The top priority of the University of Windsor is to provide a safe environment for staff, faculty, and students. The return to campus will be gradual, deliberate, and guided by prevailing public health advice and provincial restrictions. Staff and faculty will receive considerable advance notice of their resumption to work plan and the associated protocols.

These are among the institutional principles guiding the resumption of campus activities listed on a website dedicated to providing information on the process of returning from the “essential service only” model adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “Return to Campus” site gathers in one place the current status of planning, guidelines for health and safety, and news on the latest developments. Find it here: www.uwindsor.ca/returntocampus. A semi-monthly e-newsletter sent to all students, faculty, and staff will promote content on the site.

A sister site, “UWindsor Together,” is intended to provide students, staff, and faculty with everything they need to learn and work in an environment that ensures their health and safety remains the paramount concern.

It houses instructional resources to lead online learning, and updates on conducting research. It is available at www.uwindsor.ca/together.

Participants in the “Run, Walk and Roll Individual Challenge,” which wrapped up Sunday, moved great lengths, UWindsor president Rob Gordon said during a virtual meeting to announce the results.

The program encouraged staff and faculty to keep moving and engaged while working from home. It drew 123 registrants, who logged a total of 22,009,705 steps over its four-week term, roughly 16,777 km.

Dr. Gordon praised the work put into healthy activity, and noted the challenges serve another purpose.

“I am so proud of our collective efforts to stay virtually connected through these activity challenges,” he said. “I look forward to the day very soon we can all get together again.”

He drew the names of two employees at random to receive $50 gift cards from the Campus Bookstore:

• Cathy Mombourquette, communications and events co-ordinator for the WE-Spark Health Institute, from the early-bird entrants who signed up before June 17; and
• health and safety co-ordinator Jane Gauthier, from all those who submitted their individual tracking sheets on completing the challenge.

In closing, Gordon directed attendees to the Virtual Connections website, which provides information on how to stay connected, healthy, and engaged.

Pandemic precautions have stuck many people, especially the elderly, at home with no means to go out to get necessities. A startup participating in the RBC EPIC Founders program aims to provide that support.

Sana Channar, a computer networking student at St. Clair College, is the founder of CommuniCare.

“Current systems for homecare agencies are very outdated and inefficient which can cause a lot of time and money,” she says. “Our system is here to make the process easier and more seamless as well as upturn the way homecare agencies organize themselves.”

Channar believes the accelerator program, offered through the Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre), will provide resources she needs to be successful.

“I do not have any business background, so the EPICentre’s Founders program is helping me with professional and experienced mentors to guide me through correct business practices,” says Channar. “I hope that working with mentors will allow me to network with key partners in order to promote the adoption of our platform.”

Read more in a profile on the EPICentre website.