Don't touch that dial - CECA is on YouTube

by Sarah Southcott-Whyte, CECA

Co-operative Education & Career Action (CECA) has a YouTube channel!

It’s geared towards employers, students, and anyone who wants to learn more about CECA and all it has to offer. The channel includes more than 60 videos, providing information about Waterloo co-op, tips for employers and students, as well as videos promoting events like the Larry Smith public lectures. The YouTube channel, named CECA UWaterloo, offers student, alumni, faculty, and employer perspectives on Waterloo’s co-op program.

It also contains interviews with notable figures in the community like the executive director of CECA, Peggy Jarvie; former UWaterloo president and current Governor General of Canada, David Johnston; chairman and CEO of NexJ Systems and key contributor towards the construction of the William M. Tatham Centre, Bill Tatham; president and CEO of Desire2Learn, John Baker; and more.

Be sure to take a look!

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Registration opens for 3 Minute Thesis contest

A message from the Graduate Studies Office.

One slide.  Three minutes.  Outstanding ideas!

Registration is now open for the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition!  The 3MT is a university-wide competition for research based masters and doctoral students, where competitors have 1 static slide and 3 minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research to a non-specialist audience.  The competition will foster effective communication and presentation skills of graduate students, and is part of a worldwide initiative.  For more information, visit the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) or contact Tasha Glover.

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myHRinfo to be offline tomorrow

A message from Human Resources.

Human Resources and Information Systems and Technology (IST) will be taking myHRinfo offline on Friday, January 10 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to support maintenance and regulatory updates.

During this period, Users will not be able to login or to make changes to any information using myHRinfo.

Anyone requiring additional information is encouraged to contact a member of the HRMS/HR Operations Team:

• Jim Howard ext. 36451
• Tammy Marcinko, ext. 36121

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Registrar's retirement celebration today

After 37 years at the University of Waterloo, Ken Lavigne has admitted his last student.

Lavigne ends his 18-year run as University Registrar tomorrow, and today, friends and colleagues are being invited to wish him well in his retirement at a party at the University Club this afternoon.

The duties of the university's registrar are manifold: the Registrar is the senior department head responsible for the management of the Office of the Registrar, with responsibilities that include developing and maintaining an organizational structure that reflects the university's culture and supports its mission, providing effective administrative support systems, acting as the executive officer for undergraduate council, playing a formal role in convocation (He's pictured at right with Architecture director Rick Haldenby in 2002). And then there's the setting and achievement of student enrolment targets, which Lavigne has been known to refer to as "witchcraft."

If you've received a University of Waterloo degree in the last 18 years, Lavigne's signature is on it. However, when he graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1973 with a degree in English, his diploma would have featured the signature of Trevor Boyes, the university's second registrar, who had taken over from Alan Gordon in 1966.

Lavigne's own roots at Waterloo go back to 1969, when he enrolled in St. Jerome's College. He began his career as Registrar at St. Jerome's, serving from 1976 to 1981, moving on to become Assistant Registrar in the Office of the Registrar in 1981, Associate Registrar for Graduate Studies in 1989, and Associate Registrar for Admissions and Student Awards in 1990. In 1996, he became only the third registrar in the university's history.

Waterloo was a different place then, with 19,000 undergraduates compared to more than 31,000 today, and there were only 46 people working Registrar's Office, compared to 110 today.

Among the initiatives and accomplishments Ken has had a hand in:

• A research-based undergraduate recruitment strategy and the creation of the award-winning Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment unit;
• The acquisition and implementation of the Quest student information system, which went live in 2001, a project that prompted the re-engineering of all Registrar's Office processes (and undoubtedly forced the introduction of some new ones);
• The year 1 undergraduate residence guarantee;
• The university's undergraduate financial aid guarantee; and
• The university's entrance scholarship program.

Other milestones include 2003's "double cohort" (remember when that was a big deal?), the result of major high school curriculum reform in Ontario that saw the graduation of two cohorts of high school students, those in grade 12 and those in grade 13 (which was phased out), and the 2011 revamp of the university's diplomas, which was a collaborative effort done with student input.

In addition to his duties on campus, Lavigne has also chaired the Ontario Universities' Council on Admissions, served on the advisory board of the Ontario Universities' Application Centre, developed the idea for myfuture.ca, an online post-secondary resource for high school students (which has since become eINFO), partnered in the creation and subsequent review of the Ontario Universities' Fair, and championed more responsive and efficient OSAP processing practices.

Says Vice-President, Academic & Provost Geoff McBoyle: "On Ken's appointment as registrar in 1996, Gary Waller, the then Associate Provost (Academic and Student Affairs) stated "Ken brings the experience, the vision, and the leadership qualities we need in this time of rapid change at Waterloo". Over the last 17 years Ken has met these qualities every day."

The retirement event, emceed by Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment Director Tina Roberts and Associate Registrar Mark Walker, will be held at the University Club from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Speeches by Feridun Hamdullahpur and Geoff McBoyle will begin at 4:30 p.m., and refreshments will be served.

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