The Faculty of Science and the School of Dramatic Art are partnering to create a new communications course with an aim to help students develop important soft skills.

The second-year level course, “Staging Science,” will be offered for the first time during Intersession 2018.

“This is part of our new commitment to ensuring students have the ability to communicate science, in support of science literacy,” says Chris Houser, dean of science.

“It also represents an emerging collaboration between Science and FAHSS and our recognition of the importance that students take classes in the arts to be a better scientist.”

Students will use plays about science to explore debates around scientific ethics, intervention, and progress. Drama professor Michelle MacArthur, who will teach the course, says students can expect to develop communication skills, build personal confidence, and have an opportunity to tap into their creativity.

“Through lecture, class discussion, and hands-on activities, we will study these plays from various perspectives,” says Dr. MacArthur. “We’ll look at themes, aesthetics, and social context, and we’ll even get on our feet and try staging some scenes from them.”

The small, hands-on class is geared towards science students but there are spots reserved for drama majors as well. She says she hopes to facilitate some meaningful exchanges between the two disciplines, where students can learn from each other.

“You don't have to have any theatre experience to take this course, but I guarantee you, that by the end the students will develop an appreciation for the arts,” she says.

MacArthur co-taught an earlier iteration of this course to University of Toronto engineering students, and says she is excited to work with UWindsor science students.

“It was really rewarding to see non-drama students develop a love of theatre and bring new perspectives to the material,” says MacArthur. “By the end of the course, even the shyest students had come out of their shells and were performing scenes in front of an audience.”

Sara Elliott

Graduates of the University of Windsor are prominent among the list of young civic-minded individuals to be honoured at an awards night Wednesday, March 28, at Caesars Windsor.

Leadership Windsor/Essex, a program of United Way, has named 40 Leaders Under 40 in recognition not only of their professional achievements, but for giving back to their community in meaningful ways.

Recipients were selected based on three main criteria, says director Sherrilynn Colley-Vegh: active community involvement, meaningful impact on the community as a result of their leadership and personal actions, and inspiring others with their leadership and advocacy on key issues facing the community.

“These diverse, talented, innovative young leaders are valuable assets to our community and it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate their success,” she says.

Among the honorees are Vincent Georgie (MBA 2004), director of the School of Creative Arts, and Nour Hachem-Fawaz (BA 2010), employer relations co-ordinator for engineering in Co-operative Education and Workplace Partnerships.

Other UWindsor grads on the list include:

• Michael Bennett (BA 2007, MSW 2012)
• Katharen Bortolin (BA 2013, MBA 2016)
• Jeremy Bracken (BComm 2006)
• Cessidia De Biasio (BSW 2015)
• Sara Grace Donally (MBA 2017)
• Natasha E Feghali (BA 2004, BED 2008)
• Celesta Gaba (BComm 2013)
• Alison Hunter (B.ED 2002)
• Zain Ismail (BComm 2012)
• Lina-Marie Mastronardi (MHK 2005)
• Sarah Morris (BA 2012)
• Sarah Mushtaq (BAS 2016)
• Sierra Parr (BA 2015)
• Kara Picco (BSc 2015)
• Myla Picco (BA 2014, JD 2017)
• Yvonne Pilon (BComm 2007)
• Austin Roth (BHK 2015)

The awards dinner begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $75, available for purchase through March 22 on the event website.

The four-year collective agreement between the University of Windsor and the Windsor University Faculty Association represents a great collaboration, UWindsor president Alan Wildeman said Tuesday, as officials from both sat down to formally sign the contract negotiated last year.

“I want to thank the bargaining teams for the university and the faculty association for all of their hard work to achieve this four-year agreement,” Dr. Wildeman said. “It provides a very strong base from which to continue to support faculty, librarians, sessional lecturers, and sessional instructors at the University of Windsor.”

Faculty association president Jeff Noonan said that its membership is “very pleased” with the course of negotiations: “It’s a good agreement going forward.”

A reception Friday, March 23, will mark the closing of Ignite, an exhibition by first-year students of the Visual Arts and the Built Environment program.

Displaying works in the Armouries’ Building SoCA Gallery are Bianca Brahimir, Tiffany Dang, Andre Hurst-Prince, Maria Jose, Philip Jurkowski, Jack Lavigne, Mona Makki, Bhavisha Mistry, Ian Rawlings, Gabriella Walker, and Rachel Wightman.

Friday’s reception runs 5 to 9 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

With supplies running low at the Campus Food Bank operated by Iona College to serve UWindsor students, it’s time for the University community to consider supporting students who are need, says Dave McEwen, head of Food Services.

“They say that one of the main reasons people don’t give to charity is because they’re never asked,” he says. “This week, we are going to start asking.”

Cashiers at Food Services outlets across campus will ask clients to consider a $1 donation to support the student food bank each time they ring through a purchase this week.

“I’m really hoping that together, we can make a difference for those who need our help,” McEwen says. “This is a stressful time of year for many students and not having food to eat only adds to their stress.”

The food bank is based in the basement of Canterbury College at 2500 University Avenue West. It provides non-perishable foodstuffs to students with valid ID.

Three sisters and a brother, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, meet for the first time in the moving documentary “Birth of a Family.”

The film will be screened Thursday, March 22, at the SoCA Armouries as part of the National Film Board of Canada’s Aabiziingwashi Wide Awake film series, presented locally by the Arts Council Windsor and Region, University of Windsor, Aboriginal Education Centre, and Media City.

Removed from their young Dene mother’s care as part of Canada’s infamous “Sixties Scoop,” Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie and Ben were four of the 20,000 Indigenous children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or to live in foster care.

In the documentary directed by Tasha Hubbard, the four siblings piece together their shared history and as their connection deepens, bringing laughter with it, their family begins to take shape.

Julie Tucker, the arts council’s director of public programs and advocacy, says “Birth of a Family” is a perfect choice as the final screening in the series.

“We have the opportunity to witness the power of resiliency through this film,” she says. “There are similar situations where families torn apart, have not been able to come back together because of government initiatives like the sixties scoop. This film is a wonderful end to our series and gives hope to a future moving forward that we can overcome anything.”

Thursday’s screening is free and open to the public. It begins at 7 p.m. in the SoCA Armouries Performance Hall, located at 37 University Avenue East. Learn more on the Facebook event page.

A two-part workshop series will help instructors explore a sense-making process for deciding on resources to include in courses, and the selection and development of open educational resources.

Jenni Hayman, a learning designer and program coordinator at eCampus Ontario, will facilitate the active workshops.

In the first workshop, instructors will explore the sense-making process as a way of selecting resources that balance workload with supporting effective student learning. The workshop will also help instructors to understand the range of Open Educational Resources (OERs) available to them.

The second workshop explores OERs in more depth, including the differences between adopting, adapting, and creating OERs and where and how to find them.

These workshops are part of a larger research project on understanding how instructors make sense of learning resources in their own context. Jenni invites participants to complete a survey prior to the first workshop: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/prestudyUniversityB.

The workshops are scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27, and Tuesday, April 10, in room 204 of the Welcome Centre.

Instructors can register or find more information on the workshops at: https://ctl2.uwindsor.ca/openlearning/workshops/21/#wkshp-89.

For more information on the research or the workshops in general, contact Nick Baker in the Office of Open Learning (nbaker@uwindsor.ca) or Hayman at jhayman@ecampusontario.ca.