Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Today is Mental Health Wellness Day

Today is Mental Health Wellness Day at the University of Waterloo. Mental Health Wellness Day is an annual awareness campaign, now in its ninth year, to remind students, staff and faculty that many people will be affected by mental illness and that the University is a caring community and a safe place to ask for help.

Mental health matters and is a priority on our campus. This unified awareness campaign highlights the mental health support that happens on our campus 365 days a year and aims to reduce the stigma associated with seeking mental health support.

Some of the events taking place across campus today include:

• Free shoe tag fitness classes - All day for students at the PAC.
• President's Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health Panel Symposium live stream - Watch the PAC-SMH Panel representatives provide reports on their progress and send in questions for them to answer from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Tune into the live stream and submit your questions to campus.wellness@uwaterloo.ca. 
• Resource booth - Stop by our Resource booth in the Science Teaching Complex (STC) to learn more about the resources available to both students and employees from 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
• Walk for Mental Health - Join us on a walk around Ring Road. Wear your Mental Health Wellness Day T-shirt or any orange shirt to end stigma and show your support for individuals with mental health concerns. We'll leave together at 11:30 a.m. from the STC. RSVP to let us know you are coming.
• The Federation of Students Annual General Meeting will conclude with a Q&A panel with representatives from the President's Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health. The AGM starts at 12:00 p.m. in the SLC Great Hall. On your way in, post a sticky note on the Wall of Wellness to tell us what wellness on campus means to you. Although the Feds AGM is an undergraduate student event, we invite graduate students, staff, and faculty to participate in the PAC-SMH Q&A panel immediately following the meeting.

Check the Mental Health Wellness Day page for more events in the AHS Expansion building, in the residences, and at Waterloo's satellite campuses.

There are many on- and off-campus resources and helplines available to students, staff and faculty year-round, including;

• Services to help students, staff and faculty: Campus Wellness, AccessAbility, Police, the Centre for Mental Health Research and Occupational Health.
• 24-hour helplines: Good2Talk, Here24Seven Crisis Services and the Employee Family Assistance Program.
• Resources, workshops and peer-to-peer support: Counselling Services workshops and seminars, Student Success Office Study Skills and Life Skills, UW MATES peer support, PASS kit.
• Avenues for students to connect with others both academically and socially through faculty student societies, the Federation of Students, peer mentorship, drop-in tutoring, and Athletics and Recreation programs. 
• People who can help: nurses, physicians, counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists, academic advisors, success coaches, residence life staff, chaplain advisors, peer mentors and student leaders.

If you are feeling mentally unwell, reach out for support and talk to someone. We want you to be well and do well at Waterloo.

Policy 33 Ethical Behaviour survey launches

The University is undertaking a revision of Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour. The Policy 33 Drafting Committee has sought feedback from a wide range of stakeholder groups as to what core values the University of Waterloo should uphold with respect to interpersonal behaviours. The Drafting Committee is now reaching out to the community through a survey to gain a better understanding of our current work environment with respect to human rights and ethical behaviour. 

Over the next few weeks, the Survey Research Centre will invite staff, faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students to participate in the confidential survey. The survey will inform the committee about perceptions of the current Waterloo work environment as well as provide important information about where to recommend allocation of resources such as awareness, education and support for individuals experiencing difficulty in the workplace. 

Anyone with questions is invited to contact Beth Jewkes, chair of the Policy 33 Drafting Committee (emjewkes@uwaterloo.ca), or Beth McLay, project manager in the Survey Research Centre (emclay@uwaterloo.ca).

Reading group to discuss Karl May's "Winnetou"

by Lori Straus.

Winnetou, by German author Karl May, is a well-loved children’s book in Germany about the deep friendship between German tutor and surveyor Old Shatterhand and Apache chief Winnetou. The Waterloo Centre for German Studies’ reading group will be discussing the book next month. Knowledge of German is not required.

Estimates say that May’s works have, in total, sold over 200 million copies and been translated into over 40 languages. May (1842-1912) wrote his first Winnetou story in 1875 without having ever set foot in North America. The book the reading group will be discussing was published in 1893.

Digital copies of Winnetou I are available on the WCGS’s website, in English and German. The meeting takes place Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Brubacher House. Registration is required, but the event is free. Full details are available on the WCGS website.

Walker Symposium and other notes

The Department of History and conference organizers are pleased to present a one-day symposium to honour the scholarship of James Walker, and to reflect on the ways in which his teaching and his research have influenced the field of historical studies.

Invited former students and colleagues of Jim's will speak about their current research; some now work in academia, while others have gone into different sectors but continue to research in the fields of race relations, human rights, ethnic histories, and humanitarianism more broadly. 

The symposium is open to anyone interested, and people are welcome to come for the day or drop in to sessions they find interesting. If you plan on attending the lunch, please rsvp to Stephanie Bangarth at sbangar@uwo.ca.

The University of Waterloo Art Gallery's latest exhibition, The Closer Together Things Are, will feature an exhibition tour by co-curators Shannon Anderson and Jay Wilson tonight. In addition, UWAG has announced the launch of the The Closer Together Things Are publication to accompany the eponymous touring exhibition. The publication celebrates the space between difference and similarit. Designed by Jay Wilson, the publication operates as a visual complement and a key to deciphering this uniquely collaborative exhibition. Join UWAG for the publication launch and tour during the shows final week of exhibition in Waterloo.

The Closer Together Things Are is on exhibit at UWAG until Saturday October 28. Other venues on the exhibition's tour includes the Owens Art gallery at Mount Allison Univeristy, Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.

The event takes place tonight from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in East Campus Hall.