. But, she adds, some organizations and industries are looking for creative ways to bring in fresh hires.

“Even here at the University, we are employing our students to help us with real-time innovation and adaptation,” says McRae. “We secured the funding, and then tapped into our expertise on campus to ensure the students are well-prepared for the work. Like any employer, we want them to contribute and be successful.”

Read the rest of the article on Hire Waterloo.

Second round of MFA thesis defences go online

A message from the Department of Fine Arts.

In response to the to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the unfortunate cancellation of the second round of MFA thesis exhibitions scheduled May 7 to 23, the Department of Fine Arts and University of Waterloo Art Gallery invites you to explore the work of MFA candidates Kayla Witt and Brubey Hu online or via downloadable PDF.

Kayla Witt - Condemned to a Perpetual Jacuzzi... With Millions of Your Best Friends

A Fantasy Unfulfilled, Kayla Witt, 2020.

Condemned to a Perpetual Jacuzzi… With Millions of Your Best Friends is a multi-media body of work that investigates the personal, the socio-political, and the cultural notions of home. The mind’s vision of home is most often held as an idealized place—the location where meanings and attachments are personal and symbolically intense. Forms of utopian thinking are embedded as the very cornerstone of what the home represents, especially in contemporary media iterations. My work grapples with the lived experience and materiality of the home by redrafting the imagery presented in Interior Design and Architectural magazines. Through collage, painting, performance and video, I subvert the structured and predictable media’s language of desire. At first glance, my work appears “homey”, as the magazine source material is evident, but as details register and accumulate, it becomes apparent that there is a tension between comfort and discomfort in the images. There is disruption and unpredictability in these inaccessible, aspirational spaces. You wouldn’t actually want to live there even though it feels like you might.

Kayla Witt is an MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo, and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from OCAD University. She has exhibited at The Gladstone Hotel, Struts Gallery and Faucet New Media Centre, Critical Distance Centre for Curators, The White House Studio Project, YYZ Artist’s Outlet, Bunker 2, among others. She was awarded the Shantz International Research Scholarship through the University of Waterloo, and worked with Tony Berlant in Los Angeles in summer of 2019. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Sylvia Knight Award in Fine Arts.

Brubey Hu - I Have No Home But Me

3 or 4 or 5? (in studio), Brubey Hu, 2019.

I Have No Home But Me explores themes of home and duality through personal narratives embedded in my paintings and artists’ books. A duality that exists within a body does not necessarily exist as a pair of oppositions. The pair can also be complementary to each other, or live at the same time as coexistence. Employing geometric shapes painted over two panels using masking tape, this visual duality is constructed within diptychs that juxtapose opacity and reflection. The paintings are my attempt to discuss the notions of consensus and reconciliation. The used tapes are collected to serve as the memory of how the paintings are made. In addition, a book of poetry collects my writings expanding the themes of memory, identity, and translation. The combination of paintings and books investigates the evaporation of information and emotion, through the process of translation that I frequently experience as a bilingual woman living in-between places—a bridge between worlds.

Brubey (Wanzhi) Hu is an MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo, and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited at Art Mur in Montreal, Canada; Hui Yuan in Hefei, China; and Florida International University in Miami, US. In 2018, Brubey participated in BAiR Emerging Visual and Digital Arts Residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She was awarded a Shantz International Research Scholarship through the University of Waterloo, and worked with Agnes Barley in New York City in the summer of 2019.

Insights from a global health expert; more good goose swag and other notes

This week, the Office of Advancement hosted a webcast with Dr. Rohit Ramchandani (BSc ’04) to answer some of the hard hitting questions surrounding COVID-19. Rohit is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in our School of Public Health & Health Systems and the founder & CEO at Antara Global Health Advisors, a global consultancy that provides technical expertise & evidence-based public health and management advice to public and private organizations around the world.

Read the recap to see five valuable insights Rohit shared about the COVID-19 virus, how we can get back to “new-normal” life and the role we can all play in preventing pandemics.

Wondering what’s up with the geese on campus while it’s closed? Alumnus Kathleen Fu (BAS ’17), and Sam Toman (Faculty of Environment) bring you a new design collaboration available at the W Store for contact-less pick-up. T-shirts, totes, mugs and more all feature our feathered overlords that isn’t exactly to scale but feels pretty right.

Kathleen and Sam met while working together the Spring 2019 Waterloo Magazine— A Tale of Three Cities. Thanks to an assist by Creative Services associate director Christine Goucher they approached the folks at the W Store, who loved the idea. "Kathleen, a former Architecture student, is the real star of the project," writes Toman. "Check out her imaginative designs as @urbsvidi on Instagram. And learn more about this Toronto-based alumnus’ creative process in this excellent video by the communications team in Advancement."

The winter 2020 issue of the IST Newsletter is now available. Read about staying connected while working remotely; online collaboration with Office 365; six-month adoption of Azure data toolset; ability to set a chosen/preferred name; joining the Campus IT Team; and more.

A perfectly cromulent collection of Good Buddies of the University

"Atlas is taking this whole stay at home thing seriously with his new crib," writes Sarah Vandekerckhove, administrator in Campus Wellness. "Thanks to his grandpa and grandma for using some of their quarantine time to spoil this pooch."

"When she was a kitten, instead of walking she kept jumping like a deer so, we named her Bambi," writes Marilena Strambu, dual degree admissions specialist in the Registrar's Office. She loves her daily outdoor walks, playing fetch and acting like a dog."

"This is Calico Belle and Stan the Tuxedo Cat," writes Professor Julia Roberts of the Department of History. "To be honest, they do not do much work… but they’re good fluff balls to have around in these difficult days."

"This is Molly, she’s not sure why we’re here but she’s finding it exhausting," says a submission from Bill Power, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Andrea Carthew, associate director, advancement, School of Optometry & Vision Science. "First, we are interrupting her precious couch time. She is not allowed on the couch but we know by the ‘evidence’ that she’s been relaxing there while we’re at work. Hard to get away with if we’re here to catch her. Second, since we are here she may as well bring us all of her toys…..one by one….as a subtle hint that we should be playing with her in between her naps. Third, she is doing a great job of getting us to get up and stretch by regularly demanding to go outside and then almost immediately asking to come back in. Usually while one or both of us are in a meeting. This is weather-dependent of course. She wouldn’t want to get her hair wet."