Friday, July 3, 2020

Library launches Black Lives Matter Canadian reading list

A message from the Library.

The University of Waterloo Library has compiled a Black Lives Matter — Canadian reading list, which is based on the Black Lives Canada Syllabus // #BlackLivesCDNSyllabus(BLCS). The list is designed to improve the discovery of books that expand and build on current understandings of the Black Lives Matter movement in Canada.

The BLCS began in 2016 as a Twitter hashtag created by lawyer and community activist, Anthony N. Morgan in response to actions taken by Black Lives Matter Toronto to raise awareness about anti-Black racism in Canada. It was later compiled as a web-based list by writer and researcher Huda Hassan. 

Scope of the list

Titles included in the list draw heavily from the BLCS, and are predominantly non-fiction and scholarly in nature. The list has been expanded by library staff to include additional titles about anti-Black racism in Canada and the lived experiences of Black Canadians, including members of the African Caribbean diaspora, not included in the initial list or published since the BLCS was compiled. The aim in doing so was to build on an existing resource while complementing more generalized Anti-Racism Resources, including ones for families with children and young adults, maintained by the Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion Office. 

Accessing titles

The Library is closed as part of the University of Waterloo’s response to the global pandemic. The closure has limited access to hard copies of the highlighted titles on the reading list. Several electronic books are included on the reading list and can be accessed online. The Library is working with campus partners to launch a phased approach to a new service called Print Pickup @ Porter.

Currently this service is available to faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who, for the purposes of research, require access to University-owned print materials not available electronically. In the meantime, you are encouraged to order copies of these titles from local public libraries currently offering curbside pick-up or from one of your favourite independent bookstores as an alternative means of access. You can also help library staff identify new titles to add to the Black Lives Matter reading list. Use the Library's Purchase request form and select Underrepresented voices from the Subject focus pull-down menu.

Share your thoughts online about what you’ve learned using #BlackLivesCDNSyllabus.

Credits

Along with Morgan and Hassan, the Library would like to thank Mita Williams, Scholarly Publication Librarian at the University of Windsor, for influencing this initiative through a series of blog posts (post one, post two, post three) regarding the creation of the Leddy Library’s Black Lives Matter — Canada reading list.

Math student vying to become Canada's first drag superstar

by Ryon Jones. This is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared on Waterloo Stories.

University of Waterloo’s fourth-year student Kyne Santos will be a contestant on Canada’s Drag Race. The reality television competition series, which premiered Thursday, is based on the American series RuPaul’s Drag Race and tests the contestants on acting, dancing, branding, improv, performance, sewing and everything a drag queen does in their career.

Santos, the most followed Canada’s Drag Race contestant with 62K followers, has been doing drag for the past three years and is happy for the opportunity to showcase his talent to a global audience.

“I feel excited and nervous! TV is full of fans’ favourites and villains, and you never know how viewers are going to feel about the program. I hope people like me! I hope I can be memorable, entertaining, and make my fans proud,” Santos says. “I think I possess a really diverse skill set, because I’m a good dancer, singer, seamstress and I’m not afraid to make a fool out of myself.”

The 22-year-old is no stranger to performing for the camera. He has been posting on YouTube for the past seven years, treating his 110K subscribers to videos about sewing, wig styling and makeup with plans to diversify in the future.

Santos, a Mathematical Finance major, continues to grow in popularity online thanks to the TikTok math videos he has been posting in drag every day for the past two months, which Yahoo’s web page has featured.

“I’ve secretly wanted to make math videos for a long time on YouTube because I’m a nerd, and I’m passionate about math communication and getting the youth to love math as much as I do,” Santos reveals. “But most people are math-phobic, so I figured the short-form video format on TikTok was a good way to deliver it because it’s short and campy and most importantly forces me to be very concise with how I teach things, which people really appreciate.”

Santos, one of the winners of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship in 2016, is enjoying his time at Waterloo where he is making new friends and learning from his professors.

“I love the friends I’ve made in my program because they’ve inspired me in my pursuit in math,” Santos says. “I also loved taking Linear Algebra, Combinatorics and Optimization, Game Theory and Measure Theory. Those courses challenged me and enriched me in the best way.”

Read the rest of the article on Waterloo Stories.

Waterloo helping to build national student credential network

The University of Waterloo was recently chosen as one of 19 post-secondary institutions across the country, along with four application centres and hubs and World Education Services, to take part in a pilot program to build the Canadian National Network, an initiative of the Association of the Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC).

This initiative means the Canadian higher education community is creating the very first online platform and national credential wallet for post-secondary students and alumni. Once fully operational, the Network will enable 3 million learners across the country to securely access and share their official digitized post-secondary transcripts and credentials online - anytime, anywhere.

The features of the Network, with the support of Digitary – the solution provider, include:

• 24/7 access by learners.
• Ability for learners to access, view and share their verified and official transcripts, credentials, and documents in a digitized format.
• Ability for Canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres and hubs to work in partnership with the National Network to exchange official documents with permission of the learner and support their needs.
• Password-encrypted environments for all users including automatic recovery of passwords for learners.
• Bilingual service and support (French and English).
• Canadian storage of student data.

“The University of Waterloo is excited to be part of this Canadian National Network pilot,” says Catherine Newell Kelly, University Registrar. “This opportunity will allow us to collaborate with other early adopters to enable national and international student mobility through secure data exchange among educational institutions. This initiative has been a few years in the making, and Waterloo has been engaged throughout. The Office of the Registrar, Information Systems & Technology, and other campus stakeholders will continue their strong partnership to support this work.”

Work to build the Network will begin in July 2020. The first phase of the pilot will involve receiving digital transcripts and international documents, as well as sending transcripts and confirmations of pending or actual graduation.

Register for the Continuous Improvement Virtual Workshop; other notes

"Human Resources and the Continuous Improvement (CI) Committee is dedicated to continuing the education and collaboration of CI especially during our current environment with changes in how we perform our everyday work," says a note from Human Resources. "We have put together a CI workshop series that will be open to campus via Microsoft Teams to support you in re-imagining your processes and to assist with increasing value-added work within your teams."

The first session will be held on Thursday, July 23 at 9:00 a.m. This session will focus on the basics of CI and how to get started. "We will go through tools and techniques that will help identify core processes (alignment with strategic plans and value to stakeholders) and also review key performance indicators related to these processes," says the note from HR. "The series will then continue into August with a second installment that builds on the first session. Please register for this event, and we will distribute the MS Teams Live link a week prior."

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Raghda Sabry, HR project manager, or Kimberley Snage, director, HR projects, technology and analytics. 

Here's an addendum to yesterday's piece about new administrators beginning their terms: Professor Jochen Koenemann started as Chair, Combinatorics & Optimization on July 1. 

The deadline for the Internal Communications Survey has been extended until Wednesday, July 8. Staff and faculty can check their email inboxes for a link to the survey. Share your feedback on what's working and what isn't on the internal communications front. Additionally, you can still sign up to attend a virtual focus group to provide your thoughts on internal communications. If you are interested in participating, complete the sign-up form today. These focus groups will give us valuable feedback to help identify aspects of our internal communications activity that are meeting your needs and those that could use improvement.