Wednesday, October 7, 2015

24 Hours of Waterloo returns for its fourth year

What will your day look like on October 14? 24 Hours of Waterloo is making its way back to campus to find out.

24 Hours of Waterloo is an initiative hosted by the Student Success Office and campus partners to encourage a sense of campus pride and community on social media, by capturing a day-in-the-life at Waterloo. For 24 hours, the Waterloo community is encouraged to post photos and videos to Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #UWaterlooLife, or send photos via email to success@uwaterloo.ca.  

Whether it's your trek to campus, what the class you attend or teach is like, what you're eating for lunch, or that campus event you're attending, we want to see it! Need a little inspiration? Check out the over 900 submissions we received last year.

The top 15 photos will be shared on the UWaterloo Life Facebook page and voting will open up to the Waterloo community from October 19 to 23 at noon. The student photographer with the most likes will not only walk away with bragging rights, but will also be awarded $500 to spend at Retail Services.  

24 Hours of Waterloo is a great opportunity to connect with other students, faculty, staff and alumni, and there’s lots of ways to get involved. Consider participating in our ultimate Instagram takeover which will feature 24 Waterloo community members in 24 hours, or volunteering to promote the event on campus.   

Questions? Find out more on our contest page, or contact Kayla Snyder, Digital Communications Officer.

Help build a better Bulletin - take the Daily Bulletin survey

This week, a representative sample of the University community, including students, faculty and staff, will be receiving an e-mail about a Daily Bulletin Reader Survey, which will run until November 18. The e-mail containing the survey link will be going out to about 2,000 recipients - a representative sample of the internal Waterloo community.

For those of you who receive the e-mail, this is your opportunity to tell Marketing and Strategic Communications (MSC) about your experiences with the Daily Bulletin and identify specific aspects of the publication that are meeting your needs as a member of the University community, and those that could use some improvement. 

The survey seeks to solicit feedback from regular or occasional readers and even non-readers in an effort to improve internal communications activity at the University.

Participation in the survey is voluntary and confidential. Survey responses will be used strictly to support improvements to the design, content, format, and delivery of the Daily Bulletin. A summary of the survey's findings will be published in the Daily Bulletin after the survey closes.

Upon completion of the survey, you may choose to be entered into a draw to win one of four $25 Retail Services gift cards.

If you did not receive the e-mail but still wish to provide feedback on the Daily Bulletin, you can always send a message to bulletin@uwaterloo.ca. We're happy to hear from you!

English as a Second Language (ESL) gets a new name

This article was originally posted on the Renison University College website.

This September, English as a Second Language (ESL) courses will be renamed English for Multilingual Speakers (EMLS).

“We changed the rubric from ESL to EMLS to better recognize the students' multilingual identities,” says Julia Williams, Director of English Language Studies at Renison. “Being multilingual is an important skill in a world where people live and work across linguistic boundaries. We want to emphasize the positive quality of being multilingual. Also, for many students, English is not their second language - it's their third or fourth or even fifth language. The new rubric recognizes the extent and diversity of the students' linguistic backgrounds.”

​Richie Luo, a first-year Mathematics student from Shanghai, China, took EMLS 101 to help her connect with her classmates and professors. “Math is sometimes abstract, so when I need to explain math problems to others, communication skills and speaking skills are very important,” says Luo. (Hear Luo talk about her experiences in EMLS classes in this video.)

Williams says that students taking EMLS courses can expect to learn in small classes of fewer than 25 students (20 students in oral classes), and receive lots of individualized feedback. The courses will help students improve their spoken and written English, which can have a positive impact in their other courses as well. “Often students tell us they make lasting friendships in our courses,” she adds.

Luo says she had a fantastic experience in the course. “Usually university professors just provide a sentence for your feedback, but this professor provided me with a whole page of feedback which I found very important for future improvements.”

EMLS classes are open to any University of Waterloo student whose first language is not English. You can see a full list of EMLS courses online.  

Recognizing skills in Arts: Two new grad courses underway

by Jayne Hayden.

