members of the Hour-A-Day Study ClubThe Hour-A-Day Study Club celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2019. The women’s group offers scholarships and bursaries to Black students to help them to pursue post-secondary education.

Hour-A-Day Study Club stays true to tradition of helping Black students

Fifty dollars changed the course of Phil Alexander’s life.

The year was 1959 and Alexander had just graduated from Patterson Collegiate in Windsor. His wife had given birth to their first son during his Grade 13 year and Alexander, who says he was looking to "make good on marrying so young,” was weighing his responsibilities.

He had earned the highest score in the province on a mathematics exam that, but for the colour of his skin, would have guaranteed him a job at any accounting firm. Against the odds for a Black teen, he had secured a job offer in Hamilton at aircraft manufacturer A. V. Roe Canada, better known as Avro. But a scholarship from a group rooted in the local Black community — and his parents’ insistence that he couldn’t let that money go to waste — sent him to university instead.

He went on to become UWindsor’s associate dean of engineering.

Alexander’s scholarship — of $50 — came from the Hour-A-Day Study Club, a Black women’s association founded in 1934. It was their mission as matriarchs of the local Black community to help youth succeed.

The group, the oldest of its kind in Canada, is still going strong. The 13 current members focus on the same causes their great-grandmothers and other female ancestors did.

“Dismantling anti-Black racism and advancing the cause of education are at the core of the Hour-A-Day Study Club’s work,” said club president Marium Tolson-Murtty, UWindsor’s strategic planning officer on anti-Black racism initiatives.

“Our efforts to raise funds for scholarships and bursaries help eliminate potential barriers Black youth face in pursuit of post-secondary education. This work is vital to the preservation of the legacy of the trailblazing women who started this organization.”

When first established, the group was known as the Mother’s Club.

“The club's name eventually changed to the Hour-A-Day Study Club to convey the notion that if you spend at least one hour a day on something that is of interest to you, you will soon be able to master that skill over time,” Tolson-Murtty explained.

It later took on the informal name DOTUR, short for Daughters of the Underground Railroad, a name coined by former club president Gloria Hidi (BA 1975).

“The women spent much of their time nurturing the youth in the community and advocating with families on issues such as equitable access to education and working against segregation in Ontario schools,” said Tolson-Murtty.

The group holds raffles and, in pre-COVID years, hosted pancake breakfasts and other fundraisers to raise money for scholarships and bursaries. In the past 15 years alone, it has distributed more than $150,000.

The largest scholarship, awarded to the student with the best academic standing coming out of high school each year, is named for Alexander’s wife, Pat. Until her death in 2013, Pat Alexander had been a long-time member and a past-president of the Hour-A-Day Study Club. Using an inheritance from her aunt who had had a distinguished military career in the United States, her bequest also funds two additional bursaries. One is for a student pursuing a military or policing career and another, in honour of a dear friend who had a restaurant on Maiden Lane in Windsor, for a student pursuing a career in the culinary arts.

Despite never graduating elementary school, Pat Alexander was an accomplished woman. In addition to raising five children, she was a tireless community volunteer. She chaired the Windsor Police Commission, was first-vice president of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County, and was a director of Windsor and Essex County Crime Stoppers.

Her daughter Patty (BComm 1994) and granddaughter Tricia have followed in her footsteps and are among the Hour-A-Day Study Club’s current members.

The club is part of local Black history and its future, said Tolson-Murtty. Its meeting minutes spanning 10 decades and other archival material is housed at the Amherstburg Freedom Museum. Included are the meeting minutes from April 4, 1968.

“This extraordinary piece of information reveals the precise moment the women stopped the meeting and said a prayer in recognition of live news broadcast reports of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Tolson-Murtty said. The club went on to send a telegram expressing its members’ condolences to King’s family.

The group has sponsored annual cultural events featuring internationally renowned entertainers. It has hosted high teas for the likes of education pioneer Mary McLeod Berthune and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president of the United States. The members also lent their voices to the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s.

“These hardworking, dedicated, and modest women were faithful matriarchs in their homes, churches, and community,” Tolson-Murtty said. “The dedicated efforts of these women have been passed down generation after generation. It’s imperative to recognize their contributions and place in Canadian history.”

—Sarah Sacheli

Black History: Honouring the past, inspiring the future

logo: Bingo4HealthRegister your team now for the Bingo4Health wellness competition.

Line up a squad for the Bingo4Health challenge

Do you have your team ready for the upcoming Bingo4Health wellness competition?

“We all know competition breeds success, and success this time around comes in the form of holistic wellness,” says organizer Mona Sleiman.

She invites UWindsor colleagues to recruit and register a team this weekend as the Week 1 challenges start Monday.

“The challenges aren’t time-consuming or intimidating,” she notes. “Our hope is that everyone will find the activities fun and engaging.”

