New position for 'neighbourhood relations'

When the city of Waterloo holds an open house at Federation Hall later today about one of its controversial neighbourhoods, a key person listening to the discussion will be the university’s newly appointed Co-ordinator of Off-Campus Living and Neighbourhood Relations, Ryan King.

King (pictured), previously of the retail services department, joined the housing and residences staff in September to take on activities that go beyond the work the off-campus housing office has done for years.

“Student housing is a very tangible link between the university and surrounding communities,” an announcement from the department points out. “With thousands of students living near the Waterloo campus in a variety of living arrangements, the university plays an indirect but powerful role in influencing the character and quality of its surroundings.

“For many years, the Department of Housing and Residences has operated an off-campus listing service and acted as a resource for students searching for housing. An off-campus specialist provides lease reviews, tips on housing searches, and helps solve disputes with roommates and landlords. This support service will continue to be offered; however, expanded services will include educating students on housing issues and advocating for appropriate student housing. This change has created an off-campus living and neighbourhood relations area within the housing department.”

Jennifer Ferguson, in charge of marketing for the department, says King “will work collaboratively with the City, uWaterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier to create programs for students to live off-campus successfully, and to understand the importance of their neighbours, city by-laws, their rights as tenants and give them the opportunity to become thoughtful, respectful citizens in Waterloo and beyond.

“This position allows our department to expand our outreach to educate students and landlords on student housing and also advocate for appropriate student housing.”

King himself tells more: “We want to make sure students are contributing members to our local community – that’s why we are looking to find new ways to support off-campus living. By becoming advocates in the community for student housing we will make sure students are involved, educated, and empowered while residents in Waterloo.

“The greatest opportunity for this program is to collaborate with departments across campus, the City of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University. Ultimately, each groups wants students to become successful, but we do need to work together to develop plans that address typical Town and Gown initiatives.

“There are already programs offered that involve students off campus; we just need to find ways to enhance and collaborate with those programs and provide support for students transiting into contributing community members.”

He’ll definitely be on hand tonight for the Federation Hall event, scheduled to run from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. It will deal with the Northdale neighbourhood — the area between University Avenue and Phillip Street, running from Phillip Street down the hill to King Street.

Northdale currently has an uneasy mix of student residents and families, both groups mostly living in what were built as single-family houses. It’s been the subject of a succession of studies, proposals and arguments, and is now officially the subject of a Land Use and Community Improvement Plan Study being carried out by consultants.

“The purpose of the open house and visioning workshop,” says the city hall web site, “is to seek public input in the development of a vision for the Northdale neighbourhood and to obtain public input on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) for Northdale.  This event represents the first consultation exercise for this study. 

“Participants are required to RSVP due to space constraints to Anne-Marie Phelan at Anne-Marie.Phelan@ waterloo.ca or 519-747-8752.”

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News notes, on and under the surface

Today is moving day for some of the staff of the Centre for Teaching Excellence: they're leaving their offices on the fourth floor of the Math and Computer building and will relocate to the third floor of Environment 1. "Our new main office there will be EV1 325," says Donna Ellis, the unit's director. "The net result is that the services out of our MC office will be unavailable this week — this includes our library and drop-in meetings with faculty members. Our computing systems will also be offline. Any existing meeting commitments will be maintained." She adds that staff from the other half of the CTE, currently housed on the third floor of the Dana Porter Library, will be making the move to Environment "sometime in November (we hope)".

A prominent expert in nuclear and particle physics will give a public lecture on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory tomorrow evening (7 p.m., Optometry building room 1129). Art McDonald, a physics professor at Queen’s University, will speak on “Exploring the Universe from Two Kilometres Underground”. The SNO experiment and the new SNOLAB are buried two kilometres below the Earth’s surface in the Creighton Mine at Sudbury, Ontario, creating the lowest radioactivity laboratory on earth. This remarkable underground observatory promises to unravel the laws of the physical universe by studying the tiny subatomic neutrino particle and searching for the elusive dark matter particle. “This laboratory makes it possible to perform sensitive experiments to study fundamental questions about the basic laws of physics, the composition of our Universe and how it has evolved,” says McDonald. “My lecture will describe how the observatory was built, the exciting science it’s performing, and its prospects for discovering dark matter.” Brian McNamara, physics and astronomy professor and director of the Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute, adds that “Given the recent media interest in a European experiment that suggests neutrinos are able to travel faster than the speed of light, which challenges Einstein’s theory of relativity, Professor McDonald’s lecture is quite topical.” There’s a web page for RSVPs so organizers know how many people to expect.

