Western’s Board of Governors recently approved the construction of a new facility to house the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing and the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS). This 12,100-square-metre (130,000-square-foot) building will be located on the southwest corner of Lambton and Huron drives (former home of the Services Building).
Currently housed in the Health Sciences Addition, Nursing’s new home will bring it closer to its home faculty, Health Sciences, and allow the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry to expand in the Health Science Addition. The Health Sciences Addition was built in 1975.
“This new building is going to provide the space and amenities commensurate with the high-quality program that has been here at Western for more than 90 years,” said Jim Weese, Health Sciences dean. “It will help us advance our school to greater heights.”
Mary-Anne Andrusyszyn, director of the School of Nursing, agreed.
“I am delighted we are finally going to get the profile Nursing needs and deserves,” Andrusyszyn said. “I am so glad the university and Board have come to this decision. We have an almost 100-year history, and it will be a wonderful day in that history when construction starts, and an even better one when we cut the ribbon. I am absolutely thrilled, as are all the faculty and staff.”
Currently housed in the North Campus Building, FIMS is packed into both tight and scattered quarters. The new facility will bring the faculty together in a number of ways. Constructed in 2004, the North Campus Building is currently occupied by FIMS, the Faculty of Science as well as general use classroom space.
“FIMS is very excited about the prospects for a new building,” said Nick Dyer-Witheford, FIMS acting dean. “Our faculty has been waiting several years for a new home adequate to the expanding scope of our teaching and research activities. Through our FIMS Space Planning committee, our faculty and staff look forward to working with the university on a participatory, user-centred design process that will result in a truly innovative and attractive addition to the campus.”
Plans call for the new building to boast state-of-the-art general instructional facilities. The FIMS space will be comprised of computer laboratories, media studies studios, library science facilities, faculty/staff offices, research/scholarship spaces and student spaces. The Nursing space will include flexible instructional spaces, clinical training laboratories, faculty/staff offices, research spaces and student spaces.
The building will be designed to meet LEED Silver certification.
Given the project is currently out for tender, no cost estimates for the building have been released.
There is no detailed timeline at this stage. However, Western is working toward occupancy in the first half of 2017.
NEWS AND NOTES
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Windermere Manor Hotel has been awarded the 2014 Consumer Choice Award as the top wedding venue in London. The hotel and conference centre is operated by Hospitality Services at Western, a division of Housing and Ancillary Services.
“We’re very honoured. We have some great competition in the city,” said Brenda Brandt, corporate sales/wedding manager. “With our venue, it really shows well. When people walk in the door, they are in awe. We have a beautiful ambiance, but it’s the staff that makes the difference. Every venue has hotel rooms, but for us, it’s all about the people.”
Windermere hosts more than 70 weddings a year. Bookings are stretching through 2014 and 2015, even with some inquiries about dates in 2017. Interestingly, what sets the venue apart is the fact it books only one wedding per day.
“We try to make every bride and groom feel like they are the only wedding of the year,” Brandt said. “We look at it like every event here is an experience.”
Hosted by Windermere, a gala celebrating Consumer Choice Award winners from the London and surrounding area was held last week.
Established in 1987, the Consumer Choice Award recognizes business excellence for small-to-medium-size businesses in specific areas. Based on customer surveys, the awards are considered among the most distinguished for business excellence in Canada.
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Yellow Island Aquaculture has proven that even small companies can become scientific powerhouses when they have the right partners. For 20 years, the family-owned farm – one of the few in British Columbia that rears only native Chinook salmon – has collaborated with universities from across Canada to improve the profitability and sustainability of salmon farming.
Thanks to enhanced rearing techniques and genetic brood (breeding) stock, Yellow Island Aquaculture has become the first commercial salmon farm in Canada to convert to 100 per cent organic production of a native species and the collaboration with Canadian universities has generated a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Synergy Award for Innovation.
Bryan Neff from Western’s Faculty of Science is a member of the award-winning team, which was led by University of Windsor’s Trevor Pitcher. An expert in molecular and behavioural ecology, Neff currently serves as Science’s associate dean (research). Neff and his research team at Western predominately work with fish including salmon, bluegill, bullhead and guppy. These species are socially and economically important in Canada and represent billions of dollars per year to the economy through the recreational and commercial fisheries as well as the aquaculture industry.
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Students who received a scholarship or bursary in 2013 are eligible for a new online T4A service, Western’s Student Financial Services announced recently.
With student consent, a copy of the student’s T4A form will be available for download from the Student Centre website, student.uwo.ca, as T2202A forms are currently.
To enable access to the online T4A, the Canada Revenue Agency requires students provide consent prior to printing.
To provide consent, log in to Student Centre and access the T4A consent page through the Tax Receipts link at the bottom of the page or by following the Campus Finances path under Self Service. Students will receive a confirmation email once they have successfully submitted consent.
Provide your consent no later than Feb. 10.
Contact regtax@uwo.ca with questions.
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The university Senate recently approved a new award intended to recognize long-standing, extraordinary service by staff – the President’s Distinguished Service Medal.
The award recognizes the staff member’s ‘breadth of impact’ – contributions above and beyond what would normally be expected in the nominee’s primary role at Western.
Although the award is intended primarily to recognize administrative staff, faculty may also be recognized for work or achievements that would not normally be covered by the professor emeritus designation or other service awards already in place.
Nominees must have been retired/resigned from the university in any capacity (including Board or Senate membership) for at least one year prior to consideration and have no ongoing formal relationship with the university.
The Honorary Degrees Committee will consider nominations. The award will be conferred by the chancellor at convocation.
Deadline for nominations is Friday, March 14.
For information, or to nominate, visit the President’s Distinguished Service Medal page on the University Secretariat website, uwo.ca/univsec/senate/convocation/service_award.
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Western Mustangs linebacker Pawel Kruba has signed a contract with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the team announced last week.
The Social Sciences student spent five seasons with the purple and white, finishing his Mustangs career on a high note this past season when he earned the President’s Trophy as the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) defensive player of the year. A two-time OUA All-Star, Kruba earned CIS First Team All-Canadian honours in 2013 after a campaign that saw him record 38 tackles, including 29 solo, one forced fumble, and three interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown. Over his entire CIS career, the Windsor native racked up 116 total tackles, 44 tackles for loss, and five interceptions.
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A Western education can ‘show you the money,’ if you’re into that kind of thing.
The Financial Times Global MBA ranking for 2014 placed Western’s Ivey School of Business as the highest among Canadian MBA programs when it comes to earnings. Three years after graduation, Ivey alumni earn on average $99,072 per year. (The study was adjusted to U.S. dollars.) Ivey topped business schools at Toronto ($90,305), McGill ($89,604), York ($89,332) and British Columbia ($88,881).
Canada, however, was far behind institutions, mainly in the United States and United Kingdom. Ivey ranked 75th globally in this category.
A graduate from the Stanford Graduate School of Business on average earns $184,577, followed by one from the Harvard Business School on average earning $178,300 per year three years after graduation. The highest-ranking non-U.S. school is the London Business School, where the average salary is $156,553.