Bob Harding, chair of Campaign Waterloo, points the way for dean of mathematics Tom Coleman and Karen Willson of Ketchum Canada Inc., the consulting firm that helped manage the Campaign, at the celebration held in Toronto this month.

Campaign at $410 million and rolling

Campaign Waterloo — originally launched to raise $260 million for UW — has brought in $410 million so far, a gathering of the university’s top donors and campaign organizers was told October 9.

An announcement prepared for the celebration, held at the new “crystal” lounge of the Royal Ontario Museum, calls UW’s fund-raising program “one of the more successful university campaigns in Canadian history” and speaks of “tremendous success”.

UW is now, it says, “turning its attention to the next steps required to maintain the campaign’s momentum.” The UW board of governors agreed in June to keep going indefinitely past the $350 million that was the target until then. UW is now looking for annual fundraising of $50 million per year, with the goal growing to $100 million annually within the next decade.

“Some of the strongest supporters of Campaign Waterloo, including member of the campaign cabinet and patrons’ council,” gathered at the ROM, the announcement says.

It quotes Bob Harding, Brookfield executive and chair of both the Campaign and the UW board of governors: “Campaign Waterloo owes much of its success to the incredible number of people who have volunteered of their time and/or donated financially. Their support will help use achieve global greatness, and create a wealth of knowledge and discovery to benefit Canada.”

More than 58,000 people have donated to the campaign, including 44 who have made contributions of $1 million or more (including “four of the 10 largest gifts made to education in Canada”).

The money raised includes $139 million from 41,525 alumni, as well as $12.3 million from UW students through self-imposed extra fees and, at last report, $7.2 million from staff, faculty and retirees. More than 500 volunteers supported the campaign, organizers say.

Campaign Waterloo raised $75 million for endowed chairs, professorships and fellowships at UW, to say nothing of building funds: the square footage of campus buildings has already increased by 19 per cent (from 5.2 million to 6.2 million square feet) during the campaign.

More from the announcement: “The support will allow UW to aggressively pursue the objectives outlined in its new sixth decade plan. The goals in Pursuing Global Excellence: Seizing Opportunities for Canada include expanding the quality and intensity of university research; tripling the graduate student body, from 2,600 to 8,000; strengthening undergraduate studies, particularly by creating more opportunities for students to learn from experience and enhancing our signature co-operative education opportunities; embracing the world, by expanding Waterloo's presence around the globe, by providing international opportunities for our Canadian students, and by attracting more international students to Waterloo.”

The campaign, subtitled Building a Talent Trust, was officially launched in March 2004.

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'A future to rival our glorious past'

a letter from Bob Harding, chair of Campaign Waterloo, as it appears in a campaign newsletter published last week

Building Talent isn't just our campaign theme: it's our vision, our promise, our raison d'etre, our past and our future. The University of Waterloo exists to produce the kind of talent Canada needs to be a global leader.

Talent and generosity are the reasons we have raised more than $410 million to date: committed volunteers and thousands of faculty, staff and students give their time, talents and expertise to the campaign while tens of thousands of donors, many of them alumni, have made their mark on the world and now give back to the school that gave them the skills they needed to succeed. And we are transforming this institution because our friends in private foundations, corporations and government challenge us to reach higher and farther to address society's most complex problems. Talent — the exceptional talent we have produced and will continue to produce — to meet these challenges head on.

This report celebrates our achieving yet another phenomenal milestone in Campaign Waterloo's history and tells you what impact the Campaign and the money we've raised is having at the University. And since we have decided to continue the Campaign, this report will outline what's next.

My work as your Campaign Chair has been so rewarding. I am deeply grateful to everyone involved for their support.

Campaign Waterloo will allow us to continue to transform our campus and enable us to continue to recruit the best and brightest undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members. We will be able to establish endowed chairs, scholarships, fellowships and bursaries. We will continue our outreach internationally, recruiting students from abroad to attend the University of Waterloo who will then become our ambassadors around the globe. And we will be able to provide even more opportunities for our students to embrace the world through international scholarships and awards.

You have helped us achieve our dreams of aspiring to global greatness, working hard to provide Canada with the best talent possible, and attracting the best talent from all over the world to attend UW. Together we are building a future to rival our glorious past.

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Pension information session, and more

The human resources department is planning another round of “Knowing Your Workplace” sessions this fall, starting with one on Wednesday. This week’s session will be an explanation of the UW pension plan, and runs from 11 am. to 12 noon Wednesday in Math and Computer room 4040. “Please bring your most recent Annual Pension Statement with you (dated December 31, 2006),” organizers advise. ”Contact pensions@uwaterloo.ca for more information. . . . Please note that other applicable sessions will be arranged for hourly employees in Food Services, Plant Operations and Housing.” There’s also the possibility of specially arranged sessions for departments that would like to have the Pension Plan elaborated for their faculty or staff specifically: e-mail pensions@uwaterloo.ca to make arrangements. Sessions about insured benefits (health and dental), leave, and salary administration will be scheduled shortly, HR says.

A memo from the counselling services department, following up the recent announcement about a campus-wide program called QPR: "QPR is a suicide prevention program designed to help you help someone who may be considering suicide. QPR consists of three life-saving skills: How to Question ( a person about suicide), Persuade ( the person to get help), and Refer (the person to the appropriate resource). Open sessions of the QPR training are offered Monday, October 29, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.; Monday, November 5, 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.; Monday, November 12, 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.; and Monday, December 10, 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. If you would like to register for one of these dates please contact Lorraine Nesbitt at extension 33528 or e-mail at lnesbitt@uwaterloo.ca. Limited space is available."

A number of honours, not previously announced, were presented at Saturday's two sessions of Convocation. Among such honours at the morning ceremony: the James D. Leslie Prize, for the top graduating student whose degree was earned by continuing education, to Debbie Anne Loubert; the arts alumni achievement award to Rod Bart; the alumni award for excellence in accounting, to Kelly Russell; outstanding achievement in graduate studies, to Andrew Kaczynski (PhD, recreation and leisure studies). At the afternoon ceremony: the K. D. Fryer Gold Medal for academic standing in mathematics, to Alejandro Morales; outstanding achievement in graduate studies, to Stefan Büttcher (PhD, computer science), Nora Doerr-MacEwen (PhD, planning), Sina Valadkhan (PhD, mechanical engineering), and Jay Taylor (MASc, mechanical engineering).

Pledges are trickling in for this year's United Way campaign, aimed at raising $170,000 from the campus to support local agencies and charities. And as we enter the final full week of October, the designated campaign period, more and more fund-raising "special events" are finding their way onto the calendar. My own department, communications and public affairs, is going to be holding a used book sale at noontime on Friday — watch for details on that one. Today, meanwhile, tickets go on sale for the "50 of Our Favourite Things" raffle organized by statistics and actuarial science (price $3 a ticket; drop by Math and Computer room 6133 to make a buy). Development and alumni affairs will have its dessert cart in action this Thursday, and on the same day housing and residences will hold a "Shut the Box Tournament"; I don't know what that means, exactly, but clearly it's for a good cause.

CAR

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