The Federation of Students is taking communications a step further this fall by “connecting and engaging with students on a cellular level”, a news release boasts. “Feds has gone cellular by utilizing mobile technology and launching WatSUP.feds.ca, a mobile version of the student agenda that can be downloaded right to students’ cellphones. A product of a partnership with Square Crop Studios, WatSUP.feds.ca is accessible via any smartphone, tablet or mobile browsing device.” The existing WatSUP, or Waterloo Student University Planner, is known as a resource for students and includes helpful hints from departments including Housing and Counselling Services. The mobile version will help students access important phone numbers, campus maps, event listings and more, right on their phone. “The way our students communicate is constantly evolving,” says Feds president Matt Colphon. “Looking around campus it’s easy to see that many of our students are connected through their phones. We realised there was a huge opportunity to help our students stay connected and access important info and resources easily and quickly.” The mobile handbook promises to “ensure that Feds can directly connect and help students navigate the campus, find social opportunities and feel supported during their time at uWaterloo.” Colphon adds: “The mobile handbook can be instantly updated so that if something important is happening on campus we can help push information quickly to students.”

The human resources department reports that a number of staff members officially retired from the university as of September 1. Among them:

• Sharon Collins, copy centre production operator in retail services (and previously in graphics), who had worked at the university since 1989.
• Sharon Gerling, employer advisor in co-op education and career services, who also started at Waterloo in 1989.
• Kevin Krauel, laboratory director in systems design engineering, whose career at the university began in 1991.
• Anthony Porurban, custodian in plant operations, who had been working at Waterloo since 1984.
• Guy Vinandy, building serviceperson (mason) in plant ops, who came to the university in 2000.
• Norval Wilhelm (right), technician in mechanical and mechatronics engineering, who had been at the university since 1967.

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Seeking the next University Professors

The provost has issued an invitation for department chairs and "the University community generally" to suggest who should receive the high honour of University Professor in 2012.

To date, a memo notes, UW “has awarded this distinction” to 18 faculty members: Garry Rempel, Mary Thompson and Mark Zanna in 2004; Terry McMahon, Cam Stewart and Robert Jan van Pelt in 2005; Phelim Boyle and Ian Munro in 2006; Ken Davidson, Keith Hipel and Jake Sivak in 2007; Roy Cameron and Flora Ng in 2008; Ellsworth LeDrew and Ming Li in 2009; Stuart McGill and Janusz Pawliszyn in 2010; and Robert Le Roy last year.

The memo from provost Geoff McBoyle summarizes the purpose of the award and the nomination process: "The University of Waterloo owes much of its reputation and stature to the quality of its eminent professors. UW recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence through the designation 'University Professor'. Once appointed, a faculty member retains the designation for life.

"Not counting retirees, it is anticipated there will be 14 University Professorships at steady state, with at most two appointments each year. Such appointments are reported to Senate and to the Board of Governors . . . and are recognized at Convocation."

Nominations are invited each fall. "A nominee shall have demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence in a particular field or fields of knowledge. The individual who nominates a colleague is responsible for gathering the documentation and submitting it to the Vice-President, Academic & Provost. The University Tenure and Promotion Committee will act as the selection committee; its decisions are final.

"A nomination must be supported by at least six signatures from at least two UW departments and must be accompanied by a curriculum vitae and a short non-technical description of the nominee's contributions. A nomination must also be accompanied by letters from the nominee's Dean," and also comments from "scholars of international standing in the nominee's field" — the memo gives the details. The memo adds that the selection committee keeps the dossiers of unsuccessful nominees on hand for two more years, to be considered again with updated information.

Nominations for this year's awards should be "in my hands before the Christmas break", the provost writes.

CAR

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