New provost Ian Orchard takes up position

The University of Waterloo's next vice-president academic & provost has begun his official duties. Ian Orchard's 5-year term as provost began July 1.

Orchard comes to Waterloo as a highly respected professor and accomplished senior administrator at the University of Toronto. Orchard was a distinguished professor of biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and served as a vice-president of the University of Toronto, and principal of the University of Toronto Mississauga for eight years, during which time he led the growth and development of the University of Toronto Mississauga into a semi-autonomous campus of the University of Toronto. He was previously the University of Toronto's first vice-provost, students, and also held positions as vice-dean and associate dean in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

"His proven track record as a forward-thinking and engaged senior administrator and commitment to excellence makes Professor Orchard a natural choice as Waterloo's next vice-president academic & provost," said President Feridun Hamdullahpur in a statement released in January when Orchard's appointment was first announced. "His breadth of talent and experience will support us in our efforts to becoming one of the top innovation universities in the world. I am very excited to have Professor Orchard joining our team.”

At the University of Toronto, Professor Orchard helped implement the university’s student financial aid program, established guaranteed funding packages for doctoral-stream students, and oversaw unprecedented enrolment and financial growth at the Mississauga campus. In recognition for his contribution, in 2010 the University of Toronto established the Ian Orchard Student Initiatives Fund. Its goal is to enhance the student experience and strengthen the sense of community through the funding of student-led projects and events.

An expert in insect neurobiology with more than 200 research publications, Professor Orchard has been funded by NSERC since 1982, has chaired the NSERC Animal Physiology Grant Selection Committee, and has presented numerous invited papers at International conferences. He earned a Doctor of Science degree (1988), a PhD (1975), and a B.Sc. (1972), all from the University of Birmingham, in England.

Professor Orchard succeeds Professor Geoff McBoyle, who served as vice-president academic & provost on an interim basis.

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The Two Jims: Rush, Frank take new posts

"It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor James W.E. Rush as interim dean of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences for the period of 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015," said a memo from the provost that circulated last week.

"Jim Rush joined the Faculty in 2000 and has served in a variety of administrative roles, including as chair of the Department of Kinesiology and twice serving as associate dean.," the provost's memo continues. "He earned his BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Guelph, and received his PhD from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center in Syracuse, New York. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and in the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research program focuses on vascular and skeletal muscle physiology, and from 2003-2013 he held the Canada Research Chair in Integrative Vascular Biology. He has published nearly 60 referred journal articles as well as a number of refereed book chapters, and he has been invited to give dozens of presentations to a variety of audiences including at conferences, seminars and non-profit gatherings."

"At this time I would like thank Jim for agreeing to take on this important role. I also would like to express my full support of his leadership in guiding the important work of the Faculty, and my confidence that he will foster the success of students, faculty and staff over the coming year," the provost's memo concludes.

In addition, Jim Frank took over as Interim Associate Provost, Graduate Studies as of July 1.

Says the provost's memo dated May 29: "I am delighted to inform you that Dr. Jim Frank has been appointed as Interim Associate Provost Graduate Studies for one year."

"Jim is presently a faculty member in Kinesiology, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Previously, he held the position of Vice-President Academic and Dean of St. Jerome’s University (2011-2013). Jim has also held the position of Chair of the Department of Kinesiology (1992-1998), Associate Dean of Graduate Studies (2000-2003) and Dean of Graduate Studies, University of Windsor (2006-2011)."

"I am delighted that Jim has agreed to serve the University in this capacity," says the provost's memo. "I would like to thank Sue Horton for her years of service as Associate Provost Graduate Studies."

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Creative Services changes its business model

Effective July 1, Creative Services is changing the way it does business with the campus community.

“Creative Services will become a fully funded support unit within Marketing and Strategic Communications and will no longer charge University-designated units for its design work,” says a memo to faculty and staff from Vice-President, University Relations, Bob Crow. “A comparison of the invoicing model with that of a fully funded unit shows the change is cost neutral.”

Ancillary units (Housing & Residences, Food Services, Parking, Retail Services and Watcard) and units legally separate from the University will continue to be charged as they are now.

This change means less paperwork for University of Waterloo Faculties, departments, schools, centres, institutes and academic support units.

The services offered by Creative Services will remain the same, including graphic design; print production management; stationery; video production; animated and motion videos; illustration; web enhancements; and photographic management.

Print production costs will continue to be passed on to the department requesting work, but there will be no additional charges for these services.

“In addition, Creative Services will introduce process enhancements that include an updated online requisition process, a new document that outlines the strategic intent of communications projects, updated “How-to” project tools, and project team members who are assigned to liaise with each department requesting work,” the vice-president’s memo continues.

The enhanced online requisition process will enable Creative Services to organize and archive the work for retrieval as needed, and will allow tracking of the job from start to finish. The new strategic brief document will better meet the needs of strategic communication projects by outlining the project’s strategic intent and informing the design approach to ensure its alignment with project goals.

One of Creative Services’ two project coordinators will be dedicated to each of the University’s departments to manage and oversee those departments’ projects with the assistance of a design lead. This will ensure that schedules and delivery dates are met.

More information about the changes to Creative Services’ operations, including detailed FAQs and how-to documentation, is available on the Creative Services website.

Anyone with questions about the changes can contact Christine Goucher, Associate Director, Creative Services, at extension 38218 or via email.

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Doctoral student wins ACM award

Computer Science PhD student Laura Inozemsteva won an Association for Computing Machinery Distinguished Paper Award at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) http://2014.icse-conferences.org/ for her paper "Coverage Is Not Strongly Correlated with Test Suite Effectiveness".

Inozemsteva is supervised by Professor Reid Holmes.

"This is really good news," says Faculty of Mathematics Associate Dean Research Tamer Özsu. "This is the top conference worldwide in software engineering."

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