The Ontario government's contribution to the seniors' project is announced by MPP Leeanna Pendergast at yesterday's event; retirement home executive Ron Schlegel and Waterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur listen. Photo by Chris Hughes.

Seniors' home planned on north campus

from a news release issued yesterday by the media relations office

An ambitious partnership involving the Ontario government, postsecondary sector and Schlegel Villages will develop a centre of excellence for research, training and innovation in senior health care and wellness at the University of Waterloo. The goal is to help Canada better prepare for an aging population.

The development on Waterloo's northwest campus will be built in three phases, starting with a 192-bed long-term care home owned and managed by Schlegel Villages. It will include a specialized building where faculty, staff and students from Waterloo, Conestoga College and the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging will work and learn with residents and staff from the adjacent long-term home.

Two later phases will develop assisted living and independent living for seniors as well as a primary care health centre to create a full continuum of care. Total construction costs will be about $130 million. The site of the project is along Bearinger Road where it meets Laurelwood Drive, just north of the YMCA and branch library that are opening this fall.

"This project is a sterling example of government, university, college and private collaboration," said Ron Schlegel, chair of Schlegel Villages and founder of the RIA. "We have a university that is tops in Canada for innovation and entrepreneurship, a college with a passion for building a workforce better equipped to meet the needs of growing numbers of seniors, a research institute with a strong track record in practice-relevant research, and a provider of long-term care and retirement that is a leader in the province."

The Ontario government will contribute $20 million in capital funds for the long-term care home. The province will also provide $625,000 a year in operating funds for the learning, research and innovation centre.

"The Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging brings cutting-edge services to our community not found anywhere else in North America,” said Leeanna Pendergast, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga and one of the dignitaries who helped make the announcement at an event yesterday afternoon in the Lyle Hallman Institute building on campus.

The province's investment unleashes an estimated $84 million in additional funding for teaching and research, including financial and land contributions from the university. The Schlegel family will provide a minimum $45 million over 20 years to fund 14 research chairs in aging, matched 50-50 by the University of Waterloo, and one research chair matched by Conestoga College. The family will also contribute $3 million to the capital costs for the learning, research and innovation centre.   

These contributions build on the $6 million Schlegel has already committed to found the RIA. Four research chairs are already in place and actively working in the areas of geriatric medicine, geriatric pharmacotherapy, vascular aging and brain health, and nutrition, while a fifth chair in enhanced senior care is at Conestoga College.

"Ensuring an appropriate quality of life for an increasing population of seniors may prove to be one of our greatest challenges in the decades to come," said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president of the university, at yesterday’s celebration. "Innovative collaborations like this one — marrying research and education with the daily experience of resident seniors — will help incubate programs and services that will improve that quality of life."

Construction on the first phase of the project should begin in late 2012 and be completed late spring 2014. While construction is underway, faculty and staff will begin developing learning, research and innovation programs from the nearby Village of Winston Park — one of twelve existing long-term care and retirement communities in Ontario owned and managed by Schlegel Villages — and RIA offices in Kitchener.

The Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging was created in 2005 as a senate-approved research institute, then became a non-profit charitable organization in 2006 with core partnerships with Waterloo, Conestoga College and Schlegel Villages. The RIA conducts research aimed at enhancing the care, health and wellness of older adults in community-based and long-term care environments.

"As researchers, we need to think not only of our contributions to knowledge, but how we're changing the lives of Canadians,” says Susan Elliott, dean of the faculty of applied health sciences. “The Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging has been a defining force in enhancing the health and care of older adults. This new centre will be the catalyst for experiential learning and innovative discoveries to address the complex needs of our aging population."

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50 years ago: land for four colleges

A landmark event in Waterloo’s history took place exactly 50 years ago today, when the university and four “denominational colleges” signed an agreement transferring land along the west side of the campus.

Later to be called “church colleges”, and now officially “the federated university and affiliated colleges”, the four institutions form a chain in the territory east of Westmount Road and west of Laurel Creek. They are St. Jerome’s University (Roman Catholic), Renison University College (Anglican), St. Paul’s University College (founded by the United Church of Canada), and Conrad Grebel University College (Mennonite).

Here’s how the event of 50 years ago was reported in the university’s Gazette newsletter on September 13, 1961: “On Wednesday, August 30, an agreement was signed between the University and the four denominational colleges — St. Jerome’s, Renison, St. Paul’s and Conrad Grebel — whereby 23 acres of campus land will be deeded to the colleges. The agreement, previously approved by the Boards of Governors, sets out conditions of transfer and use of the land by the colleges and certain joint undertakings for the development of roads, sewers, etc.

“Under the agreement, each college receives a five acre section in the south-west area of the campus. In addition, St. Jerome’s, Renison, and St. Paul’s have purchased an additional one acre of land each. President Hagey and Mr. Adlington acted for the university at the signing ceremony.” (Gerry Hagey was the  university’s founding president; Al Adlington was comptroller of the university and secretary of the board of governors, and would later become a vice-president.)

“The four colleges,” the Gazette said, “will erect buildings which will provide residence accommodation for from 400-500 students. Total value of the church college facilities, which will be built over the next 2 years, will be some 2 1/2 million dollars.”

The emphasis at that time was on residences, but all four colleges are now deeply involved in academic work as well, particularly in philosophy, religious studies and some other arts fields. Grebel is the base for Waterloo’s work in music and in peace and conflict studies; St. Paul’s, aboriginal studies; Renison, social work, social development studies and East Asian studies; St. Jerome’s, sociology, marriage and family, Italian, as well as arts programs in general and some mathematics.

A report on the four colleges was done last year under the catchy title “Review of the Relationship Between the University of Waterloo and Its Federated University and Affiliated University Colleges”. It says in part: “Through their agreements with UW, the Colleges provide teaching in liberal arts subjects and St Jerome’s also provides courses in mathematics. In addition, all existing or future degree granting powers, except those in theology, are to be held in abeyance as long as the federation/affiliation with UW remains in force. The emphasis on theology reflects their origins as church colleges for their separate denominations. Although each College operates in accordance with the principles of its own denomination, from the beginning the FUAC welcomed students from all faith backgrounds in their classrooms and their residences.

“Although each institution is distinct from the other three, they share the philosophy that the supportive residential environment provided in a small college setting enhances the student’s experience of university life, both personally and academically. The Colleges are committed not only to teaching excellence, but also to promoting a strong community spirit among students, faculty and staff.”

It recommended that relations between the university and the colleges should be set out in a Memorandum of Understanding that would promise, for example, “that UW and the FUAC operate on the basis of complementarity rather than competition… work together to improve the quality of student education and student life at UW/FUAC… share information on a regular basis and strive for integrated planning and academic program delivery.”

As things stand now, the report said, “the strong and mutually beneficial relationship between UW and the FUAC rests in large measure upon personal relationships developed among key senior officials. As a significant number of those individuals have either recently left UW or are about to depart, there was a sense that a more formal framework for defining and reinforcing the UW/FUAC relationship should be established.”

CAR

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