Thursday, June 8, 2017

New appointments in the Provost's Office

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Susan Tighe as Deputy Provost, Integrated Planning and Budgeting and Professor Diana Parry as Associate Vice-President, Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion, for two-year terms commencing 1 July 2017," wrote Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard in a memo circulated to campus on Tuesday.

Susan Tighe completed her BSc in Chemical Engineering (Queens University, Kingston), continuing to further add an M.A.Sc. and PhD in Civil Engineering (University of Waterloo). She has been a faculty member in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo since 2000 and is the Norman McLeod Chair in Sustainable Pavement Engineering. She is also currently the President of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. Susan has gained national and international recognition for her outstanding contributions to the development, design, and management of sustainable concrete and asphalt transportation infrastructure. Her reputation as a scholar, educator, and professional engineer is well illustrated by the breadth of her honours and awards including Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, New College of Scholars Royal Society of Canada and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers Medal for Research and Development. This month, she will receive the 2017 University of Waterloo Graduate Supervision Award.  

Diana Parry has a Bachelor of Recreation and Leisure Studies (Brock University), Master of Arts (University of Waterloo) and a PhD in Leisure Studies (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Diana is a Professor in Applied Health Sciences and has been at the University of Waterloo since 2003. Utilizing a feminist lens, Diana's research privileges women's standpoints and aims to create social change and enact social justice by challenging the medical model of scholarship. In particular, Diana’s research explores the personal and political links between women's leisure and women's health, broadly defined.

In 2013 Diana was appointed as Special Advisor to the President on Women’s and Gender Issues. In this role, Diana liaised with senior administration, faculty, and the Director of Equity to advise on policy and structural level gender equity issues, and to help foster a supportive environment for students, staff and faculty. Diana is the campus lead for the UN Women’s HeForShe/IMPACT 10x10x10 campaign, which is a global solidarity movement that unites people around the world in advancing gender equity.

"I am grateful to Susan and Diana for taking on these important leadership roles at the University of Waterloo," writes the provost. "Please join Feridun and I in welcoming Susan and Diana to the Senior Leadership Team."

Agreement sends aviation job prospects soaring

Penning a new 5-year deal to help aviation grads launch their flying careers, the University of Waterloo is proud to join the industry-leading Jazz Aviation Pathways Program (Jazz APP).

“I assumed for my career that I would have to start small,” Aviation student Jenna Yee said. Like many young pilots, she imagined she would have to move North to get her flying career off the ground. “But this opportunity really opens a whole new pathway into the industry.”

Jazz APP provides a direct career pathway for qualifying aviation students in their final year of study, offering flight simulator evaluations, student scholarships, and the opportunity for top-performing grads to transition to First Officer positions with Jazz or its affiliates.

“Members of this year’s graduating class are looking forward to the opportunity to be considered for direct entry into a major airline," said Ian McKenzie, Director of Aviation at Waterloo. “Our graduates currently fly globally to every continent, even Antarctica. The Jazz APP offers a 4 to 5-year jump start to their aviation career.”

Read the full story on the Aviation program's website.

A day to end the hesitation around menstruation

Speakers at the Menstrual Hygiene Day event pose with some event participants.

By Sabrina Li

About 800 million girls and women around the world undergo menstruation. Despite menstruation being a natural biological process, it is a private and taboo topic in many countries around the world. 

To break the conversation barrier associated with menstruation, a global advocacy event called Menstrual Hygiene Day was celebrated on Friday May 26 at the Science Teaching Complex. This event was primarily organized by two University of Waterloo graduate students with the help of a team of volunteers. Several faculties involved in the HeForShe IMPACT initiative for gender equality supported this event. Given that the theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day 2017 was “Education”, the aim of the event was to empower and draw attention to the extent of the period stigma, and lack of menstrual hygiene around the world. Activities planned for the day included a student fair in the morning and a panel discussion in afternoon.

The student fair promoted education and awareness of the period stigma in a fun and interactive environment. Several activities were hosted concurrently at the student fair, including an interactive computer game called “The Tampon Run”, a colouring booth that promoted expression and empowerment, and an informative discussion on the benefits of reusable menstrual products. The Glow Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, Women’s Centre, and the Canadian Coalition of Global Health Research Student Chapter were also in attendance with interactive games and information on their resources and how students can get involved.

In the afternoon, a panel discussion was held featuring Dr. Susan Elliott (Professor) and Elizabeth Onyango (PhD Candidate and Queen Elizabeth Scholar) from the Department Geography and Environmental Management, Sabrina Rubli, co-Founder and Executive Director of NGO Femme International, and Amanda Jenkins, PhD Candidate in Social Psychology at the University of Guelph.

These panelists spoke on the historical perception of menstruation, the evolving perception of menstruation as a taboo subject, the development of menstrual products over time, lack of menstrual hygiene and consequences for girls in East Africa, and the best contributors to improving menstrual hygiene in the developing world, such as water and sanitation. 

When asked, “what do you think men can do to help improve hygiene and reduce the stigma of menstruation?” all panelists agreed that education was key. It is important to include non-menstruators in the discussion.

Access to menstrual hygiene products is still a barrier for menstruators from low-income households. “You’ll find free condoms everywhere but rarely do you see free tampons or pads,” said co-Founder of Femme International, Sabrina Rubli. One of the ways for non-menstruators to offer support is to pack sanitary napkins or tampons in their bags for the people in their lives that might need them. Participants were provided with “I’m packing” buttons at the event. With them, they can self-identify as carriers of sanitary napkins and tampons and assist those that may not have access to menstrual hygiene products.