Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) 3 is now available

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST).

Information Systems & Technology’s Web Development team is excited to announce the launch of the new Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) 3 platform.

This launch only impacts sites that want to use the current standard (FDSU) theme. This launch does not include the conference, publication, or single-page themes, authenticated sites, or sites that require custom modules. The launch of WCMS 3 does not impact Waterloo Scholar websites.

Requesting a WCMS 3 website

Standard (FDSU), non-custom WCMS 3 websites, hosted in the new Pantheon environment, are now available for request. This means:

• Site owners can request a new website in WCMS 3.
• Site owners can schedule the migration of a WCMS 2 website to WCMS 3.
• In lieu of migration, site owners can also request a WCMS 3 site and begin to rebuild an existing WCMS 2 website.

What is different in WCMS 3?

Most changes will be noticeable to content maintainers working within the system to build websites, though there may be some visual changes to sites (e.g., content layout). Two larger changes include the new horizontal menu, appearing across the top of websites (was previously a vertical, left-hand menu), and the removal of the “Log in” link from website footers. Watch the new WCMS 3 videos to learn more about these changes and compare WCMS 2 to WCMS 3.

Additional resources

• See the Initial release comparison web page to see what will and what won’t be available at launch.
• WCMS 3 for site maintainers YouTube playlist.

• WCMS 3 training and support resources.
• Learn more about the Building the Next WCMS project.

Questions or concerns? Please submit to wcms@uwaterloo.ca.

Lori Curtis is FAUW's next president

Professor Lori Curtis will serve as president of the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW) for a two-year term beginning July 1. Currently, Professor Curtis is the chair of FAUW's Academic Freedom & Tenure Committee.

Mario Ioannidis, currently an at-large director and member of the Executive Committee, will take the Engineering seat on the faculty association's board for one year as of July 1.

Both were unopposed and therefore elected by acclamation after a two-week nomination period. "This is not an unusual outcome for either the position of FAUW president or a short-term vacancy on the board, especially so soon after a normal election cycle," says an article on the FAUW website.

Curtis is a professor in the Department of Economics who came to Waterloo in 2005 after serving in positions in health care, the federal government, and at Dalhousie University. Her policy relevant research focuses on inequities in health and economic well-being, broadly defined.

"Since coming to UW, I have been a willing and active participant on departmental, faculty, and university level committees which allow faculty input on their working environment," said Curtis. "In the last 12 years of working with FAUW, I have been a strong proponent for faculty on the Pension and Benefits Committee (P&B), the Faculty Relations Committee (FRC), the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee (AF&T) and in policy development."

Read the full article on FAUW's website for more information about Curtis and Ioannidis.

In addition, a number of directors will be serving on FAUW's board beginning July 1: Trevor Charles, Frankie Condon, Mary Hardy, Su-Yin Tan, and Vershawn Young. You can read more about them on the FAUW website.

New name for Police Services coming July 1

Effective July 1, 2021, the University of Waterloo’s Police Services will be known by a new name: Special Constable Services.

The University’s Board of Governors approved the name change at its June 2021 meeting.

Under the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, 2019, effective 1 January 2022, all Ontario university campus security and safety services using the term “police” must cease using that term. Such departments may identify themselves as special constables where the employer is authorized by the Solicitor General to do so. The University of Waterloo has such authorization.

“The 1 July implementation date will allow the department to effect immediate changes like updating key outdoor signs and its website soon, and it provides sufficient time for the department to make other necessary changes over the remainder of the year (e.g., repainting vehicles, replacing/rebranding the many notices and signs across campus issued and posted by the department, replace uniforms, etc.),” says the background rationale document that was included as part of the Board of Governors motion.

University of Waterloo Special Constable Services Director Alan Binns says “other than name and visual markings, our duties remain the same and we are available twenty-four hours a day/seven days a week to serve our community.”

