The University of Windsor campus will extend across Riverside Drive for a time Sunday, Sept. 17, during the Open Streets Windsor festival.

The annual “paved park” event closes an eight-kilometre route to motor vehicles from Sandwich Towne to Ford City to enable citizens to walk, jog, or bicycle, enjoying civic activities along the way.

Activity hubs along the way encourage participation from people of all ages and abilities. A University hub will occupy Riverside Drive between Patricia and Sunset streets.

Participating groups include:

• Lancer Recreation with a variety of games,
• the Faculty of Engineering demonstrating student projects,
• Let’s Talk Science with craft activities, and
• the public affairs office running a photo booth,

as well as additional booths with creative activities and giveaways of informational materials, swag, and treats.

A separate hub downtown will include an open house hosted by the School of Creative Arts at the Armouries showcasing its music, film, and visual arts programs.

Special entertainment through the day will honour radio pioneer Rosalie Trombley, music director of CKLW from 1968 to 1984 during its hitmaking heyday as “the Big 8.” She died in 2021. Prof. Vincent Georgie calls her “one of the most iconic musical influences in North America and a tastemaker for 20th century music.”

Open Streets encourages community-building, active transportation, and physical activity. It runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Find details, including a map of the full route, on the festival website.

The Turtle Island Aboriginal Education Centre is offering items for sale to support a fund for Indigenous students at a series of pop-ups starting this weekend.

Available for purchase are buttons, T-shirts, and lawn signs bearing messages for Orange Shirt Day, and the Campus Community Cookbook filled with recipes submitted by faculty, students, and staff.

“We are excited to be launching the second edition of our campus community cookbook at the pop-ups,” says Kat Pasquach, Aboriginal outreach and retention co-ordinator. “It’s been a wonderful initiative, bringing the campus together in a fun way. Recipes from a variety of cultures is what makes the project unique.”

Volunteer vendors will be attending:

• the Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market on Pelissier Street north of Wyandotte Street from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays Sept. 16, 23, and 30;
• the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20;
• the Toldo Lancer Centre from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27; and
• the CAW Student Centre from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays, Sept. 21 and 28.

Adult T-shirts in sizes from small to triple extra large cost $25; youth sizes from extra small to extra large cost $20. First and second editions of the Campus Community Cookbook cost $30. Lawn signs — available in Ojibway, Oneida, and Lenape — cost $25; buttons are sold by donation.

Bulk orders can be placed with Pasquach by emailing katpasq@uwindsor.ca.

A project of researchers at the University of Windsor is setting out to empower adolescent girls with the knowledge and skills to identify risk and resist sexual violence.

Led by Charlene Senn, a professor of psychology and women’s and gender studies and Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence, and Sara Crann, an adjunct assistant professor in psychology, the Girls Resist project has garnered funding support of more than $1 million over a span of six years from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The project is currently recruiting 900 girls in three Ontario communities — Windsor-Essex, London-Middlesex, and Kingston-Frontenac — to participate in a trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to either receive training right away in the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) healthy relationships and sexuality program, or to receive a brief consent workshop immediately and take the program in six months’ time.

EAAA has been previously evaluated with university women and found to significantly reduce sexual assaults experienced for at least two years. The program has been adapted specifically for girls between 14 and 18 years of age who have not yet graduated high school.

“Effective sexual assault prevention programs for teens are lacking despite the reality that 50 per cent of all rapes happen to young women 18 years of age or younger,” says Dr. Senn. “We are excited to make this fun and empowering program available to teen girls in our community and to gain information about how it works and can be improved before it is offered to girls across Canada.”

The 12-hour program uses a variety of interactive activities, videos, roleplay exercises, and discussions. It aims to enhance participants’ ability to recognize risk in social situations and others’ behaviour, to identify and be able to defend their physical and sexual values and boundaries, and provides effective tools for self-defence, while reinforcing that sexual assault is solely the perpetrator’s fault.

“The significance of this program cannot be overstated, as it addresses a critical gap in effective prevention strategies for teen girls, who face disproportionately high risks,” says Shanthi Johnson, UWindsor vice president, research and innovation. “This initiative underscores the dedication to foster a safer, more equitable society for all.”

Participant recruitment began in early 2023 with new offerings in Fall 2023 and Winter/Spring 2024. The research team is looking for adolescent girl participants, cis and trans, to enroll in the fall 2023 program. If you have a teen daughter or know a girl or are a girl who would be interested, visit https://girlsresist.ca/ to contact the team for more information or to enroll. Parents will be asked to provide parental consent for girls under 16.

