Her children may have reached the age where they don’t get presents from St. Nick any more, but for Linda Ingram, playing Kris Kringle never gets old.

A secretary to the associate dean and the research leadership chair in the Odette School of Business, Ingram helped coordinate her department’s annual contribution to Children’s Aid Society’s Adopt-a-Family program. Every year, departments from across the campus “adopt” struggling families from the surrounding community, collect donations and buy food, clothing and gifts to ensure they have an enjoyable Christmas.

Ingram was appointed to go out to do the shopping for her faculty once the society provided her with their family’s wish list.

“I don’t have little kids any more so it’s fun for me to go out and be Santa,” she said. “This is a very big group and we received some very generous donations. Every year it’s a little bit more, which interesting in these times. But it’s something that really makes you feel for other people.”

The entire campus community effort is coordinated by Mary Anne Beaudoin, office manager and executive secretary in Public Affairs and Communications. She said this year’s effort raised about $22,200 in donations for 37 area families.

Beaudoin has been coordinating the initiative for the university for about 20 years and said the campus community continues to enthusiastically embrace it.

“People are still really eager and find it fun,” she said. “I never have to bother anyone about it. They do it willingly and a lot of them plan way ahead for it.”

UWindsor president Alan Wildeman will address the community on the theme of “Building on the Common Ground” at 10 a.m. on Thursday, January 12, in Vanier Hall’s Winclare A room.

Students, faculty, staff and members of the broader community are invited to attend this event. Refreshments are available at 10 a.m. and the presentation will begin at 10:15.

A lot has changed in his more than 40 years on the University of Windsor campus, according to Roy Amore, associate dean in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

He highlighted the growth in graduate programs as well as the number of buildings.

“We have really filled in between the main and south campuses,” he said. “There is no Dairy Queen at the corner of Sunset and Wyandotte – the barber shop and bowling alley are gone, too!”

He looked back over his career at a breakfast reception Thursday honouring individuals who have reached milestones of 10, 20, 30 and 40 or more years of service to the University.

Dr. Amore said he was happy to celebrate his time on campus: “I like the spirit of Windsor, both the city and the University.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Tom Dean, a 30-year veteran of Food Services and Facility Services who now works as a housekeeper in Essex Hall.

“It’s a great place to work,” he said.

Dean called the reception “great” for morale. “It’s always nice to see the place you work recognize your contributions.”

Chief human resources officer Rita LaCivita said faculty and staff can expect to see more events celebrating employees.

“It is important to recognize everyone’s contributions because it takes every single one of them to make the university what it is,” she said.

Find a full list of the honourees on the Web site of Human Resources.

A University of Windsor grad has won national recognition for her work to bring the course the History of Africa and Peoples of African Descent to life in her classroom at Walkerville Collegiate Institiute.

Shantelle Browning-Morgan (BA 2000, B.Ed 2001, M.Ed 2008) worked with the Essex County Black Historical Research Society and the Essex County District School Board developing materials to highlight the history of a unique group of people who settled in the local region to escape slavery in the United States.

She is one of seven educators at Rideau Hall today to receive the History Award for Excellence in Teaching from Governor General David Johnston. The awards recognize teachers from elementary and secondary schools who inspire and challenge their students to explore Canadian history in an interactive atmosphere, said Deborah Morrison, president of Canada's History Society.

“Teaching in today's society is a challenge at the best of times; teaching history can sometimes seem more illusory to kids than the virtual worlds they visit and create online,” she said. “These teachers rise to that challenge developing new programs and activities that bring their students right into the heart of the story.”

The society cited Browning-Morgan’s efforts to engage her students in creative and participatory projects that included mounting school campaigns to raise awareness and stop the perpetuation of stereotypes and racial slurs, staging a black cultural showcase, and preparing poetry, dance, music, drama, and slide presentations.

Some of this year’s performances included an Underground Railroad rap, music by Oscar Peterson, and a fiddle rendition of spiritual songs that had guided fugitive slaves to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

Along with their awards, each honouree will receive a gold medal and $2,500. Read more about Browning-Morgan and the other awardees on the Web site of Canada's History Society.

