Welcome to the Village, People: The Residence Life Staff of Village 1 have prepared a short music video to welcome new residents. The video was produced by Village 1 don Jonathan Yim and filmed and edited by student Robert William Savoy.

Orientation continues today with a number of events:

For students in Applied Health Sciences, the acronym of the day is PULSE, which stands for the Plethora of Ultimately Lively Secretive Events, which takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Architecture and Engineering students will be participating in Junkyard Wars from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Arts students will have a chance to ask questions and learn all about the many majors available in the Faculty at the Major Moments event in the Arts Quad from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

From 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Engineering students will participate in Engineering 101 and will meet the Tool, the faculty's 60-inch chrome-plated mascot, and then spend some time asking upper-year students questions at the Department Hangout.

Environment and Science students have International Student Orientation from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in RCH 101.

Mathematics students will Earn Their Tie in two sessions today, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

New students in Stratford's Global Business and Digital Arts program have their orientation event at the Waterloo Stratford Campus today.

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Strategic plan theme leaders named

The list of theme leaders for the strategic plan has been announced by Vice-President, Academic & Provost Geoff McBoyle.

The key theme areas and their leaders are:

• Experiential Education – co-leaders Susan Elliott and Peggy Jarvie;
  
• Entrepreneurship – Howard Armitage;
  
• Transformational Research – co-leaders John Thompson and Bruce Muirhead;
  
• Academic Programming – co-leaders Mario Coniglio and Sue Horton;
  
• Internationalization – Nello Angerilli;
  
• Student Experience – Chris Read;
  
• Employer-Staff Relationship – Bud Walker until the new Associate Provost, Human Resources is appointed;
  
• Sound Value System – co-leaders Beth Jewkes and the new Director of Equity.

These theme leaders and the subcommittees of content experts they will chair will begin work this Fall developing the accountability framework that will round out the recently-approved strategic plan.

Monitoring and reporting frameworks, and quantitative and qualitative indicators will be developed and validated by the steering committee by January 2014, with the Board of Governors receiving a progress report at its meeting in February 2014, after which the theme leaders and their groups will take actions to implement the plan.

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Keeping students entertained at Orientation

by Jacqueline Martinz, Federation of Students.

University isn’t simply about academics, and the student leaders who organized Orientation Week wanted to ensure the new class would realize that. The Federation Orientation Committee (FOC), a group of 33 upper-year undergraduates, organized a variety of games and performances to entertain the first-year students.

Tonight, the legendary toga party that has been held during Orientation Week for many years will occur again. The Nightmare Before Friday, as it is called this time around, will be a spooky dance featuring a coffee house and comedy show with frightfully talented acts. It will provide first-year undergraduates with a chance to meet their peers and have fun in a safe setting.

The entertainment will continue at the Grand Finale, which is the schedule of events on Saturday. Prior to two rousing soccer games courtesy of the women’s and men’s varsity teams for Black and Gold Day, first-year students will attend a carnival with inflatable games and have a special BBQ. At night, they’ll head to Masquerade. Previously known as Monte Carlo, the casino-themed Masquerade will have the class enjoying live music, acrobats, magicians, caricaturists and games including Black Jack.

Becky Wroe, the orientation and community events manager for the Federation of Students, one of the organizing partners, said the student leaders are excited to see their plan in action. “They wanted to motivate the first-year undergraduates to join Feds or University initiatives, and have fun throughout the week.”

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Thursday's notes

Be aware of an amount of large traffic, if not a large amount of traffic, along the Health Services roadway today as road graders will be on-site performing prep work for the new asphalt that is going in.

Melissa Zapletal of the university’s staff association writes “Pack your running shoes and get ready for a weekend of Retail Therapy 101 with the UWSA 9th Annual Shopping Trip with your hosts Sue Fraser and Peggy Day.” The annual cross-border shopping trip takes place from November 8 to 10 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Visit the UWSA website for more information and to complete the registration form. “Don’t be disappointed,” Zapletal writes. “Register today so your spot on the bus is reserved!”

The Waterloo Global Science Initiative's (WGSI) Equinox Summit: Learning 2030 is fast approaching. The summit is set to run from September 28 to October 3 at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Participants include Christine McWebb of the Waterloo Stratford Campus and Ed Jernigan of the Centre for Knowledge Integration. The Equinox Summit brief is available for download and outlines the summit's format, participants, and schedule of events. The WGSI is a partnership between the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

The Muay Thai club is holding a fall registration event starting September 10 at 9:00 a.m. and running until September 12 at 3:00 p.m.

The University Club is introducing its Morning Glory Menu, available from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., Monday to Friday from September 9 to November 29.

The Faculty of Engineering is reporting that Professor Emeritus Jeno Scharer (right) died on Sunday, September 1. Scharer joined the Chemical Engineering department in September 1967 as an assistant professor. His area of expertise was biochemical engineering. Scharer retired in May 2004. He was 74. A memorial reception will take place today from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home in Kitchener.

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