Tuesday, May 26, 2020

The talk of the virtual town hall

More than 1,600 students, faculty, staff and community members logged on to the first-ever President's Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, May 20.

"It’s the tenth week since we pushed the emergency button and since then we haven’t had the chance to be present on this campus together," said President Hamdullahpur, "but even though you weren't present I could feel your presence day in and day out."

"This is in no way intended to replace our more intimate gatherings at Fed Hall in the form of a town hall but nevertheless it’s an opportunity to hear from each other in a face to face opportunity to tell us what we know, what are the things that are of concern, what we're anxious and worried about, and what are the things that we are so proud," the president continued. "Not only have we been able to deal with this pandemic but also we are contributing to a better future for ourselves, for our institution, for our students."

"In moving forward, I want us to remember that we are here to deliver our core mission that includes serving and educating our students and creating new knowledge for the good of society and the betterment of Canada and the world," President Hamdullahpur said. "Those are at the core of our mission and in order to do this we must be much better prepared moving forward."

In his presentation, President Hamdullahpur outlined how the public health crisis has become an economic crisis, with impacts on university operations and future enrollments. He noted how University staff are working tirelessly to ensure that students are placed in co-op positions this term, and how University leaders are shifting from an emergency footing to a pandemic planning footing.

President Hamdullahpur also gave an update on the University's plans for the fall term, indicating that public health advice would help guide University administrators in decisions about what sizes of classes would be offered online and which ones would be held in-person on campus, and also spoke about the budgetary decisions that would see all campus operations hold back 15 per cent of their budgets this fiscal year in anticipation of the uncertain funding environment facing the University later in 2020.

Following the president's presentation, a Q&A period commenced, with President Hamdullahpur and members of the University's leadership fielding questions on a number of topics including the Fall term, co-op employment, campus study spaces, residence applications, tuition for international students, student mental health, return to work for employees, deferment of acceptance, and more.

"Thank you so much," said the President at the close of the event. "I sincerely hope that our next encounter will include an in-person interaction but in the meantime, this technology proves that it works... Be safe everybody, thank you so much, and I hope to see everybody soon."

For those of you who missed it, please view the recap on YouTube:

Answers to the questions that were posed to the President and the University's senior leadership will be added to the President's Town Hall website. Participants who sent questions in advance will be receiving an email with their answer from the townhall@uwaterloo.ca email account.

Canada is in a deep recession and should expect a long recovery, says expert panel

This article originally appeared on Waterloo Stories.

The economic impact of COVID-19 will be long, difficult and will discriminate, according to experts who participated in a panel hosted by the University of Waterloo.

In the first of a series of panels on the economic impacts of COVID-19, rebooting the economy, research experts and business leaders believe Canada needs to be prepared for a deep recession followed by a long recovery.

Panel members also highlighted that the negative impacts of COVID’s economic crisis will not impact society equally having so far disproportionately impacted women.

The panel series is part of the work being done by Waterloo’s Gateway for  Enterprises to Discover Innovation (GEDI) at Waterloo program. 

"What we're likely to see is a very deep recession followed by a very slow and drawn-out recovery," said Craig Alexander, the chief economist at Deloitte Canada. "The reason that recovery is going to be slow is that we're only going to gradually re-open the economy and it won't be business as usual."

Alexander’s perspective was shared by Joel Blit, an associate professor of economics at Waterloo who added that the Canadian economy was in a high-risk position before COVID-19 with inflated asset prices and a high level of personal debt.

Alexander and Blit were joined on the panel by Nada Basir, a professor at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, Sanjeev Gill, Waterloo’s Associate Vice-President of Innovation and Lifelong Learning, Alex Goryachev, the managing director of Cisco Global Co-Innovation Centres, and Joel Blit, an associate professor of economics at Waterloo.

The panel was chaired by Bessma Momani, a political science professor at Waterloo.

“As global and widespread as this crisis is, its impact has been disproportionate,” said Basir. “Some people are at higher risk for health reasons, socio-economic factors and some countries, businesses and industries have been hit harder than others.

