Monday, September 22, 2025

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• Judene Pretti named Interim Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education
• Keeping the conversation going on accessible education at Waterloo
• Minimum wage changes go into effect October 1

• Instructional Innovations Week coming up in October

• Senate meets today and other notes

Judene Pretti named Interim Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education

In a recent memo to the University’s leadership team, Interim Vice-President, Academic and Provost, Dr. Thomas Duever announced the appointment of Dr. Judene Pretti as Interim Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) effective October 1, 2025 for an 18-month term.

Over the past two decades, Judene has held three pivotal Director roles within CEE, including her appointment as the inaugural Director of the WatPD program, and the first full-time Director of the Work-Learn Institute. She is currently the Director of the Strategic Enablement Team, where she is leading cross-functional teams in systems, technology, project management, data, communications, and digital experience.

Beyond her leadership, Judene is a respected researcher in work-integrated learning. Over the last 14 years, she has explored topics ranging from talent pipelines to skill development, earning both a Master’s and PhD in Management Sciences. Her scholarship includes numerous publications and international collaborations, notably co-editing the Routledge International Handbook for Work-Integrated Learning.

Judene is also the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Dr. Graham Branton Research Award (CEWIL Canada, 2020), the WACE Outstanding Professional Contribution award from the World Association for Co-operative and Work-Integrated Education (2023), and the Ralph W. Tyler Award for outstanding and distinguished research in co-operative education and internships from the Co-operative Education and Internships Association (CEIA, 2024).

“I would like to congratulate Dr. Norah McRae on an exceptional career and thank her for the steadfast leadership she provided the University of Waterloo as the Associate Provost, CEE,” the Provost writes. “Please join me in congratulating Judene on her new role and wishing Norah the best in this next chapter of her journey.”

Keeping the conversation going on accessible education at Waterloo

A message from the Teaching Innovation Incubator.

Last October, on the heels of Ontario-wide findings that a deficit model to disability inclusion and accessibility exists within post-secondary institutions, the Teaching Innovation Incubator hosted Waterloo’s first-ever Accessible Education Day with the aim of providing a space for campus-wide conversations about accessibility—particularly focused on accessibility in education. We saw great attendance and engagement amongst Waterloo faculty and staff involved in accessibility work on campus including sessions focused on AccessAbility Services and Accommodations, and broader institutional-wide strategic projects such as the Accessible Education Project, among others.

Since last year’s event, there have been significant progress within the accessibility work taking place on campus, with existing accessibility initiatives transitioning to new frameworks, existing work integrating into new accessibility support structures, and new accessibility initiatives emerging. In recognition of the evolving nature of accessibility work at Waterloo, we are excited to announce the second annual Accessible Education Day which to provides an avenue for bringing our campus community together once again to explore accessibility at Waterloo.

Faculty, staff, and students: you’re invited!

Waterloo faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend Accessible Education Day 2025, on Wednesday, October 15, online on MS Teams from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Accessible Education Day will highlight efforts at Waterloo to support making education accessible, share resources and campus-wide insights from instructors and students, and provide a space for meaningful dialogue. Recordings of sessions will also be made available following the event.

The overall purpose of Accessible Education Day is to offer our community an opportunity to share what they know, ask questions, and learn more about the available supports on campus to assist with accessibility in education.

Accessible Education Day will commence with a moderated Lived Experience Panel focused on sharing the lived experiences and perspectives about accessibility from current Waterloo student, staff and faculty. It also features panel discussions, workshops, and a final session designed to evoke productive discussion about next steps we are taking as an institution to foreground accessibility in our mission and operations.

Please visit the Accessible Education Day website for more information and to register. Note that registration is required to gain access to the event links and to the session recordings following the event.

Minimum wage changes go into effect October 1

A message from Human Resources

The minimum wage rates in Ontario are increasing on October 1, 2025, as summarized in the following table:

Minimum wage rate	Current wage rate	Effective October 1, 2025
General minimum wage – applies to most employees*	$17.20 per hour	$17.60 per hour
Student minimum wage – applies to students under the age of 18 who work 28 hours a week or less when school is in session, or work during a school break or summer holidays	$16.20 per hour	$16.60 per hour

The majority of our current employees are not impacted by this change. For casual employees at the current minimum wage rate, this change will happen automatically, and the new minimum wage will be updated in Workday by Human Resources. More information about the minimum wage change can be found on the Government of Ontario’s website. 

