Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Optometry clinic has moved into its temporary digs

By Karen Kawawada.

The University of Waterloo School of Optometry & Vision Science’s public optometry clinic has moved to an interim location while a major renovation and expansion project goes on.

The Waterloo Eye Institute is a once-in-a-generation, $53 million project to build Canada’s premier optometric care centre. To allow construction to proceed with minimal disruption to patients, as of Monday, October 21, the clinic has moved to 419 Phillip St., Unit C, approximately a three-minute drive or 10-minute walk away.

“We’re thrilled to have found such a wonderful space so close to the School,” said Dr. Andre Stanberry, the clinic director. “It enables us to provide our patients all our usual high-quality services, from comprehensive eye exams to specialty services, all in a quiet, comfortable environment.”

All the clinic’s state-of-the-art equipment and personnel have moved to the interim location. This includes the optical dispensary, which means patients can choose frames onsite while the lab can make lenses and perform spectacle repairs in-house.

Specialty services include myopia control, ocular disease care, eye care for young children and patients with special needs, vision rehabilitation following brain injury, rehabilitative services for people with low vision, treatment for patients with conditions such as ‘lazy eye’ or binocular vision dysfunction, and more.

Like the regular location on the University of Waterloo campus, the interim location is open six days a week, with some evening appointments available. Patient parking is available onsite at no charge – use the driveway on the north side of the building.

“Not only can we serve all our current patients, we’d love to welcome new patients, both at our interim location and back at our regular location once the Waterloo Eye Institute opens in fall 2026,” said Stanberry. “We also have a downtown Kitchener location where we’re happy to see new and existing patients.”

The Kitchener clinic, the Health Sciences Optometry Clinic, is located at 10B Victoria St. S. Unaffected by the construction, it continues to offer comprehensive eye exams and optical dispensing services five days a week.

“If you already have an appointment, you don’t have to do anything – just show up at the time indicated,” said Stanberry. “If your appointment is in Waterloo, go to our interim location. If your appointment is in Kitchener, go to the usual location.”

When complete, the Waterloo Eye Institute, located at 200 Columbia St. W., will have 68,000 square feet of new and renovated space, making it one of the largest optometric centres of excellence in Canada.

All face-to-face patient care will be on the ground floor, making it easier for patients to navigate multiple services. The optical dispensary will be expanded and full of natural light, which will help patients find the look that’s right for them.

The second floor will feature dedicated space for teleoptometry – technology-enabled virtual care for patients in remote and rural communities – and new space for clinical research, biomedical science and advanced vision imaging research.

Overall, there will be more space for clinical education, which will allow the School to modestly expand its enrolment and thus train more optometrists to meet the increased vision care needs of a growing and aging population.

To learn more, visit the Waterloo Eye Institute website. 

Waterloo will host U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship for second-straight year

Waterloo Region is a hot bed of university hockey and fans in the region can rejoice that they’ll have a chance to see the best university women’s hockey teams in back-to-back years as U SPORTS awarded the University of Waterloo the right to host the 2026 U SPORTS women’s hockey championship in Elmira.  

U SPORTS announced last January that the University of Waterloo would host the 2025 tournament at the Woolwich Memorial Centre but is providing the local organizing committee the opportunity to host for a second straight year in 2026. To celebrate the announcement, the Warriors will be hosting the Queen’s Gaels in a regular season OUA game at the Woolwich Memorial Centre on Saturday October 19. 

“We are excited to be able to announce that the U SPORTS women’s hockey championship will be hosted in back-to-back years in Waterloo Region,” said U SPORTS CEO Pierre Arsenault. “Our partnership with University of Waterloo and Woolwich Township and 2025 title partner Miller Waste Services is an example of how communities can work with a member university and corporate partners to build successful U SPORTS championships. We are thankful to have such great partners working on this event and know that fans and participating teams will have a first class experience this season and next.” 

U SPORTS and the University of Waterloo also introduced NHL Official Garrett Rank as the Honourary Chair for both championships. Hailing from Elmira, Ont., Rank has officiated over 600 NHL games since joining the league in 2015. His link with university sport dates to the early 2010s when he was a two-sport athlete with the Waterloo Warriors. A member of the Warriors men’s hockey team, the future NHL official was the University’s 2012 male athlete of the year in golf, after capturing the 2012 Canadian University/College Individual Championship.  

The host committee also announced on Wednesday the launch of the “See Them, Be Them” local hockey association ticket sales fund raising program where local hockey programs will have the opportunity to sell tickets to the 2025 Miller Waste Services U SPORTS championship with a portion of the sales being returned to that organization. More information about the program will be available in December when single day passes go on sale. 

