New director for student awards office

After two stints as “acting director” for a high-profile unit in Needles Hall, Maureen Jones (left) now has the job permanently. Her appointment as director of student awards and financial aid was announced late in the winter term by UW registrar Ken Lavigne, whom she reports to.

“I won’t know what to do with myself with only one job!” she laughs. For the past year, while being acting director of SAFA, Jones has continued in her regular post as assistant registrar for mathematics and applied health sciences.

This week Lavigne announced that Donna Lutz will take over as assistant registrar for math and AHS. Lutz has worked at UW since 1993 — in food services, mathematics (the undergraduate office and the business and accounting program) and most recently the registrar’s office, as records coordinator.

Jones, the new director of SAFA, has been a UW staff member since 1981, and served for many years as manager of the continuing education office. She first came to the registrar’s office in 2004-05 for her first stint as acting director of the student awards office, which administers millions of dollars in student funding through the Ontario Student Assistance Program, bursaries, entrance scholarships and other programs.

Economic hard times mean this is likely to be a busy year for financial aid, Jones said last week. “Right now we’re processing entrance bursaries,” she said, “and quite a number of students have indicated that the family’s 2008 income doesn’t reflect what they will have available in 2009. I’m hearing ‘my mother lost her job,’ that sort of thing.”

As for student loans, “not only will there be an increase in OSAP applications, but an increase in appeals. And that leads to more students in the pool to be assessed for the university’s own bursaries.”

Jones takes over the director’s job from long-time administrator Joanne Wade (right), one of the builders of student assistance programs as they now operate across Ontario. Wade had been in UW’s student awards office since 1970, but in recent years has had a number of health problems, which is why an acting director was needed in 2004-05 and again over the past year.

Wade has now left the university, but will be back on campus next week to receive an award of recognition from the Ontario Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators as it holds its annual meeting here.

She served as OASFAA’s chair twice and held a long list of other positions at the provincial level. One high point of her career came in 1988 when she was asked to be part of the hiring committee when the Ontario government chose a new director of the OSAP program within what was then the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. At UW she was also active in many groups and committees, and served as president of the staff association in 1992.

About 120 people from universities and colleges across the province are expected to attend the OASFAA conference, being held May 12-14 in Ron Eydt Village and the Arts Lecture Hall. It’s jointly hosted by UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College, with an organizing committee that includes Jones and two other Waterloo representatives.

“They have people coming down from Thunder Bay,” says Jones, referring to the provincial OSAP headquarters. “We should be meeting the new director,” Noah Morris, recently named to head the provincial Student Support Branch.

For a year-round university like Waterloo, the conference comes “right in the middle of OSAP loan release,” Jones said, noting that some of her staff are at the Tatham Centre daily this month to process student loan documents.

OASFAA delegates will hear professional development speakers next week and get technical briefings on the latest changes to OSAP and the Canada Student Loans program. They’ll also hear from John Milloy, minister of training, colleges and universities, who is scheduled to speak Tuesday afternoon. The conference includes a banquet at Kitchener’s Schwaben Club on Tuesday night.

Back to top

Waterloo claims four of the 'top 40'

a news release from UW's media relations office

UW is congratulating the four alumni named in the Globe and Mail's list of Top 40 Under 40 for this year.

Winners of the award were chosen from more than 1,200 nominees by a 26-member independent advisory board. Candidates were selected on the following criteria: vision and leadership, innovation and achievement, impact, growth and development strategy, as well as community involvement and contribution.

"The University of Waterloo alumni named in the Globe and Mail's Top 40 Under 40 list have distinguished themselves through a strong commitment to their selected fields of endeavour, whether business or the not-for-profit sector, and a keen interest in community service," said UW president David Johnston. "They stand as role models for what can be accomplished when the best and brightest merge passion with ability."

Established in 1995, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 celebrates the achievements of Canadians who were under the age of 40 by December 31, 2008. The 2008 recipients of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 were unveiled in the May 1 issue of the Globe and Mail.