Devan Rawlings (BA 2020) says a plethora of career doors opened for him thanks to the solid foundation of economics knowledge he built in the Faculty of Science.

As an undergraduate student, Rawlings earned a double major in economics and political science, with a minor in mathematics. After his bachelor’s studies, he went on to complete a Master of Arts in Economics at the University of British Columbia.

“Economics was the focus for me going forward,” says Rawlings.

“Answering bigger questions about how the world works using mathematics, logic and reasoning — this thinking outside of the box, it is really rewarding to me.”

After completing his master’s, he veered off the academic path to travel for a year before settling on a private sector job at Revelio Labs, a tech startup based in New York City, working as a labour economist.

“I wore a lot of hats,” he says.

“A benefit of being in small tech company was they gave me tons of opportunities to learn different things. It was a very exciting experience.”

The tricky thing with an economics degree, says Rawlings, is understanding what kind of jobs are available and being able to sell yourself as qualified for those jobs.

“I recently came back to UWindsor’s Department of Economics to talk to graduate students and the major takeaway was how quantitative research skills are really strong among economists and as long as you can sell that, there are a ton of jobs available,” he says.

In July 2023, Rawlings returned to academia and labour economics. He is now in a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago.

“I’m assisting a team of professors on a variety of academic papers by coding, reading and collaborating,” says Rawlings.

He sees a PhD program in his future. Likely in the field of labour economics.

“Labour economics asks questions that really inspire me. A big question for me is how can I help people who are struggling because they lost their job and don’t know what to do next? What policies could help address that?”

His grandmother earned a Master of Education degree at the University of Windsor and that was an educational inspiration for Rawlings. But he says it was Because of Science at UWindsor that he considered pursuing a graduate degree himself.

“By the end of my degree, I knew most of the professors by name and could talk to any one of them. I wasn’t considering grad school until professors said I’d be a good fit and that mentorship was the nudge I needed to move forward.

“I think an economics degree is incredibly powerful, and there is a ton of work out there that is very relevant to my field,” says Rawlings.

“Economics is a field that more people need to consider as viable, and I think undergrad econ is a great preparation for that.”

—Sara Elliott

Patrons of University Players now have one more way to enjoy their outing to the theatre, thanks to a new project of WindsorEats. Through its We Heart the Arts program, the local establishment is offering a 20 per cent discount on beverages to anyone holding a ticket for that day’s University Players performance.

Guests who visit the location at 400 Erie St. East can enjoy a lively atmosphere before or after the show, and owner Adriano Ciotoli hopes it will encourage patrons to purchase tickets in advance so they can show them to receive the discount.

Marketing co-ordinator Kristen Siapas is delighted with the initiative.

“University Players is thrilled to partner with WindsorEats on We Heart the Arts,” she says. “We know WindsorEats is the perfect place to visit before or after the show, and our patrons love the atmosphere and the location. We’re so proud to be partnered with an organization that believes in this community, and has such a strong history of creating the best food, drink and entertainment experiences in our region.”

The first production of the University Players 2023-24 season is Mac Beth, an adaptation by Erica Schmidt of William Shakespeare’s MacBeth. The piece offers a fresh look at one of the bloodiest tragedies in Shakespeare, retold in the bard’s text by a group of young people set in today’s digital age.

It takes place in an urban underpass, where seven young people in school uniforms meet to devise the show, forming a Mac Beth club of sorts. The play builds in intensity as the retelling of the tale unlocks the most vicious and brutal tendencies of the teenage girls, culminating in a shocking and violent end.

The production runs the weekends of Sept. 22 and 28. Buy tickets through the University Players online box office.

Faculty, staff, and students welcomed more than 400 Master of Engineering students to the University of Windsor at the fall orientation session Tuesday, Sept 5. These students come to Windsor from all over the world to learn about engineering, acquire advanced skills and knowledge, and prepare for an engineering career in Canada.

The session included a breakfast snack, addresses by dean Bill Van Heyst; the campus health and wellness counselling staff; the International Students’ Centre; the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention, Resistance, and Support; and representatives of student government. Incoming students attended presentations on academic policies, course requirements, faculty advising, immigration guidance, students’ rights, peer support, mentorship, clubs, and student social events.

“Canada needs more great engineers and so it is exciting and gratifying to welcome so many bright graduate engineers to Canada in our MEng program,” said Peter Frise, associate dean of engineering for professional programs. “This program will help these new Canadians prepare for a rewarding professional career here.”

Following the formal program, attendees went on a tour of the Centre for Engineering Innovation and the broader campus and got a chance to meet new friends and learn about their new home.

—Naomi Pelkey