Tuesday, October 14, 2025

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• You can make a difference with the United Way
• University, community gathered to remember Bill Woodworth
• Ontario Universities' Regional Fair hits the Field House Thursday

• Eco Summit coming in November

• Grebel Gallery launches new exhibit, other notes

You can make a difference with the United Way

A message from the University of Waterloo United Way Campaign.

It’s been two weeks since the University of Waterloo launched the 2025 United Way campaign, and we’re already off to a great start. The campus community has begun coming together to support United Way through fundraising events, participating in community events, and making direct donations to support United Way Waterloo Region Communities — making a meaningful difference in the lives of our neighbours, friends, and families.

Contributions from our 2024 campaign helped United Way to support 79 local programs with over $2.5 million in investments, including $420,000 dedicated to addressing affordable housing and homelessness.

The following is a message from United Way Waterloo Region Communities:

Looking back to 2024, the donations made by faculty, staff, and students to United Way supported 79 local programs with over $2.5 million in investments, including $420,000 dedicated to addressing affordable housing and homelessness.

Together, we are ensuring that individuals and families across our region have access to shelter, stability, and hope.

Even with constant work, the situation in Waterloo Region is urgent: in 2024, 2,371 people were experiencing homelessness.

Behind each number is a person with a story and an urgent call for help.

One such story is Teddy’s. He once slept in a public park until a volunteer connected him to Cambridge Shelter Corporation. Like many who find themselves on the street, his tough situation was through no fault of his own—family dysfunction left him without support and without a home. Through shelter services, Teddy was introduced to mental health services, employment, and housing assistance. Today, he has a home, stability, and a bright future.

United Way Waterloo Region Communities works every day to make stories like Teddy’s possible.

Through a network of local partners, United Way invests in emergency shelters, eviction prevention programs, and supportive housing. At the same time, it engages in system-wide advocacy efforts such as the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, ensuring that solutions address both immediate needs and long-term change.

We need your help to keep making an impact. We need your support today!

Donate now.

United is the way we put an end to homelessness and help our region thrive.

University, community gathered to remember Bill Woodworth

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Engineering website.

The School of Architecture became a place of remembrance on September 19 as students, colleagues and friends gathered to celebrate the life of Elder-in-Residence William (Bill) Woodworth. Stories shared that afternoon spoke of an architect, professor and Elder whose presence helped people feel seen and whose teachings continue to shape lives.

Woodworth, Raweno:kwas in his Haudenosaunee name, was a member of the Lower Mohawk Kanien’kehá:ka Nation of Six Nations of the Grand River. As the Faculty of Engineering’s first Elder-in-Residence and a long-time faculty member in Architecture, he created space for meaningful conversations and a deeper understanding of Indigenous knowledge.

Born outside Detroit to a Mohawk mother and British father, Woodworth trained as an architect at the University of Michigan, later running his own practice in Toronto. His path included doctoral work in San Francisco and an apprenticeship with Cayuga Chief Jacob Ezra Thomas, whose influence guided much of his later teaching. His book Tawennawetah Teyoswathe, The Morning Star: It is Bright, published by Riverside Press in May 2025, is a reflection on memory, ceremony and Indigenous identity.

Speakers recalled his ability to shift perspectives with care and insight. Dean Mary Wells described how he changed the way she thought about everyday life. “In his reflections, Bill revealed a way of seeing the world that infused empathy, respect and presence into even the most ordinary of objects,” she said, adding that his wisdom “continues to guide our community”.

For Benn McGregor, a software engineering graduate who studied with him, Woodworth’s impact was deeply personal. “The assignment had me reflecting on where I came from and my responsibility to assist in reconciliation,” McGregor said. “I came to a deeper understanding of my role in the world. It was empowering, and I’m still carrying it forwards”.

The School of Architecture's administrative officer, Andri Efstathiou, shared the following quote from Woodworth’s book on behalf of the Architecture community.

“My first assumption is that all creativity, like the acts of conceptualizing, drawing, and writing are, in the most real way, acts of memory, deep remembering, ancestral memory, if you will. According to Frank Lloyd Wright, those of who remember most deeply are thought to be the most creative and in touch with the wellspring of imagination and genius, as it is named. What we think, how we act, what gets expressed through us, strikes others as profoundly familiar, somehow part of the deep past, and the projected future, all at once, in a profoundly charged present moment! Louis Kahn, the American Architect (1901-1974) put it this way in a cryptic triune: What was has always been, what is has always been, what will be, has always been.” (Woodworth, Tawennawetah Teyoswathe, The Morning Star: It is Bright, 2025, p. 34).

The gathering closed with a shared recognition that Woodworth’s greatest legacy lives on in the people he taught and counselled, who carry his lessons forward in their own lives and work.

To see more of Woodworth’s storytelling, watch Twelve Architectures, a series of lectures he created to share the history of the Haudenosaunee from creation to the present day.

Ontario Universities' Regional Fair hits the Field House Thursday

Ontario’s universities have been travelling together across this province this fall, offering fair-style events in most Ontario regions. The local event will be taking place on Thursday, October 16 at the University of Waterloo in the CIF Field House with fairs happening 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and again 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The regional fair is free to attend and allows high school students to speak one-on-one with university representatives to get answers about programs, campus life, and anything else that may help them make a decision about which Ontario university to choose. Students are encouraged to register for an OUEvents Pass before the event.

Parents, guardians, supporters and educators can register too if they are interested in receiving information. Complimentary parking is available in lot X for the 5:00 p.m. event.

Eco Summit coming in November

A message from the Sustainability Office.

The Sustainability Office invites you to join them for the 12^th annual Eco Summit, bringing together the campus community to showcase and celebrate sustainability achievements, build connections and collaboration opportunities, and inspire collective action for the year ahead. All students, staff, and faculty are welcome and encouraged to attend. This year’s event will take place on Wednesday, November 26 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Fed Hall. 

The end of 2025 brings Waterloo’s first Environmental Sustainability Strategy to a close. This year’s summit will focus on looking ahead to the next chapter of our campus sustainability journey: where we are going, how we will get there, and how everyone on campus can meaningfully contribute.

This year’s event will feature:

• Launch of 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report;
• Case study presentations from student, staff, and faculty champions leading exciting sustainability initiatives;
• Booth showcase from student groups and departments leading sustainability efforts across campus;
• Green Office, Green Labs, Green Residence, and Sustainability Leadership Certificate awards; and
• Interactive activities and networking opportunities weaved throughout.

For more information and to register, please visit the Eco Summit 2025 event webpage.

Grebel Gallery launches new exhibit, other notes

There's a new exhibit on display in the Grebel Gallery at Conrad Grebel University College. "The new Grebel Gallery exhibit, DRAFTS 6: Mapping Diasporic Identities, aims to build understanding of diasporic experiences through art," says a note from Conrad Grebel. "Join the Exhibits launch night on October 22 at 7:30, for a chance to meet some of the artists and get a better understanding of the diaspora."

"Make November your month to move!" says a note from the Centre for Community, Clinical and Applied Research Excellence (CCCARE). "Our UW Staff and Faculty Fitness Programs start a new 6-week session beginning November 3 — with flexible single-day registration options so you can choose the days that fit your schedule best."

UWaterloo staff save 25 per cent on all programs through the Staff Excellence Fund Subsidy.The discount will be applied when you sign in to Fusion with your WATIAM credentials.