And the band played on: An ad on page 42 of the most recent issue of Waterloo Magazine caught the eye of President Emeritus Douglas Wright back in June, and he wrote in about it, noting that a caption might be helpful in identifying the photo's subjects.

The ad, for Reunion 2014, made use of the above photo, taken circa 1970, of "The Razor's Edge" rehearsing in the men's washroom at the Faculty Club (now known as the University Club).

Just who were these madcap musicians? Well, calling them "major players" in the history of this institution would be appropriate. Counter-clockwise from the bottom left: Hugh McKinnon of the History department on kazoo, then-President Burt Matthews on cymbals, his predecessor, Gerry Hagey on triangle (and turban), Bob Jeans, Faculty Club manager on trumpet, Bert Barber, the first director of what is now Co-operative Education and Career Action on plunger, businessman Bob Sauder on washtub, Carl Totzke, athletics director, on tuba, James McKegney of the Spanish department, Hans Bichler of Plant Operations on banjo, Ron Dunkley of Mathematics, Art Cowan of computer science, and Ken Fryer of Mathematics on washboard.

It looks like a fun gig.

So readers: do you have any additional information about the story behind this photo? If so, drop me an email.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Waterloo Archives.

 

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Policy project posts progress, promises plan

“The first year of the Policy Project has come to a close, with some significant progress made on a number of fronts,” says a note from the Policy Project that was circulated to faculty and staff yesterday. 

Highlights include: 

• Policy 5 – Salary Administration, University Support Staff [S]
• Policy 6 – Vacation - Staff [S]
• Policy 7 – Gift Acceptance [G]
• Policy 30 – Employment of Graduate Student Teaching Assistants [Z]
• Policy 39 – Leaves of Absence for Staff Members [S]
• Policy 40 – The Chair [A]
• Policy 59 – Reduced Workload to Retirement [FS]

 

“Our next Policy Post will be in September, when the plan for Year 2 will be released and posted on our webpage,” the memo continues. “Regular updates will continue every month.”

 

“As well, we wish to thank you for your comments and input throughout this year.”

 

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Talking employee-employer relations

A robust employer-employee relationship was the talk of the most recent Mini Town Hall on the themes of the Strategic Plan on Wednesday, June 18, held in Room 3412 of Environment 3.

A standing-room-only crowd was on hand to hear from Employer-Employee Relationship theme leads Marilyn Thompson, associate provost, human resources, Carlos Mendes, staff association president, and Linda Brogden, occupational health nurse, as well as introductory remarks from President Feridun Hamdullahpur.

The theme leads outlined the strategic plan goals as they pertained to the employer-employee relationship - being a destination of choice for superior individuals
seeking employment, and enabling staff to fulfill their potential in a career at the University.

The panel also took questions from the audience, emails, and Twitter on issues including compensation, USG levels, performance evaluations, workload, employee engagement, morale, communications, mental health, and vision benefits.

A webcast of the Town Hall is available.

This was the fifth in the series of Mini Town Halls, with entrepreneurship, transformational research, internationalization and academic programming events being held earlier this year.

Plans are in the works for final slate of themes - experiential education, student experience, and sound value system.

 

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Getting schooled on student life

By: Student Success Office

As the incoming class starts their countdown to Orientation (16 days, if you’re keeping track), the campus community is providing them with tools and knowledge to make a successful transition from high school to university. Whether these new students grew up in the region or are coming to Canada for the first time, Waterloo offers a variety of programs and support to get them ready for their first year.

Student Life 101 is a two-day, overnight program run in partnership with the faculties and many student service units. The program, offered seven times over the summer with a session dedicated to international and out-of-province students, helps students get comfortable on campus and learn about on-campus resources.

New Student Tours are offered in partnership with the Visitor’s Centre to provide new students with an opportunity to meet with an upper-year mentor and learn more about student life at Waterloo as they explore campus.

Live chats are hosted by upper-year students and campus experts. Representatives from the faculties, Student Awards, Quest and other student service units have hosted chats to provide targeted information and allow the new class to ask questions. Live chats are also recorded so students in different time zones can watch at a convenient time.

Welcome to UWaterloo is the online community hosted in LEARN for first-year students. This community allows students to access resources designed to provide support before they arrive on campus as well as throughout their first year. Upper-year mentors answer questions on discussion boards and help the new class become comfortable with LEARN.

Orientation begins Saturday, August 31 and more information will be included in the Bulletin in the coming weeks.

The orientation and transition of the class of 2019 is a campus-wide effort that sees the campus community coming together to prepare new students for their time at Waterloo. We would like to thank everyone involved in the facilitation of these programs.

 

 

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Taps across campus to run cold next week

Break out the hot plates and kettles, folks: a utility shutdown next week will have hot water running cold as maintenance is performed on steam mains.

Plant Operations has announced that all buildings within the Ring Road, as well as Village 1 and Engineering 5 will be without domestic hot water, heating, and steam service from Monday, August 18 at 1:00 a.m. to Thursday, August 21 at 6:00 p.m.

 

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Thursdays notes

 

The Office of Advancement is on the move. Effective, Tuesday, August 19, the Office of Advancements new home will be 175 Columbia St. W. (corner of Phillip & Columbia) a former BlackBerry building. The move will occur in stages between August 14 and August 22. Every effort is being made to minimize disruption to normal business activities, and staff’s access to email and telephone will be limited during this time. Also, in-person frame sales will not be available during this time.

 

 

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