Sandra Banks
Vice-President, University Relations
According to Randall Lane, chief content officer and editor with Forbes, COVID-19 has accelerated almost every field and trend that might otherwise take a decade to unfold.
On June 6, in response to a change.org petition on racism on our campus, we issued a statement in which we wanted to address the well-justified hurt and concerns of the petitioners. With regret, our statement did not live up to our own standards for promoting free inquiry.
The pandemic has highlighted existing issues of equity in our society such as the value of work, gender roles, universal basic income and racial profiling. While many in our community are waiting for the world to return to pre-pandemic life, we should be asking ourselves what is considered “normal” to each individual?
Growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs at home can be the first step to embracing an eco-friendlier lifestyle. With the warmer weather amongst us, the concept of home-gardening is front-and-centre through Waterloo’s latest video series titled: “Sustainable Growing at Home.”
COVID-19 overwhelmed health-care systems around the world and left a devastating death toll in its path. The pandemic struck fear and panic in everyone. Knowing very little about the new virus and with no cure, COVID-19 encouraged the rapid spread of misinformation.
Michael Litt (BASc ’11) smiles when he recalls the factors that led him to starting the company that would later become Vidyard. A cross-country road trip with his friend and now business partner Devon Galloway (BASc ’10) created the right environment for bouncing around ideas and building a dream for the future, but it was Waterloo’s co-op program that molded Litt into the entrepreneur that he is today.
Over the past few months, the fallout of COVID-19 has affected varying communities differently and disproportionately. According to new research from Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts, vulnerabilities associated with refugee groups, specifically, have been amplified and exacerbated due to global lockdowns.
For the students at the Games Institute (GI), cancelling Waterloo’s termly GI Game Jam was never an option.
“Our event attracts nearly 300 people across the world annually. We haven’t missed a term since 2014, and we weren’t going to allow COVID-19 to get in the way of that, even if it means coming together virtually,” Cayley MacArthur says, a Systems Design Engineering PhD student and long-time organizer of GI Game Jam. “Our attendees need a social outlet now more than ever, and we weren’t going to let them down.”
In an effort to track the spread of COVID-19, more and more contact tracing apps will continue to emerge. However, there are major concerns surrounding privacy issues when it comes to technology such as these apps collecting personal data.