Grad House closing for renovations

"After years of planning, months of discussions and weeks of waiting we have finally received confirmation that major renovations of the Graduate House will begin in May 2012," writes Rose Vogt of the Graduate Student Association (GSA).

"Our challenge is to ensure that all the major projects are completed by the end of August 2012," Vogt continues. "Major repairs/renovations include external and internal projects that will require a complete suspension of operations in the Graduate House."

That suspension kicks in after the grad house's last open day on Friday, April 27, and the campus landmark will remain closed for the 2012 Spring term. The plan is for full operations to resume in September 2012.

"We thank you for your continued support, and for your patience with these matters," Vogt concludes.

Campus history doesn’t record exactly when the house was first built, but it was home to the Schweitzer family when they operated one of the seven farms that have become the University of Waterloo's campus over the past half-century. A number of departments used the house as office space in the university’s early years; the GSA became its tenant in 1972, and the house was renovated and expanded in 1981.

Anyone wishing to stay up to date on the progress of activities at the Graduate House can join its Facebook group, or follow @UWGraduateHouse on Twitter.

Photograph by Mike Christie.

Back to top

Conrad centre receives $1.6M grant

a news release from the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre

The Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre (Conrad) at the University of Waterloo has received a US$1.6 million grant that will boost countless student businesses.

The Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®), owner of the GMAT® exam and the leading membership organization of graduate business and management schools worldwide, announced the award today. Waterloo was the only Canadian university to receive funding this round.

“Waterloo is internationally recognized for student innovation and entrepreneurship, and for educating the leaders of tomorrow,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president & vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo. “This generous grant will do much to enable our students to develop their cutting-edge ideas into meaningful, profitable ventures.”

The funding will support the implementation of a Virtual Incubation Program (VIP). It will establish a global, online network of students, community groups, local entrepreneurs and international university partners, and is designed to support the development and launch of new businesses.

The GMAC Management Education for Tomorrow (MET) Fund awarded more than US$7.1 million in grants to 12 organizations across six countries in this round of its Ideas to Innovation (i2i) Challenge. GMAC’s MET Fund, a US$10 million initiative to advance business education around the world, created and managed the i2i Challenge.

Schools and organizations developed their grant proposals in response to an earlier phase of the i2i Challenge, in which individuals were invited to answer the question, “What one idea would improve graduate management education?” Waterloo’s proposal responded to the winning ideas concerning a need for more practical entrepreneurship education in graduate business programs and getting ahead of the incubator trend.

“Success, for most entrepreneurial students, hinges on having easy access to essential resources, learning opportunities and networks for collaboration and funding, to build their business,” says Rod McNaughton, director of the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre at Waterloo. “With this funding, the GMAC MET Fund has given us the ability to further support and produce successful new ventures on campus, in the community, and eventually take it global through academic partnerships.”

There were 25 proposals from seven countries submitted in this round of the challenge, which ran from January to December 2011. The grantees include business schools and organizations in the Canada, U.S., Spain, Italy, India and Botswana.

“The foundation of the MET Fund has been that GMAC, starting with the GMAT exam and culminating in this phase of i2i grants, should be investing in and giving back to management education and its institutions. And not just giving back, but giving back in order to move management education forward,” said David A. Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. “The power of these grants is in the implementation of ideas that can reshape and revitalize management education worldwide, and that acknowledge the critical role that management education plays in training and developing business leaders who can have global impact.”

Back to top

Wednesday's notes

The University of Waterloo renewed and expanded its co-operation with King Saud University as president Feridun Hamdullahpur and Abdullah A. Al-Othman, university rector at King Saud University (right, at left) signed an agreement that expands on existing collaborations between the two institutions. It involves joint research and commercialization opportunities and an international exchange for faculty members and non-degree graduate students.

“The University of Waterloo values the strong relationship that we have enjoyed with King Saud University since 1999,” said Hamdullahpur. “We look forward to building on our mutually beneficial collaboration with this respected international institution.”

Hamdullahpur is also representing Canadian universities at the prestigious International Exhibition & Conference on Higher Education in Riyadh today, speaking of ways in which institutions can prepare graduates to be productive in an ever-changing world.

“We need to help them develop the skill of critical enquiry; the instinct to question and understand that there can be more than one solution to a problem,” he said. “We need to help them develop the entrepreneurial skills that will turn ideas into commercially viable businesses or implementable solutions to health care or social issues.”

Jatin Nathwani, Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE), will be providing an overview of the Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030 report at a public forum organized by the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) entitled "North America’s Energy Future: Powering a Low-carbon Economy for 2030 and Beyond today at the Delta Chelsea in Toronto. The event begins at 9:00 a.m. and will be webcast and translated simultaneously in French and Spanish for audiences in the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Back to top