A new website will help people receiving offers of admission to the University of Windsor determine what next steps to take.

Associate registrar Charlene Yates says the Guide to Registration will provide a point of entry for students new to navigating campus bureaucracies.

“We wanted to create a user-friendly, functional website where our students could find all the admission and registration information that they require to get off to a good start,” she says.

The site includes an action plan checklist and information on:

• how to accept an offer of admission,
• developing a timetable of courses to take in first year,
• important dates and deadlines, and
• contacts in each department.

Learn more at www.uwindsor.ca/GuidetoRegistration.

A reception May 2 will honour kinesiology professor Victoria Paraschak as the 2017 recipient of the Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award.

The Windsor University Faculty Association’s Status of Women, Diversity and Equity Action Committee bestows the award annually to individuals who demonstrate leadership through their contributions to creating an equity culture on campus. It is named after Mary Lou Dietz, a late UWindsor faculty member and head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, in recognition of her contributions to the advancement of women in Canadian universities and colleges.

For 33 years, Dr. Paraschak has contributed to women’s equity and Indigenous education on campus and afield, serving as:

• Chair of the first equity committees in the Faculty of Human Kinetics,
• co-chair of the initial Status of Women Committee at the University of Windsor,
• a member of and resource to the sexual harassment committee and the University Strategic Planning Task Force on Equity,
• an equity assessor,
• a member of the Status of Women, Diversity and Equity Action Committee since its inception, and
• a member of the review committees for employment equity and academic policy across campus for three decades.

 Read more in a brief citation on the association’s website.

The award presentation will begin at 4:30 p.m. May 2 at Kerr House, 366 Sunset Avenue, with a reception to follow. RSVP by April 25 by e-mail to wufa@uwindsor.ca or by phone at 519-253-3000, ext. 3365.

Canada South Science City is hosting its 11th annual Earth Day dinner to celebrate science and the earth, and to raise money to help re-open in a new location.

Windsor’s science and technology centre is in temporary hiatus since it moved out of its previous location on Marion Avenue in 2016. The educational hands-on attractions and displays were relocated to the museum’s future home in the former Forster Secondary School building.

Bill Baylis, UWindsor physics professor emeritus and president of the centre’s board, says that although the building is not currently open to visitors, this is a great time to reorganize and raise funds.

“Science City is a registered charitable organization and the region’s science centre, with extremely strong collaboration connections to the University of Windsor,” says Dr. Baylis. “Our researchers speak at the Science Cafés, which are sponsored by the Faculty of Science. We can’t wait to get Science City back up and running with visitors.”

The centre hopes its new space will be part of a hub of more than 20 non-profit community organization in Sandwich. It expects to occupy about 40 per cent of the Forster site and will announce details once architectural plans are readied.

This year’s dinner features a former Windsorite as the keynote speaker. Baylis says Kathleen Walsh, interim executive director of Evidence for Democracy, will make a timely address because the dinner comes a week after the worldwide March for Science rallies. Walsh is a principal organizer of the event in Ottawa.

“Science is essential for a civilized society, but its lessons are often ignored or even attacked, and its progress, stymied,” says Baylis. “The motto of Kathleen’s organization is ‘standing up for science and smart decision making in Canada’ and with scientists from around the world marching for science on Earth Day this year, we are fortunate to have a march organizer give her talk, Science as a Way of Thinking, the following week.”

The Earth Day dinner is on Friday, April 28, at the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts, 201 Riverside Drive West. Tickets are $50 for adults and $30 for children aged 5 to 12 and are available online at windsor.snapd.com.

This year’s events will include a display of winning entries in a poetry and poster contest for students enrolled in grades four to 12, sponsored by the Faculty of Education. For further information, visit the Canada South Science City website, e-mail info@cssciencecity.com or phone 519-980-2431.

It’s time to overhaul the federal Access to Information Act, says a University of Windsor criminology professor.

Randy Lippert recently co-wrote an opinion piece that appeared in the Montreal Gazette calling on the Canadian government to address three main issues with the 35-year-old act: provisions that protect rather than challenge ministerial secrecy in government, the limited powers of information commissioners to make orders, and the narrow scope of organizations subject to the act.

The piece corresponds with Dr. Lippert’s ongoing four-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight grant into the private sponsorship of public police. In it, Lippert says police foundations have started to pop up across the country and are treated as private, independent charities.

“Many accept private money and channel these funds into the public police for purchasing equipment and technological upgrades,” the article states. “The transactions of police foundations are not currently subject to access to information or freedom of information laws.”

Lippert says the research project is still in progress and expects to have findings ready for release by next year.

The Accessibility Directorate of Ontario will host a free public forum April 26 on the UWindsor campus highlighting how communities across the province have come together to be more accessible and inclusive.

“Accessibility: Honouring the Past, Showcasing the Present and Inspiring the Future” will provide a legislative update on progress in implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Accessibility champions will also share success stories and their personal perspectives.

The event will run 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the CAW Student Centre; register online.

Most UWindsor offices will close April 14 in observance of Good Friday, a federal statutory holiday.

Two exceptions are the Leddy Library, which will retain round-the-clock access, and the Crocodile Grill in Vanier Hall, which will serve breakfast from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The University maintains regular hours on Monday, April 17.