Friday, April 15, 2016

Volunteers are the heart of our United Way campaign

by James Skidmore and Nadine Collins

This story is part of the #UWCommunity National Volunteer Week 2016 series, profiling volunteer-driven University of Waterloo initiatives that help make a difference in our community.

At first glance some of the things United Way volunteers do, for example, baking a cake for a bake sale, may seem small. But when that cake is sold at a bake sale in support of the United Way, the value of that cake grows. The funds raised could provide a meal for a family in need, support individuals getting back on their feet after a troubling time, or assist a family that can’t afford after-school sports. Talk about making a difference! 

A volunteer is defined as: a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or purpose. Our volunteers put that definition into action. They recognize the positive changes they can help bring about in our communities. They go the extra mile to plan, organize and run events, raising money to support the important work the United Way does. They encourage our generous campus community to look beyond Ring Road and make an impact in our wider community so that everyone feels included and supported. In short, our volunteers are this campaign.

UWaterloo's official United Way campaign month is October, and while we thanked our nearly 100 volunteers last fall, we know that our volunteers are committed year-round. National Volunteer Week is an opportunity for us to thank them again and celebrate giving, volunteering and charitable engagement, a week to highlight the incredible impact made possible in our community by all those involved in volunteerism. It is the perfect time of year to draw attention to all the efforts made by so many of our colleagues across campus who devote their days to helping others.

To our volunteers we say: please know that everything you do helps make our community a better place to live. Thank you!

From April 10 to 16, 2016, we invite you to join in the conversation by celebrating and recognizing individuals, groups, committees and clubs at Waterloo who actively make a difference through volunteering. Share your photos, comments, or words of thanks on Twitter and Instagram using #UWCommunity and #NVW2016.

An update on the financial system project

A message from Finance

Before the heads-down whirlwind that is fiscal year end begins, Finance would like to take the opportunity to update the University community on the progress being made on the Unit4 financial system implementation project.

The Unit4 implementation methodology is aggressively paced, but certainly achievable given our guiding principles of making timely decisions, emphasizing simplicity, and focusing on the “rule” rather than every exception case.

Another of the Guiding Principles is our intention to first modernize the system so that it can later facilitate future business requirements.  The focus of the targeted May 1, 2017 go-live is the existing core Finance department functionality.

“We are looking forward to providing the campus with modern financial reporting capabilities,” says Dennis Huber, Vice-President, Administration and Finance. “Providing stakeholders with more modern processes and timely information in a highly usable, intuitive environment is a key goal of the new financial system.”

A series of workshops have been held between Unit4 and the various groups in Finance, Procurement and Contract Services, IST, Office of Research, Faculty and other representatives to confirm the finance-related core business processes are covered.  We would also like to thank all those who have provided information to help us ensure the core business processes are accurate.

What’s Next?

The project team is working to complete the business requirements workshops before year end.

Stay tuned to the Financial System Implementation website project updates.

Wait, let me check my phone

This is the latest in a series of #UWStratPlan stories that profile some of the initiatives that are part of the robust efforts to implement the Strategic Plan. 

Books to buy, clubs to join, places to eat, places to be. Life as a University of Waterloo student is as large as the main campus itself.

To keep it sorted and running smoothly, the Student Success Office and Information Systems and Technology teamed up in 2013 to develop a one-stop, online portal.

Widgets on the portal enable students to find such essentials as the books they need for courses, bus schedules and off-campus housing opportunities. The portal plays an important role in one of the eight themes of the University’s Strategic Plan: creating a vibrant student experience.

"We pull all this content from different websites, mash it up behind the scenes, and deliver the information students want, just when they need it," says Jude Doble, student portal project manager.

Read the rest of the article on the Strategic Plan website.

Researcher wins CSA grant to explore avalanches caused by melting glaciers

Earth & Environmental Sciences Professor Stephen Evans, postdoctoral fellow Keith Delaney and MSc student Madison Reid have won a 1-year $50,000 proof-of-concept grant from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to explore the relationship between glacier ice loss and mountain slope deformation in the mountains of NW North America (Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia).

Using archival Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from Canada's RADARSAT-2 satellite, Evans and his team will carry out SAR interferometric analyses of selected sites in these areas to detect and quantify glacier ice loss and associated deformation of adjacent high mountain slopes.

By linking the magnitude and timing of these processes, Evans hopes to demonstrate the connection between climate change and mountain slope deformation. Glacier ice loss removes support from mountain rock slopes causing them to deform in slow-moving landslides, which can terminate in high-velocity, large-scale rock avalanches.

“This is the first investigation of the response of mountain slopes to glacier ice loss in NW North America using InSAR techniques and the first to explore the linkage to catastrophic failure,” says Professor Evans, also a member of the Water Institute.  

The region has experienced a large number of catastrophic rock avalanches onto glacier surfaces since 1945.

Madison Reid is supported by a newly-awarded NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship and the work complements Evans' NSERC Discovery Grant-funded research on rock avalanches in the glacial environment.

Waterloo International moving; other notes at the half

While staff in Waterloo International (WI) move from their current location in EC3 to EC1 today and Monday, the office will be closed. WI will re-open in its new home on the second floor of EC1 on Tuesday.

The Waterloo International services for students within the Student Success Office in South Campus Hall will remain open during the move.

Kim Tremblay of the Math Grad Office snapped this image of Star Wars: The Force Awakens protagonist Rey, created with whiteboard markers in the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre. The Force is definitely strong with the artist, known only as 'CM.' 

More than 50 high school students will test their knowledge of neuroscience in the eighth annual University of Waterloo Brain Bee contest this weekend. The Department of Kinesiology at Waterloo host the event, which allows students in grades 9 to 12 to test their knowledge about neuroscience.

Students will compete for prizes by answering multiple-choice questions using clicker technology. The first-place winner will take home $400 and will qualify for the National Canadian Institutes of Health Research Brain Bee. This is the second year that the event will also feature a brain exhibit and laboratory demonstrations following the competition. Graduate students from Kinesiology will showcase several brain specimens, including two full brains and a portion of a brain affected by Alzheimer's disease. They will perform two other lab demos, including brain stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation).

Counselling Services is offering Spring Coping Skills Seminars. These seminars will help those who are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, out of balance, unmotivated, or just sad. The seminars will be held on the second floor of the Health Services Building in Room HS2302.