UW Daily Bulletin, September 29, 2010

'Day of caring' previews United Way effort

This year's on-campus United Way campaign will start on Friday, seeking to raise $200,000 during October as part of a community-wide drive in support of charities and service agencies. Campaign volunteers meet today for their “orientation and appreciation” luncheon, scheduled for 11:45 in the Laurel Room, South Campus Hall.

Actually, some of them have been at work already, as seen in the photo above, which was taken at the headquarters of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region during the "First Annual Day of Caring" promotion two weeks ago. Left to right they are Sharon Lamont, Melissa McNown, Marina Selioukova, Donna Sutherland, Richard Wells, and Alex Lippert.

"We spent the day," says Selioukova, "bundling Food Drive bags to be inserted into the newspaper. The process involved counting out 30 bags, and then wrapping them with an elastic. (The machines used to insert the bags into the newspapers work with bundles of 30.) The Food Bank staff were incredibly friendly, and provided a tour for both the morning shift and the afternoon shift, to help us learn more about the invaluable service they provide to the community. The morning shift also got to meet Mayor Halloran who was there with a team from City of Waterloo, and she even took our picture and tweeted it.

"By the end of the day, the team from the University of Waterloo (with the help of two amazing volunteers from the Food Bank) bundled 45,000 bags into 1,500 bundles of 30."

Selioukova, a co-op student, is working as office manager for the United Way on campus this fall. Sutherland (of accounting and finance) and Wells (of kinesiology) are the staff and faculty co-chairs, respectively, of the campaign. Lamont, Lippert and McNown are members of a "working group" that's helping to coordinate the campaign, which raises funds through a mixture of individual gifts (one-time cheques or year-round payroll deduction) and fund-raising events such as raffles.

"Individual donations along with special events organized by volunteers will ensure we reach and hopefully surpass our goal of $200,000," says Selioukova. "Pledge packages for staff and faculty members will arrive in their departments over the next few days. The traditional Dress-Down Fridays will begin October 1 — but please tune into the events calendar on the United Way website for further events across campus."

Across Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding area, the United Way seeks to raise some $6 million this year for dozens of programs grouped under five priorities: "All children and youth reach their potential; all families are strong; all neighbourhoods are inclusive and thriving; all newcomers are welcome and supported; all people are economically secure." The agencies include Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Brain Injury Association, Mosaic Counselling and Family Services, the John Howard Society, Women's Crisis Services of Waterloo Region, the House of Friendship, the St. John Ambulance, the Working Centre and Woolwich Community Services.

Deep-sea explorer assesses the oil spill

a news release from the university's media relations office

Joe MacInnis, a renowned deep-sea explorer and researcher, will share his insights into the catastrophic BP oil spill and its impact during a public talk tomorrow in the Humanities Theatre. MacInnis, who was the first man to dive beneath the North Pole, will deliver this year's TD Canada Trust Walter Bean Lecture, entitled "Oilstorm: Leadership Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico". It will start at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Last June, MacInnis was one of 28 experts asked to identify possible solutions for controlling the worst oil spill in U.S. history. In his talk, he will draw on his vast experience with the Gulf of Mexico's waters and with the creatures and people who depend on them. He will discuss the importance of leadership in times of crisis, as well as some critical lessons salvaged from the disaster. Using dramatic video clips, MacInnis will demonstrate how great leaders acquire and use 12 essential traits to enhance personal performance.

MacInnis has led or participated in more than 50 major undersea expeditions and logged more time in the Arctic Ocean than any other scientist. His work has earned him many honours, including the Order of Canada. Along with director James Cameron, MacInnis led the $7 million dive to the Titanic that inspired the blockbuster film.

"Dr. MacInnis helped research and write Canada's first national ocean policy," said Mark Seasons, interim dean of Waterloo's faculty of environment. "He has worked unceasingly to restore the health of the oceans and the Great Lakes. We are grateful that he has agreed to share his knowledge with us, and to deliver this prestigious lecture."

The lecture will also feature a tribute to climatologist Stephen Schneider, who visited campus last spring as TD Canada Trust Walter Bean Visiting Professor in the Environment, but died July 19 before being able to make a return visit.

