Monday, October 24, 2022

Advancing the talent evolution

By Claire Mastrangelo. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Dominic Barton, the University of Waterloo's 11^th chancellor, has committed $1 million to support the next generation of talent at Waterloo.

Barton is a well-known leader in global business and a philanthropist, as well as a key supporter of the University.

“Dominic has created valuable opportunities for our researchers and students during his tenure as chancellor,” says Vivek Goel, president and vice-chancellor. “I’m deeply grateful for his ongoing support, and I’m delighted that he has built on his leadership with this meaningful gift.”

Barton’s gift will fund several initiatives including a new award for Indigenous students, an international travel program in the School of Accounting and Finance and the growth of Waterloo’s entrepreneurship program, Velocity, at its new home in the Innovation Arena.

“Global forces, including rapid changes in technology, are redefining how we develop talent,” Barton says. “Waterloo excels at training the leaders of tomorrow. I’m proud to support this critical work as an ambassador of the University and as a donor.”

Members of the University community thank Dominic Barton for his support.

Preparing future leaders to thrive

The chancellor’s investment will support the three pillars of Waterloo’s strategic plan, Connecting Imagination with Impact:

Pillar #1: Strengthening sustainable and diverse communities

The gift will create an award for Indigenous students, reducing barriers to education and infusing the University with a range of new ideas and perspectives.

The Kiinomaagawin Zhoonia Award (which means “wealth of learning or teaching”) will be open to Indigenous students entering any full-time undergraduate program at Waterloo. Recipients will demonstrate a combination of academic achievement and connection or contributions to Indigenous communities. Valued at up to $40,000 each, the first awards will be available in 2023.  

A portion of the chancellor’s gift will also grow the Indigenous Opportunities Fund, which supports a broad range of programs, resources and outreach for Indigenous students at Waterloo.

Pillar #2: Developing talent for a complex future

Helping to shape the business leaders of tomorrow, the chancellor’s gift will expand a highly successful travel program in the School of Accounting and Finance. The International Study Trip introduces students to the business operations of multinational firms, offering students the chance to meet directly with leaders at global corporations. The gift will fund new trips to South Asia, allowing more students to participate in the program and develop intercultural skills for the future of work.

Pillar #3: Advancing research for global impact

Barton’s gift will also play a part in building the new home of the Velocity entrepreneurship program — known as the Innovation Arena — which will create more opportunities for entrepreneurs to combine research skills with business expertise and solve challenges in industry and society.

The Innovation Arena will provide business founders with access to high-tech labs, manufacturing equipment and sought-after collaboration space. These resources will equip founders to develop their products and companies, propelling economic growth in Waterloo region and Canada.

“With this gift, Dominic is opening avenues for future game changers to pursue their highest aspirations,” says President Goel. “Our University community is deeply grateful for his generosity. It will have a profound impact on students’ lives and communities worldwide.”

Open Access Week 2022: Open for Climate Justice

By Benjamin Lefebvre. This article is one of a series celebrating Open Access Week. It is brought to you by the Open Scholarship Committee.

Open Access Week 2022 runs from October 24 to 30, and this year’s theme is “Open for Climate Justice.”

Look for a series of articles focused on open scholarship, with an emphasis on collaboration between members of the University of Waterloo, the community, and the climate movement every day this week in the Daily Bulletin.

External events will be listed on Open Scholarship Committee: Events.

As stated on the website for International Open Access Week, “This year’s theme seeks to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Sharing knowledge is a human right, and tackling the climate crisis requires the rapid exchange of knowledge across geographic, economic, and disciplinary boundaries.”

Organized once again by SPARC in partnership with the Open Access Week Advisory Committee, this year’s event builds on the foundation established by three preceding events that placed equity and inclusion at the centre of the open access movement: “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge” in 2018, “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge” in 2019, and “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion” in 2020, and “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” in 2021. Now, in the midst of unparalleled changes and challenges to teaching, learning, and community building as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, “Open for Climate Justice” invites us all to consider new pathways to equity and climate justice in a shifting knowledge landscape.

On Twitter? The official hashtag for the week is #OAWeek.

Climate Justice Entrepreneurs at GreenHouse embrace the spirit of open access, open data and open education

By GreenHouse @United College. This article is one of a series celebrating open scholarship during Open Access Week. It is brought to you by the Open Scholarship Committee.

We were excited to hear that the focus of the 2022 International Open Access Week is on Climate Justice.  As a social impact incubator at United College, GreenHouse supports University of Waterloo students to take action on climate change. We prioritize creating social entrepreneurship content that is accessible to all student innovators. We believe in educating youth to contribute to accessible, equitable work through starting their own ventures, projects, and grassroots initiatives.

In the spirit of “Open for Climate Justice”, we’d like to share how GreenHouse students have engaged in responding to and addressing climate change in their own unique ways.

As an architectural engineering student, Maham Dar wants residents in her community to be prepared for climate-related emergencies. Currently 60 per cent of Canadians are not prepared for a climate-related emergency. Climate emergencies disproportionately impact people who are low-income, Black, Indigenous, and/or persons of colour. Maham wants to empower vulnerable neighbourhoods with the training and resources to be ready for these emergencies. Through her venture, Climate Crisis Connect, Maham is launching the RU Ready Program, an open education program where residents engage in workshops to develop their own emergency plans and kits, as well as enhance their survival skills. See Alumni Spotlight: Climate Crisis Connect (Maham Dar) for a short video Maham has produced for Open Access Week about her project.