Each day of the week represents a different theme, with the initial set featuring:

  • Power down Monday, turn off your cellphone from 7 to 8 p.m.
  • Face-to-face Tuesday, schedule a virtual break with a co-worker over MS Teams
  • Hydrate Wednesday, drink a minimum of eight glasses of water
  • Run-walk-roll Thursday, spend 20 minutes touring your neighbourhood
  • Om Friday, mediate for five minutes

There are five points per individual up for grabs, meaning 25 points in total available for each team. The group with the most points over the four weeks will receive a luncheon, compliments of the Office of the President.

“Do you and your team have what it takes to finish atop this faculty and staff wellness challenge?” Sleiman asks. “Join the Psych Sistas, Nacho Average Squad, and the Leddy Library’s Dubious Dabbers by signing up for Bingo4Health today.”

Find all the details, including rules, team tracking sheets, and online registration, on the Bingo4Health website.

Julie LalondeActivist, educator, and author Julie Lalonde will lead an “Arts and Chat” session on survivorship Tuesday, March 2.

Survivorship subject of chat session

Activist, educator, and award-winning author Julie Lalonde will lead a chat about survivorship Tuesday, March 2, as part of Survivors Week activities by the Sexual Misconduct Response and Prevention Office.

Lalonde’s book, Resilience is Futile, The Life and Death and Life of Julie Lalonde won the 2020 Speaker’s Book Award, which recognizes non-fiction works by Ontario authors. It recounts her own experience fleeing intimate partner violence at age 20. It is a story of survival, courage, and ultimately, hope.

Tuesday’s event, titled “Arts and Chat,” is free and open to the public beginning at 1 p.m. Sexual wellness and consent co-ordinator Anne Rudzinski will join Lalonde on Facebook Live at Flip the Script UWindsor. Bring crafting supplies — the principals will be collaging cards for friends for International Women’s Day through the chat.

Paolo VasapolliUWindsor chef Paolo Vasapolli is one of six culinary artists featured in a Feb. 25 event hosted online by the Art Gallery of Windsor.

Gallery spotlighting campus chef as community creator

Paolo Vasapolli, executive chef in Food and Catering Services, is one of six culinary artists featured in an event today — Thursday, Feb. 25 — hosted online by the Art Gallery of Windsor.

The gallery’s Lightning Talks series introduces local creators presenting an overview of their work.

Vasapolli has more than 20 years of experience within fine dining, high volume restaurants, à la carte, buffet, casino operations, banquets, catering, and university work. He started in the kitchen at the age of 15 and has served as head chef in some of Windsor’s finest dining establishments, including Chef de Cuisine for Caesars Windsor. He has showcased his culinary skills on local and national television, and specializes in Italian, Canadian, and fusion cuisines.

Joining him on the menu are:

  • Howard Hyman, executive chef of Exquisite Events Catering in Windsor. He has opened more than 25 restaurant venues throughout his career of 38 years and has served celebrities in entertainment, politics, and philanthropy during his 20-year-long career at Caesars Windsor.
  • John Alvarez, co-owner of F & B Hospitality Group, which operates several local restaurants: the Grand Cantina, Slices Pizza, and Taloola Café —with Funky Chow Kitchen opening soon. Alvarez has competed on Chopped Canada as well as in several local cooking competitions.
  • Gabby Bleyendaal and Quinn Taylor of Bad Witch Bakery. The business specializes in cheesecakes and cookies and opened in summer 2020 facing the challenges of an unprecedented year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Julie Myers, owner of Thyme To-Go, a catering and prepared food outlet in Walkerville; the Thyme Kitchen restaurant in downtown Windsor; and the soon-to-open Thyme Café, bringing healthy and delicious foods to South Walkerville.

The live, interactve program will begin at 7 p.m. on the video conferencing app Zoom. Register here to receive the necessary information and details about how to access the event.

icons representing aspects of human rights, equity, and accessibilityThe Office of Human Rights, Equity, and Accessibility will present awards at its open house event on Friday, Feb. 26.

Equity office to present awards Friday

The World Day of Social Justice is just around the corner and provides a wonderful opportunity to reflect. In this spirit, the Office of Human Rights, Equity, and Accessibility will present several OHREA Awards at its annual open house event on Friday, Feb. 26.

Honorees will be celebrated for advancing social justice, mental health, employment equity, and accessibility at the University of Windsor.

This year’s honorees include:

  • Sarah Richards (student, Drama in Education and the Community) – Accessibility Award;
  • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Committee of Human Kinetics – Employment Equity Award;
  • Katrina Bahnam (student, Law and Politics) – Human Rights and Social Justice Award;
  • Frank Renaud (University of Windsor and Lancer alumnus) – Mental Health Champion Award;
  • Leddy Library – the OHREA Award

The OHREA Awards will take place between noon and 12:45 p.m. The event will be held virtually via YouTube live. Further information to access the link is available on the OHREA website.

Organizers invite the campus community to donate to this year’s recipient fundraiser, Hiatus House, at www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/annual-ohrea-awards/.

woman following yoga instructor on laptopWhether they’re studying on campus or remotely, or somewhere in between, the Bright Pass promises to support students in feeling their best.

