Monday, February 8, 2021

Limited in-person instruction may resume February 22

President Feridun Hamdullahpur has sent a memo to campus indicating that in-person learning that was previously suspended due to the Ontario government's stay-at-home order will resume Monday, February 22, pending confirmation of the government's instructions.

"As we approach the end of the government’s recent stay-at-home order, I am writing to clarify our immediate next steps to restart our phased return to campus," President Hamdullahpur writes. "If the order is lifted on February 11, we will resume limited in-person teaching and learning after reading week on Monday, February 22, 2021."

"This buffer gives instructors time to prepare for in-person learning that the recent lockdown suspended. It also allows some time for our support functions to resume their work to support those who are on campus."

"Other campus activities will go back to the operational levels from before the winter break when the stay-at-home order is lifted. Units will use their return to campus safety plans developed last year. If you have any questions about what your unit’s plan is, please talk to your supervisor."

"These immediate plans may need to change if the government extends the stay-at-home order, imposes other restrictions or provides new direction for post-secondary institutions. You can expect to hear more from us once we know more."

"Please continue to review the COVID-19 website for the latest news and updates on campus reopening. In the meantime, unless your department or unit plans for return-to-work say otherwise, please continue to work remotely."

"We will share more information on our plans for fall term 2021 in the coming weeks."

Stationery and business cards now available through W Print

In partnership with Creative Services, all UWaterloo stationery and business cards are now available through W Print’s online web to print solution. The transition began during the fall 2020 term with the creation and implementation of templates that can easily be populated by the UWaterloo community. Building on the past success of this service, we plan to expand the product offering and to continue to provide the campus with great service and competitive pricing.

Creative Services is pleased to announce we have partnered with Print and Retail Solutions to transfer the production of all official University of Waterloo stationery (including business cards, envelopes and letterhead as well as certificates, name badges and name tags). “These items will now be created using their new web-to-print solution, which will allow for faster service while maintaining high quality design and production,” says Christine Goucher, Associate Director, Creative Services.

Faculty and staff can access the web-to-print solution by navigating to wprint.ca and clicking the button “UWaterloo Stationery and Business Cards.” Users will be taken to the University’s single sign-on website, where they can enter their UWaterloo username and password to gain access.

“We are so pleased to be supporting the UWaterloo community by offering a seamless transition of these services to W Print. Creative Services has been a valued partner in this project and we look forward to continuing to work with them to provide high-quality print services to faculty, staff and students,” says Ryan Jacobs, director of Print + Retail Solutions.

For any questions regarding this transition, please reach out to W Print by email at wprint@uwaterloo.ca. Our W Print location continues to operate and is open for pickup service in the General Services Complex, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Stationery and business card orders can also be shipped to any office location on the Waterloo campus free of charge.

She started university at 14, then found her purpose by iterating

By Beth Gallagher. This article was originally published in Waterloo Magazine.

When she arrived for her first year of studies at the University of Waterloo, Ebele Mogo (BSc ’09) was just 14 years old and already a top science student in her home country of Nigeria.

She settled into her residence in Village 1 as an international student, studying biomedical sciences with the goal of becoming a doctor. While quickly adjusting to her new life, Mogo also encountered challenges: the cold climate, missing loved ones and adjusting to a new culture and different academic testing approach. After searching the internet during reading week, she came across the field of global health and decided that after becoming a doctor, she would move into that field.

Mogo persevered and eventually thrived, including making it to the Deans’ List, but when she graduated she wasn’t accepted to any medical schools. “That was very painful for me because I had worked so hard. I felt like I had to go back to the drawing board.”

She soon found that global health gave her the opportunity to change health problems on a larger scale. Rather than continuing to pursue medicine she decided this pivot would give her the best chance of making the kind of impact she wanted to make.

Making an impact on health across Africa

In graduate school, Mogo noticed that discussions about African health focused almost exclusively on infectious diseases like HIV. Having grown up in Nigeria, Mogo understood the toll that hypertension, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases were having on the continent.

Today Mogo is a public health researcher at University of Cambridge in the U.K., the president of her own firm ERIM Consulting, and co-founder of Engage Africa Foundation, a non-profit organization that fights non-communicable diseases in Africa, including heart disease and diabetes.

With so much volatility in the world right now, Mogo advises young people to examine their expectations and seek informational interviews with people who are doing the kind of work they would like to do.

“A lot of people who go to Waterloo are high achievers but they are going out into a world that is very different,” Mogo said. “It is not the world they had in mind when they set out.” Reflecting on her own path, Mogo also encourages students to be willing to iterate their way toward a career that aligns their values and lived experiences – including through failure.

Her passion for improving health through systemic, structural change has proven valuable in the current COVID-19 pandemic as people with underlying illnesses like diabetes are getting sicker and more likely to die. In an effort to stem the pandemic and save lives the Engage Africa Foundation has crowdsourced translations of COVID-19 health information, disseminating the material in 19 African languages.

When going home wasn't an option

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Science website.

Every four months. That’s how often Divya, a fourth-year Science and Business student, went home to Qatar to visit her family. Yet, in March of 2020, that option became impossible. COVID-19 had hit the globe, shutting down airports and bringing international travel to a grinding halt. Divya herself was on a co-op term, so even if international travel was easy, it was more or less out of the question if she intended to keep her commitments to her employer (which she did).

The campus emptied. Students were asked to leave residence, the university lectures and labs were temporarily cancelled, and then they all went virtual. Divya found herself feeling isolated, worried about her family and friends, and overwhelmed by everything that was happening throughout the world.

“It was really hard at first," says Divya. "I struggled to stay motivated, stay dedicated to my academics because the world seemed precarious – not just for me but for a family that was half a world away. So, I reached out to Counselling Services and they helped with tips and techniques to stay positive, take things day by day, and not worry so much about the future.”

Divya was also surprised by her Waterloo community when people started to reach out to check on her. Not just her current employers, but past ones who knew she would be in Canada and unable to go back home. Her friends reached out; friends from residence, her classes, orientation leaders. They offered support, food, and other generous services.

“I realized the Waterloo Science community I had built here, through courses, residence, orientation, ambassadors, and clubs, was something I could count on. The relationships I had made through my participation in a full university experience are lasting, supportive, kind, and generous.”

Her community’s support motivated her to find new ways to be involved and healthy. She started running again, reconnected with friends overseas through video chats, participated in fitness challenges with friends in Science. By keeping herself positive, she saw her grades go up. She found herself focussing more on her academics and started to enjoy learning more. She hung out with friends through virtual quiz nights and other events that the clubs hosted.

All of this meant that she was able to appreciate where she was at in her academic career, spend time with her family online (including a virtual wedding in India), and even streamed movies with her sister who lives in Guelph.

By relying on her science community, Divya has found herself making the most of a difficult situation. She used the services available to her, like campus counselling and clubs, to keep herself positive and connected.

“I’m grateful to my Waterloo community – I was lucky I could rely upon the people in Science to look out for me.”

Examination schedule published and other notes

The Registrar's Office has published the winter 2021 final examination schedule on its web site. Examinations will run from April 17 to April 26. For online courses, exams will take place online, with in-person course examinations taking place under limited circumstances.

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has announced that Quest will be unavailable due to a scheduled upgrade from Saturday, February 20 at 12:01 a.m. to Monday, February 22 at 8:30 a.m. During this time, Quest will be down and unavailable.