Teaching Excellence Director wins award

The Director of the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Donna Ellis, has won the 2013 Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development, an award given out by the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD).

Ellis received the award for her conference session entitled "Why Students Avoid Risking Engagement with Innovative Instructional Methods." The work was based on her recently defended dissertation. Ellis received her PhD at this spring's convocation.

The Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development was established and first awarded at the 2000 POD conference in Vancouver. The award criteria include: quality of the research question, design, and discussion of the results; internal coherence; alignment with the Professional & Organizational Development Network Strategic Plan; and value to advancing the field of professional development.

The award committee in particular commended Ellis's proposal "for its rigorous research and its potential impact on the field of faculty development."

She will be presented with the award in November at the annual POD Conference in Pittsburgh.

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Brubaker's to get facelift

Food Services has announced that Brubaker's, the food court located in the Student Life Centre, is undergoing a large renovation. The area will be closed until Friday, August 23.

A number of changes and menu additions are outlined on the Food Services website.

New to Brubaker's in August will be a Booster Juice, which will offer 20 smoothie flavours in 2 sizes (12oz and 24oz). Booster Juice will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Also, Food Services will be introducing the Wild Olive pasta bar, a revamp and expansion of the existing pasta station. Daily baked entrees will be added to the current offerings.

All current fountain pop stations will be removed and replace with a "Freestyle Coke Fountain" that can dispense up to 100 different flavours (No word yet on whether a "swamp water" option will be available).

The Brubaker's Pita Pit location will feature salads as a new menu item, and will no longer sell smoothies.

Starting in late October, Teriyaki will introduce salmon to their menu.

Students who are looking for sustenance during the shutdown can still access Subway or the SLC Tim Hortons (and there's always the Bomber, by the way), and a full list of Food Services locations as well as their operating hours is available on the Food Services site in case you need to map your food strategy in the coming weeks.

The Student Life Centre's food court was christened Brubaker's back in 1995 during the first major expansion to what was they still being referred to as the Campus Centre. The food outlet last received a major update with the addition of a Subway franchise as well as pita, salad and smoothie options in 2009.

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Notes on the last day of lectures

If you're a student and feeling like you've been struck down by a case of the Mondays two days in a row, that's because today, which happens to be the final day of lectures for the Spring 2013 term, is actually a Monday class schedule. Instructors of Monday classes will be holding their last classes today, while instructors of Tuesday classes held their last class on Tuesday, July 23.

Pre-examination study days will begin tomorrow and run until Monday, August 5, with the examination period kicking in on Tuesday, August 6. Online class examination days are scheduled for Friday, August 9 and Saturday, August 10. The examination period ends on Saturday, August 17. Unofficial grades will begin to appear in Quest on Monday, August 19, with registered students able to view them.

Looking past exams, students need to become "Fees Arranged", that is, having made arrangements for paying tuition, by the deadline of Monday, August 26. Student Awards & Financial Aid has posted a news article outlining just how to go about doing so.

The City of Waterloo has updated its timetable for the reopening of Phillip Street. According to this online list of road closures, Phillip will remain closed until 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 1. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a grain of salt to take.

Anyone looking for a shortcut to the Balsillie School of International Affairs take note: one other nearby road closure to be aware of is that of Father David Bauer Drive, which has been closed for reconstruction since June and is not expected to open until December 20. Access from Westmount is restricted to the Luther Village retirement home, with the Waterloo Region Memorial Recreation Complex only accessible from the Erb Street side.

Going down? A note from Plant Operations indicates that the passenger elevator in the Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology (PAS) building will be out of commission on Thursday, August 1 from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. while service is performed.

Human Resources is reporting that retired Classical Studies professor Sally Haag (right) died on July 18. Professor Haag began her career at the university in September 1964 as a lecturer, becoming an assistant professor in 1970. Her research interests included Roman social history, Roman satirists, and farming (Roman and otherwise, as she ran Woody End Farm in Wellesley with her husband). She was a recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993 and was Professor Emerita in the Classical Studies department. Professor Haag retired in September 1996 under the Special Early Retirement Program. She is survived by her husband, Edward.

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