University Players continues its 54th season with Agatha Christie’s mystery, The Hollow, October 25 to 28 and October 31 to November 4 at Essex Hall Theatre.

This classic murder mystery by the “queen of whodunits” will keep audience members guessing through every twist and turn.

“I am an ardent fan of Agatha Christie’s fiction,” says the play’s director, guest artist Margo Regan. “Murder for her is always wrapped up like a glittering Christmas gift, with as much attention paid to the sparkling paper and the colourful ribbon, as to the coveted present itself!  In this play, the Hollow refers to the estate on which the story takes place, but my sense is that each of the characters we encounter in this play is also possessed of a hollow in the mind or the heart.”

Wednesday through Saturday performances are at 8 p.m., Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. On Sunday, October 28, a “Talk Back” discussion with the director and actors will follow the performance. For information or tickets, call 519-253-3000, ext. 2808, or visit www.UniversityPlayers.com.

Read a biography of director Margo Regan.

A free public reception Tuesday will launch the latest book by the University’s resident writing professional.

Ghost Road and other forgotten stories of Windsor is a new collection of local legends—only this is the Windsor we don’t know, says Marty Gervais. The best-selling author of The Rumrunners and My Town, he says these stories carry with them traces of the city’s weird and wonderful history.

“These forgotten tales of Windsor will show you devastating tornadoes, explosions at the riverfront symphony, and 19th-century race riots,” Gervais says. “And they’ll show the murderers and war heroes, the presidents and prime ministers, the sports legends, faith healers, ambassadors and artists, who have all left their mark on the place we call home.”

Gervais, Windsor’s most popular historian and its first-ever poet laureate, is an award-winning journalist, poet, photographer and editor. He has written more than a dozen books of poetry, two plays and a novel.

Ghost Road is available cloth-bound for $37.95 or paperback for $22.95 in the local authors section of the University Bookstore. Its launch party will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 23, at Biblioasis, 1520 Wyandotte Street East.

UWindsor drama grads Mark Lefebvre (BFA 1988) and Kyle Sipkens (BFA 2008) can say that they walked tall on the popular CBC television series Dragons’ Den.

What the Stilt Guys can’t say—yet— is whether they cut a deal with any of the show’s entrepreneurs.

“We signed a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting us from revealing the outcome of our pitch,” says Lefebvre. “Not even my mom knows what went down!”

The Stilt Guys are seeking investment to expand their company, which sends costumed entertainers on stilts for promotional appearances at public and private events. The Dragons’ Den  episode featuring the Windsor duo will air October 24.

Lefebvre says the show’s taping at a Toronto studio in May went well.

“We had a blast!” he says. “They fired incredibly good questions at us and we gave it our best shot. Their camera phones were out from the moment we entered and the studio was electric.”

Sipkens calls it “the best business consultation ever.”

“We spent close to an hour in the studio with the dragons,” says Sipkens. “We brought a few surprises and something for Kevin (O’Leary) in particular, but we wanted to have fun with him and not be insulting. You’ll just have to tune in to see what the big man gets ‘up’ to.”

The WEtech Alliance is hosting a public viewing party at the Walkerville Brewery, 525 Argyle Road, starting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 24. Alliance vice-president Yvonne Pilon invites friends and well-wishers to attend.

“Come out and enjoy the show, meet the new Stilt Guys, and hear about future plans as they get set to celebrate their 10th season in 2013,” Pilon says.

Learn more about the Stilt Guys on the company’s Web site, www.stiltguys.com.

Friends, family and colleagues honoured drama professor Tedfred Myers, who died in February, with a memorial tree planting Friday on the northwest side of the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre.

Myers joined the University of Windsor in 1981 as a technical director in the School of Dramatic Art, became its technical coordinator and lighting designer in 1984, and became an assistant professor in 2003 after many years of teaching as a sessional instructor.

Friday’s ceremony included the installation of a memorial plaque and the scattering of Myers’ cremains on the site.

Are you an employee who tells people great things about working at the University? Do you feel that you can bring forward ideas? Do you know how you and your job contribute to the success of the University?

A new initiative of the Department of Human Resources is aimed at building employee engagement with the University of Windsor as a workplace.

“We Are UWindsor” will promote a work environment where employees find personal meaning and motivation in their work and actively contribute to the success of the University, says Rita LaCivita, chief human resources officer.

“Over the next couple of months, faculty and staff will have an opportunity to express their views on various aspects of working life at the University through focus groups and an employee survey,” LaCivita says. “The information gathered will lead to the development of the University’s first comprehensive Employee Engagement Action Plan which will articulate specific University-wide strategies and initiatives that will increase engagement and enhance the work environment.”

Her department will send invitations this week to employees selected through a random sampling process to participate in the focus groups. The University’s Research Ethics Board has approved the focus group discussions. Visit the We Are UWindsor Web site to learn more about the focus groups and this initiative.

With mid-term exams looming, everybody could use something sweet about now. That’s the impetus to Food Service’s “Mid-term Madness” promotion, this week at the Williams Fresh Café.

The sale runs through Friday at the café in the Leddy Library, and promises patrons a medium coffee or tea with a cookie for the sweet price of $2.

Scholarly communication and academic publishing are quickly evolving and these developments are transforming the sharing of research and scholarship.

In observance of Open Access Week 2012, the Leddy Library will host Shana Kimball, head of publishing services at the University of Michigan’s MPublishing, for a free public lecture Tuesday on academic publishing, open access and the development and impact of MPublishing at the University of Michigan.

The Open Access movement has gained momentum and online electronic publishing is generating new avenues for communication. These changes have created opportunities for universities to increase access to the results, research, develop and publish their own journals and monographs, and to share their raw data in order to enable new research.

Kimball is editor of The Journal of Electronic Publishing, and editor-at-large for digitalculturebooks, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press in digital humanities and new media studies. She is also a member of the steering group of Open Humanities Press, an international publishing collective in critical and cultural theory.

Her October 23 talk will begin at 2 p.m. in room 4107, Leddy Library.

The University Secretariat invites students interested in the University’s governance to participate in a focus group discussing the composition and mandate of Senate’s Student Committee and Academic Policy Committee.

The session will run on campus from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 1. Students interested in providing constructive feedback should RSVP by Friday, October 26, to alisonz@uwindsor.ca.