Bringing the gift of hearing to people who live with hearing loss helped a UWindsor student see first-hand the difference made every day by a charity supported on campuses across North America.

Melanie Renaud, a senior student majoring in digital journalism and communications, spent a week in Guatemala in June 2019 with the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which provides hearing aids and healthcare services. She joined a team that fitted more than 800 patients with hearing aids.

“We take hearing for granted,” says Renaud. “Being part of the process, seeing the difference it can make — people can talk with family members, attend school, get an education, a job … it brought tears to my eyes because I knew this work was changing lives.”

She recalls fitting a little boy and watching him light up as he gained for the first time the ability to hear.

“It was such a powerful moment,” Renaud says. “He gave me a card to say thank you and I have it framed at home. It’s a day I won’t ever forget; that was a big one for me.”

She first got involved when she joined the UWindsor chapter of the Delta Zeta sorority, which raises funds to support the foundation. After serving as the chapter president, she was hired as an intern in the sorority’s national philanthropy office, which led to her being the only Canadian on the mission to Guatemala.

Renaud continues to solicit donations for the sorority’s Heart for Hearing campaign, which aims to raise $5 million through its 170 chapters. She maintains a website for contributions here.

“I just love for people to get involved, to learn more about how much of a difference this work can make in someone’s life,” she says.

The World Health Organization has designated March 3 as World Hearing Day to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care.

The Government of Ontario has awarded Windsor Law professor David Tanovich the 2019 David Walter Mundell Medal for excellence in legal writing. The medal is awarded by the province’s attorney general on the recommendation of a selection committee chaired by the Chief Justice of Ontario, George Strathy.

“Professor Tanovich’s critical race scholarship challenges us to examine systemic bias and urges us to work towards more equitable solutions,” Strathy wrote in a citation.

Prof. Tanovich has appeared as an appellate lawyer in more than 90 criminal and constitutional cases before the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. He was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2017. He has written extensively on criminal law, legal ethics, and systemic bias in the criminal justice system. His 2006 book, The Colour of Justice: Policing Race in Canada, explores the Canadian experience, and has been frequently cited by courts, commissions, and academics.

“I am extremely honoured to win this prestigious award that Ian Scott once referred to as the ‘Pulitzer Prize for legal writing’,” says Tanovich. “Success in writing requires a team effort and I wish to thank all my colleagues at Windsor Law who have supported and encouraged me over the years. And a special thanks to all my students who have inspired me and assisted me with my work.”

Laverne Jacobs, associate dean for research and graduate studies, says of her colleague: “I can honestly think of no one more well deserving of this award than professor David Tanovich for his path-breaking research and writing.”

—Rachelle Prince

Ontario is increasingly relying on private revenue streams — including tuition paid by international students in its secondary schools — to address chronic underfunding of its education system, three UWindsor researchers say.

In an article published Feb. 27 in the Conversation, which shares news and views from the academic and research community, sociology professor Natalie Delia Deckard and education professors Lana Parker and Bonnie Stewart write that recruitment of children from around the world poses several concerns.

“By chipping away at the collective will to fund schools through taxes by creating alternative funding streams, Canada is eroding education as a public good and replacing communities with individual consumers,” the article states.

Doing so worsens the divide between rich and poor, the researchers say.

“For example, with acceptance of the idea that private funds should pay for education, fees function to keep formerly public school programs inaccessible to some members of the public. Such divides can perpetuate damaging inequalities from one generation to the next.”

They call for more research and public awareness efforts in support of international students.

“If Canadian provinces use international programs simply to subsidize funding gaps, it will ultimately damage confidence in school safety and value. Public education in Canada needs to be public in spirit and practice.”

Read the entire piece, “Canada’s high schools are underfunded and turning to international tuition to help,” in the Conversation.

In her book Wayside Sang, poet Cecily Nicholson explores life on the roads and through the fields of southwestern Ontario. She will return to the border region where she spent her childhood for a free public reading of her work on Monday, March 2.

In addition to Wayside Sang, winner of the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry, Nicholson is the author of Triage and From the Poplars, which won the 2015 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.

The GG awards jury described Wayside Sang this way: “In this hypnotic suite of long poems, Cecily Nicholson makes room, offering glimpses and echoes of the Canadian landscape as she explores ideas of borders, identity, industry and travel. She offers a catalogue of impressions, a collage of the ephemeral, held together by image and the pulsing phrase that stays with you long after the journey’s over.”

Doors will open for Monday’s event at 7 p.m. at Common Ground art gallery in Mackenzie Hall, 3277 Sandwich St.

It is sponsored by the Department of English and Creative Writing; students Brandon Cormier and Alexa DiCecco will also read their original works.

Two members of the UWindsor community will discuss the customs, traditions, and geography of India in a free lunchtime presentation Wednesday, March 4.

International student recruitment co-ordinator Romi Saraswat and Vishnu Sreekala Gopal, a master’s student of engineering, will provide an overview of the country, some well-known and some lesser-known nuances of its culture, demographics of Indo-Canadian immigration, and tips to better understand and communicate with Indian students during the brown bag lunch event.

The session will run 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. in room 204, Laurier Hall. Attendees are welcome to bring a lunch. Space is limited; click here to register and reserve a spot.

It’s one in a series hosted by the International Student Centre; the ISC Cultural Series aims to introduce campus audiences to the lands which are home to students. It will continue with social work professor Wansoo Park on Korea March 25 and international student advisor Deena Wang and student Bowen Feng on China April 16.

Four Amazon gift cards worth $50 each are up for grabs in a draw to encourage University of Windsor students, staff, and faculty to register for the University’s alert notification system.

UWindsor Alert enables fast and efficient dissemination of critical information to members of the University community during a major incident. It provides students, staff, and faculty with an additional layer of security and protection in incident response, in conjunction with existing alert notification methods.

The effectiveness of this notification system depends on individuals providing accurate and up-to-date contact information. All those who register — or verify existing — contact information in the system before March 31 will be entered into a draw to win one of the gift cards.

Visit the UWin Alert website for more information or to register your contact information.

In preparation for the upcoming end to the 2019/20 fiscal year, the University’s Finance Department will send out friendly reminders, memos, and tips.

First up is a review of the most important financial indicator — revenue.

Measures to ensure success include:

1. Any invoicing done by a department at the University will need to be recorded through Accounts Receivable. No invoice should be sent to an external party on behalf of the University outside of UWinsite Finance and the Accounts Receivable department.
2. Do not send cash through inter-office mail. Instead, use the drop-box for cash located outside the Cashier’s office.

Learn more about how revenue is recorded and the University’s cash handling policy on the finance website.

A series of short video interviews envisioned by the Graduate Student Society will showcase and highlight the research of its members, says president Lynette Kivisto.

She has issued a call for graduate students willing to participate, with an eye to producing weekly entries to be posted on the society’s social media.

“We have so many passionate researchers in a wide variety of fields working on diverse research projects,” says Kivisto. “This opportunity allows our talented graduate students to showcase their research in a new format to inform our campus community, and our wider community, about all of the important questions that are being asked and all of the knowledge that UWindsor graduate students are adding to their respective bodies of literature.”

She invites grad students interested in having their research featured to email media@uwindsorgss.ca.