In what organizers are describing as the University of Windsor’s largest recruitment success yet, more than 3,000 high school students and their parents came from all over Ontario to Friday’s Fall Open House.

Sunny skies greeted visitors for tours of academic, residence and athletics facilities, presentations on programs and services, and a barbecue lunch served under four tents in the courtyard outside Dillon Hall. The Mark Calcott Band, an ensemble of UWindsor students, entertained guests as they enjoyed their lunch.

“This has been our biggest open house yet. The tents were a new addition so that guests could eat and interact in a comfortable, open-air environment,” says Wendy Bedard of the Office of Liaison and Student Recruitment. “Many families came from all over the province, which shows that we reached a bigger market this time around.”

The Li family of Toronto brought parents and their daughters Anna and Esther, who intend to study social work and nursing, respectively.

“The campus is beautiful and clean,” says Anna Li, now in 11th grade. “I'm checking it out now so it will help me make a decision come next year.”

“The barbecue was a nice touch,” says her sister Esther Li. “It was important for me to check it out now so I could decide whether to come next year.”

The event coincided with Random Acts of Kindness Day, which saw extra nice behaviour across campus, including the distribution of carnations by volunteers from the public affairs office.

— article and photos by Chantelle Myers

Crowds fill the CAW Student Centre to check-in for open house.

Faculty members explained academic programs—admission requirements, course offerings, and career opportunities to prospective students.

The lovely fall weather made dining al fresco a pleasant part of the day.

Some visitors appreciated specialized facilities, like the nursing learning centre inside the Alumni Hall residence.

Renée Bombardier of public affairs (right) hands out flowers to guests as a Random Act of Kindness.

A showcase of engineering research Friday was a great opportunity for prospective students and members of the community to see first-hand some of the fascinating work that’s going on here, according to a participating professor.

“Everyone seemed really pleased with what they saw,” said Narayan Kar, one of three researchers who opened up their labs for the Open Doors, Open Knowledge event. “It’s critical that people have a good understanding of the kind of research we’re doing here.”

Sponsored by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the event was held to demonstrate how university and private-sector partnerships are driving innovation in Canada.

Dr. Kar’s Centre for Hybrid Automotive Research and Green Energy (CHARGE) lab was one of three labs in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation open for tours by high school students on campus for the University’s fall open house, as well as by local members of the media.

The other labs that were opened were Rupp Carriveau’s Closed Loop Wind Tunnel lab and Hoda El Maraghy’s Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Centre, which boasts the only “factory-in-a-lab” reconfigurable manufacturing system of its kind in North America.

Student input helped to inform the strategic direction of the Leddy Library, says its dean Gwen Ebbett, and its focus on five key points.

The library recently unveiled its plan, which dovetails with the objectives of the University’s plan, Thinking Forward … Taking Action.

“In truth, it was not that difficult for us to come up with our goals,” Ebbett says. “We are already making movement on a number of these items.”

The plan lays out a course of action to:

1. Enable an inviting and successful library experience.
   The library will strategically provide services and space, both in-person and virtual, to anticipate user needs on a foundation of service excellence.
2. Expand upon the library’s role as a hub for research and learning activities.
   The library will grow as a vibrant focal point for the University and the local community.
3. Take a leadership role in scholarly communication.
   The library will lead on providing services, initiating policy development and building awareness on campus in support of evolving means of scholarly communication.
4. Support a culture of lifelong learning, skills development and customer service excellence for all library personnel.
   The library will provide an environment that encourages the pursuit of excellence to meet the rapidly evolving needs of user communities.
5. Tell our story.
   To further enhance the reputation of the University of Windsor, the library will heighten awareness of its accomplishments, services and activities.

The entire plan is available on the Leddy’s Web site.

A new service of the Leddy Library will begin to bring together in one place the work done by UWindsor scholars.

The institutional repository Scholarship at UWindsor is intended to showcase campus researchers by providing open access to a wide range of their scholarly and creative works. This could include copies of published articles where permitted, conference papers, presentations, theses, videos of talks, musical scores, images and more, says Dave Johnston, the librarian heading up the project.

“Since it is an open access repository, its contents will be freely available to anyone with access to the internet,” he says. “This enables the work of scholars from the University of Windsor to reach the broadest possible audience and helps to make publicly funded research more accessible to everyone.”

Now the repository requires the help of faculty members, he says.

“It’s no good for us to have a repository with no content,” says Johnston. “We need our researchers to participate to create the critical mass that will attract readership.”

Find more information about the Scholarship at UWindsor Institutional Repository—and how to contribute—on the Web site of the Leddy Library.

A group from the Leddy Library is hoping to change the face of men’s health, and its members are putting their faces on the line.

Franco Magliaro, John Minos, Brian Owens, Joe Silvestri and Dino Spagnuolo have joined the Movember movement, growing moustaches through the month of November in an effort to raise awareness and funds in support of men’s health issues, especially prostate cancer.

“We were just talking one day and decided to combine our efforts as a team,” says Magliaro, captain of Mo Leddy. “We hope our colleagues will pitch in and make a donation.”

Learn more and make a contribution online through the team’s Web page.

The Lancer men’s and women’s basketball teams swept their opening weekends at home.

The men, currently ranked ninth in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, overcame a 22-point deficit to upset the top-ranked Carleton Ravens in a dramatic 71-67 Friday, handing the defending national champions their first regular-season loss since February 2010. Lien Phillip led Windsor with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Read the full story, “Lancers shock the defending champs.”  The team went to 2-0 on the young season with a 72-68 victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday. Enrico Di Loreto tallied a team-high 14 points. Read a complete game recap on goLancers.ca.

