Thursday, May 7, 2026

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• New benefit rates went into effect May 1

• A 15-year vision for Dana Porter and Davis Centre Libraries

• Advancing AI readiness in community care across Waterloo Region

• Thursday's notes

New benefit rates went into effect May 1

A message from Human Resources

Each year on May 1, the University of Waterloo completes its annual renewal of employee benefit plans. This includes extended health, dental, life insurance, and long-term disability (LTD) coverage.

What is happening?

As part of the annual renewal process, benefit rates are reviewed and updated where necessary. Any changes take effect May 1, 2026, and will be reflected in employee payroll deductions.

How are new rates calculated?

• Extended Health and Dental: Rates are set each year based on projected claims for the coming year, along with applicable taxes and GreenShield’s administrative costs.
• Life Insurance and LTD: Rates are determined by Sun Life Financial using claims experience and the terms of our existing agreements.

What will the new benefits rates be?

The updated rates effective May 1, 2026 are outlined as follows.
 

Benefits table

Benefit	Effective May 1, 2026	Change from last year	Cost sharing
Life Insurance (Basic and Additional Basic coverage*)	$0.184 per $1,000 of coverage	Increase of 8.9 per cent	1 x earnings is paid by the University, 2 and 3 x earnings is 66.7 per cent paid by the University
Long Term Disability**	1.389 per cent of insured earnings	Increase of 19.0 per cent	100 per cent employee paid
Extended Health	$99.79 single $318.41 family	Increase of 17.6 per cent	100 per cent University paid (shared if part-time)
Dental	$65.78 single $197.97 family	Increase of 2.6 per cent	100 per cent University paid (shared if part-time)

*Optional life insurance premium rates remain unchanged
**Maximum insured earnings will increase from $208,428 to $213,847 effective May 1, 2026

If you have questions about these rates, contact your HRhelp@uwaterloo.ca for more information.

A 15-year vision for Dana Porter and Davis Centre Libraries

A message from The Libraries.

The University of Waterloo Libraries is delighted to share a new Strategic Space Plan outlining a 15-year vision to renew and evolve Dana Porter and Davis Centre Libraries.

Launched in March 2024 under the direction of the Provost, and co-led by the Libraries and the Office of the Provost, the plan was developed by Perkins & Will following extensive campus engagement with more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff.

Aligned with key institutional priorities, the plan offers a flexible roadmap to support evolving needs in learning, teaching, research and campus life, including an event space, digital scholarship lab and Indigenous learning centre.

Learn more about the Libraries Strategic Space Plan on the Libraries website.

Advancing AI readiness in community care across Waterloo Region

A message from the Office of the Vice-President, Research and International. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

The Graham Seed Fund is structured to support research that is closely connected to the realities of health-care delivery. By fostering direct collaboration between University of Waterloo researchers and community-based providers, the program creates a shared environment for identifying needs, shaping research questions and developing evidence that is relevant to practice.

As part of the CareNext Coalition (CareNext), the Graham Seed Fund plays a key role in connecting academic research with health system priorities across the Waterloo Region. CareNext, established in 2024 as a partnership between Waterloo and the Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN), provides a platform that aligns system needs, clinical insight and research capability.

“The Graham Seed Fund brings health-care organizations and researchers together around real system needs. This round focuses on AI readiness in community care—generating the insights required to support safe and effective adoption. Through CareNext, we are aligning frontline priorities with research expertise to strengthen readiness and inform how AI can be meaningfully integrated into care delivery,” says Danina Kapetanovic, Vice-President, Innovation and AI Strategy, Chief Health Innovation Officer at WRHN and the University of Waterloo; and leader for CareNext.

Aligned with Waterloo’s Global Futures priorities, researchers are working in collaboration with local hospitals, Ontario Health Teams and community partners to address complex health system challenges through applied, practice-informed research.

This round of the Graham Seed Fund invited projects that examine the factors shaping responsible AI adoption in community care, generate evidence on readiness and develop approaches that can inform both policy and implementation. The selected projects reflect a strong commitment to partnership, with researchers working directly alongside WRHN, Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health, KidsAbility, Brightshores Health System, Schlegel Villages and regional Ontario Health Teams.

Seven Waterloo researchers have each received $35,000 to support this work. The funded projects and their team leads are listed below.

Human-AI teaming in rural hospitals: Human factors evaluation and readiness assessment for the co-design of an AI system for a patient access and flow unit

• Catherine Burns (Researcher)
• Brightshores Health System (Partner)

Building confidence and collaboration for generative AI use in community-based health care 

• Karen Cochrane (Researcher)
• KidsAbility (Partner)

Chemotherapy drug wastage control

• Fatih Safa Erenay (Researcher)
• Waterloo Regional Health Network

A socio-technical readiness framework for AI-driven data capture and workflow analysis in procedural community care settings: The case of AFib ablation

• Sharon Ferguson (Researcher) 
• Waterloo Regional Health Network 

Community-care AI readiness: Data, ethics, and culture for patient monitoring in the Waterloo Region

• Moojan Ghafurian (Researcher)
• Waterloo Regional Health Network; Skopien (Partners)

Experiential AI literacy through use case discovery and implementation

• Edith Law (Researcher)
• Waterloo Regional Health Network; Schlegel Villages; Cambridge North Dumfries Ontario Health Team; Ottawa Valley Ontario Health Team; KW4 Ontario Health Team (Partners)

Co-designing a genAI readiness and safeguards evaluation toolkit for community mental health-care settings

• Jim Wallace (Researcher)
• Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health (Partner)

The Graham Seed Fund is made possible by the J.W. Graham Trust Endowment Fund. Visit the Transformative Health Technologies website to learn more about the fund. 

Thursday's notes

Recreation registration is now open, according to Athletics and Recreation. Registration is open from now until Tuesday, May 19 at 1:00 p.m. for intramurals and until Thursday, May 21 at 12 noon for all other programming! Visit the Warrior Rec website for more information.

Speaking of Warrior Rec programming, the Triathlon Ring Road Rumble takes place on Saturday, May 9, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the PAC Pool. "Whether you're trying your first tri or gunning for a sprint, we’ve got a race for you," says a note from the UW Triathlon Club. The Ring Road Rumble is an indoor/outdoor triathlon that includes a swim, a bike ride, and a run around Ring Road. Tickets are $30 and there are still spaces available. Food will be served after the race.

Additionally, the 2026 East-West Bowl is also set to kick off on Saturday, May 9, from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Warrior Field. "The event features the top 106 Canadian university football players eligible for the 2027 CFL Draft as they look to showcase their skills to coaches, general managers, and personnel from the Canadian Football League," says a note from Athletics. "A minimum of three players in their third or fourth year from each of the 27 U SPORTS football programs will attend the game." Five Waterloo Warriors will be among the prospects putting it all out there on the field, with four Warrior coaches also participating.

Tickets are free for students but must be registered in advance.

Finally, a bit of a mass email mea culpa. Yesterday, a rogue email escaped containment and was inadvertently sent to members of the employee mailing list. While the email itself was a legitimate bit of housekeeping for University Communications, it was not meant to be distributed widely and should be deleted. Please disregard and don't click the link. Information Systems & Technology (IST) has some resources available about how to deal with unexpected or suspicious emails.