The University of Windsor is embarking on its next strategic plan and is calling on the campus and external communities in the Windsor-Essex region and beyond to help inform that process.

Aspire: Together for Tomorrow will be the most important five-year navigational tool guiding the institution’s decision-making by informing its common vision, values, priorities, and goals.

The Strategic Planning Survey is one step in the comprehensive strategic planning process. Responses will help inform where we want to go as a university and how we can best get there. Participation in the survey is voluntary and anonymous. To complete the survey and be eligible for prizes, respondents must be 18 years of age or older. Take the survey now.

“The Strategic Plan will be the roadmap that provides us with the foundation for what is next for the University of Windsor,” said University of Windsor president Robert Gordon. “It will help us to build on our strengths, expand our reach, and enhance how we can work with the people and organizations who are invested in continuing to create a vibrant, welcoming, and prosperous Windsor-Essex region.”

The planning process will inform short- and long-term goals, establish benchmarks to measure progress, establish public accountability reporting, and determine how resources and energies are directed.

“Please join us in building the plan together,” Dr. Gordon said. “Your input is critical for building a vision — and future for the University of Windsor — that we can all be proud of.”

Aspire email signatures and letterhead templates are also available on the Public Affairs and Communications website for use anyone wanting to promote engagement with the strategic planning process.

For more information about the strategic plan and to participate, visit engageuwindsor.ca.

In many Black communities, dealing with mental health is still a taboo subject associated with myths, misconceptions, and stigma, says Venus Olla.

A clinical therapist in the Student Counselling Centre, she will break down the barriers to Black mental health in a webinar Feb. 17. Dr. Olla holds a PhD in education and is a member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.

Entitled “Debunking Myths and Misconceptions around Black Mental Health,” the workshop aims to explore Black mental health, address the associated stigmas, and provide participants with information and tools to support their mental health needs.

The event is presented by AfroFest, the African diaspora festival, and will run 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday on Microsoft Teams. Register here to receive the link to attend.

The Black History – Black Futures planning committee has prepared quizzes to run through the month of February, offering as prizes a poster created by Robert Small from his Legacy Collexion, along with swag from the University of Windsor Alumni Association.

To enter today’s contest, the fifth in the series, just identify the three people of African descent who have a park named for them in the City of Windsor. A winner will be selected at random from all correct responses received by noon Wednesday, Feb. 16.

1. Who was Canada’s first Black police detective, employed by the Windsor Police?
2. The park outside the former Windsor Water World is named to honour which multi-sport athlete, who competed professionally in basketball, baseball, and football?
3. There is only one City of Windsor park named after a Black woman. Who was she?

Contest is open to all readers of the DailyNews. Send an e-mail with your responses to abr@uwindsor.ca. One entry per contestant, please. Note: the decision of the judge in determining the most correct response is inviolable.

Actress and playwright Leslie McCurdy will perform her one-woman play, Things My Fore-Sisters Saw, today — Wednesday, Feb. 16 — at 1 p.m. in a Microsoft Teams Live event.

McCurdy portrays four historic Black female figures who affected change in Canada:

• Marie-Joseph Angelique, an enslaved woman who was convicted of burning down much of Montreal in 1734;
• Rose Fortune, the first female police officer in North America who helped freedom seekers settle in the Nova Scotian town of Annapolis Royal;
• Mary-Ann Shadd, the first North American woman to edit and publish a newspaper; and
• Viola Desmond, who graces Canada’s $10 bill and is lauded for refusing to leave the whites-only section of a theatre in Nova Scotia in 1946.

A question-and-answer period will follow the performance; the event runs until 2:30 p.m.

This event is exclusive to the UWindsor community. Join here and log on using your UWin account information.

WE-Spark Health Institute has developed a customized mobile and web app to support collaborative research projects across Windsor-Essex.

The app seamlessly connects clinicians and researchers from across its four partner institutions — the University of Windsor, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, St. Clair College, and Windsor Regional Hospital — to share ideas, spark collaboration, and provide quick access to tools, resources, and events.

“At WE-Spark, collaboration is at the heart of everything we do,” says executive director Lisa Porter. “Windsor-Essex has all the expertise we need to drive discovery and solutions, and this new tool in our toolbox will make it faster and easier for our research community to find each other to make it happen.”

Future iterations will include expanding the tool so students and the Windsor-Essex community can learn about and participate in local medical research studies.

Find more information, including a video introduction to the app’s operations, on the institute’s website.