Friday, February 21, 2025

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• Waterloo community members awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal
• An update on digital accessibility
• Jean Zadilsky retires after (almost) 45 years
• Hagey Funspiel, AIA speaker series event, and other notes

Waterloo community members awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on Waterloo News.

University of Waterloo researchers, staff and students have a strong tradition of working together to effectively address local and global challenges. Several outstanding members of the Waterloo community have been recognized for those efforts with the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Created to commemorate the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III on May 6, 2023, medals are granted to 30,000 individuals across the country who have made a significant contribution to Canada or a particular province, territory, region or community of Canada, or have made an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada.

Individuals must be nominated by an appointed partner, which includes provincial lieutenant governors and territorial commissioners, provincial and territorial governments, members of Parliament, senators and organizations, including Universities Canada.

Congratulations to the recipients from the University of Waterloo who have been recognized for creating lasting, impactful change in their communities.

Read the rest of the article on Waterloo News

An update on digital accessibility

A message from Michael Dorr, Associate Vice-President, Marketing and Brand Strategy and Mike Gašpić, Director, Information Systems.

As of December 2024, the University of Waterloo’s websites are AODA compliant (i.e. WCAG 2.0 Level AA).

Over the course of 2023 and 2024, several teams (spanning IST, Faculty Web Leads, Campus Accessibility, Office of Risk Management & Compliance, and University Relations) came together to remediate websites and establish ongoing tracking and processes relating to digital accessibility. This initiative is much more than a compliance exercise; it is a shift in our collective mindset to promote a culture whereby all digital content is designed, up front, with inclusivity in mind.

We wanted to send our thank you to everyone involved in this immense effort. Not only for helping the institution achieve compliance but in living our values throughout the process – working together as One Waterloo to cover such an extensive web presence.

From the onset of the project, our Campus Accessibility team partnered with the working group to ensure that we are not only working towards compliance but embedding digital accessibility as a core principle in everything we create digitally within the institution. Joyce Barlow, Associate Director of Campus Accessibility, found it particularly impressive how the group quickly elevated efforts to prioritize the inclusivity of all website users.

“Our digital accessibility group was quick to mobilize with purpose and strategically implement the necessary website advancements which will make our digital presence inclusive across all internal and external audiences,” says Barlow.

While we recognize the hard work and accomplishments to date, we also must look ahead – and there’s a lot to do. In 2025, our focus will be on offering more digital accessibility training and resources to campus (relating to web, social media and more). Also, we’ll be developing an approach for ensuring PDFs are accessible (and if not, can be remediated swiftly). We will be continuing our ongoing monitoring of web accessibility to ensure we uphold our strong efforts from last year.

For more details on this initiative, please visit Digital Accessibility website. And if you’re interested in getting involved, please reach out to either one of us.

Jean Zadilsky retires after (almost) 45 years

By Janet Janes.

A lot has changed since Jean Zadilsky joined the University of Waterloo almost 45 years ago.

It was September of 1980 when she joined Co-ordination and Placement (now Co-operative Education) – the time of year when students were applying for jobs with potential employers. Her desk was surrounded by piles of paper as students submitted resumes and Jean photocopied, stapled, and filed the resumes before providing them to employers.

“Students would write their ID number down beside the job they wanted to apply for. We had to file their resumes and when they applied for a job, a copy of the resume was put together with the employer’s file. When the employers came in for interviews, we gave them a stack of resumes,” says Jean.

Four years later she joined the Department of Psychology providing administrative assistance to faculty members. A few years into her role, a secretarial position became available supporting both the Psychology Clinic and Early Childhood Education Centre which she describes as having plenty of fun responsibilities in the preschool like taking attendance, helping children with snowsuits, and a monthly newsletter.

“I loved that job, absolutely loved it because it was a preschool and that job was split 50/50 with the Psychology Clinic,” says Jean who spent 18 years in the department.

For the past 23 years, Jean has been working with the Waterloo Commercialization Office (WatCo) assuming the role of Intellectual Property Administrator. Jean was the linchpin in administering the team’s intellectual property portfolio activities, which included onboarding the Minuet database tool and integrating its usage into WatCo’s workflows. She became such a power user of the database that she was invited by the software vendor to lead a workshop session for other technology transfer office administrators at the annual Association of University Technology Managers conference. Along with leaving her colleagues, she is leaving the Minuet database – her baby – which she populated, ensured was running smoothly, and is now training her colleagues on.

Over the years, many of Jean’s colleagues have become close, long-term friends.

One of a number of memorable experiences at Waterloo was when she attended a farewell party for former University of Waterloo president David Johnston. Coincidentally, as she was arriving, she crossed paths with the president. Upon learning she was attending his event, he asked her name, offered his arm, and chatted away to Jean while escorting her to the Davis Centre. Along with thanking her for her years of service to the University, he said he was honoured to escort her into the event and asked someone to take a photo of them.

“He said ‘it’s people like you who make this place happen’,” says Jean. “I still have that picture today and I loved that moment. That’s a memory that will always stay with me.”

With almost 45 years of Waterloo memories, Jean is looking forward to spending time with family including two grandchildren, time at her trailer, taking pottery classes, downhill skiing, and playing the guitar again. She also has a trip to England, Ireland, and Scotland planned for the Spring.

Jean will be celebrating her retirement with her WatCo colleagues. Her last day is February 28.

Hagey Funspiel, AIA speaker series event, and other notes

Get those rocks ready to roll: the 51^st Hagey Funspiel curling event is set to take place on Saturday, February 22 at the Ayr Curling Club.

"This non-competitive, fun curling event is named after the first president of the University of Waterloo, Gerald Hagey," write organizers Jim Howard and Ben Miller. "The mission of the bonspiel is to foster connection within the UWaterloo community. This social event gives individuals across campus an opportunity to learn a new activity and to play together as a team. Also it is a chance to socialize with other individuals from various departments; people they may never have the opportunity to meet. It is a fun day where friendships and campus connections are made."

All necessary equipment is supplied, and a lesson for newbies is available before the first game.

As always, the funspiel is open to faculty, staff, retirees, and family.

The event takes place on Saturday, February 22 at 9:00 a.m. at the Ayr Curling Club. Tickets are $45 and includes two snacks, a lunch, and two 6-end games.

For more information and to register visit the Hagey Bonspiel page.

Here's your reminder to register for the upcoming Surveillance, Privacy, and Algorithmic Power in the Workplace panel discussion on Thursday, February 27.

Speakers include Dr. Adam Molnar from Sociology and Legal Studies, Dr. Urs Hengartner from the Cheriton School of Computer Science, Dr. Krystle Shore from Sociology and Legal Studies, PhD candidate Danielle Thompson, and moderator Dr. Anindya Sen from the Economics department.

The event takes place from 3:00 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre with a reception to follow from 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has published the latest in the Atlassian Blog Series entitled Restricting Internal Comments in Jira Service Management.