Former WHO leader to launch health school

Former World Health Organization Director-General and Prime Minister of Norway Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland (right) will be on campus next Thursday, April 19, to help launch the University of Waterloo's new School of Public Health and Health Systems.

A world leader in public Health, Dr. Brundtland began her career as a physician before getting involved in politics, serving as minister for environmental affairs, and later as Prime Minister of Norway for three terms in the 1980s. She became Director-General of the WHO in 1998 and chaired the World Commission of Environment and Development, known widely as the Brundtland Commission. She now sits as one of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights.

Dr. Brundtland will be delivering a keynote address entitled "The Importance of Public Health to Global Wellbeing" at the Thursday launch event, which takes place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the J.G. Hagey Hall of the Humanities. Registration is required and event details are available online.

The new School of Public Health and Health Systems, which received Senate approval in May of last year, aims to establish the university as a world leader in public health training, research, and analysis by working with provincial, national, and international partners to produce relevant and creative research to solve health challenges, while training a new generation of public health professionals. The school, formerly the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, is part of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences.

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Student wins national 3M fellowship

Alannah Robinson, a 3rd-year Honours Recreation and Leisure student, was among the ten winners of the inaugural 3M National Student Fellowship Program.

The fellowship program is a partnership between 3M Canada and the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The 3M National Student Fellowships honour up to ten full-time college and undergraduate university students "who have demonstrated qualities of outstanding leadership and who embrace a vision where the quality of their educational experience can be enhanced in academia and beyond."

Winners receive a $5,000 award, are invited to join other award winners at the annual STLHE conference (held in Montreal in late June) with travel and accommodation expenses paid. The winning cohort also has an opportunity for collaborative engagement with one another to create projects that "can enhance teaching and learning at the post-secondary level."

"Through Alannah’s definition of a leader, and its cyclical, ongoing process, she explained how as she began her post-secondary education; with passion and enthusiasm she wanted to be instrumental in creating change and leave her mark at the University of Waterloo," reads the fellowship citation. "She sees gaps and actively finds solutions to fill them such as organizing uWaterloo’s first-ever invocation ceremony which officially welcomed over 4,000 students to their post-secondary experience. She sees potential in others, and does everything she can to help them reach it, as demonstrated through her involvement with a conference called Action Minded People Empowered to Dream. She actively seeks opportunities to help others gain the skills they need to improve."

"Alannah has highlighted an important and common issue present on campus: segregation. She sees community as a tool to break down barriers and recognizes its essential role to a well-rounded educational experience and one that is central to her involvement at the University of Waterloo. She has been a community-builder for the last two years as Residence Life Don, where she supports the academic and personal needs of students living in residence."

Other fellowship winners were drawn from the University of Northern British Columbia, McGill University, Ryerson University, the University of Guelph, the University of Toronto, and Carleton University.

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Tuition benefit form online; other notes

"Effective with the Spring 2012 term, the Tuition Benefit Application form will be an online submission, rather than a paper form requiring a physical signature!" reports Student Accounts rather breathlessly in an email circulated on April 4.

The application can be accessed under the "forms" section on the Student Accounts website, and most of the required information should populate automatically after WatIAM credentials are used to log in. "You simply choose whether you're submitting for yourself or your child, enter the student name and ID #, and confirm that you're eligible to claim the Tuition Benefit," reads the email. "Once you click "Submit", you'll automatically receive an application submission receipt by email and your information will be forwarded to Human Resources for verification of the amount of Tuition Benefit to which you're entitled."

"If you'd like to deduct the amount of the anticipated Tuition Benefit from the balance owing on your student account for the term and only pay the difference not covered by the benefit amount, you’ll need to be sure that a Tuition Benefit Application has been submitted for the term before you attempt to complete the online Promissory Note. Then, login to the online Promissory Note and enter the anticipated Tuition Benefit amount in the appropriate space. During the Promissory Note submission process, our system will confirm that a Tuition Benefit Application form has already been received for you this term, so you won't need to attach a copy of the form to your online Promissory Note submission. Remember that the Tuition Benefit applies to charges for Tuition, Co-op and Work Report Marking fees only, so proof of payment of the remaining balance will be required when you submit the Promissory Note."

Communitech's 2012 Tech Leadership Conference gets underway today at Bingemans Conference Centre's Marshall Hall. The conference features breakout sessions, a tech expo showcase, and keynote addresses from "Book of Awesome" author Neil Pasricha, Nora Young, host of CBC Radio's Spark, and Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, one of the world's best-known blogs. The event will also feature live-to-air interviews and reports by 570News. The University of Waterloo is a presenting partner at this year's conference.

The Federation of Students is conducting a survey of undergraduate students "to gain feedback regarding student study space." The results of the survey will "impact decisions made in the future regarding study space at the University of Waterloo." Survey respondents will be entered into two draws to win the new iPad or a BlackBerry Playbook.

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