“My real worry is that small and medium sized industries, 70 per cent of our jobs, will not have access to government bailouts,” she said. “Smaller companies are experiencing the worst layoffs, in the double digits, and if you dig a little further it’s jobs held by women that are most impacted with two-third of laid of workers being female.”

The economy, according to members of the panel, may not resemble the one we were used to. Moving forward, Canadians should expect increased automation displacing further jobs and the increased penetration of Internet technologies in business, education, healthcare.

GEDI is set to host a further expert panels on the topics of supply chain management, data security, research to tackle real-world problems and Canada’s virtual future.

Q&A with the experts: food security and the food chain during COVID-19

The University of Waterloo has a number of experts available for comment on various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staples like flour and toilet paper have been in short supply at various points during the COVID-19 pandemic. Will we see more bare grocery store shelves? Will the price of food increase as this pandemic drags on?

Jodi Koberinski of Waterloo’s Geography and Environmental Management department answers our questions about the food chain here. 

How is our food supply chain affected by COVID-19?

In every corner of the web that is our food system, we see impacts: disruptions in farm labour globally, processing bottlenecks and retail and food service disruption. Food is social — sporting events and weddings and all things on hold also impact food workers and ultimately farmers. 

Food is now visibly an essential service.

Why are dairy farmers dumping milk?

Food service, food processing, school meal programs from day school through Grad school, and fast food customers all stopped buying. All at once. The supply chain — due in part to consolidation, monopolization, and the pressures of a for-profit commodity provision of an essential service — can’t adapt so readily to home delivery, new packaging and shifting demands overnight. The sheer volume of daily processed dairy through these billion-dollar channels is astounding. 

What happens if meat-processing stops? 

Animals will be euthanized in many cases, others can be held within a production system but only for so long. Chickens and other animals raised for slaughter that live beyond a certain processing date may start to exhibit health issues and become a feed and crowding issue in systems designed for turn around. The dead animals may end up in some pet food systems but much will go to waste. 

How is COVID-19 going to affect food pricing and availability as the economy slowly reopens? 

Food pricing is expected to climb globally — we can look to the economic crash of 2008 for a reminder and recognize that every country is experiencing disruptions of some sort to greater or lesser degrees. 

Inflation in produce has already begun.  

Why are plants like Cargill so susceptible to such an outbreak? 

Plants require workers to be in tight quarters during long shifts with what workers describe as inadequate PPE. Workers are in close contact during meal breaks — as well as in transport and in housing, which is exactly what we’re supposed to be avoiding when we’re asked to practice physical distancing. 

Most workers are migrant or immigrant workers who earn very little for already risky work with little or no protection in the workplace. Fear of speaking up had impacted conditions in the largest plants.

Jodi Koberinski is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management. As a SSHRC fellow, Jodi is investigating novel governance approaches to food sovereignty in Canada with a focus on food as commons. Jodi is director and co-founder of the not for profit Earth Education League and is the current Chair of the Food Systems Roundtable of Waterloo Region.

Last but not least, the Good Buddies of the University

"Meet Hawk and Twyla!" writes Alyssa Dobranski, dean's office assistant in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. "We recently adopted Twyla, so it’s been a battle of the cats in our apartment. Thankfully Twyla is only ten weeks old and therefore naps A lot, which means I can get work done and Hawk can reclaim his throne (my lap). When they aren’t napping, they love to play 'hide the mice,' so you can almost count on a climbing into bed and finding a stuffed mouse under the sheets or in one or your shoes as you go to leave. Otherwise, they mostly chase each other around the apartment causing all kinds of chaos. They definitely make working from home much more entertaining! Thank goodness for our Good Buddies."

"Scooby and Oreo are not even mildly concerned over the emergency remote teaching going on around them," writes Professor Laura Deakin, associate director, internal - nanotechnology engineering in the Department of Chemistry.

"This is Horatio, who likes to watch over me as I work and does not approve of any tasks that take attention away from him," writes Elise Vist, speaking and digital communication, WCMS in the Writing and Communication Centre.

"My buddy Pearl is a 9-lb bichon/poodle and we love her dearly," writes Mila Kaufman, financial coordinator in Electrical & Computer Engineering. "All she wants is to be near me no matter what time of the day is."