Please be aware of this change when hiring employees after October 1, 2025. Users of Time Tracking in Workday should also keep in mind the new legislation to ensure employees are paid compliantly. A memo was sent to all payroll administrators recently. Please direct any questions to hrhelp@uwaterloo.ca. 

Instructional Innovations Week coming up in October

A message from the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE).

For the third time, the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) is looking forward to offering Instructional Innovations Week, from October 20 to 24, in collaboration with faculty and a number of Academic Support Units.

Throughout those five days, colleagues from the University of Waterloo will lead a variety of engaging sessions including:

This event is free and open to all who wish to attend. However, registration for each individual workshop is required.

Senate meets today and other notes

The University's Senate has its first meeting of the fall term today at 3:30 p.m. in NH 3407 and online. The big agenda item up for debate and approval is the proposed Faculty of Arts reorganization, which passed a significant milestone two weeks ago with a vote at a special meeting of the Arts Faculty Council.

As per the proposal, effective July 1, 2026, the existing 15 departments and two schools in the Faculty of Arts, and their respective programs, faculty and staff will be organized into a total of six schools. The current School of Accounting and Finance and the School of Interaction Design and Business in Stratford would be retained, and two existing departments—the Department of Economics and the Department of Psychology—would be renamed the School of Economics and the School of Psychology, respectively. The remaining 13 existing departments within Arts would be reorganized into two new schools, the School of Critical and Creative Humanities (consisting of Communication Arts, English Language & Literature, Fine Arts, French Studies, Germanic & Slavic Studies, and Spanish & Latin American Studies), and the School of Social, Political, and Historical Research, (consisting of Anthropology, Classical Studies, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, and Sociology & Legal Studies). 

"For the 13 specified departments proposed to be organized into two new schools, all respective programs, courses, faculty, and students are recommended to be moved into the two proposed new schools," the proposal, which can be found in the Senate agenda package, states. "The proposal does not recommend changes to programming offered by the combined academic units."

"The proposed reorganization from 17 to six academic units will increase the resilience of Arts to better support its programs and their delivery to students, its research opportunities and administration, and its faculty and staff members," the proposal continues. "Fewer, larger academic units will enable and encourage greater collaboration on existing programs and can better support otherwise vulnerable academic units and programs. Larger units will also make staff operations more flexible and resilient, and role expectations more equitable across the Faculty."

The current reorganization process got underway in August 2023 and consultations have included faculty and staff town halls as well as the striking of a working group to research and make recommendations.

The motion up for approval reads: "on recommendation of the Arts Faculty Council, that Senate accept and recommend the Board of Governors approve the proposed reorganization of the Faculty of Arts, effective July 1, 2026."

It's kind of a big deal, as the saying goes. 

Among the remaining agenda items:

• A motion that Senate establish an ad hoc working group to review current practices and opportunities to enhance senator engagement;
• A motion to approve the 2026-2027 academic calendar dates and calendar guidelines for establishing academic dates; and
• A revised draft of Policy 42 – Gender-Based and Sexual Violence Alleged Against Students (formerly known as Policy 42 – Prevention of and Response to Sexual Violence) is presented for the information of Senate members.

In other campus news, you're invited to the Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation open house today from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. in DC 1302. "Meet our members and learn more about complex systems science and how you can get involved," says a note from WICI. 

The Canadian Engineering Graduate Studies Fair runs from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Engineering 7's second-floor event space today. "The CGEC brings together eight of Canada’s top universities – University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, York University, McMaster University, Queen’s University, University of British Columbia, and Waterloo – working together to address the urgent need for qualified engineers who can solve today’s most complex technical, social and environmental challenges," says the announcement from Engineering. "Explore Master’s and PhD opportunities at the Canadian Graduate Engineering Consortium (CGEC) Fair 2025 with Canada’s Top Engineering Graduate Programs."

WUSA is running a series of governance structure reform focus groups for students and the second one is being held today from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. online. Students can register to attend, and will receive a $30 gift card in exchange for their insights into how a student union should advocate on their behalf. The third and final session runs tomorrow from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.