In 2009, Dr. Alex Smith began using GigaPan photography technology to record weekly habitat panoramas in U of G’s Dairy Bush.

The 8.5-hectare hardwood forest on the University campus is a research site for students in a popular biodiversity course in the Department of Integrative Biology taught by Smith and Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, they used 11 years’ worth of GigaPan images to create the Digital Forest, a virtual classroom that stands in for the real thing.

“We are now working with GigaPan to make the user interface more accessible to more people, whether they are right next door or thousands of kilometres away,” Jacobs says.

They expect to continue using the Digital Forest after the pandemic.

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The ranking lists the world’s best universities for research impact and academic reputation in 51 academic subjects and includes some 1,300 universities from 80 locations worldwide.

OVC held onto its fifth-place ranking from 2020; the college has consistently placed in the top 10 since QS first included veterinary science in its rankings in 2015.

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U of G was the top university and fourth overall in the ranking of Canada’s Best
Employers released early this year.

In a Forbes article, Martha Harley, associate vice-president (human resources), says a sense of belonging and recognition is key to employee satisfaction.

“We are renowned in terms of our various areas of research and study around the world,” she says. “To combine that world-class piece with a community feeling is really a feat, I think.”

The ranking was based on a survey of more than 8,000 Canadians who worked for organizations with at least 500 employees.

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In October 2019, the University had begun a search for its ninth president and vice-chancellor. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 the University’s Board of Governors suspended that search and appointed Dr. Charlotte Yates to lead the University on an interim basis.

Yates will complete her current term as president and vice-chancellor on Aug. 1, 2022.

The Policy on University Appointments requires that a presidential search begin at least one year before the end of the incumbent president’s term, and also provides that the incumbent may be a candidate.

The search process will be led by a Presidential Selection Committee chaired by Shauneen Bruder, chair of the Board of Governors. A full list of members and other information is available on the presidential search website.

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Under COVID-19 restrictions, U of G is holding a single online event for grads of all seven colleges, numbering nearly 3,900 students for summer convocation and 1,100 for winter.

The June 24 event features a main video recording on the convocation website with messages from senior administrators, award-winning students, honorary degree recipients and international alumni.

From the main website, grads will be able to access college videos to hear addresses by honorary degree recipients.

A highlight will be a recorded roll call of grads’ names read alongside depictions of their submitted photos or videos.

Earlier, all graduates were mailed convocation boxes containing their degree parchments along with items for their at-home celebration.

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Run by U of G’s Student Housing Services, the unique program begun in 2016 involves staff, faculty and student-staff volunteers who typically pay door-to-door visits to new students in campus residences. They check in to see how students are doing and to share resources.

Under COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s program happened online and over the phone and involved residence students as well as first-year students connected online through the Gryphons Nest program run by Student Affairs.

About 112 volunteers signed up for House Calls.

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Sharmilla Rasheed joined U of G as vice-president (finance and operations) in December. Earlier, she was vice-president (financial and information services) and chief financial officer of St. Joseph’s Health Centre.

On Jan. 1, Dr. Mazyar Fallah joined U of G as dean of the College of Biological Science. Previously, he was associate dean, research and innovation, in the Faculty of Health at York University.

Dr. Gwen Chapman was named provost and vice-president (academic), beginning May 1. She joined U of G in 2016 as dean of the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences and had served as interim provost since August 2020.

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Brett Shepherd, B.A.Sc. ’04, MA (leadership) ’14, has been named director of U of G’s Ridgetown Campus.

Dr. Natalie Carter, PhD ’15, Dip. ’98, is co-investigator of an ongoing research project intended to create new Arctic shipping routes that protect culturally significant marine areas that received a 2021 Governor General’s Innovation Award.

David Drahos, BA ’14, was named as Atlantic regional affairs adviser to federal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair.

Sarah Douglas, B.Comm. ’17, will compete in the women’s Laser Radial sailing event during her first Olympic Games this summer.

Dr. Gervan Fearon, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’81, M.Sc. ’84, has been appointed as the new president of George Brown College in Toronto.

Patricia Tersigni, BA ’99, MA ’01, has been selected as campaign chair of the 2021 Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin United Way campaign. She helped lead the University’s recordbreaking UW campaigns in 2015 and 2016 as staff co-chair.

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The fund will bring women science leaders to U of G for week-long visits each year to speak and participate in research or outreach activities in the departments of Chemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, and Physics, and the School of Computer Science.

“U of G is a very successful university for attracting women students, faculty and staff,” says Dr. Peter Tremaine, professor in the Department of Chemistry, who created the fund with his wife, Karin.

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Registration for the three-year online degree is now open for the fall semester.

Dr. Gwen Chapman, provost and vice-president (academic) and former dean of CSAHS, said she is “thrilled to see this program officially launch and excited to see the ways it will fulfill our mission to offer an accessible, inclusive and intellectually engaging environment for students to learn.”

Dr. Samantha Brennan, dean of COA, said the online BA extends the University’s history of excellence in distance education and sharpens its focus on meeting the needs of students by providing more flexibility.

Students may take a range of subjects across the humanities and social sciences and will be able to choose their path of study and their pace. They can also choose to take courses in-person at any point in the program.

Students who wish to distinguish their degree can complete up to three certificates in business, communication, or public policy and administration.

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