Friday, August 8, 2025

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• Move. Run. Just have fun!

• Announcing a new addition to the employee and family assistance program

• Watch the skies Tuesday with Perseids party and 2025 Astronomy Lecture

Move. Run. Just have fun!

By Megan Vander Woude.

In 1985, students, faculty, staff, and alumni from the Faculty of Health (then known as Human Kinetics and Leisure Studies and later the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences) gathered to run through the University of Waterloo campus. Unbeknownst to them, their “Fun Run” would become one of the longest-standing events in the UWaterloo community.

By 2017, more than 600 people would participate by racing, jogging and walking — many in costume.

Created by Tina Roberts (BSc ‘00), a Health staff member at the time, the first Fun Run included an indoor warmup followed by a wintry run on campus paths. Two years later, she turned the event into a road race, with participants running two laps around Ring Road. 

Betty Bax (BSc ‘82) joined Health as a staff member in the late 1980s and hosted the event with Roberts for years before eventually leading it herself. Her memories of those early events might sound familiar to more recent participants: annual t-shirts, costumes, prizes for race times and for fun.  

In 2025, Bax looks forward to joining the event again, this time as an alumni volunteer. With this year’s Fun Run happening on the same day as Homecoming, she hopes to see some alumni who haven’t been back to campus recently. 

“I think it will be an eye-opening  tour if they haven’t been back in a while,” she says. “So much has changed. We have a skyline now, not just Dana Porter Library. And it’s an exciting opportunity to meet with friends and catch up.”

See more Fun Run history and photos

Explore Homecoming 2025 events — including the Fun Run

Announcing a new addition to the employee and family assistance program

A message from Human Resources

We understand that the demands of everyday life, both personal and professional, can feel particularly heavy and have an impact on employee well-being, especially during periods of economic uncertainty and international tensions. To better support your wellness and foster a healthy University community, we’re pleased to announce a new enhancement to our Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) benefit. 

As of July 22, 2025, Sentio Counsellor-Assisted Internet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (iCBT) will be available as part of our EFAP benefit with Homewood Health. This innovative online program offers both self-directed and therapist/counsellor-assisted Cognitive Behavioural Therapy options, providing employees with proactive and flexible mental health support. 

iCBT is an effective type of therapy for mild to moderate depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. It helps you recognize the links between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and provides tools to help you change your thought patterns and improve your mood. You can access Sentio on your computer, phone or tablet, anywhere and anytime.

What is included in Sentio Counsellor-Assisted iCBT?

• 12 Weeks of Counsellor-Guided Care: Provides unlimited chat support from a dedicated counsellor to guide participants through the iCBT program
• Customizable Treatment Goals: Offers over 20 treatment goals, with resources such as guided videos, journaling, and symptom tracking tailored to individual needs.
• Proactive Mental Health Support: Enables early intervention for anxiety, stress, or depression with structured, guided counselling.
• Seamless Access: Integrates directly into the current EFAP online platform – no need to download a new app or re-register 

Two ways to access Sentio Counsellor-Assisted iCBT

1. Log into Homeweb, your online EFAP platform, "Launch Pathfinder" and complete a short questionnaire. When clinically appropriate, access to Sentio Counsellor-Assisted iCBT will be provided. 
2. Alternatively, Sentio iCBT can be accessed directly from your Homeweb dashboard. You will then be asked a few questions to determine your suitability for the Counsellor-Assisted option.

Whether you're navigating personal challenges, seeking professional development, or simply looking for ways to improve your overall wellness, this new offering is here to help—confidentially, conveniently, and at no cost to you. Learn more about the EFAP benefit and wellness services available to Waterloo employees.

Watch the skies Tuesday with Perseids party and 2025 Astronomy Lecture

A message from the Faculty of Science.

Explore the night sky with astronomers from the Faculty of Science and Royal Astronomical Society of Canada on Tuesday, August 12. The Perseids meteor shower will be at its most spectacular, so let's gather to learn something and then enjoy the view! We will meet first at 7:30 p.m. in the nearby Optometry building for a short lecture by the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics' Dr. Lisa Dang entitled Hellish Worlds: the science of lava planets. "In the last few decades, astronomers have discovered over thousands of planets orbiting stars other than the sun," says the talk's abstract. "Exoplanet hunting missions have revealed a rich diversity of planets vastly different from those residing in the Solar System. Among them, a particularly intriguing type of planets discovered are lava worlds - scorching-hot rocky planets, like the Earth, orbiting extremely close to their parent star such that they are blasted with radiation levels that could sustain a magma ocean at the surface. Today, I will talk about how we find these searing hot worlds, how we can study them and what you could experience if you were to visit a lava world."

This is a family-friendly event, but if your kids will have trouble sitting through a lecture, you're welcome to join us on Columbia Field around 8:30 p.m. for the stargazing portion of the evening.

Note that if the skies are cloudy, the lecture will still take place on August 12, but we will not gather on the fields for stargazing. Please register so that we can keep you updated.

Parking is available in Lot X ($7) near the lecture venue, and in the OpenText lot (free) on Frank Tompa Drive, north of Brubacher House. It is an easy walk between both parking lots, the lecture, and the fields. Please do not park in the small gravel lot adjacent to the field, as your car lights interfere with our stargazing.