Thursday, November 12, 2020

Employee milestones celebrated today

Employees who have served between 5 and 50 years at the University will be honoured today at a special virtual event.

The event is being hosted by Marilyn Thompson, associate provost, human resources, with President Feridun Hamdullahpur providing special greetings.

The annual Years of Loyal Service event will celebrate a number of employees hitting major milestones and whose start dates range from 1970 to 2015:

• 5-year honourees – 153
• 10-year honourees – 57
• 15-year honourees – 51
• 20-year honourees – 52
• 25-year honourees – 21
• 30-year honourees – 40
• 35-year honourees – 33
• 40-year honourees – 21
• 45-year honourees – 2
• 50-year honourees – 2

The virtual recognition reception is also open to those employees celebrating 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 years of service and who were set to attend the 25-50 Year Dinner event originally scheduled for April 1 that was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

The virtual recognition reception will take place in stages as follows:

• 5 to 10 Year Recognition Reception – 12:00 – 12:30 p.m.
• 15 to 20 Year Recognition Reception – 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.
• 25 to 50 Year Recognition Reception – 4:00 – 4:30 p.m.

The event takes place on a virtual event platform called Hopin and includes three components: a milestone video that contains highlights of events that happened during the year in which the employees started working at Waterloo, a rolling list of the employees’ names, and congratulatory Kudoboard messages sent in by colleagues.

As well, with the new Hopin platform, employees will also get a chance to network with their colleagues using the Networking function – they will be matched randomly with another colleague who is also looking to network.

Congratulations to all employees celebrating milestones this year.

Staff members reflect on years of service

By Susan Fish.

In honour of today's employee recognition event, the Daily Bulletin has asked some employees who are celebrating major milestones to reflect on their time at the University.

Connie van Oostveen, Information Systems & Technology, 25 years

Managing change is what Connie van Oostveen, Senior Project Manager in Information Systems & Technology, has done for most of her 25-year career at the University of Waterloo.

Connie studied math at UWaterloo then worked for several years for the provincial government before returning to the University in 1995 as a data analyst in what was then called Data Processing, and which was located in the math and computer building. Within a year or two, she began doing project management and business analysis. She was a lead on the PeopleSoft HR system for 12 years and also lead an implementation of WatIAM.

In the last five years, she has been part of the formal project management office of IST where she and her colleagues help with a wide variety of projects with everything from working with the Student Success Office on the coordination of the breakdown of student fees to working with the Advancement Office to a Customer Relationship Management project with six departments across campus, called DubHub, and the Move to Office 365 SharePoint.

When asked about the changes in her time at UWaterloo, Connie pointed out that she was talking from her home office on her work phone, working wirelessly with a colleague on how to move the community of practice (on project and portfolio management) they colead online during the current pandemic. “When I started at Waterloo, my phone was a black unit with push buttons at the bottom that lit up, allowing me to accept calls that were transferred from the switchboard. There was no such thing as instant messaging. Today, my phone is a piece of software on a laptop, a wireless headset and a wireless connection to the internet.”

Adapting to changing technology at the University is nothing new to Connie. “I had one of the first PCs in data processing, called DPPC01. We worked on terminals with orange or green fonts that connected to the internet. Windows to interact with information was just becoming a thing. They called the Windows interface ‘WYSIWYG’: what you see is what you get.”

Outside of work, Connie loves gardening, especially growing perennials and native plants. She has a big “dipping pond” in her backyard. She also does high-intensity interval training at the gym four times a week, and recently hit a personal goal – being able to deadlift 185 pounds. She and her husband who also works at UWaterloo have two sons, and especially enjoy traveling (prior to the pandemic) to watch their son who plays soccer overseas. They also enjoy hiking with their two dogs.

“A project is about change. My role is to help plan and negotiate the change, clarifying roles and responsibilities so that people understand what will go on even in a unique situation,” Connie says. “It’s really interesting work.”

Sheila Hurley, Safety Office, 40 years

Sheila moved from North Bay to Kitchener-Waterloo in 1980 and found a part-time job at Waterloo Square. A copy of the UW Gazette was left in the lunchroom and she saw a full-time job posting in Physical Planning and decided to apply. The rest is history. Sheila says, "if it was not for the UW Gazette, I would not be here today”.   

In her 40 years, Sheila has only had three different supervisors in the Safety Office: Nick Ozaruk, Kevin Stewart and currently Kate Windsor. “I have been very fortunate over my 40 years to have worked with a great group of individuals. I had the opportunity to grow in my job, work in a busy but relaxed work environment where I always felt accepted and valued and never micromanaged,” she says. “People only leave this department when they retire.”

