Cuts for a cause: 24 brave Warrior student-athletes, fans and staff are shown with their locks of hair, which were cut to donate to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program. Participants had the opportunity to shear their locks at the men's basketball game on Saturday, November 17 in the PAC at halftime as part of the Warriors 2012 Think Pink Campaign. The Beautiful Lengths program collects donations of hair to create wigs for cancer patients. The hair collected from the cut will help make four wigs.

Photograph by Steve Brooks.

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2012 United Way Campaign meets its goal

by the United Way communications team.

On Monday, November 19 the university’s United Way campaign reached its 2012 goal of $230,000.

“We are thrilled to announce that our goal has been met,” said Alex Lippert, co-chair of the campaign. “We’d like to thank all of our donors, we couldn’t have accomplished this without your generosity,” she added.

  “We’d also like to thank all of our volunteers for their efforts, your hard work has made a difference,” continued Richard Wells, co-chair of the campaign. 

Jan Varner, CEO of United Way KW also sent along her thanks, "Your commitment to your community is appreciated in ways that you don’t even realize. Thank you for ensuring that change started right at University of Waterloo."

To learn more about the university’s United Way campaign and how you can contribute throughout the year, visit uWaterloo’s United Way website.

The working group (pictured above) dresses the part to show their appreciation. From left to right, they are: Alexandra Lippert – United Way Co-Chair (Senior Alumni and Development Officer, School of Accounting and Finance), Elle Crevits – 2012 United Way Co-op Student, Melissa McNown Smith – Volunteer Management (Manager, Living Learning, Housing), Emily Huxley – Stewardship (Alumni Officer, Students and Young Alumni), Kirsty Budd – Communications (Community Manager, Student Success Office) and Sharon Lamont – Office Manager (Director, Organizational Services, Library).

Also on the team but not pictured are: Alison Boyd – Incoming Office Manager (Associate Director, Alumni Affairs), Katrina DiGravio – Volunteer Training (Director, Organizational and Human Development), Daniela Seskar Hencic – Chair, Board of Governors for KW United Way (Associate Director, Institutional Analysis and Planning), Jacqueline Martinz – Communications (Communications Co-ordinator, Federation of Students), Andres Fuentes – Student Engagement (Research and Policy Officer, Federation of Students), Richard Wells – United Way Co-Chair (Faculty, Applied Health Sciences), Tim Jackson – Leadership Giving Chair (Vice-President, University Relations), Bonnie Oberle – Leadership Giving Team Member (Associate Director, Leadership Giving).

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Unconventional. Unstructured. Unconference.

by Jodi Szimanski, manager, communications, Student Success Office.

It’s all part of the uncommon leadership at Waterloo. On Wednesday, November 21, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., the Student Success Office invites student leaders from across campus to come together in the SLC Great Hall for our first Student Leadership unConference.

Topics are unplanned. Students will suggest discussion topics that volunteers will track. Together, attendees will narrow the list down to six, and choose which one of the three they would like to first discuss. Unlike most conferences, attendees can change their minds partway through the session. “We’re keeping the sessions fluid,” said Kathryn Christie, Coordinator, Student Development: Leadership. “Attendees can move from group to group if they choose.”

The unstructured sessions do have volunteers on hand to ensure that the conversations keep rolling and the volunteers will take notes. When time is up, everyone will reconnect to make sure that the next three topics are unquestionably still relevant before they break into groups again.

Why an unConference? Leadership at Waterloo is unique and around campus, everyone is discussing and teaching leadership differently. To avoid a universal, one-size-fits-all approach, it gives attendees the chance to drive the conversation and just unleash their ideas. They also get to tackle issues unchallenged by the usual structure. Even if you’re unable to stay for the whole unConference (staff and faculty are not unwelcome), drop by for some uninhibited unConference wisdom.

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Town Hall meeting today and other notes

The Town Hall meeting is taking place from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre today. At the meeting, Feridun Hamdullahpur and Sallie Keller will report on recent strategic planning activities, the university's internationalization agenda, and key campus updates. The meetings are usually held twice a year, are open to all members of the university community, and usually feature opening remarks from the president and provost, followed by a mix of questions sent in via email to townhall@uwaterloo.ca in advance, and questions from the floor.  Today, people can also ask questions via Twitter by tweeting them to @uWaterlooLIVE or by using the hashtag #uwth. The hashtag can also be used to follow @uWaterlooLIVE's tweets from the meeting, as well as the tweets written by those who are attending the meeting or watching the webcast.

Engineering 3 will be without nitrogen gas service until 10:00 a.m. this morning as work is done on a tie-in for new service.

Desire2Learn is hosting a Mobilize "thought leadership" conference on Monday, November 26 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Keynote speakers include teacher Andrew Bieronski, fourth-grade student and "ocean warrior" Madeline Cranston, CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi, Polar Mobile's Kunal Gupta, VeloCity's Mike Kirkup, professor Larry Smith, and others. The deadline for conference registration is Thursday, November 22.

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