Dear staff, faculty, and graduate students,
Later today, the Faculty’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan will be going to Faculty Council for approval, and staff are welcome to attend as special guests for the discussion. This is the final step before we can take the exciting leap to implementation.
To get here, a subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee was formed to incorporate your input from recent focus groups we held, as well as the Faculty survey on the final draft. We tried to incorporate as many suggestions as seemed feasible, and we hope that even if we didn't include the changes you personally would have liked to see, that it still represents you in essence.
Our aspirational vision is “a healthier world,” and our mission is that “The faculty promotes and protects health and well-being through excellence in education, research, collaboration and partnerships.&rdquo Although our core values were articulated pre-COVID, the committee believes that these values stand the test of challenges of the pandemic: Equity, Community, Work-life balance, Integrity, Creativity and Impact.
One of the objectives — a proposed Faculty name change — will need to receive approval at various University administrative levels, so it will follow a different path than the rest of the strategic plan. We are in the process of consulting with students about it now. You can see the Faculty Name Change proposal here, which includes a list of Q and As based on our consultation with student representatives. We will bring the Faculty name change for approval via electronic vote or at a later Faculty Council meeting.
Hope to see you later today on Webex,
Lili Liu
AHS this month I Events I Tips and reminders
AHS THIS MONTH
New faculty member Jason Au
Please welcome Jason Au, who is joining the Department of Kinesiology as Assistant Professor. He researches how and why vascular disease is accelerated by complex blood flow and abnormal vascular wall properties. He has a BSc and PhD in Kinesiology from McMaster University, and, most recently, was a postdoctoral fellow in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UWaterloo.
Outstanding Performance Awards
The Outstanding Performance Awards recognize faculty members for outstanding contributions to teaching and scholarship. We'd like to congratulate the 2019 AHS recipients, who were announced this month: Marina Mourtzakis, Clark Dickerson, Michael Barnett-Cowan, Chris Perlman, Elena Neiterman, Luke Potwarka and Heather Mair.
AHS Co-op student of the year
Congratulations to Health Studies student Yasmeen Mihad Razvi (left), who was named the 2019 AHS Co-op Student of the Year. Razvi served as a clinical research assistant at Sunnybrook's Odette Cancer Centre, analyzing the accuracy of survival predictions for patients in the palliative clinic. Honourable Mention for the award went to Emily Lam, who worked at Sunnybrook's Health Sciences Centre.
Graduate student achievements
Congratulations to all the grad students who have received scholarships and grants this term. This includes Dan Wigfield, a PhD student supervised by Ryan Snelgrove in Recreation and Leisure Studies, who obtained one of three North American Society for Sport Management Doctoral Research Grants for his research on new sport organizations, Erica McDonald (MSc) for her CIHR–Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship, Megan Dol (MSc) for her Ontario Graduate Scholarship and PhD student Shannon Reaume for her Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship. The latter three work on child and youth mental health in Mark Ferro's Arch Lab.
Guidance on territorial acknowledgements
Because public acknowledgement of the traditional territory on which we live is an important step toward reconciliation, the University strongly encourages acknowledging the land we occupy by adding this statement to your UWaterloo email signature: "The University of Waterloo acknowledges that our work is on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our institution is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River." You may modify it so that it reflects your active work on this land, as appropriate, or include it in your course syllabi. It will be going on all UWaterloo website footers in the near future. Please see the Indigenous Initiatives Office for additional guidance.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Please note that all in-person events have been cancelled or postponed until further notice.
Spring convocation: June 16
We are not able to hold this event in person right now, but we will still be celebrating the hard work and accomplishments of all our graduating students. Not only will they receive emails with personalized videos, but we will also be congratulating them on both social media and our website, and holding an Instagram contest to help reminisce about their great memories in AHS. Congratulations, Class of Spring 2020!
TIPS AND REMINDERS
Survey on perceptions of COVID-19 and age
Laura Middleton and members of her Brain and Body Lab are conducting a research study to understand the health beliefs and behaviours of different age groups around COVID-19. They are actively collecting data through a brief online survey, and anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to participate. This study has received ethics review and approval from the Office of Research Ethics.
Participants for equity study needed
Diana Parry, associate vice-president, human rights, equity and inclusion, is leading a research team from Recreation and Leisure Studies that is seeking participants for a new research project aimed at identifying campus-specific needs, supports and constraints for developing a tailored Male Allies program designed to prevent and reduce the incidence of sexual and gender-based violence at the University. The team is looking for volunteers 18 years and older who identify as male and are interested in speaking about the culture of masculinity on a university campus. For more information, or to volunteer, please contact Eric Filice.
COVID-19 and research
For up-to-date information about COVID-19 and research, including funding opportunities and calls for proposals, modified services and updates for researchers, check the COVID-19 and research page on the Office of Research site.
Do you have a news item to share? Please email it to Eugenia Xenos Anderson.