Volunteers needed for welcoming events

Members of the university community are being encouraged to participate in Residence Move-In and Family Send-off events on September 1 and 2.

“We would like to invite you to welcome our incoming class and their families to uWaterloo,” says a memo from President Feridun Hamdullahpur, Associate Provost, Students Chris Read and University Housing Officer Glen Weppler. “Your participation in these events shows a more personal side to Waterloo for both students and their families.”

Volunteers are needed for the following events:

Residence Move-In

The Residence Move-In Engagement Project is a community-building initiative. The event will pair up one student staffer, like a Don or Peer Leader, with a faculty and staff member to to help welcome the uWaterloo community's newest members - first-year students and their parents.

Sunday, September 1, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, September 1, 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Monday, September 2, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Monday, September 2, 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Volunteers will be assigned to a residence area and will be offered lunch before or after their shift. They will help new students and their families unload their belongings and move them into their new homes, while offering a friendly campus welcome. Volunteers will be asked to come a few minutes before their shifts for a tour of their assigned residence area.

Family Send-off

Family Send-off celebrates the arrival of uWaterloo's newest students. Students and their families will receive an official greeting from a senior administrator, mingle with other new families and faculty/staff, and take a family photo in a photo booth to mark the occasion. Activities and games for younger children will be available.  

Sunday, September 1, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Monday, September 2, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Volunteers will mingle with families and participate in activities.

“Knowing senior administration, staff and faculty members care enough to welcome students to campus establishes a strong sense of campus community from day one,” the memo concludes.

Please contact Glen Weppler, University Housing Officer, with your availability by Monday, August 26. Based on the responses received so far, Housing and Residences is still looking for more volunteers for the Monday morning and Family Send-off shifts.

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Margaret MacMillan to deliver Hagey Lecture

Historian Margaret MacMillan will be presenting this year's Hagey Lecture, entitled "Choice or Accident: The Outbreak of World War One."

MacMillan, a professor at Oxford University, is regarded as a leading historian of the British Empire at the turn of the 20th Century. She is an officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Royal Society of Literature.

In addition to numerous articles on Canadian and world affairs, Professor MacMillan has written several award-winning books, including "The Uses and Abuses of History" and "Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World."

The Hagey Lecture Series is named for the University of Waterloo's first President, Gerry Hagey, and is co-sponsored by the university and the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW). The invitational lecture series was established in 1970. The aim of the lecture is to " challenge, stimulate and enrich not only the faculty, staff and students of the University of Waterloo, but also all members of the community."

The event will take place on Thursday, September 19 at 8:00 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre. Admission is free and no tickets are required for entry.

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An assortment of announcements

Grand River Transit is introducing a new iXpress route this Fall. The 202 iXpress will travel via Erb Street West and University Avenue between the Boardwalk (on Ira Needles Boulevard) and Conestoga Mall, where it will connect to the Route 201 iXpress service. Buses will run every 15 minutes during peak periods and every 30 minutes in the evening. In addition, riders can hop on for free on Fridays between September 6 and December 27, 2013.

More details about the 202 and modifications to existing iXpress routes can be found on the Grand River Transit website.

The Federation of Students' Food Bank is doing its annual End of Term Cupboard Cleanout. The program, which runs until August 30 at 7:00 p.m., encourages donations of non-perishable food items and toiletries, either at the Food Bank, located in the Student Life Centre, or at donation boxes like those at the Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries.

Engineering Science Quest (ESQ) ends its summer run of Stratford Campus camp activities this Friday.

Human Resources is reporting that retired Professor Emeritus Francis Karasek (right) died August 10. Professor Karasek joined the university as an associate professor of analytical chemistry in September 1968 in the Chemistry Department. He was promoted to full professor in 1973.

Professor Karasek was an internationally renowned trace analysis researcher known for his work detecting toxic substances like PCBs and dioxins in the environment. He also discovered techniques for controlling the synthesis of dangerous dioxins in municipal incinerators.

Karasek retired in September 1988. He was 93.

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