Dear University of Windsor community,

As 2019 draws to a close and we prepare to take a well-deserved break for the holiday season, it is a special time for reflection, gratitude, and hope.

I am grateful to lead the University of Windsor as your chancellor and to have met such extraordinary students this past year. The unwavering leadership and support of faculty, staff, alumni, and volunteers in our community is immeasurable and contributes to our collective pride and success. 2020 will be filled with great promise, opportunity, and of course challenges.

May we have the courage to embrace the year ahead with hope, confidence, and determination.

Whether your travels take you far or keep you close on campus this holiday season, I wish you friendship and peace. May your days be bright and your hearts filled with kindness.

The University of Windsor has much to be proud of.

Happy holidays! Happy New Year.

—Dr. Mary Jo Haddad, Chancellor

Deena Wang, international student advisor, says she and her husband are meat lovers but would like to eat more healthy meals. That’s why they joined a workshop on plant-based foods hosted Friday by Food Services in the kitchen in Vanier Hall.

Chef François Murphy of the Canadian branch of Humane Society International led chefs and other interested campus staffers through training in preparing meatless dishes.

“This is very eye-opening,” Wang said. “We love vegetables, and we’re finding so many flavours and textures.”

She said she hopes to incorporate some of what they learned in their Christmas dinner. They especially liked a vegan version of migas, a traditional breakfast dish made with fried tortillas: “You don’t need meat when the flavour is this good.”

Murphy demonstrated a number of recipes for breakfast and dinner — muffins, biscuits, skillets, avocado fries — and how to replace egg whites in meringues with aquafaba, the liquid in which chickpeas are canned.

Riana Topan, manager of the Forward Food program, said it promotes both health and environmental sustainability, but does not require people to become vegan.

“A lot of people are looking for more plant-based options,” she said. “The chefs we work with are talented but don’t necessarily have the training to prepare a meal not centered on meat.”

Executive chef Paolo Vasapolli said that filling that gap was a primary rationale in holding the session.

“It’s all about serving our patrons more variety,” he said. “Our staff will take what we learned and put it into our everyday operations.”

Lancer varsity teams will keep busy between semesters, with exhibition contests away from home.

Men’s hockey will take a swing through New Brunswick, playing the Aigles Bleus in Moncton on Dec. 28, and then heading down the road to Fredericton to meet the University of New Brunswick Reds on Dec. 29. The latter game will be webcast live starting at 4 p.m. Atlantic time.

Women’s basketball will compete in the Christmas Classic tournament at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Québec, with contests Dec. 29 and 30.

Lancer men’s basketball will spend those days in South Bend, Indiana, meeting the Holy Cross College Crusaders on Dec. 29 and the Titans of the Indiana University of South Bend on Dec. 30.

Women’s hockey will play the Bulldogs of Adrian College in Michigan at noon Tuesday, Dec. 31.

Find more details at goLancers.ca.

A three-month immersion in Canada’s education system came to an end Dec. 12 for almost 20 teacher candidates from Chinese universities.

Hailing from Chongqing’s Southwest University and Suzhou’s Soochow University, the participants in the Reciprocal Learning Teacher Education Program shadowed teachers in schools belonging to both the Greater Essex County and the Windsor Essex Catholic district school boards.

A potluck dinner gave them a chance to say goodbye and thanks to their placement hosts, UWindsor faculty, and exchange peers.

Dean of education Ken Montgomery applauded their commitment to honing their professional skills.

“I have every confidence that in fact you have left quite an impression and quite an impact on us at the Faculty of Education, and more broadly in community and in the school systems,” he said.

Jackie Connelly, principal of Westgate Public School, said the teacher candidates pitched in to help with a breakfast program that serves 140 students each day.

“It was very nice,” she said. “I feel that we became very much a family, we cared about them and they cared about us.”

The exchange guests made presentations on their academic and cultural learning experiences before sharing hugs and tears of farewell. The event celebrated the 10th circle of exchanges of Canadian and Chinese teacher candidates under the program, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as a partnership directed by UWindsor education professor Shijing Xu and Michael Connelly of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Southwest University professor Xi He summarized the feelings of the 2019 participants in three words: gratitude, growth, and harvest.

“We established a life-long friendship with students from the University of Windsor,” she said. “We have also developed mutual trust with teachers and students in schools.”

Read a full account of the potluck event on the program website.

The need for blood doesn’t take a holiday, but seasonal commitments and travel can pose a challenge for donors, notes Canadian Blood Services.

It asks donors to consider inviting a loved or friend to join them for a donation — making saving lives the greatest gift.

The Windsor Blood Donor Centre at 3909 Grand Marais Rd. E. is closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day, but otherwise continuing operation through the holiday period.

The local clinic has a target of collecting 1,460 units before the end of the year. It will welcome donors:

• Monday and Wednesday, 3 to 7 p.m.
• Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon

With the exception of Boxing Day, Dec. 26: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Book an appointment at blood.ca or call 1-888-2DONATE.