Homecoming moves to September date

UW’s Homecoming weekend is scheduled for the end of September this year — more than a month earlier than the traditional November date — with an eye to the weather and the chances of more alumni and students being able to take part.

Chantel Franklin of the alumni affairs office says the change results from a review done by the homecoming committee last fall. It looked at the 2005 experience and “best practices” elsewhere, she says.

Following this review, the committee presented its findings and recommendations to UW's executive and alumni councils. Among the recommendations were:

• change the date to allow for more student participation and addition of existing faculty reunions
• switch to a one-day focus to provide a dynamic schedule and starting point as the committee adjusts to the new timing.

UW's executive and alumni councils supported these recommendations and, as a result, Homecoming 2006 will take place on Saturday, Sept. 30.

Jason Coolman, director of alumni affairs says that the office of alumni affairs and the Homecoming Committee are “excited about these changes. Many long-standing Homecoming events such as the AHS Fun Run and Renison College's East Asian Festival were happy to adjust to the new timing. The new date has also given us the opportunity to add faculty reunions and develop new partnerships.”

Homecoming 2006 will take place with the Diversity Campaign launch, he says, “allowing us to present former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, and former UN Ambassador for HIV/Aids, Stephen Lewis, to the greater UW community as our keynote speaker.”

The earlier date also increases the chances of nice weather, “allowing for greater enjoyment of outdoor activities such as the Homecoming Barbecue with children's activities, Peter Russell Rock Garden scavenger hunt and Warrior Football."

Traditionally, Coolman says, the Naismith Basketball Tournament, which will continue to take place in mid-October, has been the cornerstone event for Homecoming. Although it will no longer be a part of Homecoming, alumni affairs will continue to partner with athletics to ensure that alumni are invited to this exciting basketball tournament.

“The new Homecoming date allows us to showcase additional athletic events, such as football, volleyball and more in the years to come, as alumni return to campus."

For a schedule of events, check the homecoming web page.

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New Centre for Mental Health Research launched

By UW Media Relations

A new centre at UW will increase the range of psychological services available in Waterloo Region and facilitate the development of innovative, new research on mental health.

The UW Centre for Mental Health Research will include both clinical services and research, making UW’s clinical psychology program one of only two in Canada offering on-site clinical training in a research setting. It will be the only program to fully integrate clinical research and training into the course curriculum.

The centre will promote new research into the development and persistence of mental illness in children, adolescents and adults, as well as research on new and effective means of treatment. This will increase the availability of assessment and treatment at the local level and will lead to improvements in treatment across the country.

“It really is a unique arrangement,” says Mike Dixon, chair of the psychology department. “While other clinical training programs train students and conduct research, what makes our program unique is that we have the rare opportunity to both train clinical students and conduct research – all within a clinic setting. The combination provides a number of advantages and will impact the research we conduct as well as the services we provide in several important ways.”

• First, the centre will immediately increase the number of people served by the university’s existing clinic. The UW psychology clinic currently sees about 40 children, adolescents and adults each year. That will increase to between 80 and 100 adults during the first phase of the centre’s development.
• Second, the centre will contribute to the quantity and quality of practitioners across the country. The very best graduate students will be attracted by one of the few programs that includes a clinic featuring independent, faculty-run research programs. As a result, the program graduates will be better prepared to service clients in practices across Canada.
• Third, it will allow for UW clinical faculty to have greater independence in developing and running their programs of research.

“Without the centre, we must rely on our contacts with researchers at hospitals and clinics for research collaboration,” says Christine Purdon, director of the UW Centre for Mental Health Research.

“Although this leads to great opportunities to participate in exciting research projects, it also leaves us without the autonomy or the degree of access to the populations of interest that we require to run our programs of research independently. Instead, we need to integrate our research with the ongoing work of other researchers.

“Having our own centre allows us to determine our own priorities, which in turn means that we have greater control over the research we conduct, the assessment and treatment we provide, and, ultimately, our ability to attract faculty and research funding.”

Finally, the arrangement will increase research collaborations, and not just within the department of psychology and the university. Once clinical faculty have the resources required to recruit, assess and treat individuals with mental health problems on a larger scale, they can establish significant partnership roles in the development of national and international studies.

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