About 100 UWindsor faculty, staff, and retirees who are also graduates of the institution gathered Wednesday to celebrate their Lancer pride over lunch in the CAW Student Centre’s Alumni Auditorium.

“It’s a chance for us to thank our campus alumni for their contributions as important ambassadors for our school — our alma mater as well as our employer,” said Patti Lauzon (BA 2007), director of Alumni Affairs and Donor Communications.

Sponsored by the University of Windsor Alumni Association, the annual event featured an address by the University’s interim president, Douglas Kneale.

UWindsor alumna Alana Bartol (BFA Visual Arts, 2004) is among 25 artists on the long list for the 2019 Sobey Art Award, a contemporary art prize that recognizes and supports emerging artists from across the country.

Bartol’s multidisciplinary practice involves aspects of performance, installation, video, and bioart. Her work explores topics of place, species, bodies, and care, and draws upon the divination practice of dowsing.

During her time in Windsor, she received grants from the City of Windsor Arts and Heritage Fund and the Windsor Endowment for the Arts. She currently teaches in the drawing and sculpture departments at Alberta University of the Arts.

Each of the 20 longlisted artists who do not proceed to the short list — announced June 12 — will receive $2,000. The shortlisted artists will each receive $25,000, and the winner announced Nov. 15 will receive the top prize of $100,000.

—Susan McKee

The first 50 guests attending a free public reception will receive a limited-edition work by artist Jude Abu Zaineh to celebrate her MFA thesis exhibition “Home is Where the Maqlouba is,” Friday, April 26, in the SoCA Gallery.

Abu Zaineh uses a multidisciplinary approach to discuss nostalgia, home, and place-making. She draws on her Palestinian heritage and the traditional rice dish maqlouba in exploring transnationalism and cultural identity.

The exhibition is open for viewing through April 26, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday’s closing reception will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the SoCA Armouries, 37 University Ave. E.

UWindsor interim president Douglas Kneale has a plan to address a $10 million shortfall in the University’s revenue with minimal impact on students, staff, faculty, and programs, he wrote in a message to the campus community Wednesday.

The provincial budget set out a 10 per cent reduction in tuition fees for domestic students, which will mean a loss to UWindsor of about $10 million in the 2019-20 year.

Dr. Kneale expects to present a balanced budget to the Board of Governors in May, reflecting an enrolment increase of an additional 100 first-year undergraduate students, 200 international Master’s students, and a raise in most tuition fees for most international students.

“Given our strong application numbers…, we feel confident that we can admit these additional students,” Kneale wrote.

His message also discusses internal adjustments to meet inflationary pressures, and the government’s move to tie funding to performance outcomes on several metrics. Read the entire communiqué on the presidential communications website.

Francine Schlosser, the University of Windsor Golden Jubilee Professor in Business, has been appointed the inaugural Odette Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, provost Jeff Berryman has announced.

Dean Mitch Fields said his faculty is thrilled to have her take on the influential role.

“Her expertise and insight, honed through 15 years of ground-breaking leadership of multi-disciplinary entrepreneurship centres and programs, are a unique and invaluable resource,” he said. “Her nationally recognized contributions to entrepreneurial education have had a profound impact on the student experience and the reputation of the University.”

Dr. Schlosser will begin her term in the new position May 1.

Succeeding her as director of the Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre) is Wen Teoh, currently EPICentre’s venture start director.