How to spot a (campus) tourist

by Scott O'Neill, Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment

You may have noticed that campus tour groups are getting more colourful. Specifically, the Visitors Centre is now providing colour-coded nametag stickers to people on campus tours.

These stickers indicate the main faculty of interest for our visitors. In addition to blue, green, orange, pink, purple, and teal you will also notice black stickers and red stickers. Black stickers designate undecided, multi-interest, and other visitors. Red stickers will be used for those indicating interest in the Cheriton School of Computer Science or the School of Accounting and Finance.

The many dedicated staff, students, and faculty that already participate in the various tours do a fantastic job ensuring an entertaining, informative, and impactful experience. That said, there’s a lot that can happen after the ‘official’ tour concludes.

Everyone’s a recruiter

Quite often, visitors will continue to spend time exploring our campus after the tour concludes. The colourful nametags provide a visual cue to remind our community that we have valued guests among us. Smile! Offer directions! Share a story about why you love Waterloo! Together, we can help ensure that prospective students and other visitors leave campus with a clear impression of Waterloo’s vibrant and welcoming culture.

Why tours matter

Campus tours are a critical part of the student recruitment process. Research shows that students are more likely to accept their offer of admission if they visit campus. The campus tour is more than an opportunity to see the buildings and classrooms and housing – it’s a chance for students to get a ‘feel’ for the campus as they picture themselves here.

Many kinds of tours

Visitors can register for campus tours online on Find Out More – Waterloo’s website for prospective undergraduate students. Campus tours are available Monday through Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. year-round! Last year nearly 9,000 people toured our campus (in addition to the 18,000 we see on campus for our open house events).

Campus and residence tours are booked through the Visitors Centre while the University Colleges organize and administer their own unique tours. There are also tours of other Waterloo campuses and a variety of faculty-specific tours organized by each faculty’s undergraduate recruitment coordinator.

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Highlights from the Equinox Summit

a media release from the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI)

Lose the grades, lose the exams, and don't worry if all the kids in a class are not the same age. That's what a gathering of international education leaders is recommending in a dramatic new learning roadmap released yesterday.

The sweeping recommendations of the Equinox Summit: Learning 2030 also propose eliminating grades 9 through 12 in favour of groupings of students based on ability and area of study.

"We assume 30 students in the same grade, one teacher and four walls is ideal. But what would happen if we threw out that model?" says summit participant Greg Butler, founder of Collaborative Impact and former head of global education for Microsoft. "The current model of grade levels and ages is flawed. We need to progress students through high school, not by their ages, but by the stages they're at."

The Learning 2030 Communiqué contains summit participants' detailed recommendations on areas ranging from the use of new technologies in the classroom and methods of increasing student engagement, to teacher training and benefits of local school autonomy.

"Ideas like this are already successfully happening in innovative individual schools around the world," says summit participant Jennifer Groff, a graduate researcher at MIT and vice president of learning & program development with the Learning Games Network. "We've tinkered and tweaked for decades and we have the same system. If you want different outcomes, you have to rethink of all the parts of the system and redesign them together."

Learning 2030's 33 summit participants represent nearly a dozen countries, including the UK, Australia, Singapore, Finland, Qatar, several African nations, the U.S., and Canada.

"Students today have a very negative energy surrounding their high school education," says summit participant Zainab Ramahi, an undergraduate student in knowledge integration, a unique interdisciplinary program at the University of Waterloo. "The world needs students who feel impassioned and excited about going to school."

The Learning 2030 Communiqué, video of summit plenary sessions, and summaries of the behind-closed door meetings that led to the Communiqué, are available online. A more detailed Learning 2030 Blueprint will be released in the New Year.

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Posters, turkey, and so much more

The campus community is invited to join industry members and faculty from the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) for a graduate student poster symposium today from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Engineering 5's Student Design Centre.

19 graduate students from Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering will be showcasing their current research projects in poster form.

This is a great opportunity for members of the campus community to learn more about current student research efforts and to mingle with industry partners.

It's hard to believe, but it is already that time of year - the University Club is laying out its famous Thanksgiving spread on Thursday, October 10 and Friday, October 11. The buffet will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Call extension 33801 for reservations.

Retail Services’ Media.doc DC location has reopened its doors after a brief closure due to construction in the Davis Centre. Resuming its regular hours, Media.doc DC will operate 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday.

The Retail Services website has a full list of Media.doc locations and services.

From Monday, October 7 to Wednesday, October 9, the Federation of Students’ Feds Used Books will be hosting a "fantastic sale" from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre’s Vendor Alley. A variety of novels, textbooks, and instructional books will be available for a dollar or two with no additional tax. Cash only. More information about Feds Used Books is available online.

The Conrad Centre is hosting a pair of "startup meetup" events in the near future. All are welcome to attend the events, where Engineering students present their fourth year design projects to Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) students, who will invest their business talents in selected projects. The MBET and Software Engineering Meetup will take place on Wednesday, October 9 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the MBET and Systems Design Engineering Meetup is scheduled for Thursday, October 17, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

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