pole vaulter running toward targetLancer pole vaulters will reach new heights during Night Flight, Friday on Ouellette Avenue.

Weekend events to highlight athletic talents

Lancers and Lancer alumni are among the athletes who will put their talents on display this weekend during the Windsor Athletics Fest.

Organizers have put together three events:

  • Night Flight, the downtown pole vault experience, at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 19;
  • Mission Mile, a mile-long run down Ouellette Avenue to benefit the Downtown Mission, 7:15 p.m. Friday; and
  • the Johnny Loaring Classic, a high-performance track and field meet in University of Windsor stadium opening at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 20.

Night Flight, now in its third year, will see world-class international vaulters and varsity athletes vaulting over the streets of Windsor. It will take place on Ouellette Avenue north of Park Street.

The Mission Mile community event will send runners straight up Ouellette Avenue from Ellis to Park streets, with prizes for team and overall winners as well as individual competitors in age categories from 11 and under to 70 and older. Find details on how to register on the event website.

The Johnny Loaring Classic promises a slate of events, both on the track and in the field. Canadian Olympian and UWindsor grad Melissa Bishop will be among the competitors in the women’s 1500m race. Events run 5 to 9 p.m.; see the full schedule.

The Pitt-Ferry Building is the setting for a seven-week series of lectures on urban sustainability.

Lecture series to explore issues of urban sustainability

Despite commitments by the provincial and federal governments to fight climate change, a University of Windsor instructor says more must be done locally. The lack of initiative in the City of Windsor has prompted Negin Minaei to host a series of seven talks on the topic of sustainable cities.

The first talk, entitled “Cities Challenges and Sustainable Urban Development,” is in the Pitt-Ferry Building on Thursday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m.

“195 countries including Canada have signed a commitment — the Paris Agreement — with the United Nations, to ensure their countries are moving towards sustainability,” said Dr. Minaei, a sessional instructor in the UWindsor Faculty of Engineering. “Cities are contributing too much in the areas of environmental pollutions, and they are the ones that can minimize their impact.”

Minaei has a degree in architectural engineering, a doctorate in urban planning and has worked as a post-doctoral and research associate in sustainable urbanism in the United Kingdom. She said one of the key issues to be addressed in Windsor is effective, smart and affordable public transportation.

“In 2004 when I was living in Germany, they had all of their transportation, buses and trams as electric,” she said. “And now here, it’s 2017, and we are still a car-dependent city.”

Effective public transportation can be expanded to improved cycling and walking infrastructure and bike-sharing systems.

Minaei said her chief goal for the seven talks is to inform local decision makers and the public about sustainability and present examples of cities that have successfully adapted sustainable and smart practices.

She is the founder of EnDesign, a social enterprise that promotes practical sustainable and healthy living, which will host the series with the support of the Faculty of Engineering. The talks will take place over the next seven Thursdays in room 110 of the Pitt-Ferry Building, home to the School of Social Work and the Centre for Executive and Professional Education. It is located at 167 Ferry Street.

At the May 25 talk, program manager with the City of Toronto’s environment and energy division Mark Singh, will discuss the Live Green Toronto program which helps residents, businesses and the city collaborate to move toward a sustainable Toronto.

On June 1, Mojgan Jadidi from York University will discuss how dynamic visualization of transit data can influence decision practices and how the City of Toronto is using that to plan to optimize public transport in Toronto.

On June 8, Steve Green, a sessional in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, will discuss community gardens and the importance of urban agriculture for the future food security and their activities in Windsor.

Engineering professor Rupp Carriveau will discuss sustainable centralized and distributed energy solutions on June 15.

Sinisa Simic of the Windsor Region Society of Architects will discuss sustainable design and responsible resource use on June 22.

On June 29, Jason Grossi, co-ordinator of the visual arts and the built environment program and the only certified heritage professional architect in Windsor, will discuss heritage conservation and adaptive re-use protocols.

The events are free, but space is limited; secure a spot on the event registration page.

Lucy the gooseSauce for the goose: staff of the Campus Bookstore have been feeding a Canada goose that has laid eggs on the patio outside the lower level of the CAW Student Centre.

Tales of Mother Goose: Bookstore staffers caring for nesting fowl

Staff of the Campus Bookstore have been providing food and water to a pair of Canada geese nesting in foliage alongside the patio outside their windows on the lower level of the CAW Student Centre.

They have dubbed the female “Lucy” and keep an eye on her as she roosts atop a clutch of eggs.

