Friday, April 4, 2025

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• Global Futures Fund launches
• Main Path to be renamed
• Registration closing soon for Teaching and Learning Conference 2025
• Remembering Professor Emeritus Timothy Topper
• Notes on the last day of lectures

Global Futures Fund launches

A message from the Global Futures Networks.

The Global Futures Networks is excited to announce the launch of the Global Futures Fund 1.0. The Fund is designed to help seed and support interdisciplinary and collaborative initiatives advancing a stronger future for humanity and our planet. Aligned with the University’s long-term strategic vision, Waterloo at 100, the Fund will help drive innovative research, education, and/or service-oriented projects across the University’s five interconnected Global Futures: Societal, Health, Sustainable, Technological, and Economic. 

With $5 million available through the Fund over the next three years, the Global Futures Networks invites faculty and staff to apply and bring forward their big ideas to shape our Global Futures.

Visit our webpage for more information and to register to attend a hybrid info session next Thursday, April 10, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in NH3318 or online.

Main Path to be renamed

A message from John Lewis, Director, Indigenous Faculty Relations and Michael Dorr, Associate Vice-President, Marketing and Brand Strategy. 

If you have visited University of Waterloo’s main campus, you likely stepped on the Main Path – the primary pedestrian travel route that connects South Campus Hall to the Indigenous Outdoor Gathering Space.

The renaming of Main Path has been identified as a unique opportunity by the Office of Indigenous Relations via the Indigenous Wayfinding Report, published in fall 2024. As a highly visible landmark, the Main Path presents a significant opportunity to reclaim space and promote education. “When Indigenous communities engage in the renaming of places, they are ultimately reclaiming spaces from which they have been disconnected by colonial practices.” (source: Indigenous Wayfinding Report, 2024).

Through extensive consultation with Indigenous community, the Office of Indigenous Relations is recommending the path name to be Two Row Path. This name reflects and honours the importance of the Haldimand Tract and the longstanding Haudenosaunee relationship with these lands as well as for its significance in outlining respectful and peaceful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous. In addition, the renaming of the path will also provide opportunities for campus-wide education about the tract and Haudenosaunee Peoples.

In partnership with Plant Operations, we have identified over 90 instances of Main Path (MP) reference on exterior wayfinding on campus. These path names will be updated by removing the existing vinyl letters and providing a new vinyl cut for Two Row Path, which will appear seamless. In addition to the physical space, the digital footprint of the Main Path (e.g., digital maps, resources and references online) will also be updated.

“Connection to land and understanding the history of the land that we are on is very important to Indigenous people,” said Jean Becker, Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Relations. “We believe that renaming Main Path to the Two Row Path will help all of us better understand and connect to the place where we work, and study and it is an opportunity to educate our community about the deep Indigenous presence in this territory.”

This work is commencing in Spring 2025 and will take approximately eight weeks to complete and has been endorsed by the Presidents and Vice-Presidents (PVP). If you have any questions, please reach out to indigenousrelations@uwaterloo.ca.

Registration closing soon for Teaching and Learning Conference 2025  

A message from the Centre for Teaching Excellence.

Registration is already at 95 per cent  capacity for the 16^th annual University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning Conference taking place on May 1 with a day of online workshops taking place on April 30. Last year saw over 550 faculty members, staff, and students gather to learn from and with one another around the theme of student engagement.  

This year, we will centre our conversation around strategies for responding to disruption and uncertainty and leveraging them as occasions to innovate and improve our educational practices. How do we address challenges and opportunities that arise from crises, whether local or global, individual or collective? How do we deal with these disruptions to our carefully planned terms or programs? What are the key lessons to take into future disruptions? How do we support students and faculty and staff members? How do we partner with colleagues and other units on campus to support each other and leverage each other’s strengths? How can we use technology to limit the impact of disruptions? How do we engage with local and global communities to bridge academia and real-world challenges? What new directions are we taking?  

The registration deadline is Tuesday, April 15.  

Remembering Professor Emeritus Timothy Topper

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Engineering news site.