A new skills-focused initiative is currently being piloted in the Faculty of Arts. The initiative grew out of a workshop called “The ‘S’ Word,” developed specifically for Humanities and Social Sciences graduate students who often have difficulty identifying their skills, as well as imagining using these skills outside of the academic context. The workshop was very well received, and Professor James Skidmore, one of the Teaching Fellows from the Faculty of Arts, proposed a model which could be integrated right into Arts courses to clearly demonstrate to students that what they do in the classroom has applicability outside of academic walls, and has the side benefit of helping them understand their methodology better in an academic context.

Working with Professor Skidmore’s proposal, Centre for Career Action Graduate Career Advisor, Christine Kampen Robinson, developed a “bookend model” of two workshops for integration in Arts courses. The first workshop invites students to think critically about course components and the skills that they are developing through their courses: from taking notes all the way to writing a final seminar paper. One of the purposes of this first session is to raise awareness of the value and complexity of what they are doing in an academic context. Throughout the term, students complete short reflection exercises to check in about the different assessment pieces and course components, and the skills they are developing through them.

At the end of the term, there is a second workshop, which seeks to apply the framework of skills identification and articulation to different domains, taking a broader perspective of the entire graduate experience, including teaching, research, committee work and other community involvement, and connecting this concretely to jobs that they would be qualified for, but have perhaps never considered.

The project is being piloted in two graduate courses in Fall 2015, and in two additional courses in Winter 2016. The goal is to facilitate students’ recognition and articulation of the extensive skillset they are developing during a graduate degree in Humanities and Social Sciences.

Kampen Robinson says, “Coming from an Arts background myself, I am really excited to work with graduate students to help them identify and articulate all the things they are skilled at and what the implications of that are for them both personally and professionally. They have so many options, and I want them to know that.”

Anyone interested in exploring integrating such modules into courses in upcoming terms can contact Kampen Robinson directly by e-mail at ckampenrobinson@uwaterloo.ca or by calling extension 31903.

IT Annual Plan available and other notes

"The IST Annual Plan is now available," says a note from Information Systems and Technology (IST). "The Plan reflects the work IST will be involved in over the next year (and beyond), and will be updated as initiatives complete or come on board. Our planning is guided by the IT Strategic Plan directions and the University community (through the many formal and informal IT committees and discussion forums). The Plan acknowledges key IT accomplishments from 2014-2015 and includes a look ahead to IST and partner initiatives for 2015-2016. Our strategic investments in critical IT foundations today enables an increasing focus on transformative and innovative work in the future."

Anyone with questions or concerns is invited to contact Connie van Oostveen by sending an e-mail to connie.vanoostveen@uwaterloo.ca or by calling extension 45104.

It's not too late to submit a proposal to serve as a speaker, presenter, or panelist at the 13^th annual WatITis conference, which will be held on Monday, December 7.

This year there are two different session options available for speakers:

• Full-length presentation session (45 minutes in length)
• Rapid-fire presentations (5-7 minutes in length) where the speaker shares a time-slot with other speakers and presents short summaries of their topics.

"When submitting your abstracts, please also identify which session type you are interested in," says a note from the committee. "Please also be aware that you may be required to attend a brief speakers meeting prior to the conference to discuss presentation materials, expectations and logistics."

Topics include, but are not limited to, teaching, research, institutional support, new projects, campus Start-Up ventures, client services, future developments or general interest for Waterloo staff.

"Please send a brief synopsis of your topic and/or idea of submissions to Jenn Brewster (jenn.brewster@uwaterloo.ca), our program committee chair, by October 9^th, 2015," says the note from the WatITis committee. "For more information, please contact our co-chairs Jenn Brewster (jenn.brewster@uwaterloo.ca) or Craig McDonald (cjmcdona@uwaterloo.ca)."

Human Resources is reporting that retiree Helen Underwood died September 15. Helen began working at Waterloo in September 1967 and worked as a housekeeper in Married Student Housing prior to retiring in January 1995. She was predeceased by her spouse, Gerald, in 2006.

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include Citadel, SapientNitro, Flatiron Health, Obero, Rogers Communications, Bridgewater Associates, TA Program, Yahoo & Tumblr, Street Contxt, BuildDirect Design Center, Sonos and Pinterest.