“She’s pretty sweet,” says book buyer Jackie Imeson. “You can tell she’s going to make a good mother by how she cares for those eggs.”

Imeson says several of her co-workers have taken to bringing out fresh water and food, and cleaning up the birds’ waste. They have joked about holding contests to predict a hatch date and even to name the chicks.

“We already know we’ll be calling the first one Ryan,” she says. “Ryan Gosling.”

Landscapers hoping to trim, mow and prune cancer

The Porter Lab at the University of Windsor received a major boost thanks to the efforts of a team of landscapers near Woodstock, Ontario.

By aerating, rolling and overseeding lawns last Saturday, Jason Stubbe and his team raised $170,326 during their annual Spring Yard Cleanup for Cancer. Stubbe said he has been passionate about raising money for cancer research ever since his father was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2006.

“At the end of the day, I saw my dad fight with brain cancer, and he didn’t have a lot of options just due to what they knew at that time,” Stubbe said. “So being able to be part of that process and seeing your money at work is huge for us.”

The Canadian Cancer Society provided Stubbe and his team with a list of brain cancer research projects, and they voted on which project they would like to support. That vote led them to Porter Labs.

Biology professor Lisa Porter’s lab focuses on the study of a cancer-related protein called Spy1 and its role in the development of tumours.

Dr. Porter said the donation from Stubbe will help her lab operate for another year.

“Now what we’re doing is taking patient samples and targeting that protein in these samples,” she said.

She credited past funding with allowing her team to work more efficiently.

“I think sometimes people have a hard time understanding where all the monies for cancer research have gone in the past,” Porter said. “There are tools and things available to us now that I wouldn’t have dreamed possible back when I started my lab in 2004.”

Stubbe had about 62 volunteers help out in the single-day fundraising event. He said even though they are based in a rural community, sponsorships have helped them grow the event to the level it is today.

Leddy LibraryA power outage June 17 will close the Leddy Library and other campus buildings.

Preventative maintenance to shut down campus electrical and steam services weekend of June 16

Annual preventative maintenance will require an outage of electrical and steam services to campus on the weekend of June 16, reports Facility Services.

The electrical power outage will also disable card access and is scheduled for 12 hours, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 17. The following buildings will be inaccessible for this period: Leddy Library, CAW Student Centre, Music Building, Energy Conversion Centre and Dillon, Assumption, MacDonald and Alumni halls. Find details in this document: Campus Wide Power Outage Information.

The steam outage will also disable hot water and heating and cooling systems. It is scheduled to begin at noon Friday, June 16, and run through 10 p.m. Sunday, June 18. The shutdown will disrupt most campus buildings, with the exceptions of the LeBel Building, Centre for Automotive Research and Education, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, Centre for English Language Development, maintenance and grounds buildings. Find details in this document: Campus Wide Steam Outage Information.

boy holding umbrellaThe May 2017 edition of “Workplace Wellness E-Digest” provides tips on promoting positive mental health in children.

Newsletter promotes children’s mental health

How can parents make their children as willing to talk about emotional pain as they are about physical pain? The May 2017 edition of Workplace Wellness E-Digest provides some tips on promoting positive mental health.

The publication, produced by the Department of Human Resources’ Office of Employee Engagement and Development, notes that 15 per cent of Canadian children and youth have a mental illness.

“We take our kids for regular physicals and make sure their vaccinations are up-to-date,” the newsletter says. “How can we inoculate them against mental health problems, too?”

It outlines ways for parents to give kids the tools to express themselves, offers strategies to help them manage stress, and explores issues related to increased screen time. Read the Workplace Wellness E-Digest.

CAW Student CentreThe CAW Student Centre and other campus facilities will close Monday in observance of Victoria Day.

Campus facilities to close for holiday Monday

University offices will be closed Monday, May 22, in observance of the Victoria Day holiday.

Among the facilities that will be out of commission are the CAW Student Centre, the St. Denis athletics compound, and the law and Leddy libraries. All will return to normal operation Tuesday.

Centre for Teaching and Learning seeking learning specialist

The Centre for Teaching and Learning has issued an internal call for applications for the position of Permanence-Track Learning Specialist, Ancillary Academic Staff II, in the area of educational development, curriculum development, curriculum mapping, and learning analytics.

Subject to final budgetary approval, the position is to commence July 1. Find job responsibilities, qualifications, and application instructions in the online posting.