The Daily Bulletin is published by Internal and Leadership Communications, part of University Communications
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Show your support on Giving Tuesday
A message from the Office of Advancement.
Today, people around the world will come together to support charitable causes they care about. We hope you’ll join them, by making a gift to Waterloo.
Your gift can help unlock more than $100,000 in charitable support for projects across campus. Or, depending on which challenge you choose, your gift could be matched, effectively doubling its impact. If you’re our lucky 100th or 500th donor, your gift will receive a $1,000 top-up.
On our Giving Tuesday site, you’ll find some cool features to keep you on top of the action in real time:
- track the progress of individual challenges;
- see which challenges have received the most support – in dollars and in number of donors – with our leaderboard;
- see where in the world gifts are coming in from as they are made;
- browse our donor roll to see who made a gift and where they directed their support; and
- let your Facebook and Twitter followers know you support Waterloo.
On Thursday we’ll share the results with all Giving Tuesday donors. Thank you for supporting Waterloo.
Transition and Orientation programming for Waterloo's newest students
The Student Success Office and Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) are providing an update on transition and orientation programs for incoming undergraduate and graduate students.
For graduate students: Waterloo Grad Ready
Starting today, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) will welcome 700+ incoming master’s and doctoral students for winter 2021 through the Waterloo Grad Ready program. Over the course of eight weeks, the virtual transition and orientation program will offer graduate students a suite of resources to prepare for grad studies at Waterloo, including:
- a winter 2021 new student checklist;
- opportunities to build connections with other incoming students;
- resources to help them transition to graduate life at the University of Waterloo; and
- live sessions to welcome them to campus and support their ongoing graduate experience.
Waterloo Grad Ready will be delivered through UWaterloo’s online learning management system, LEARN. To learn more about Waterloo Grad Ready, visit the Graduate Studies Resources website, designed specifically for our faculty and staff. For questions, email gradready@uwaterloo.ca.
For undergraduate students: Waterloo Ready
Approximately 56 new undergraduate students will begin their studies in January 2021. To help welcome these students, whether they are coming to Waterloo or learning online from elsewhere, the Student Success Office is providing coordinated resources to prepare students for their first term at Waterloo, including:
- Email communications about the steps they need to take before they start their first term.
- Waterloo Ready LEARN content about what to expect academically and socially, including online learning resources.
- The option to participate in a peer mentorship virtual community with other new students and ask questions from an upper year students.
For questions about Waterloo Ready for undergraduate students, email sso.newstudent@uwaterloo.ca.
Rethinking priorities and reinventing economies
This is an excerpt of an article originally published on Waterloo Stories.
As governments and businesses in Canada and around the world look to rebuild from the economic fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have an opportunity to rethink and retool capitalism to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly created an imperative to restart,” said Jean Andrey, dean of the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo. “But it's also an opportunity for us to rethink economies at the local, national and global scale.”
Business leaders, entrepreneurs and academics like Andrey came together virtually on Monday to discuss the possibilities for a greener economic recovery. The Waterloo Innovation Summit explored the business case for climate capitalism and illuminated the imperative to balance sustainable financial growth with sustainable environmental impact. As we all look for solutions to recover from a global pandemic and a climate in crisis, we asked speakers how we can seize this crisis as an opportunity to rethink our priorities and redesign the global economy, cities and job markets.
Running out of time
The event’s keynote address was delivered by entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist Tom Rand (BASc '91), who emphasized the need for innovation, not just in technological solutions to climate change, but in our economy and society as well. Rand also highlighted the urgency of the situation, adding that we no longer have time to rely on tools like a carbon tax. The time has come, he said, to prioritize efficacy over efficiency.
When asked how the pandemic changed society's view toward climate resilience and green recovery, alumnus Tom Rand (BASc ’91) said he hopes individuals realize how important the public sector is as conductors of recovery, and how private sectors need to follow suit.
“If your house is on fire, you don't care about how efficient the fire hose is, right?” asked Rand. “You care about how much water it puts on the fire, and you don’t really care if the hose leaks. So, when we think about innovations on the policy side, we need to think about how effective it is and how fast it will lower emissions?”
Investing in cleantech
The importance of investment in renewable energy and carbon reduction technologies was a common theme throughout the Summit. Professor Olaf Weber, a University Research Chair in Sustainable Finance, pointed to a lack of conventional investments, referencing a report that less than 1 per cent of research and development investment is in renewables. Government help could take the form of financial supports for investors or the idea of a sustainable infrastructure bank, he said, adding that as governments look forward to rebuilding, they’ll have a decision to make.
“After COVID, there will be much money spent to recover. So, do we want to continue to pour it into the fossil fuel industry, or do we want to change and invest into other industries?” asked Weber, who joined the event’s second panel.
Read the rest of the article on Waterloo Stories.
Notes as December's first snow settles in on December 1st
There is snow on the ground with more on the way and the Waterloo Region District School Board has cancelled schools, but the University of Waterloo in the main is open today, with a couple of exceptions:
- Bright Starts Co-operative Early Learning Centre, located on the University's north campus, will be closed today, reopening on Wednesday, December 2 at 8:00 a.m.
- The Early Childhood Education Centre, located in the PAS building, is also closed today due to the weather.
According to the University's weather closing guidelines, the University and the affiliated and federated institutions of Waterloo will close "because of severe weather when normal operation would pose a significant danger to students and employees, or would prevent large numbers of them from coming to campus or returning safely to their homes."
For the most part it is safe to assume that the University's default status is "open" unless messaging indicates otherwise.
Notice of the University's status will be posted on days where severe weather is forecast, normally at 6:00 a.m., to allow faculty, staff and students time to decide their course of action that day. As the guidelines indicate, "those who judge that it may be unsafe to come to campus should discuss alternate work and study arrangements with their instructor or supervisor."