Putting together business plans gives his students an appreciation of “the big picture,” says industrial and manufacturing systems engineering professor Zbigniew Pasek.

“Hopefully, it helps them to understand their profession requires communication and collaboration skills,” he said.

Students in his second-year course, Engineering Management and Globalization, presented their projects in a business plan competition Thursday, judged by students from the Centre for Enterprise and Law.

Each team of competitors was judged on their product, marketing plans, manufacturing design, and financial projections.

“I like them to get introduced to these concepts early in their educations,” Dr. Pasek said. “It’s a road map for them to see how they fit in.”

Mechanical engineering major Kevin Curridor said the experience taught him the importance of teamwork.

“No matter what their role, everyone in the group needs to step up,” he said. “They need to have the motivation you have to succeed.”

When the dust cleared, Phoenix Comfort Solutions – designers of a backpack that allows wearers to sit without removing it – emerged on top. Teammates Luka Celic, Brady Deslippe, Abhishek Jain and Oscar Silva share a $200 cash prize.

Her time at the University of Windsor helped her to become the woman she always envisioned, says Emily Abbott. The Calgary native was one of the Lancer women’s basketball players who spoke at the team’s mimosa breakfast, December 4.

“At the end of five years of being coached by Chantal Vallee . . . one will inevitably become a strong woman, someone who can change things,” said Abbott, a fifth-year guard. “That is all a young woman can ask for.”

Glen Bacarro of GlenTV produced a video of highlights from Sunday’s breakfast. Watch it now:

Lake St. Clair is cold in December, but not as cold as being homeless, says Jaclyne Reive.

“We came out of the water and warmed up, but people living outside get cold and stay cold,” said the Windsor Law student, one of eight who participated in a Polar Bear Dip at Sandpoint Beach on Sunday, December 4. The event was a benefit for the Downtown Mission, which provides a sanctuary and meals for the needy.

Reive said she said to fight her instincts to advance into the cold water.

“Your brain is telling you to stop, but you need to keep going, because that’s what you signed up for,” she said. “On the plus side, coming out you feel warmer than you were before, waiting on the beach.”

The eight students – Jeff Dortmans, Kimberly Hui, Stephanie Laurella, Stephanie Ma, Peter Reinitzer, Bobby Russon and Paige Schubert as well as Reive – raised a total of about $500, part of almost $15,000 the mission made on the day.

“The law school is a pretty tight-knit community,” Reive said. “I have to give credit to the faculty. A lot of the professors really came through with big donations.”

The Schulich Windsor Health Lecture Series presents local endocrinologist Raphael Cheung leading a discussion on “New Advances in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes,” at Riverside Public Library on Wednesday, December 14, at 7 p.m.

More than 9 million Canadians live with diabetes or prediabetes. Get your questions answered by an expert at this free public event. Click here to RSVP.

Riverside Public Library is located at 6305 Wyandotte Street East.

The service desk in Information Technology Services will operate longer hours heading into the end of the semester.

It will open from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. through December 22, except Sundays, when it will open 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The desk, located in the University Computing Centre, will close with other campus offices from December 23 to January 2.

Holiday welcome: In celebration of the season, Facility Services crews have installed thousands of lights on trees lining University Stadium. The festive sight, captured in this image by photographer Tory James, greets motorists on Huron Church Road at College Avenue. Manager of environmental services John Regier advises that the lights are energy-efficient LEDs, run on a timer.

Route set for Mingle and Jingle carriage

Patrons headed to Tuesday’s Faculty and Staff Holiday Mingle and Jingle will be able to catch a festive ride by horse and carriage.

The carriage will trace a route from between Dillon Hall and the CAW Student Centre, north past Memorial Hall, south between Chrysler and Dillon halls, turning west at Essex Hall past Cody Hall and dropping off outside Vanier Hall before repeating the loop.

It will stop outside the CAW Student centre and as requested along the route, space allowing, says catering manager Dean Kissner.

The university has declared five cell phones for sale by bid as Disposal File 859. Please click here for details.

The university has declared a Toshiba Tecra laptop computer for sale by bid as Disposal File 860. Please click here for details.