Acclamations, elections for Provost committee

A message from the Secretariat

Following the call for nominations to fill seats on the Vice-President, Academic & Provost Nominating Committee, the following individuals are elected by acclamation to serve on the committee:

• Susan Elliott, dean of AHS (AHS senator of professorial rank);
• David DeVidi, philosophy (arts senator of professorial rank);
• Jean Andrey, geography & environmental management (environment senator of professorial rank);
• Dan Brown, computer science (mathematics senator of professorial rank).

Online voting is to begin Friday 1 March to fill the following positions on the nominating committee:

• Engineering senator of professorial rank (candidates: George Freeman, electrical & computer engineering; Pearl Sullivan, dean of engineering)
• Science senator of professorial rank (candidates: George Dixon, vice-president, university research; Terry McMahon, dean of science)
• Two regular faculty-at-large members (candidates: Shelley Hulan, English language & literature; Ian Munro, computer science; Mary Wells, mechanical & mechatronics engineering);
• Two regular staff members (candidates: Michael Herz, mechanical & mechatronics engineering; Carrie Hunting, Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo; Carlos Mendes, psychology; Catherine Newell Kelly, Centre for Extended Learning; Jack Rehder, dean of mathematics; Gabrielle Smith, Student Success Office; Mark Walker, Registrar’s Office)

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Student Life Endowment Fund deadline today

If you're seeking funding for a project that could benefit undergraduate students on campus, then you have until 4:00 p.m. today to submit your application for the Student Life Endowment Fund to the Federation of Students.

The fund is open to any group on campus with an idea that meets one or more of the fund's 4 tenets:

• The improvement of accessibility on campus;
• The improvement of safety on campus;
• The improvement of existing lounge and study space; and
• The renovation of student services
  

The Student Life Endowment Fund was established by students in 1992 after a referendum as part of the Coordinated Plan to Improve the Quality of Student Life at UW, and has accumulated a principal of more than one million dollars. Typically, the Federation of Students allocates the interest generated by the fund, approximately $60,000 a year, for projects. Successful applicants will be able to access their funds beginning May 1.

The application form is available on the Federation of Students' website.

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Leading change with Landsberg-Lewis

Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, executive director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, will be on campus Monday as part of International Women's Week 2013, delivering a talk entitled "Global Citizenship: Women Leading Change." The event will be held in Hagey Hall's Room 1101 at 2:30 p.m. Admission is free.

"The aim of Ilana's visit is to provide an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty across the campus to engage in a dialogue about the ways that we can all positively impact the world," writes Tracy Penny Light, director of Women's Studies, which is co-sponsoring Monday's event along with the Dean of Arts, Sociology and Legal Studies, INDEV, One Waterloo, and the Women's Centre. "Whether we are acting locally or globally, speakers like Landsberg-Lewis provide us with opportunities to consider the ways that we act responsibly as citizens.  Ilana is a great role model for all of us, whether we are in business, education, or not-for-profit arenas, to consider the ways that we can promote equity in our workplaces, ensuring that every voice is equally respected."

Landsberg-Lewis is a labour and human rights lawyer and began her career in international development and human rights in 1993 when she volunteered at the Vienna International Conference on Human Rights, later working with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and UN GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian Or Bisexual Employees), a UN-recognized club for gay and lesbian workers in the United Nations civil service.

In 2003, she helped her father, former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis, establish the Stephen Lewis Foundation, an organization dedicated to turning the tide of the disease in Africa. She was the 2009 YMCA Woman of Distinction for International Development.

"Understanding the inequities that are invisible but definitely present in many contexts and developing the ability to thoughtfully question and critique these situations are important abilities that we ought to be instilling in all of our graduates at the University of Waterloo," continues Penny Light. "Ilana’s talk will illuminate the ways in which she has recognized inequities throughout her career and the positive steps she has taken to make a difference. We are thrilled that she will be here to kick-off an impressive line-up of events next week in celebration of International Women’s Week!"

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Notes as February fades to white

Among the many events that had to be rescheduled after the snow day on February 8 was the latest entry in the History Speaker Series. A new date—Friday, March 8, at 1:00 p.m.—has been set for Associate Professor Lynne Taylor's talk entitled "“In the Children's Best Interests”: Unaccompanied Children in Germany, 1945-1949."

"After the dust settled at the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of refugees - known as displaced persons - remained in Germany, most in the American Occupation Zone," reads the lecture's promotional material. "Among them were between 10,000 and 15,000 unaccompanied children - children who had been orphaned or separated from their families by the war. It took the international agencies and various governing authorities some time to recognize their existence. It took even longer to figure out what to do with them and the competing agendas of the various authorities responsible for their disposition further complicated matters, leaving many of the children in limbo in the displaced persons camps for years."

Speaking of the weather, the University of Waterloo Weather Station's annual contest to determine exactly when a temperature reading of 20 degrees Celsius will be recorded is now in its 15th year, commemorating the establishment of the weather station in 1998. The entry period for participants to submit their guesses closed yesterday (whoops!), so now the waiting game begins. So far, the earliest time that a temperature has hit 20 degrees was 12:00 p.m. on March 8, 2000, and the latest time was in 2006, when it didn't reach 20 until April 19 at 2:15 p.m. For the record, last year's winning time was 3:30 p.m. on March 16. The Waterloo Store is sponsoring the prizes for the most accurate guesses, and winners will be elevated to the contest's Hall of Fame.

The university's weather station is operated by the Waterloo Hydrology Lab in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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