Thursday, August 25, 2022

To Be Honest, the time is right for a new student Orientation play

Single & Sexy, a staple at Orientation for more than 30 years, has exited the stage.

Single & Sexy was a high-energy, entertaining, powerful presentation of scenarios and attitudes first-year students may witness or experience. In its day it was radical, thought-provoking and even politically incorrect, to showcase the absurdity of unwanted attitudes and behaviours. Performed from 1988 to 2019, it was enjoyed by over 100,000 students, staff, and faculty, and many students viewed it as the “Highlight of Orientation Week."

"While the play was appropriately ‘radical’ in its inception more than 30 years ago, the climate and culture of students has changed, especially in the last two years of the Covid pandemic," says a message from Campus Wellness, who has collaborated with students to write and revise the orientation play over the years. "The emotional journey and triggering content may be insensitive going forward."

A conceptual shift

"The typical student attending their first year of post-secondary studies in 2022 may have missed developmental milestones that prepare them academically and socially for university," writes Sandra Gibson, Manager of Health Education and Promotion in Campus Wellness. "Students may have experienced undue consequences from the pandemic including loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and/or depression, amongst others, and academically, the past two years has seen unprecedented variation with limitations on grading systems and intermittent quality learning in secondary schools."

"Consultation with our partners in WUSA and the Student Success Office (SSO), in addition to students, staff, and key campus stakeholders throughout May and June resulted in the development of a substantially revised script to showcase the play’s 2022 mission, vision and values, updated goals and expectations, and a new name," Gibson writes.

The newly-developed ‘TBH: To Be Honest’ new student orientation play will continue to follow students though a ‘year at a glance’ and includes issues such as homesickness, consent, academic integrity, imposter syndrome, and features many supports for students. However, in an effort to embrace students, ‘TBH: To Be Honest’ is more uplifting and welcoming, and has a strong theme to build connections and develop resiliency while attending university.

"We look forward to your attendance and feedback to the premiere performance of ‘TBH: To Be Honest’," Gibson writes. "We welcome University of Waterloo staff, faculty and students, family and friends, and community partners."

Thursday, September 1, 2022
3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Doors open at 2:45 p.m.)
Physical Activities Complex (PAC) Gymnasium

The premiere performance is open to all; no registration or ticket required.

Using digital media to relax is related to lower-quality parenting, says study

Caregivers who consume digital media for relaxation are more likely to engage in negative parenting practices, according to a new multinational study.

The new study led by the University of Waterloo aimed to investigate the relationship between caregivers’ use of digital media, mental health, and parenting practices at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. On average, caregivers spend three to four hours a day consuming digital media.  

“All members of the family matter when we try to understand families in a society saturated with technology,” said Jasmine Zhang, lead author of the study and a master’s candidate in clinical psychology at Waterloo. “It’s not just children who are often on devices. Parents use digital media for many reasons, and these behaviours can impact their children.” 

To conduct the study, the researchers surveyed 549 participants who are parents of at least two children between the ages of five and 18. Caregivers provided information about their digital use, their own mental health and their children’s, family functioning, and parenting practices.

The researchers found that caregivers with higher levels of distress engage in more screen-based activities and were more likely to turn to devices for relaxation. This consumption was correlated with negative parenting practices such as nagging and yelling. They also found that negative parenting behaviours were more likely when technology interrupted family interactions. The experiment didn’t focus on specific apps or websites that caregivers use but rather found that caregivers who spend time on screens were retreating from being present with their family, which is correlated with negative parenting practices.

However, not all media consumption was correlated with negative outcomes: maintaining social connections through digital channels was related to lower levels of anxiety and depression and higher levels of positive parenting practices such as listening to their children’s ideas and speaking of the good their children do.  

“When we study how parents use digital media, we need to consider caregivers’ motivations for using devices in addition to how much time they spend on them,” Zhang said. 

Dillon Browne, Canada Research Chair in Child and Family Clinical Psychology and professor of psychology at Waterloo, expects these patterns to continue after the pandemic.

“The family media landscape continues to grow and become more prominent,” said Browne, a co-author of the study. “Going forward, it’s important to consider the nuances of digital media as some behaviours are related to well-being, and others are related to distress.” 

The researchers plan to build on these findings and hope that their work will aid in creating guidelines that will help caregivers manage their screen-based behaviours. 

The paper, Caregivers’ psychological distress, technology use, and parenting: The importance of a multidimensional perspective, appears in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour. 

Library announces new collection: Andrew Telegdi fonds

Andrew Telegdi (centre) participates in a Federation of Students all-candidates meeting in the Campus Centre Great hall in 1974.

This article was originally published on the Library's website.

Special Collections & Archives (SCA) just got a little bigger with the addition of the Andrew Telegdi fonds. Andrew Telegdi (BA '80) was a federal MP from 1993 to 2008, a local Waterloo City councillor from 1985 to 1993 and a past Federation of Students (now WUSA) president from 1973-74.  

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Telegdi immigrated to Canada with his family in 1957 during the Hungarian revolution. In his early twenties, he was a rock music promoter and ran the Village Bistro in Vancouver as a music venue until it closed in 1969. The 1970s saw Telegdi move east to Ontario to attend the University of Waterloo, graduating with a BA in Psychology in 1980.  

During his time at Waterloo, Telegdi was actively involved in student politics, participating as a student representative on the Senate as well as two terms as president for the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (editor's note: it was then known as the Federation of Students).  

After graduating Telegdi stayed in the area, working in regional politics and at youth organizations that support those in legal difficulty. He helped launch the first Justice Week in Canada right here in Waterloo in 1979.  

In 1993, he ran in the federal election to become an MP for the Liberal party, holding the seat for the Waterloo region until 2008. During his tenure, he worked on issues related to citizenship and immigration, same-sex marriage, crime and diplomatic relations. He also remained a strong advocate for student voices, often visiting local campuses to speak directly to the issues impacting youth. 

Including unique personal memorabilia and political correspondence, the collection was donated by Nancy Telegdi, his wife, in 2017. Since then, Nicole Marcogliese, Special Collections & Archives Archivist, has invested a significant amount of time processing the donation and researching Telegdi's life to confirm details to complete a "finding aid," which makes the collection searchable to researchers. 

This collection will be vital to researchers conducting original research into local and national political issues. Looking back at how policies have progressed over the years can provide important context and direction for the future. 

The Andrew Telegdi fonds is now available for viewing in person. If you would like to view items from the collection, contact SCA to book an appointment.