Sheila has, however, seen many changes over her time: “When I started, I needed to take shorthand for my boss, for instance, or transcribe notes from a dictaphone. I was happy when typewriters advanced and had correction tape built-in. Having a computer made typing documents so much easier, no need for liquid paper, but that didn’t happen till 1991 and in 1993 the Safety Office got the internet.”

The Safety Office has also grown from 2.5 people in the early ‘80s to 10 today. And while her job title has remained the same over time, it has changed and grown in its scope. The Safety Office has been playing a key role in rolling out guidelines and safety pandemic plans on campus while Sheila has been working from home. She can do most of her job there but comes in once to a week for an hour or so to do things she can’t do at home. 

In addition to her role as Safety Administrator, Sheila brings joy and flair to her office and to many people and events throughout campus using her creativity, love of party planning and ability to think outside the box. This has taken several forms over the years – from being a secret santa, to dressing up cardboard characters for birthdays, and from creating cheerleaders for the 30^th anniversary to dressing as Elvis for the University’s 40^th  anniversary. Sheila has organized the Matthews Golf Classic for 12 years and Hagey Bonspiel for 10 years. She has also volunteered for the Keystone Campaign and United Way. Sheila has been fortunate to use her creativity to make University Presidents Burt Matthews, James Downey and David Johnston feel special with her one of kind UWaterloo outfits for tennis, golf and hockey. 

“I like to make people happy and feel special,” says Sheila, whose efforts have not gone unrecognized, as she received recognition awards from the University for her creativity in 2004 and 2007. Her garage is her supply room for her creativity, containing more than 40 wigs among other props. “I have been so fortunate over my 40 years to have had great co-workers and have developed great friendships with people across campus.” 

Sheila even developed a great friendship with Millie the Duck. The Muscovy duck, with her distinctive colouring, mysteriously appeared in the pond outside Health Services in 1999/2000 and stayed there for more than two years, and as Sheila recalls, “I became attached to her. She knew my voice. I would come out of the building at lunchtime and call to her, and she would come waddling to see me along with her mallard friends.”  

As Sheila reflects on her 40 years, she says her friendship with Pat Mihm from Plant Operations was one of kind. “He was always willing to take part in my many adventures on campus,” she says. “My most memorable time on campus was honouring my friend Pat at Convocation when he was named an Honorary Member of the University. I was delegated to be the Convocation Citation Reader, to talk about what an amazing individual Pat was and about all he had done for the University. Side by side, Pat and I walked into Convocation as part of the procession. I will always remember standing on stage in our robes and looking out over the audience.”

“Life is a miraculous progressive journey where we encounter countless people in many different ways as has been the case for me at UW,” says Sheila.

Registration open for Eco Summit 2020: Building Better

A message from the Sustainability Office.

Join the Sustainability Office on November 26 for their seventh-annual Eco Summit. While this year looks very different on campus and across our communities, EcoSummit provides an opportunity to come together as a campus to reflect on our sustainability progress and new opportunities for the year ahead.

This year’s event will feature:

• Launch of 2020 Environmental Sustainability Report
• Case studies from students, staff, and faculty across campus
• Green Office awards

The event will take place on Thursday, November 26 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Microsoft Teams. Please visit Eco Summit 2020: Building Better to learn more and RSVP.

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs seeks new assistant VPs

"Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) is seeking to fill one of two positions of Assistant Vice-President, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs for a two-year term, starting January 2021," wrote Jeff Casello, associate vice-president, graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs in a memo circulated to faculty members earlier this week. "Currently the roles are being filled by Liz Nilsen and Kirsten Müller – Kirsten’s term will end December 2020."

The Assistant Vice-President (GSPA) is part of the GSPA senior leadership team that supports excellence in graduate education, a thriving graduate community, and graduate student and postdoctoral scholars-related initiatives that align with the University Strategic Plan.

"We are looking for a candidate who has held administrative leadership roles and has experience in the graduate arena (e.g. graduate chair)," Casello writes. "As the position involves representing GSPA in diverse contexts, applicants should be comfortable being in a visible role, providing leadership within and beyond the University community. To review the full details of the role and details on the application process, I encourage you to visit the GSPA website."

The application deadline is Friday November 20, 2020. 

Queries regarding this role can be directed to Kirsten Müller, Assistant Vice-President, GSPA.