"Through the efforts of our host committee and partnerships in Waterloo Region, we continue to see a groundswell of support for this event," says Roly Webster, Director, Athletics and Recreation. "With a priority of creating a great student-athlete experience, we feel well-positioned alongside the City of Waterloo, Township of Woolwich, and the surrounding communities, all of which are excited to embrace and showcase the national championships in our region over the next two years."

"Bringing this Championship to Elmira is a huge honour not just for myself, but for the entire community," says Garrett Rank, Honourary Chairperson - 2025 U SPORTS Championship. "It fosters a sense of pride, unity and inspiration among volunteers and young athletes alike. I’m excited to witness the positive impact it will have on future talent, showcasing what’s possible. I know it will help cultivate the next generation of athletes and I’m proud be of part of a tournament that champions the Town of Elmira and the University of Waterloo. Two communities who are directly responsible for my development and dreams. Go Warriors/Woolwich Wild Go!"

Tickets for the 2025 Miller Waste Services U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championship are available at USPORTSTickets.ca, while information about volunteer opportunities and the “See Them, Be Them,” ticket fundraising initiatives (coming in December) is available on the Athletics and Recreation website.

Longhouse Labs presents Treaty Girl

A message from the Faculty of Arts.

The Longhouse Labs is proud to present the exhibit Treaty Girl, created by Indigenous artist Courtney Skye (Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan) and curated by Alex Jacobs-Blum (Cayuga Nation, Wolf Clan).

Running until November 5, Treaty Girl is open to the public on Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or by appointment (email Logan MacDonald). As well, everyone is welcome to join the closing celebration on Wednesday, October 30 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Longhouse Labs is located in East Campus Hall via the Phillip Street entrance. 

About Treaty Girl from the artist statement

This exhibition is a love letter to Haudenosaunee girlhood. It is for Haudenosaunee girls who carry on our ways of being and knowing. Girls who inherit the responsibility to carry on the centuries old governance, land stewardship, and material culture. Girls who will become parents, teachers, healers, storytellers. Girls who are paying attention to the legacies we leave, the tools we hand to them, and the burdens colonialism has placed on their shoulders.

“Treaty Girl aims to make visible the many generations of girls who are embodying Treaty, survival, and joy,” says Courtney Skye.

Marking the 1784 Haldimand Treaty anniversary

This exhibit coincides with the 240^th anniversary of the Haldimand Treaty. On October 25, 1784, Sir Frederick Haldimand, the governor of Quebec, signed a decree that granted a tract of land to the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Six Nations Confederacy, in compensation for their alliance with British forces during the American Revolution. The Haldimand Tract is a strip of land that runs the length (and 10km on each side) of the Grand River from Lake Erie to its source, including lands in the Kitchener- Waterloo region.  The Haldimand Tract is central to ongoing land claims struggles. Throughout the late 1700s and 1800s, the Crown and Haudenosaunee disputed rights to the land title. Originally, 950,000 acres were set aside for the Haldimand Tract; today approximately 48,000 acres remain. Negotiations about the title to the Haldimand Tract still continue between the Canadian government and the Six Nations Confederacy.  Learn about Treaties Recognition Week, which runs from November 4 to 11.

Lights out on campus tomorrow as temporary power outages take place

It'll be lights out on campus during the early morning hours on Wednesday, October 23 and October 24 as Plant Operations takes the North Loops and South Loops offline for equipment commissioning activity.

There will be short, temporary outages, less than 5 minutes in length, as the loops are taken out of service, with up to three outages per loop. All activity will take place between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday.

On the morning of Wednesday, October 23, the following buildings will be affected as North Loops 1, 2, and 3 experience outages:

Chemistry 2; Davis Centre; Mathematics & Computer; General Services Complex; Commissary; Mathematics 3; Central Services Building; Energy Research Centre; Burt Matthews Hall; Physical Activities Complex, University Club, Student Life Centre, Health Services, and the School of Optometry & Vision Science.

On the morning of Thursday, October 24, all buildings on North Loops 4 and 5 and South Loops 3 and 4 will be affected by the outage:

• Federation Hall, Village 2, Tutors' Houses; MacKenzie King Village; Ron Eydt Village; Quantum-Nano Centre; Tatham Centre; South Campus Hall; Graduate House; Carl Pollock Hall; Doug Wright Engineering; Environment 2, Environment 3, the Libary, Needles Hall; Physics; PHY-Sharc; Rod Coutts Hall; and the Centre for Environment, Information and Technology.

Employees in those buildings should take the appropriate precautions and ensure that desktop computers and other sensitive peripherals are properly shut down in advance of the outage.

Contact Jared Murphy in Plant Operations for more information.