Installation of new poles and lights along the Ring Road “has started and is going quite smoothly,” Gary Kosar of the plant operations department said late last week. Watch for new University of Waterloo banners, still in the design phase, hanging from the poles sometime in the fall term.

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Directors named for student success office

“The student success office is scheduled to be open for business in time for orientation week,” says its director, Sean Van Koughnett, who has just announced the names of the four senior staff he has hired.

“In addition to the newly hired directors, hiring for a number of positions within each portfolio will occur over the next eight months,” he added. “The SSO is comprised of four units who will play a complementary role and will help drive the student success movement across campus.”

The new staff will be moving into South Campus Hall before the summer is over, following the news that most staff members in development and alumni affairs will leave SCH for various locations elsewhere on campus. “Move-in of existing student success office units — Student Life Office, International Student Office, English Language Proficiency Program — the newly hired management team and the yet-to-be-hired administrative assistant will occur throughout mid to late August,” Van Koughnett said.

Meanwhile, there will be renovation work on the building, with “new paint, carpet, ceiling tiles and furnishings,” he said. “The current ODAA reception area will be turned into an expanded information desk space and waiting area.”

The timeline for the move and renovations is “extremely tight”, he said, expressing thanks to the departments involved, including plant operations, central stores, and a number of others, as well as ODAA itself.

Here are the four branches of the new success office:

Learning services will include the ELPP (headed by Ann Barrett), a “success coaching” program linked to counselling services, a staff of “transition advisors”, and a staff of volunteers and co-op students who will be involved in programs such as tutoring. Most of these activities are “really labour-intensive”, says Van Koughnett, as they involve one-on-one work aimed at “recovery of students at risk” before their university careers go down the drain.

Pilot programs will start this fall, likely in a couple of the biggest first-year courses in the Faculty of Science, he said. A course being dubbed “University 101”, which will teach “strategies for learning” to students who demonstrate in their first term that they need it, should be ready to be offered for the first time in the winter of 2012, he added.

The director of the learning services unit will be kept busy cooperating and coordinating with other departments,  Van Koughnett said, mentioning counselling, career action, disabilities, and of course the faculties and academic departments. The job is going to Heather Westmorland, currently director of the student life office. However, she’s about to go on maternity leave, and “staffing options” for the coming year are being worked out —  Van Koughnett may do much of the work himself for a while.

The “student life office” name will disappear anyway as staff move to the new location, he said. What’s now the SLO will become part of the second unit within student success, to be called student experience. “New student transition, support for international students, and programs focused on the social, cultural and civic engagement of our students will be a particular area of focus,” says a briefing from Van Koughnett. “Shaping the out-of-classroom experience as well as the interface with in-classroom activity in a manner that promotes engagement and development in all areas is the core mandate.”

That means the existing international student office, headed by current manager Darlene Ryan and a new associate director, will be moving to SCH to be part of the new unit.

Director of the student experience unit within the success office will be Pam Charbonneau, currently director of student development and residence life in the housing and residences office.

The communications and research unit of the student success office will look after “research, analysis and dissemination of data and best practices” and keeping in touch both with students and with “faculty, staff and external stakeholders”. It will be headed by Virginia (McLellan) Young, currently assistant director of international marketing and recruitment.

Finally, the student innovation unit will include programs “that encourage, develop, enable and promote the entrepreneurial and innovative talents and ambitions of all students”. It will include the existing VeloCity and Hub incubator programs and similar projects, as well as the “student technology development team”. That unit will be headed by Jesse Rodgers, currently interim director of VeloCity.

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WatPD invites proposals for new courses

Faculty or staff members in any part of the university are being invited to develop — and teach — new units for the “WatPD” program of professional development courses for co-op students.

WatPD already includes courses on such topics as “critical reflection and report writing”, project management, and conflict resolution, and more courses are needed. Hence the invitation that’s come out from Anne Fannon, associate director of WatPD, and Gordon Stubley, the mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor who is academic director of WatPD-Engineering.

They write: “The Co-operative Education Council and WatPD Engineering Curriculum Committee are requesting proposals for the development of new professional development courses to expand the suite of current electives. Students from all six faculties take online PD courses during their work terms as part of the requirements for their co-op degree.

“The CEC is interested in proposals for any topic that supports the objectives of the program and that is relevant to students from all faculties entering today’s workforce. In addition, the CEC would be interested in receiving proposals for a Teamwork course as the current Teamwork elective is scheduled for re-development.

“The WatPD-Engineering Curriculum Committee will review submissions for PD elective courses intended specifically for engineering students. Information that will be relevant to proposals for the WatPD-Engineering program can be found online.

“We are looking for individuals or teams of people with expertise in professional development topics to develop course content. We will also require that the authors commit to being the instructor for at least two course offerings.”

A detailed request for proposals is on the WatPD web site. Among the expectations it notes: “The course must require an average of 20-25 hours of student time (content and assessments) spread over a 10 week period. The course materials must be presented online using UW’s Learning Management System. All learning activities should require student engagement and active learning. Some learning activities should require students to reflect upon their growth of understanding over the course.”

Proposals need to be submitted to Fannon (e-mail amfannon@ uwaterloo.ca) by August 31.

CAR

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