The TD/Walter Bean professorship attracts top international research professors on the environment to give public lectures, teach classes and meet with professors and students. The professorship is named after the late Walter Bean, who was president of Waterloo Trust until its merger with Canada Trust in 1968. The faculties of engineering, environment and science are responsible for planning and organizing the annual professorship. Environment is hosting this year's lecture.

Recruitment staff report fair success

Waterloo's presence at the Ontario Universities Fair over the weekend was "a huge success", says Tina Roberts, director of marketing and undergraduate recruitment. Officials say some 130,000 young people attended the fair, and more than half of them made a stop at Waterloo's spectacular new booth, pictured above. "The booth made a statement," says Roberts, "and the story of how it was developed (our students and graduates) resonated with students and parents. Some students attending our presentations said they were not initially considering Waterloo but our booth was so cool they decided to check us out." Volunteers distributed 31,000 viewbooks, talked to more than twice that many individuals, survived Sunday's fire alarm (the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was not evacuated) and came home weary, with five weeks to get refreshed and ready for the big fall open house.

There's a reception this afternoon to mark the retirement of a staff member in the registrar's office who is well known across much of the campus. She is Paulette O’Grady, and her boss, Mark Grant, has something to say about her: "While this is a very happy occasion for Paulette, I know that we will all miss her. Paulette has worked at the University of Waterloo for close to 36 years, starting in Liaison & Publications in December 1974, where she stayed for 22 years. After another six years working in Recruitment & Publications, Paulette moved to her current role in Customer Service eight years ago. As you all know, Paulette is a excellent customer service provider and takes genuine joy in helping students. She has earned the reputation amongst the Waterloo community as being a trustworthy, knowledgeable and welcoming service provider and handles each student transaction respectfully and with pride. Paulette actually made the decision to retire three years ago, so maybe the most impressive thing about her was her ability to keep that under her hat for all this time!" Today's party will run from 3 to 5 p.m. in Needles Hall room 3004.

A number of other staff members are also officially retiring as of October 1. Konstanca Nikolica came to the university in December 1987 as a custodian in plant operations. Carolyn Tindale, undergraduate studies coordinator in the school of accounting and finance, has been a staff member since July 1991. And Maureen Grant, graduate program in environment and resource studies, has been working at Waterloo since July 1987.

There are sighs of relief in the research office in Needles Hall this week: InfoEd, a new awards information system, is up and running, replacing a tool that had been housing the data about research grants and contracts for almost 30 years. The Research Awards Information System (RAIS) has been retired in favour of InfoEd, Janet Janes of the research office reports. She says the new system "has the capacity to store a larger volume of data about research awards, bring information stored in multiple places into one system, and reduce some paper processes currently used."

Chill rain like yesterday's is bound to cut down on the number of people bicycling to campus, and all too soon the grounds crew will be putting many of the bike racks into storage in preparation for snow clearing operations on campus. But in the meantime, here's a happy story about a satisfied biker. She's Erin Smith, who works in the registrar's office, bikes to work in the good weather, and noticed at summer's end that it was getting hard to find a parking space. "There is only one bike rack in front of Needles Hall, full most of the time," she said in a message to Chico Silvestri of plant operations. "Space is a problem," Silvestri agreed, especially in the context of the "temporary" bus stop that's taking some road space right in front of NH these days. "But we will assess that area," he added — and a day later, a second rack appeared in front of the building. "I parked my bike at the second rack this morning!" Smith wrote with exclamation marks, and passed her appreciation along for the world to read. "I just really appreciated the effort to support alternative forms of transit on campus!"

And . . . what do you think about the Daily Bulletin? We in the office of communications and public affairs need to know what works and what could be done to improve our communications services, so we invited online feedback for a few days late in the spring term. The invitation is open again now for those who missed it then: Please take a few moments to fill out our confidential and anonymous feedback form. This link will appear in the Daily Bulletin for the next few days, and a report on the results will appear here in due course.

CAR

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

'Day of caring' previews United Way effort

Deep-sea explorer assesses the oil spill

Recruitment staff report fair success

Link of the day

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