Drop Point Waste Solutions is a startup founded by Justin Succar, an Environment, Resources and Sustainability student. Catalyzed by his experience as a co-op student within the Region of Waterloo’s Waste Management division, Justin observed first-hand the challenges municipalities face in reducing waste from multi-unit dwellings. Drop Point Waste Solutions seeks to inform community members with real-time accessible data on disposed waste.  Through awareness of how much one is disposing, community members may collectively begin to make changes towards a zero-waste future.

Sriranjini Raman dreams of climate justice that is intersectional and anti-caste. As an Environment, Resources and Sustainability student, Sriranjini pursues this vision of climate justice through her venture, Pluriversity, which serves to support Indigenous youth in India in learning about and taking action on climate justice.  Sriranjini designed an online, open-source leadership program that supports youth in becoming climate leaders, while finding new ways to amplify the voices of those affected most by the climate crisis by creating opportunities for Indigenous youth leadership at international climate change events, including the upcoming COP-27.

Turning research into action, Karen Farley, a graduate student in Environment, founded NoSUP, a venture that focuses on the gap between consumers’ intentions regarding plastic-free food packaging and what they actually purchase when shopping for food in supermarkets. Karen dreams of a world where food with plastic-free packaging is affordable and available in supermarkets for all Canadian shoppers. By collecting data on consumers’ intentions toward plastic-free food packaging, NoSUP Canada is hoping to leverage this data and empower food retailers and manufacturers to go plastic-free. Learn more by visiting https://nosup.ca.

Jenna Phillips, a graduate student at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, founded Clear the Air as an undergraduate student. Clear the Air is a podcast that seeks to educate, empower and mobilize youth to take action against climate change. Each episode focuses on a theme, teaching youth how to take action right now in their own life. Some episodes focus on specific sustainability issues, while others take a personal development focus to enhance a young person’s leadership abilities. You can listen to the podcast here: https://cleartheair.ca/podcast/.

Transparent and accessible solutions to the climate crisis are made possible by open access, open data, and open education. Openness enables more equitable knowledge transfer and the means to deeply understand a problem space, such as climate inequities and justice.

We are excited to continue to support students who are developing open solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems. Are you a University of Waterloo student who has an idea in support of climate justice or any of the UN Sustainable Development Goals? GreenHouse is here to help.

GreenHouse's website is https://uwaterloo.ca/stpauls/greenhouse. Note: our web url will be changing to https://uwaterloo.ca/utd/greenhouse soon.

Moving and Storage Supervisor Tony Bairos to retire in November

A message from Central Stores.

Tony Bairos, the University of Waterloo’s well-respected mover and setup man, will retire on November 1 after a 46-year career.

Tony joined Food Services in 1976, later moving to Plant Operations/Grounds in 1981. In 1999, Tony moved to Materials Resource-Central Stores as a Truck Driver.

“Tony has served in numerous roles in the Moving and Storage division and for more than 23 years has been the wealth of knowledge and leadership related to all larger item deliveries, moves or storage requirements on our campuses. He has set up and taken down more Convocations, exams, and events than any other Central Stores staff member,” writes Joel Norris, Director, Materials Resource-Central Stores. “Tony is well-known across campus for his dedication and attention to detail, garnering him many appreciative friends. I know you’ll join me and Central Stores staff in thanking Tony for his long service to Waterloo and wishing him all the best in retirement,” Joel Norris writes.

Central Stores will be hosting a drop-in reception for Tony on Monday, October 31 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the E7 Pitch Space (2^nd floor). Please stop by if you can.

Notes on Diwali and election day

Today marks the biggest holiday of the year on the Hindu calendar, Diwali. Diwali is a religious festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains worldwide, a five-day festival of lights observed in October or November each year. Locally, Diwali is among the holidays that Waterloo's city council has included in its fireworks bylaw, alongside Canada Day, Victoria Day, and the Lunar New Year. Observers are permitted to set off fireworks one day before and after the holiday, with a time limit of 11:00 p.m.

Fireworks of a different sort will also be set off today as Waterloo voters head to the polls for the municipal election. Municipal elections are held every four years in October, and voters will have their say on who should be the next Mayor of Waterloo and who should sit on City Council, who should be Regional Chair and who should sit on Waterloo Regional Council, and who should sit as a school board trustee across the public, Catholic, English and French school boards. This election comes with big ballot energy. Polls are open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Under the Municipal Elections Act, all employees who are eligible to vote in the election are entitled to three consecutive hours during voting hours on election day to cast their vote. Per the act, "an elector whose hours of employment are such that he or she would not otherwise have three consecutive hours to vote on voting day is entitled to be absent from work for as long as is necessary to allow that amount of time."

There will be a polling place in the Student Life Centre where students can cast their votes, or they can enter their information to determine what poll they can visit.

Here's today's Keeping Well at Work Daily Inspiration:

Make meal-time, self-care time.

Use meals as an opportunity to step away from the screen, sit down in a comfortable space, and nourish yourself. 

Reduce your stress at your next meal, try a mindful mouthful. Eating mindfully is about being in tune with the sensations and emotions we experience with eating. 

For some of us, it may be unrealistic to practice ‘mindfulness’ for a whole meal, but how about just a bite?