Tuesday, November 5, 2024

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• Presidential Nominating Committee seeks members
• WatProcure, the University's new eProcurement system is now live
• Resurfacing: Mennonite floor plan exhibit opens at the Grebel Gallery this week
• A rundown of Senate's October meeting

Presidential Nominating Committee seeks members

A message from the Secretariat.

President Vivek Goel recently announced that he will not seek re-appointment when his current term ends on June 30, 2026. As a result, consistent with Policy 50 – The President of the University, the Secretariat is preparing to constitute a Presidential Nominating Committee.

When the University forms a Presidential Nominating Committee, Policy 50 helps us to ensure we have broad representations from across the University community. This includes a mix of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and board members and also considers equity factors such as gender.

Nominations are now sought for the following seats on the committee:

• One senator of professorial rank from each Faculty, elected by a vote within that Faculty
• Two regular faculty members, elected from and by the faculty-at-large of the University
• One staff member elected from and by the regular ongoing staff of the University

Anyone appointed to the committee is bound to keep the group’s deliberations confidential and must agree to participate actively in the work. This work is expected to commence in February 2025 and continue through to the end of the calendar year.

Additional information, including the nominating committee’s full composition can be found on the Secretariat website.

Completed nomination forms must be submitted to the Secretariat by email to elections@uwaterloo.ca no later than 4:00 p.m. on Monday, November 25, 2024. Nominations must be supported by at least three nominators.

Nomination forms are available on the Secretariat website or by emailing elections@uwaterloo.ca.

Elections will follow during the week of December 2, 2024.

WatProcure, the University's new eProcurement system is now live

A message from Finance.

Finance is excited to announce that the University’s new eProcurement system WatProcure (powered by Jaggaer) has officially launched! We have now sent out all invitations to new WatProcure users. Initial users have been based upon those who had requisitioning or approval access in Unit4. If you did not receive a welcome email to your @uwaterloo email and you believe you require access to WatProcure, please contact us via the Finance Jira Portal > Procurement queue (WatProcure System Access topic) to request access.  

Moving forward, all new purchases should be processed exclusively through WatProcure. Unit4 Requisitioners have been informed of the date that their Unit4 requisitioner create access will expire. They will then be given a read-only role for viewing of legacy requisitions.  Note: there is no change to Unit4 Approvers roles/access. Once users are activated in WatProcure, they are asked to begin using WatProcure for all new procurement activities. All open legacy purchasing activities will need to be completed in Unit4. 

WatProcure training available for you  

• WatProcure help documentation within the system;
• See the Training Dashboard within WatProcure for links to videos and how-to documentation;
• WatProcure Training website (Procurement website); 
• WatProcure LEARN course (self-registration) (FIN_WatProcure_Training);
• WatProcure How-To’s (Confluence Knowledge Base) (log in required);
• WatProcure FAQ’s; and
• Upcoming WatProcure virtual open houses.

Where do I go if I need help?  

If you have questions, your WatProcure Champion is a great first point of contact.  

We also recommend connecting with your (Faculty) Financial Officer or Department Administrator for finance related matters, as they have Faculty/Department specific context relevant to your specific areas.  

Please feel free to contact us via the Finance Jira Portal>Procurement and Accounts Payable Inquiry>Procurement.  

A special thank you….  

We want to take this opportunity to thank our Executive Sponsors as well as our Project Advisory Group for their leadership, guidance and direction on this project. We greatly appreciate all of the hard work and dedication and countless extra hours from across Finance (including Procurement, Payments and Expenses, and Systems team members) and IST to help lift WatProcure off the ground. A special thanks to all of the functional and user acceptance testers across campus as well as those who have graciously volunteered to become WatProcure Champions within their departments! 

Thank you to our campus community for your ongoing support as we begin to wrap up the implementation phase of this project and begin to move into the hyper care/post-implementation phase of this project.

Resurfacing: Mennonite floor plan exhibit opens at the Grebel Gallery this week

A message from Conrad Grebel University College.

Grebel Gallery welcomes Manitoba artist Margruite Kranh to install and launch her Resurfacing: Mennonite Floor Patterns exhibit. Margruite restores historic buildings and her art explores themes of self-expression despite economic and gender constraints, the home as a site of conflict and peacebuilding, and the importance of learning from history. 

She will be presenting at the exhibit launch on Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm and leading a gallery tour on Saturday, November 9 from 12:30 p.m. followed by a traditional print making workshop at the historic Brubacher House on the University's North Campus.

The exhibit will run until February at the Centre for Peace Advancement, level 4 at Conrad Grebel University College. All are welcome!

A rundown of Senate's October meeting

A message from the Secretariat.

The University of Waterloo Senate is comprised of faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, governors, and administrative staff who are both elected and ex-officio members. This governing body of the institution is the highest authority on academic matters and meets regularly to discuss topics such as academic programs, educational policies, appointments, and other academic priorities.

The following items were approved at the meeting:

• New graduate programs (master’s and doctoral) in Biomedical Engineering
• New undergraduate option plan in Quantum Information
• Establishment of a curricular subcommittee under Senate Undergraduate Council
• Revisions to academic regulations pertaining to averages and academic standings in the Faculty of Mathematics
• Guidelines for visitors to Senate meetings

Additionally, Senate considered other business:

• Mid-year update on the University’s 2024/25 operating budget from James Rush, Vice-President, Academic and Provost
• Faculty Update Presentation from Chris Houser, Dean of Science

For more information

Visit the Senate website to find the meeting agenda and related materials for all recent Senate meetings, as well as dates for upcoming meetings. The Secretariat will make Zoom links available to those wishing to attend meetings virtually.

If you have any questions, please contact the Secretariat at senate@uwaterloo.ca.