Month: Dec 2015

Fall 2015 Electronic Grade Submission Deadline

By: Sally Gunz, FAUW President

This message is especially for those lucky souls whose exams are sometime between now and the end of 22 December. The Registrar’s Office has agreed to extend the time for submission of your final grades until 4:30 pm on Monday, 4 January, which is the first day the University is open. You will get official notification likely Monday. We all know there are a number of irritants around the exam processes. The registrar has agreed that we will work on these in the new year. But in the meantime, this short extension is a small gift for those grading away in the salt mines over the holidays. May it all go smoothly and, more importantly, quickly.

CAUT Refugee Foundation: Call for Donations

A Syrian family at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, amid a crowd of media and onlookers.
The first Syrian refugee family arriving in Toronto. Photo by Domnic Santiago / Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

CAUT has issued an urgent appeal for donations to the CAUT Refugee Foundation, which has been reactivated in light of the current Syrian refugee crisis and has requested its member associations to send out its call for funds. The Foundation was initially created in the 1970s to offer support to refugees fleeing Vietnam for Canada. The Canadian government has pledged to match dollar-for-dollar every contribution that individual Canadians make to a registered Canadian charity for Syrian refugees until Dec. 31, 2015.

The Foundation is a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency, allowing it to issue tax receipts. The Executive Committee is encouraging academic staff associations and their members to donate to the Foundation to support refugee relief and resettlement efforts. Funds collected on behalf of the Foundation will be provided to the Canadian Red Cross. The Red Cross and Red Crescent are supplying food, water and first aid to refugees across Southern Europe and the Middle East.

FAUW has pledged $1000 to the Foundation and would like to encourage our members to consider supporting either the CAUT Refugee Foundation as well, or another charitable organization of their own choosing addressing the challenges of this humanitarian disaster. If you would like to back a campus initiative already underway, you might support a project being spearheaded by two people in Arts, Andrea Charette and Lamees Al-Ethari. They have organized a Relief Kit and Blanket Drive through Mennonite Central Committee and are also encouraging monetary donations to Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support.

Cheques can be made to the order of the CAUT Refugee Foundation and sent to:

CAUT Refugee Foundation
2705 Queensview Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K2B 8K2

Read more on the CAUT website.