Wednesday, April 22, 2020

On Earth Day, think sustainably

A message from the Sustainability Office.

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, an annual event that calls for citizens around the world to celebrate nature and take action to support environmental protection. This year, millions of people around the world will come together for the first digital Earth Day around the theme of climate action.

Through the Environmental Sustainability Strategy, Waterloo is taking action to reduce our campus footprint, strengthen our teaching and research expertise, and build a culture of sustainability among the campus community.

To learn more, check out the Sustainability Office’s social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter) or register for the Sustainability Certificate, available to all University employees, this spring term.

Earth Day the focus of April W Store Book Club

A message from the W Store.

Celebrate Earth Day with the April W Book Club picks from W Store.

⁣This month's titles were curated by UWaterloo’s own Dean of Environment, Jean Andrey, with the support of her colleagues in the Faculty of Environment.

The collection features titles by celebrated writers Rachel Carson, Naomi Klein, Tanya Tagaq and Dr. Suess among many others.

Check out the collection on the W Store website. 

Moving @edu.uwaterloo.ca accounts to the @uwaterloo.ca domain

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST).

As announced in the September 10, 2019 message from Information Systems & Technology (IST), all existing @edu.uwaterloo.ca email accounts will be moved to the University's Office 365 @uwaterloo.ca domain. This includes undergraduate students and alumni, in addition to some employee who may also have an @edu.uwaterloo.ca account.

Having both students and employees in the same tenant will allow for significantly enhanced collaboration opportunities between these groups while using Office 365 applications. This change will also allow IST to further investigate the use of Teams to support teaching and learning (investigations to begin fall 2020); an important consideration as we continue to support students from a distance.

Timeline for work

This work will take place from April 25 (11:00 p.m.) to April 27.

Impact and action required

There will be no interruption to email delivery or receipt while this work is happening, but individuals will be required to check both inboxes between April 25-27 to avoid missing important messages.

• After April 27, all email sent to an individual’s @edu.uwaterloo or @uwaterloo address will be delivered only to the new @uwaterloo account.
• Effective April 2022, email sent to an individual’s @edu.uwaterloo account will no longer be delivered to the @uwaterloo account.

Some employees may have both @edu.uwaterloo and @uwaterloo email accounts. These individuals have received a separate email from IST regarding this change. 

You are responsible for moving content between accounts, but not until April 27 and later

We have tried to make sure we can make this change happen as quickly as possible given the COVID-19 disruption. This means IST cannot migrate email messages on behalf of the individual – it would take too long and create too much extra disruption during a time when we need to stay in touch.

This approach means individuals will retain access to their email throughout the changeover, but they will need to:

• Move any historical email they wish to keep from their @edu.uwaterloo account to their new @uwaterloo account, and
• Transfer files from their existing OneDrive to the OneDrive associated with their new @uwaterloo account.

Individuals will have access to their @edu.uwaterloo account until approximately April 30, 2021.

New login instructions and support for moving data between email and OneDrive accounts will be available on the Student Email Migration website.

Show us how you're working these days

The University of Waterloo's Marketing and Strategic Initiatives team is developing a video that demonstrates and recognizes how the campus has adapted to new realities, and needs your help.

"From supporting the community and health professionals with PPE supplies to an efficient mobile workforce; from home-based research to home-based co-ops; and more, we are looking for you to share photos and video of faculty, staff and co-op students working remotely," says a note from Tony Frost, associate vice-president, marketing and strategic initiatives. "Specifically, faculty, and campus partners from Co-operative Education, the Student Success Office, Food Services, Housing, Plant Operations and others."

"This can be as simple as taking a picture/video from/of your computer or phone," Frost writes. "We’ll take anything you can dream up, so get creative, take a full screen shot with your team or lab or a single shot of yourself at your desk."

Submissions (or questions on how to submit material) should be sent to Jan Weber by noon on Friday, April 24. Be sure to identify yourself in the photo.

Here's some technical advice:

How to take pictures with the Mac webcam

1. Open the Photo Booth application, it's found within the /Applications/ folder on every Mac.
2. When you're ready to take a picture, click the red camera button to begin a countdown to snap the photo.

How to take a screenshot with Windows

3. Click the Windows icon (bottom left) and from the start menu and your camera application will open.
4. Use the camera app to take a photo.

Please note that by sharing your photo you are giving permission for its use in the video project.

Don't look now, but here are some more Good Buddies of the University

"Anna seems to be completely happy to take my place when I have to step out for a moment," writes Laura Bredahl, bibliometrics and research impact librarian. "No one has noticed the difference yet."

"This is Sookie and Jericho taking advantage of the new work from home mandate," writes Sian Lockwood, project officer, knowledge mobilization at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA). "Sunbathing while waiting for Mum to finish work!"

"This is Buddy (his real name) holding my mouse hostage," writes Diane Bandura, CORE administrator at the Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE). "Must be feeding time!"

"This is my co-worker Hiro," writes Wendy Diel, co-ordinator, residence learning at Campus Housing. "He’s been awarded “Best Dressed” several weeks in a row. Unfortunately, he thinks that dressing for the job he wants is good enough, and has spent most of the work day sleeping."

"This is Sophie, our 4 year-old Sheltie," writes Christina Yee, department assistant in the Office of Research. "She often brings toys into my home office to remind me that I need to take a break once in a while!"

"Delilah, the VP of Snacks, is making sure I don't forget to take a proper lunch break," writes Jessi Neill, student advisor, Toronto.