Students given access to free fitness and wellness classes

UWindsor students have access to hundreds of live, virtual well-being classes each week, including fitness, mindfulness, nutrition, yoga, and keynote speakers — free through the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance.

The alliance has partnered with the wellness support company Bright to offer the Bright Pass, a catalogue of on-demand classes members may join from the comfort of their own spaces.

To get started, students need to download the Bright Pass app and register using their UWindsor email address; find details at www.uwsa.ca/brightpass.

graphic highlighting hashtag #OEweekThe Office of Open Learning offers a student perspective on the change to digital instruction for Open Education Week.

Workshop series to explore student experience of online learning

A group of co-op students working with the Office of Open Learning has prepared a series of short workshop sessions conveying the student experience in response to learning online.

All three student-led sessions will be available for free to UWindsor faculty, staff, and students during Open Education Week, March 1 to 5.

The student group will present three 45-minute workshops, focusing on the topics: flipped classrooms and open resources, Chegg and open pedagogy, and the emerging topic of Ungrading. Follow along on social media through the week with a student takeover of the @UWinOpenLearn Twitter account, and by following the hashtag #OEWeek.

In complement to the student perspective, learning specialist Dave Cormier of the Office of Open Learning will host a session March 3 focused on Confronting Chegg with Open Pedagogy.

"The fight against online homework support is a war we aren’t going to win,” says Cormier. “We need a different solution.”

This session, presented through Zoom at 3 p.m. Wednesday, is open to the public. Registrants through the Open Learning Workshop database will receive a link to join.

Attending the sessions will also give participants priority access to an eBook written from the student perspective on the effects of the digital classroom, through the lens of a variety of different disciplines. Digital Classrooms: The Student Perspective focuses on opportunities students have identified in the current digital education environment to improve student engagement and provides strategies which can be incorporated into design and delivery of technology-enhanced education.

Register now for any or all of the week’s workshop activities though the Open Learning Workshop database.

Invasion film image“Invasion” is one of four films available for streaming as part of the “We are Not a Phase” series.

Films focus on return of land to dispossessed Indigenous people

The final screening in the “We are Not a Phase” film series opens today — Thursday, Feb. 25.

A partnership between the Turtle Island Aboriginal Education Centre, the Arts Council – Windsor and Region, St. Clair College Indigenous Student Services, and the Vucavu streaming service, the program promotes discussion reflecting on Indigeneity and honours community initiatives that are Indigenous led.

The final entry, entitled “Land Back,” features four films focusing on the return of land to dispossessed Indigenous people, the assertion of jurisdiction over resources and development projects that ensure that future generations live well on their territory:

  • The Law Is in the Seed is a video of a poem written by Alex Jacobs, a Mohawk Indian poet from Akwesasne about the Native American concept of democracy as contained in the Great Law, an oral document which originated with the Iroquois Confederacy.
  • Extractions explores Canada’s extraction industry and its detrimental effects on the land and Indigenous peoples. This film parallels resource extraction with the booming child apprehension industry currently operating in Canada which is responsible for putting more Indigenous children into foster care than were in residential schools.
  • Invasion discusses the Unist’ot’en camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint, and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people. The Unist’ot’en Camp has been a beacon of resistance for nearly 10 years.
  • ôtênaw documents the oral storytelling of Dwayne Donald, an educator from Treaty 6. Drawing from nêhiyawak philosophies, he speaks about the multilayered histories of Indigenous peoples' presence both within and around amiskwacîwâskahikan, or what has come to be known as the city of Edmonton.

The films are available for streaming free until 9 a.m. Feb. 27 through Vucavu.

logo: Blue Sky CompetitionStudents can win cash prizes for their marketable ideas in the EPIC Blue Sky Competition.

Info sessions to introduce business competition

Cash prizes are on offer during the EPIC Blue Sky Competition, an idea-based challenge to foster innovative thinking.

Have you ever had an idea for a problem you’ve faced personally or a problem within our community? Is there a product or service you think could satisfy a need in the marketplace? The Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre) wants to hear about it.

Teams of two to four students from the University of Windsor or St. Clair College are eligible for a first-place award of $1,000 and a second place $500 cash prize for their two-minute videos showcasing an original idea. The deadline for submissions is March 14.

Information sessions will explain the process:

  • Monday, March 1, 1 p.m.
  • Friday, March 5, 2 p.m.

Register here: https://www.epicentreuwindsor.ca/upcoming-events/.

Additional details, including eligibility, rules, and an application form are available on the contest website.

Graphic "Onward" night of prayerThe campus Chaplaincy Network is hosting an evening of Christian prayer to promote unity on Friday, Feb. 26.

Online prayer intended to promote unity

The campus Chaplaincy Network is hosting an evening of Christian prayer to promote unity on Friday, Feb. 26.

Entitled “Onward,” the event will be held on the Zoom videoconference platform starting at 8 p.m.

Find details, including a list of sponsoring organizations and an online registration link, on the network’s website.