A symposium at the University of Windsor’s downtown campus Friday and Saturday, September 28 and 29, will examine Canadian experiences in sport in the context of a racialized world.

Telling the Stories of Race and Sports in Canada will feature presentations on such varied themes as race and identity, youth and sports, and untold stories of athletes and teams in Canada’s past, drawing from disciplines including history, human kinetics, art history and librarianship. Displays and stories will focus on athletes from Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex.

The event is part of a multi-phase project developed by a team of scholars at the University of Windsor who have been collecting stories of Canadian athletes of colour with the intention of preserving them for future generations and disseminating them as widely as possible.

The team is engaging scholars, K-12 students and teachers, and members of the general public in exploring, sharing, and documenting these vital chapters of Canadian history.

The public is invited to a lecture Friday by cartoonist Scott Chantler, who will discuss his work to create a mini-comic about the pioneering champion 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars baseball team. The event will run 4 to 6:30 p.m. in the main gallery of the SoCA Armouries, 37 University Avenue East.

For details on the symposium, visit www.uwindsor.ca/raceandsport.

Visitors heading to campus will see how it has changed in recent years during an interactive tour Saturday morning as part of Alumni Weekend activities.

Student ambassadors will lead the tour from the Welcome Centre at 10 a.m. September 29. A stop at the EPIC Makers’ Base in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation will give participants a chance to make their own environmentally-friendly laundry detergent, toothpaste, or shopping bag — to take home as a souvenir.

A family barbecue and carnival hosted by the School of Dramatic Art from 3 to 5 p.m. on the lawn outside the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre offers food, games, and crafts, as well as entertainment. Alumni Philip Psutka and Lindsay Bellaire of Theatre Arcturus will present an aerialist show to thrill and delight, and Mark Lefebvre and Kyle Sipkens reach new heights in their performances as the Stilt Guys.

Lancer football will host the Toronto Varsity Blues on Alumni Field at 1 p.m. Saturday, and the Alumni Sports Hall of Fame will induct its 2018 class with a ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday in the student centre’s Alumni Auditorium.

For full Alumni Weekend details and registration, visit www.uwindsor.ca/alumniweekend.

Users experiencing issues with classroom audio-visual (AV) equipment have a new way to report them to Information Technology Services effective Friday, September 28.

These issues will be addressed through the University’s existing ticketing application, TeamDynamix, advises John Osborne, manager of client services. TeamDynamix is a service management application that includes a ticketing module to record, monitor, and analyze IT-related service requests.

“The ultimate goal of utilizing TeamDynamix for reporting AV issues is to provide better service to the campus through a more integrated support model,” Osborne says. “Moreover, using TeamDynamix will allow us to track the progress of outstanding service requests, monitor key performance indicators, and support continuous improvement initiatives directly related to classroom technology.”

He notes that using TeamDynamix for this service will create a single point of contact for faculty, staff, and students reporting issues with AV equipment in the classroom.

IT Services is also integrating other production and media services into TeamDynamix during the Fall 2018 semester, including booking of AV equipment, support for special events, video and photography production, and reserving studio space. Further updates will be provided as these services are fully transitioned into TeamDynamix.

• To report any issues with classroom audio-visual equipment, submit a ticket through TeamDynamix at uwindsor.ca/av-issue.
• For immediate assistance in an emergency, contact 519-253-3000, ext. 3051.
• For help using the system, contact the Service Desk at 519-253-3000, ext. 4440, or see the Knowledge Base article at uwindsor.ca/tdx-how-to.
• Finally, for a general overview of the TeamDynamix, follow the link uwindsor.ca/tdx-help.

General inquires on the overall transition process may be submitted to Osborne at johno@uwindsor.ca.

Trust is a concept at the core of all relationships, says Curtis Hyra.

A doctoral student of argumentation studies, he will explore the benefits of a high-trust work environment — and the consequences of a low-trust work environment — in a free public presentation Friday, September 28.

Hyra’s lecture, entitled “To Trust or Not: An Interdisciplinary View on Trust,” is a dry run for an address he is preparing for a conference of the Saskatchewan Association of Medical Imaging Managers.

His talk Friday — sponsored by the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric along with the PhD program in argumentation studies — will begin at 3 p.m. in room 1163, Chrysler Hall North.

The poet laureate of Halifax will deliver a free public lecture entitled “Fugitive Verses: Slavery, the Middle Passage and Black People’s Quest for Freedom,” at 7 p.m. Monday, October 1, in the SoCA Armouries.

Afua Cooper is the author of five books of poetry and two historical novels, and currently holds the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University.

This event is presented by the Humanities Research Group and co-sponsored by the City of Windsor and the Essex County Black Historical Research Society. The Armouries Building is located at 37 University Avenue East.

The start of work on the St. Denis Centre for the Greenhouse Gas Campus Retrofits Program on Monday, October 1, will mean extended blackout periods during which the fieldhouse will be closed.

Staff expect that programming and open gym time will be unavailable from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on a daily basis for the foreseeable future.

The renovations will provide an improved student experience, decreased maintenance issues, and a more sustainable campus through the reduction of energy and greenhouse gas emissions: upgrades to air handling units and control systems, as well as new LED lighting with controls and added roof insulation.

In addition, access to the fieldhouse will be adjusted in the coming weeks due to the relocation of the main sewer drain running through campus.

The Greenhouse Gas Campus Retrofits Program was launched by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development to assist postsecondary institutions in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improve the energy efficiency of their campuses.

The national governing body of university sport in Canada announced Thursday an inclusive new transgender policy for student-athletes at its 56 member institutions across the country.

Under the U Sports policy, student-athletes will be eligible to compete on the team that corresponds with either their sex assigned at birth or their gender identity, provided that they comply with the Canadian Anti-Doping Program.

Members of the Equity Committee, which developed the policy, were “driven to ensure that all students at our Canadian universities have equal opportunities of being selected to varsity teams regardless of their gender or their gender identity and expression,” said chair Lisen Moore.

A student-athlete remains limited to five total years of eligibility, and may compete only on sport teams of one gender during a given academic year. Read the policy, article 80.80.5, on the U Sports website.