Detailed profiles of all winners are available online. UW's four winners:

• Ryan Marshall, 32, vice-president of operating systems, Research In Motion Ltd., Waterloo. Bachelor of mathematics, computer science/software engineering, 1999.

• Marlo Raynolds, 35, executive director, Pembina Institute, Calgary. Bachelor of applied science, systems design engineering, 1996.

• Cameron Piron, 34, president and co-founder, Sentinelle Medical Inc., Toronto. Bachelor of applied science, systems design engineering, 1998. Nominated by UW.

• Barbara Zvan, 38, senior vice-president, asset mix and risk, Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund, Toronto. Master of mathematics, statistics, 1995.

Back to top

An overview on a summerish morning

How’s the Quantum-Nano Centre coming along? Nobody is in a better position to know than Alison Zorian of the dean of mathematics office, who has a panoramic view of the site from her perch high in the Math and Computer building. The photo at left was taken in mid-April.

UW’s Central Stores is halfway through a week-long “e-waste pickup initiative” to help UW departments get rid of junk computers, printers and other electronics. Offices were invited to call stores (ext. 32262) and arrange to have such items picked up and sent for recycling. Individuals can also take advantage of special arrangements this week, says Joel Norris, assistant manager of stores: “One of our recycle partners is a company located in Cambridge called Greentec Recycling Services. Central Stores and Greentec have decided to host an e-waste green day on Saturday, May 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at our East Campus Hall, 263 Phillip Street, location. This day has been organized to provide the university community (faculty, staff, students and friends) with an opportunity to recycle approved e-waste products from their homes, at no cost.” Word about the “green day” is posted on the stores web site along with lists of items that will be accepted on Saturday and items that won’t. “The focus is primarily on computer systems,” says Norris, so the Yes list includes desktops and laptops, printers and keyboards, monitors and internal components. Also okay are cell phones, television sets and fax machines. Not being accepted are modems, photocopiers, landline telephones, and audio or video equipment such as radios, tape recorders, turntables and VCRs. The standard way of disposing of those and all electronics is to drop them off at the Waterloo landfill site and pay a $10-per-item fee.

One of UW’s pioneer staff members, Ursula Knabenschuh, died March 26, aged 88. She joined the university in December 1957, when it was still Waterloo College Associate Faculties and the present campus wasn’t yet even begun, and retired at the end of 1985. In the intervening years she was a key figure in the “coordination and placement” office (now co-op education and career services), retiring as “co-op systems consultant”. She is survived by her husband, August, two sons and many other family members. The photo at right dates from 1969.

A student team from UW’s Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program is scheduled to be competing at the world level today, after winning a regional business plan competition in March in São Paulo, Brazil. In the Latin Moot Corp competition, “they won their division, had the best written plan and the best presentation, and were winner overall,” reports Jenn Zehr of the Centre for BET. “Winners of this regional are invited to the 2009 Global Moot Corp. Competition May 6-9 at the University of Texas at Austin.” Members of the Nalion Technologies team are Balinder Aluhwalia, Karen Doering, Fraser Harris, Lingling “Andrea” Yang, and Georgina Zhou. Nalion, she explains, “is a University of Waterloo technology spin-off developed by Dr. Linda Nazar on advanced lithium-ion batteries. This new technology addresses three previous problems associated with lithium-ion batteries. It is less expensive to make and buy; it is more efficient; and is inherently more stable. This technology can be developed for use in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles, and all types of power supplies.”

Stephanie Bell, who’s graduating with a degree in science and business (biology specialization), has been named valedictorian on behalf of science students at next month’s convocation ceremony. • Robert Hicks, who has been interim director of the client services group in information systems and technology since the retirement of Paul Snyder, is the group’s director (“interim” no longer) as of May 1. • Renison College will offer non-credit “Arabic for Beginners” courses at two levels this term, with classes starting next week (information, e-mail rchampion@ uwaterloo.ca).

The UW development office is now hiring student callers — “an integral part of Waterloo’s annual giving program,” a memo from Julia Wegenast of development points out. “Callers contact alumni, parents and friends of the university to help raise support for UW’s priority projects. Pay is $9.50 per hour to start. Students can apply online.”

CAR

Back to top