Bertoia named Warriors Football Head Coach

A familiar face is returning to patrol the Warrior football sidelines. The University of Waterloo has appointed Chris Bertoia as Head Coach and Manager of Football Operations.

Bertoia, previously an assistant coach with the Western Mustangs, was an integral part of Warriors football during the glory years when Waterloo won the Yates Cup in 1997 and again when he captained the side in 1999.

“It wasn’t an easy decision to leave Western. I was very happy there and they treated my family and I so well,” said Chris Bertoia. “It's very rewarding to have an opportunity at a place where you played. It’s humbling to lead your alma mater. You can relate better with your players because you sat in the same chairs, went to the same classes, and represented the same football program. It makes everything more meaningful and I’m excited by the opportunity to rebuild the Warrior Football Program.”

Bertoia spent the last five seasons as Recruitment Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach for Western. He built a reputation as a strong mentor during his tenure at Western, coaching five Academic All-Canadians, 11 OUA All-Stars, and guiding six offensive linemen to gain experience in the Canadian Football League.

“Chris has been successful both as a player at Waterloo and within the CIS coaching ranks,” said Christine Stapleton, associate director of athletics. “We are excited to have Bertoia direct this program and we believe Chris will model exactly what it means to be a Warrior.”

Bertoia also brings experience in recruitment, alumni engagement and fundraising initiatives – key aspects of this role. Bertoia will be tasked with creating a culture, with an increased sense of accountability and pride.

“Our commitment to our stakeholders was to find a leader that could rebuild our program to be both successful and sustainable,” said Roly Webster, director of athletics and recreation. “Today I feel we have honoured that commitment in announcing Chris Bertoia as our new coach.”

Despite recent struggles on the gridiron, Warriors Football has enjoyed success with 170 student-athletes named OUA All-Stars and 56 student-athletes receiving All-Canadian status. Waterloo has also had over 100 athletes named as Academic All-Canadians since 2000 for achieving an 80 per cent average.

Bertoia will begin his tenure immediately.

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Ensuring Quest is at its best

a message from the Registrar's Office.

Unofficial grades will be available to undergraduate students in Quest on Monday, December 22. With many students checking their grades, there will be increased demand on Quest and response times can be affected. You will recall that students, staff and faculty experienced slower than average response times in Quest when the Winter 2015 course drop/add period began on November 24.

The Registrar’s Office wants to reassure the campus community that a thorough review of the performance issues encountered in November has been completed with several recommendations that will benefit all Quest users in the campus community. These recommendations include:

• Discouraging the use of robots and program scripts - Students using robots and scripts to repeatedly attempt to enroll in courses significantly slow Quest’s response time and risk corrupting student records. This type of activity is detrimental to the system and unfair to fellow students. Students who use robots to perform Quest transactions will be identified and disciplinary action may follow if use of robots persists.
• Upgrading Quest servers - Short-term upgrades will be implemented, until a scheduled major upgrade in 2015.
• Optimizing performance management and monitoring - Quest continues to be monitored and fine-tuned to optimize its performance.

If you have further questions please email registrar@uwaterloo.ca.

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Take the President's Town Hall survey

Students, faculty and staff are all being invited to take a short survey regarding the recent President's Town Hall meeting, which was held on October 30, 2014.

Town Hall meetings are an opportunity for the university community to hear directly from the president and senior leaders, and engage in a discussion on matters that are important to the University of Waterloo. Given this goal, Marketing and Strategic Communications wishes to ensure that these events continue to meet the needs of the university community.

Regular town hall meetings, open to all members of the university community, were established in the fall of 2008 and were held twice annually for several years. The President's Town Hall Meeting marked a new direction for the community forum. Differentiating this town hall meeting from its predecessor events (the last comparable town hall was held in November 2013) were its start time—10:30 a.m. as opposed to the afternoon—and the luncheon that was held immediately following the conclusion of the town hall in the School of Accounting and Finance's Don Craig Atrium at noon.

Whether you attended the President's Town Hall or not, your feedback on the meeting's format and content is greatly appreciated, and your ideas on how to enhance future President's Town Hall meetings is welcome.

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Winterloo interlude begins tomorrow

While some students may be going home for the holidays, students staying in Waterloo during the break still have a reason to celebrate. Winterloo, a series of fun, festive and traditional Canadian events, runs from Saturday, December 20 to Sunday, January 4, 2015.

Winterloo, organized by students from the International Student Experience team, provides an opportunity for many international and out-of-province students unable to travel home during the break to meet new students.

Winterloo events, including a New Year's Eve concert, volunteering at St. John's Soup Kitchen, and a games night, are open to all Waterloo students and their families.

With the campus largely closed during the December break, all students are required to move out of their on-campus residence. Students who need assistance finding short-term accommodations are encouraged to contact the Off-Campus Housing office.

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Notes on the 'Friday Before'

That sound you hear whistling through the trees on campus is no doubt the collective sigh of relief from students who finish writing their exams today, and who are set to strike out for the home front as the weekend commences.

There are still two more working days of the year at Waterloo after today. But take heart: today is payday for those employees on the monthly payroll. Those employees who are paid biweekly will see their next paycheques deposited on December 23. The pay dates for 2015 are available on the Human Resources website.

The Office of Research will be closed today from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for a staff function.

The Graduate Studies Office will close at noon today for the rest of the day. So too does the ECEC children’s program in the Psychology Department, which closes up at noon, reopening on Monday, January 5, 2015 with regular hours.

The Davis Centre IT Service Desk, the Residence IT Service Desk, and the IST Service Desk (CHIP) in East Campus 2's foyer as well as the Media Resources/Podium key service in MC1052 will be closed starting December 20 until January 5, 2015.

For students looking to turn their textbooks into Christmas cash, or who are running out of time to shop for Christmas gifts, Feds Used Books is open tomorrow, December 20, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The residence at St. Paul's closes at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 20 and will reopen Sunday, January 4 at 10:00 a.m.

The Safety Office wishes to remind laboratory users that now is the time to be thinking about safe holiday shutdowns. All lab operations must be suspended by Tuesday, December 23 at 5:00 p.m. The last day that hazardous waste can be dropped off at the Environmental Safety Facility is Monday, December 22. The full guidelines are available on the Safety Office's website.

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