The no. 1 ranked Lancer women’s team defeated the no. 4 Ravens 58-53 Friday and topped Ottawa 71-47 Saturday. Jessica Clemençon scored 16 points Friday and 15 Saturday to lead Windsor; Korissa Williams recorded 16 points Friday and 14 Saturday.

Friday’s points total made Clemençon, a fourth-year forward, the all-time scoring leader in Lancer women’s basketball. The 1,150 points to date by the 2011 Canadian University Female Athlete of the Year put her ahead of Dranadia Roc, who held the previous record with 1,129 in her three-year career for the Lancers. Read “Clemençon makes history against Ravens” at goLancers.ca.

Both basketball teams will spend next weekend on the road, playing at Laurentian on Friday and at York on Saturday. Their next home action will come November 23 against Ryerson and November 24 against Toronto. The women will tip off at 6 p.m. and the men at 8 p.m. both nights.

Lancers send three runners to cross-country national all-star teams

The Lancer men’s cross-country team claimed a bronze medal and the women finished sixth at the CIS cross-country championships, Saturday in London. Matt Walters, Nick Falk and Jenn Corrick earned all-Canadian berths. Guelph earned both team titles for the seventh straight year. Read more at goLancers.ca.

Hockey teams skate to victory

The tenth-ranked Lancer men’s hockey team notched two shutout victories over the Paladins of Royal Military College this weekend, winning 5-0 Friday and 3-0 Saturday at Windsor Arena. A five-game winning streak has Windsor in first place in the Ontario University Athletics West division.

Matt Beaudoin (2), Brett Oliphant, Drew Palmer and Tom Craig scored Friday; goaltender Matt Murphy made 25 saves. Parker Van Buskirk made 26 saves in Saturday’s shut out; Palmer, Steve Ferry and Spencer Pommels accounted for the scoring.

Forwards Alyssa Baldin and Courtney Spoors each scored four goals and teammates Candace Kourounis, Jenny MacKnight and Bree Polci added singles to give the Lancer women’s hockey team a 12-2 win over the Brock Badgers in St. Catharines on Saturday. The team followed that up Sunday with a 2-0 blanking of the Guelph Gryphons. Baldin and Candice Chevalier scored for Windsor; goaltender Karlyle Robinson stopped 21 shots for the shutout.

Women’s volleyball squad spikes Lakehead

Rookie Shannon Dean recorded a game-high 12.5 points to lead the Lancer women’s volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-20) victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Saturday afternoon at the St. Denis Centre. Read the full story, “Women’s volleyball tops Thunderwolves.”

Organizers of a charity fashion show on campus this week are making an effort to capture the glitz of a high-end presentation, without reflecting stereotypical preconceptions of what makes a good model.

The show, labelled “Fearless,” is presented by Students for Charitable Enterprise in partnership with the Womyn’s Centre as a fundraiser for Hiatus House, a social service agency offering confidential intervention for families experiencing domestic violence.

It will showcase the clothing of such local designers as House of Versatile Styles, Chimera, Monty’s and Wound-Up, modelled by UWindsor students who represent the community’s diversity.

“We really tried to cast people based on more than their appearance,” says Womyn’s Centre coordinator Tracy Huynh. “We were more concerned with how the presented themselves and whether they will be easy to work with.”

The models have been practising twice a week in order to make a polished presentation, she says. The event will also feature special VIP seating and a silent auction of pieces donated by the participating designers.

It is set for 6 p.m. Friday, November 16, in the CAW Student Centre’s Ambassador Auditorium. Tickets are $15 for students, $20 for student VIP seating, $25 general admission and $30 for non-student VIPs, and will be available at a booth in the student centre through the week. Find more details on the event’s Facebook page.

The MarketPlace food court in the CAW Student Centre will celebrate the beginning of Diwali—the Hindu festival of lights—with an Indian menu for lunch and dinner on Tuesday, November 12.

The Homestyle station will serve a choice of entrée:

• samosas with sweet chilli sauce;
• butter chicken;
• paneer makhani; or
• beef curry

with the diner’s choice of basmati rice or naan bread and a free dessert of gulab jamun.

A bake sale in the student centre today is intended to raise awareness and money for mental health.

The University of Windsor Mental Health Awareness club promises moustache-themed goods—10 per cent of the proceeds will be donated to the Movember movement for its stated support of men’s mental health, with the remainder going to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

With a slogan of “Share, care and end the stigma,” the student club is dedicated to raising awareness about mental health-related disorders, eradicating the societal stigma of these disorders, encouraging students to adopt healthier habits, and learning more about the brain.

The bake sale runs 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the CAW Student Centre Commons area.

Canadian Blood Services invites UWindsor students to make a donation at its campus blood donor clinic Tuesday—and bring a friend.

“Bringing a friend along gives our valued donors a chance to double the amount of good they can do,” says Joan Hannah, community development coordinator for Canadian Blood Services. “Many potential donors never give blood because they have never been asked.”

She said the process, from walking in the door, through screening, donation and recovery, takes only an hour.

“How often can you spend an hour and at the end of it know that you have helped to save someone’s life?” Hannah asks.

Canadian Blood Services will hold a full blood donor clinic in the CAW Student Centre’s Ambassador Auditorium on Tuesday, November 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For this clinic, Canadian Blood Services will use its appointment system. It encourages donors to book appointments by calling 1-888-2DONATE (1-888-236-6283). Walk-in donors are still welcome but appointments will better accommodate donors' working schedules.

As with previous clinics, the Department of Human Resources encourages all eligible employees to participate in this worthwhile process and asks any employees who wish to donate to make the necessary arrangements with their supervisors regarding the possibility of extended lunch or break periods.