All phone numbers and other contact information remains the same:

• Direct Line: 519-888-4911
• On Campus Extension: 22222
• Email: uwpolice@uwaterloo.ca

St. Jerome's nears completion of phase 2 of strategic plan

This story was originally featured on St. Jerome's University's website.

St. Jerome’s University’s (SJU) President and Vice Chancellor Peter Meehan is pleased to announce an update on the progress of the university’s Strategic Plan. The plan is currently in Phase 2 of a four-phase process of completion.

As part of its governance responsibilities, every five years the university goes through a strategic planning process to review and define its mission,  values and goals; establish priorities as an institution; and map out how it is going to achieve them. A Strategic Plan Steering Committee is guiding the preparation of the 2022-2027 Strategic Plan. A working group made up of Faculty, Staff, Board, and Administration representatives are working as a subset of the committee on the first draft of the plan.

“Due to the diligence of this working group we are nearing the completion of a draft,” stated Meehan. “In the upcoming fall term the full Steering Committee will begin meeting again and with the support of our facilitator Rebecca Sutherns from Sage Solutions, we will bring the draft of the proposed plan back to our community for feedback.”

In Phase 3 the draft plan will be reviewed and refined to prepare a document to be presented to the university’s Board of Governors for final review and approval.  Once approved the Steering Committee will complete the final work in the Strategic Plan process: Stage 4 – Roll-out.

“We remain committed to keeping our community updated on our progress as we complete these final stages,” added Meehan. “We look forward to working together to roll-out the 2022-2027 Strategic Plan when it is approved, and to supporting its commitments and achieving its identified goals for the university.”

Research suggests mask-wearing can increase struggles with social anxiety

This article was originally featured on Waterloo News.

People who struggle with social anxiety might experience increased distress related to mask-wearing during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic.

A paper authored by researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment also has implications for those who haven’t necessarily suffered from social anxiety in the past.

“The adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depression, have been well-documented,” said David Moscovitch, professor of clinical psychology and co-author of the paper. “However, little is known about effects of increased mask-wearing on social interactions, social anxiety, or overall mental health.

“It is also possible that many people who didn’t struggle with social anxiety before the pandemic may find themselves feeling more anxious than usual as we emerge out of the pandemic and into a more uncertain future — especially within social situations where our social skills are rusty and the new rules for social engagement are yet to be written.”

Social anxiety is characterized by negative self-perception and fear that one’s appearance or behaviour will fail to conform with social expectations and norms. Social anxiety disorder is an extreme manifestation that affects up to 13 per cent of the population.

The researchers reviewed existing literature addressing three factors that they hypothesized might contribute to social anxiety associated with mask-wearing: hypersensitivity to social norms, bias in the detection of social and emotional facial cues, and propensity for self-concealment as a form of safety behaviour.

“We found that mask-wearing by people with social anxiety is likely to be influenced by their perception of social norms and expectations, which may or may not be consistent with public-health guidelines and can vary widely by region and context,” said Sidney Saint, an undergraduate psychology student at Waterloo and lead author of the paper.

The paper also highlights that people with social anxiety have difficulty detecting ambiguous social cues and are likely to interpret them negatively. These individuals also tend to worry about sounding incomprehensible or awkward. “We believe that both issues are likely to be magnified during interactions with masks,” Saint said.

Another highlighted impact is that masks can function as a type of self-concealment strategy that enables people with social anxiety to hide their self-perceived flaws. Therefore, the desire for self-concealment may motivate their use of masks over and above their desire to protect themselves from contagion. “Due to their self-concealing function, masks may be difficult for some people to discard even when mask-wearing is no longer required by public health mandates,” Saint said.

In addition to contributing insights to guide clinicians toward effective assessment and treatment, the paper shows that people with social anxiety may be particularly vulnerable to periods of norm transitions where expectations for mask-wearing are in flux or become a matter of personal choice.

The study, Effects of mask-wearing on social anxiety: an exploratory review, is available online and will be published in the journal Anxiety, Stress, & Coping.