Thursday, February 29, 2024

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• 2023 tax slips now available in Workday
• Celebrating a legend in optometry teaching
• CIBC invests $500K to create Inclusion Awards for Black students
• Notes as February takes a leap

2023 tax slips now available in Workday

Human Resources has announced that T4/T4A forms for 2023 are now available via Workday in the Pay > Tax Documents section. Each T4/T4A file contains two pages, the tax form data for 2023 plus the filing instructions on the back of the form.

“If you worked for multiple companies during the year (for instance, the University and one of the Affiliated and Federated Institutions of Waterloo), or if you switched from a temporary to a permanent position, or if your benefit enrollment was delayed, you may have more than one tax form,” says the memo from HR. “Please be sure to access all forms for the tax year. Your tax forms have also been filed electronically with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA), which make take several weeks to process. Individuals who have registered for a CRA “My Account” can access their form(s) through this government application.”

This year, the T2200S Declaration of Conditions of Employment for Working at Home Due to Covid-19 is not automatically available, as per Canada Revenue Agency. “If your role requires you to work remotely, please request a T2200 Declaration of Conditions of Employment form from your department and/or manager,” the IST memo says.

Also new this year are changes to the T4 and T4A tax slips to support the administration of the new Canadian Dental Care Plan, including the addition of box 45 and box 15.

HR reports that 2023 T4A tax forms for scholarships and bursaries issued through Student Finance will be available in the finance section on Questby February 29.

To access your 2023 T4 and T4A PDFs on Workday, follow these instructions:

1. Log in to Workday using your WatIAM user ID and password; a 2FA code is required  
2. Select All Apps from the home screen  
3. Go to Pay on the menu > select Tax Documents 
4. Your 2023 tax form(s) are listed under “Canada” 
5. Select View/Print > A PDF will be displayed to download or print. 

HR reports that on March 9, the menu items “Pay” and “Tax Documents” will change to “Benefits and Pay” and “My Tax Documents” due to a Workday update.

T4/T4A forms (including those for student scholarships/bursaries) for 2018 and prior years are available from Human Resources. Employees can access their forms from 2012 - 2018 under Accessing Previous Years. 

Please contact payroll@uwaterloo.ca for support if you do not have access to Workday or have questions regarding accessing your tax forms. 

Celebrating a legend in optometry teaching

Scattered throughout the country, there are optometrists who have a bracelet reading, “What would Patty do?”

An initiative of one of the past graduating classes of the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science, the bracelets are a reminder to clinicians to stop and think about the advice of one of its longest-serving and most beloved faculty members, Dr. Patricia Hrynchak.

Hrynchak, or “Patty,” as she’s commonly known, may be retiring, but her teaching will live on in generations of alumni who are now mostly practicing optometrists.

Multiple classes have shown how much they appreciated Hrynchak. One class all showed up to the final exam in t-shirts reading, “Refraction ≠ Prescription,” since this was one of Hrynchak’s oft-repeated phrases.

Most recently, the current third-year students served up a birthday and retirement surprise for Hrynchak when they donned blonde wigs to mark her last lecture with cake, a card and flowers.

All the teaching accolades still surprise Hrynchak, who describes herself as a quiet person. They shouldn’t, though – she has an armload of awards to her name. Among them:

• University of Waterloo President’s Excellence in Teaching Award, 2020, 2021;
• American Academy of Optometry Michael G. Harris Family Award for Excellence in Optometric Education, 2018;
• University of Waterloo Excellence in Science Teaching Award, 2014;
• University of Waterloo Outstanding Performance Award, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2019; and
• School of Optometry and Vision Science Distinguished Teaching Award, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2017.

She became a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry in 1989, then an AAO diplomate in optometric education in 2019 – no small task, an honour reserved for the very top people in North America.

Hrynchak grew up in Western Canada and was always interested in healthcare. She first came to the School in 1979 and graduated as part of the OD Class of 1983.

Her class had a reunion last year in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Hrynchak was surprised to see all the pictures in a slide show Prince Edward Island classmate Dr. Joe Hickey put together, which showed her at multiple social events.

“I thought I spent most of my time studying but I guess I did other things as well,” says Hrynchak.

After graduation, Hrynchak spent four years practicing in Saskatoon, but then her husband, who had been doing a PhD in clinical psychology, got a one-year internship at what was then the Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital (now Grand River Hospital). Not wanting to be apart from him for so long when they’d only been married two years, Hrynchak decided to apply for a job at the School, thinking the move would be temporary.

If you include her time as a student, she ended up being at the School more than 40 years.

Initially, Hrynchak primarily did clinical and laboratory teaching, then transitioned into classroom instruction. She discovered a passion for teaching and worked hard to improve her skills, taking courses on quality teaching through the University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence and on evidence-based practice through McMaster University. She then earned a master’s degree in health practitioner teacher education through the University of Toronto, graduating in 2014.

