Wednesday, November 22, 2017

President’s Town Hall: Successes, Growth and Dialogue

by Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor. This is the latest post on the president's blog.

One of the most important events on my schedule every year is the President’s Town Hall. This is my opportunity to talk about some of the successes we’ve enjoyed over the past year, the important projects we are working on, my vision for the future and have an open dialogue with the campus community.

Thank you to everyone who took the time out of their day to come to the Town Hall or viewed the live stream. We are an engaged campus of students, Faculty, staff and community members who care deeply about the future of our institution and I appreciate your dedication to its success.

Performance and Recognition

After enjoying a year of University of Waterloo’s 60^th Anniversary celebrations it is clear we have had six decades of prosperity. This past year was no different.

Our student retention to second year, co-op enrolment and full time student enrolment all saw concrete gains. I am also proud to say that we have made significant progress in creating new study space on campus. Our role as a top research institution was also bolstered as our sponsored research revenue crossed the $200 million mark.

These are gains to be proud of and they have translated into continued recognition.

For the 26^th consecutive year we were named Canada’s most innovative university by Maclean’s magazine. Waterloo was also ranked the top university in Canada for venture capital-backed entrepreneurs, successful exits and unicorns by Pitchbook.

These are all wonderful indicators of continued success, but we are also dedicated to a number of initiatives to make our campus a more engaging and welcoming place.

Serving our Community

Through the dedication of our Associate Vice-President Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion, this past year we established a new steering committee on Indigenization. This committee will oversee the creation of an Indigenization strategy as five working groups evaluate and make a set of recommendations for the strategy by June 2018.

The President’s Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health has also made progress over the past year in meeting and discussing recommendations on how to improve awareness and mental health on our campus. This committee is very important to me and I personally look forward to hearing about the initiatives it will help develop.

Over our 60 years as a leading educational institution we have had a lot to celebrate, but the one thing that has pushed us forward was not relying exclusively on what we’ve done before. We look for ways to constantly improve.

Moving Forward

As our community moves forward we are dedicated to creating change instead of reacting to it. We are producing groundbreaking research, world-class graduates and industry changing entrepreneurs. But, how do we build off of this?

We must be committed to research and student-centred learning. We must be dedicated to diversity, entrepreneurship, and rise above disciplinary limitations. We must also come together as a tightknit community and look beyond our borders to a strong international presence.

This is how we will move forward as a university into the future.

Questions and Dialogue

The Town Hall is also a wonderful opportunity for open dialogue. This year we received dozens of questions before and during the Town Hall ranging in topics from sustainability to safe data management and student mental health. We were only able to answer a fraction of the questions submitted during the Town Hall, but we have already started posting answer to those questions on the President’s Town Hall website.

I believe that if you asked a question, you should receive an answer. We will continue adding additional answers to questions that were submitted in the very near future and will keep our campus community updated as answers are published.

Thank you again for all those who attended the Town Hall and I look forward to continuing our ongoing dialogue and focus of making the University of Waterloo stronger.

Water research institute publication launches with a splash

The Water Institute has debuted a new online publication designed to turn the trickle of water-related research communications into a flood.

"The Water Institute’s vision is to significantly advance the sustainable use and management of water for the benefit of the environment, the economy, and society," says a statement from the institute. "In realizing this vision and to increase the impact of our work, we believe that it is imperative to link our researchers and their research to end-users, including governments, the private sector, and civil society."

WaterResearch has been designed to make that link, and to facilitate knowledge transfer and exchange with academics, practitioners, students, and other water-sector stakeholders interested in, and able to act on, innovative water research.

The Water Institute will publish WaterResearch three times per year, in the Fall, Winter and Spring academic terms. Issues will contain summaries of recently published articles that exemplify the interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research activities of our members. Issues will highlight research across the Institute’s five theme areas, focusing on Human Health and Well-being, Urban Water Systems, Watershed Management, Blue Economy, and the Global Water Cycle.

The inaugural Fall 2017 issue showcases the wide-ranging work from University of Waterloo’s Water Institute members, including professor Susan Elliott (Geography and Environmental Management) on the socio-cultural dimensions of water insecurity and sanitation practices; professor Mark Servos (Biology) on the response of fish to municipal wastewater treatment system upgrades; professor Peter Huck (Civil and Environmental Engineering) on selecting critical contaminants for monitoring in managed aquifer recharge systems; professor Nandita Basu (Earth and Environmental Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering) on how past nutrient legacies can impact current water quality; professor Roy Brouwer (Economics) on the role of water markets as a climate change adaptation tool in transboundary river basins; professor Marek Stastna (Applied Mathematics) on the influence of extreme weather events on the subterranean freshwater resources of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula; and professor Jeremy Pittman (Planning) on governance across the land-sea interface.

Waterloo's Water Institute is one of the largest water research and education institutions in the world, with over 150 faculty members and 400 graduate students investigating a wide variety of complex water challenges. A key strength of the Water Institute is its ability to organize and conduct interdisciplinary research around complex water management issues – pushing the boundaries of water science, engineering, economics, and governance.

Kinesiology student tackles new osteoporosis program

Waterloo kinesiology student Caray Ford is making people stronger. She developed an osteoporosis exercise program, Strong Bones, to help people with low bone mass strengthen their thoracic posture. Caray pitched the Strong Bones program to her co-op supervisor at Fit Bodies Fit Minds, a studio in Sault St. Marie that focuses on corrective exercise.

Kyla Faganely, owner of the studio, was thrilled with Caray’s proposal and launched the program immediately. “I love when co-op students come in with these amazing ideas and can implement the things they’re learning in class,” she says.

Strong Bones classes include exercises that involve the use of rollers and exercise bands to encourage gentle resistance. By learning to stabilize the spine and strengthen the muscles surrounding it, participants decrease their risk of falling. The exercises also decrease the likelihood of major spinal damage in the event of a fall because the thoracic muscles protect the spine more effectively when they’re strengthened.

Caray was hired after graduation to continue developing the Strong Bones program, and she hopes to expand it. Kyla is excited to hire more Waterloo co-op students in the future. “Working with these students has definitely inspired my own learning and development,” she says.