Hrynchak also served on multiple academic committees and has published more than 40 papers and numerous other publications, many of them about optometric education.

By editing and contributing to the Procedures in Clinical Optometry manual still used today, she literally wrote the book on optometric skills education in Canada. The first edition was in 1990 and she’s currently working on a new edition she hopes to have out before the 2025 winter term.

Hrynchak also has other research projects on the go, some with School colleagues, that she plans to continue to work on. So, while she’s looking forward to having more time to spend with her baby grandson in California, not to mention time with the rest of her family, Hrynchak isn’t planning on stepping away entirely.

“Retiring is bittersweet,” she says.

CIBC invests $500K to create Inclusion Awards for Black students

By Carrie Gabla. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

CIBC recently made a $500,000 commitment to the University of Waterloo to improve access to education for Black undergraduate students.

The CIBC Inclusion Award for Black Students is open to domestic and international students entering their first year of a full-time degree program, with preference being given to students enrolled in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) program.

“At the University of Waterloo, we are fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment with programs and supports for our students,” says Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. “Our partnership with CIBC spans more than six decades, and this new investment will complement other new student opportunity funds we have created to eliminate some of the financial barriers faced by racialized students.”

"CIBC is proud of our longstanding partnership with the University of Waterloo. We're committed to removing barriers that all too often stand in the way of success for members of the Black community. The CIBC Inclusion Awards for Black Students will not only improve access to education but will empower the next generation of leaders and changemakers to make a lasting impact on the world,” says Ronan Ryan, Executive Director of the CIBC Foundation.

Four awards, valued at up to $25,000 each, will be offered annually for five years. Students interested in applying for the award this year must complete the application by April 15. The first selections will be made in summer 2024 and announced in the fall.

“With access to accomplished faculty, our renowned co-op and entrepreneurial programs and a problem-solving culture that is unique to our community, recipients of this new scholarship will graduate with advanced skills and experiences that will prepare them to make their greatest impact on the world,” said Dr. Anita Taylor, UWaterloo’s (acting) Associate Vice-President, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-racism.

Notes as February takes a leap

We're gifted with an extra day this year, and departments and units on campus are making the most of it.

The Office of Research is hosting a Horizon Europe information session for faculty and staff this morning from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (in person) or 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (online via Teams). The Library-hosted February Anti-Racism Reads takes place today from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. in LIB 323, with Dr. Aimée Morrison and Dr. Margaret Gibson facilitating a conversation on Leah Laksmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Wellbeing Community of Practice (CoP) Session: UDL as a Framework to Amplify Instructor Wellbeing will go ahead today from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on MS Teams.

The Games Institute presents a guest lecture by Eléa Thuilier, a PhD candidate from the University of Galway in Ireland, entitled Designing Exergames for Patients with Osteoporosis from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in EC1 1323. The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Anti-racism hosts Understanding Allyship, Solidarity and Advocacy from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

"This brand new 201 level workshop aims to equip staff, faculty, and graduate students with the knowledge and tools to become intentional allies, community members standing in solidarity, and empathetic advocates for change," says the workshop's background blurb. "Participants will learn to identify central concepts to social justice, including advocacy, allyship, solidarity, and activism, and be able to explain the important differences between them. Most importantly, the workshop will cover the complexity of individual responsibility for collective injustice."

Additionally, there are two public lectures taking place across the creek tonight. At Conrad Grebel University College we have the Sawatsky Lecture, "Is Reconciliation Possible? A Public Lecture with Rev. Dr. Ray Aldred", which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Conrad Grebel University College's Great Hall. Rev. Dr. Ray Aldred is the 2024 Sawatsky Visiting Scholar and is the Director of Indigenous Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology.

And the Lectures in Catholic Experience series continues with Dr. Jonathan Malesic, entitled "Beyond Burnout Culture". The lecture takes place from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in SJU's Notre Dame Chapel.

Looking ahead to Friday, if you're a senior undergraduate student with a passion for deep-tech and an entrepreneurial spirit interested in applying for graduates studies in nanotechnology, then you should consider applying for the WIN-Velocity Scholarship. The scholarship, with a value equivalent to a Graduate Research Studentship (GRS) for two years, has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) to support domestic research-based master’s students, who will be registered full time in their first year of graduate studies at the University of Waterloo. Eligible students must pursue commercialization and entrepreneurship activities for establishing a start-up company at Waterloo with Velocity support, based on a business idea in “deep-tech” (a category of startup companies that develop new products based “on scientific discovery or meaningful engineering innovation) which matches research conducted by the WIN supervisor. Students participating in the program will receive mentorship and advice for start-up and entrepreneurial activities from Velocity.

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 1. For more information on this program, please contact WIN-Velocity Scholarship Coordinator 
Dennis Wong.