The President’s Working Group on Anti-Black Racism has announced the membership of the University of Windsor Anti-Black Racism Task Force.

The task force consists of 20 members: 10 students, seven faculty, two staff members, and one community representative:

• social work student Jessica Bona-Mensah, Making It Awkward
• political science student Wesley Rose, Fusion
• communications student Kevinprecious Fawehinmi, African Students’ Association
• law student Kevin Limbombe, Black Law Students Association
• psychology student Rebecca Williams, Caribbean African Organization of Students
• business student Mia Riviere, University of Windsor Students’ Alliance
• math student Sathish Pichika, Graduate Students Society
• disability studies major Alaa Eissa, student at-large
• economics major Faith Enemaku, student at-large
• social work professor Camisha Sibblis, faculty at-large
• criminology professor Natalie Delia Deckard, faculty at-large
• social work professor Nicole Scott, faculty at-large
• women's and gender studies and English professor Richard Douglass-Chin, faculty at-large
• civil engineering professor Rajesh Seth, Windsor University Faculty Association
• associate dean of education Clinton Beckford, ex-officio academic administrator
• associate dean of human kinetics Kevin Milne, ex-officio academic administrator
• student recruitment officer Radha Patel, staff at-large
• assistant dean of law Katia Benoit, staff at-large
• alumna Kaitlyn Ellsworth (BA 2014), community representative

A member representing the Organization of Part-time University Students has yet to be named.

“Months of work went into organizing the task force,” says Jeremiah Bowers, the University's special projects co-ordinator on anti-Black racism initiatives. “While wariness of progress can be expected, this work has never been more crucial than it is now.

“I hope that the task force will fully embrace its mandate and engage in this work with passion and purpose. Pervasive and transformative change, as it relates to creating a safer and equitable experience for Black lives, is much needed at this University.”

Eissa served as co-ordinator of the 2019 African Diaspora Youth Conference and has been appointed to one of the student-at-large positions on the task force. She says she is looking forward to serving in her new role: “future change starts with the actions of today.”

Marium Tolson-Murtty, strategic planning officer for anti-Black racism initiatives, says the task force is the impetus for that change.

“We are encouraged by the dynamic of the Anti-Black Racism Task Force membership in terms of the varied work, education, and lived experiences,” she says. “The University should be proud of the campus community members serving in this capacity to conduct the necessary work of confronting, challenging, and eradicating anti-Black racism at the University of Windsor.”

The task force will convene in the weeks ahead, with a goal of submitting recommendations by Fall 2021. For more information on the task force membership and progress, visit the Anti-Black Racism Website.

Direct any questions to abr@uwindsor.ca.

A UWindsor psychology professor is leading a study to assess the effectiveness of a smartphone app to manage anxiety.

Lance Rappaport heads a team of researchers assessing MindShift, a free tool developed by experts at Anxiety Canada to help people manage psychological distress. The app has been freely available for several years, but the group of mental health professionals now want to evaluate how well it’s working. The goal is to expand the app’s reach and develop it further.

“This is the first empirical study of the smartphone app,” Dr. Rappaport said. “We anticipate that this research will help people use the app to better manage anxiety.”

Mindshift is based on cognitive behavioural therapy, a psycho-social intervention that helps people challenge unhelpful cognitive beliefs and behaviours, improve emotional regulation, and develop coping strategies.

Anxiety Canada, the non-profit organization that developed the app, has awarded Rappaport a grant of $21,750 to fund the research.

The study asks participants to watch a short video explaining MindShift before using the app for 16 weeks. There’s an online initial baseline assessment of anxiety and psychological distress, then five follow-up assessments during the 16-week period.

“We want to see how often people use the app,” said Rappaport. “It’s a matter of practising skills so they are there when you need them. We want to see how distressed people are initially and how distress changes as they use the app.”

Participants must be at least 18 years of age and located in Canada or the United States. They have to be comfortable enough with the English language to complete study questionnaires and they must have access to an iOS or Android smartphone or mobile device with access to the Internet.

People who take part in the study can receive up to $95 in gift certificates for their participation.

For more information or to participate, visit Anxiety Canada’s MindShift research page.

—Sarah Sacheli

The University of Windsor is proud to announce the installation of two rainbow crosswalks on campus celebrating diversity and inclusivity.

The permanent Pride crosswalks are located beside the Welcome Centre and in front of the CAW Student Centre, connecting the Education Gym and Dillon Hall, and include the six colours of the Pride flag along with stripes of brown and black.

UWindsor president Rob Gordon said the crosswalks provide an important message about the inclusive values that exist on the campus.

“The crosswalks will be complementary to the other important activities that the University has undertaken in recent years to signal its support for the LGBTQ2+ community, including the raising the Pride flag and participating in the city’s annual Pride parade,” said Dr. Gordon. “As a University, we are fully committed to the ongoing journey of becoming an increasingly supportive campus for our students, staff, and faculty.”

Several campus partners worked together to support the cost of installing the crosswalks, including the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance, the Graduate Students Society, and the Office of Human Rights, Equity and Accessibility, all of which made substantial contributions to the project.

Using thermoplastic paint — designed for roadwork — the crosswalks will remain a permanent feature as a symbol of inclusivity and will signal UWindsor’s support for the LGBTQ2+ community for many years to come.

In conjunction with the launch of the Anti-Black Racism Task Force, the University is announcing two new initiatives related to combatting anti-Black racism on campus: a faculty recruitment strategy and an Anti-Black Racism Initiatives Fund.

“The work of the task force will provide us with current and detailed guidance in terms of long-term, structural interventions to combat racism on campus,” says UWindsor president Robert Gordon. “That being said, there are many initiatives, identified from previous campus reports and promising practices elsewhere, that we can start immediately, in consultation with the task force and the campus community.

“The Anti-Black Racism Initiatives Fund is intended to provide support for students, staff, and faculty driven activities in the short-term, while the task force does its work.”

The University is committing to hiring 12 Black faculty members by the end of the 2023 hiring cycle. The procedures overseeing this process will be consistent with policy and the Collective Agreement, and will also be guided by the advice of the deans and the task force.

The Anti-Black Racism Initiatives Fund provides project and initiative funding, focusing on supporting teaching and curriculum change and development, research and faculty leadership, initiatives that will help us to learn to do better, and student opportunities.

The fund will provide $10,000 grants for research; teaching, learning, and curriculum projects; and student leadership opportunities. A call will also be launched for a two-year Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies Teaching Leadership Chair, and funds have been allocated for staff and faculty to apply for up to $2,000 — or potentially more — for professional development in this area.

Units across campus including the Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Research and Innovation Services will provide support for these initiatives, but the University will be seeking guidance and input from the task force and the campus community more generally in the design of the calls and on selection committees.

Faculty, staff, students, and departments will all have access to resources for a range of initiatives through this fund.

A reading in cyberspace by UWindsor professor Louis Cabri will launch his book Hungry Slingshots on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 3 p.m.

Dr. Cabri is an associate professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing, teaching poetry, literary theory, and creative writing. Hungry Slingshots presents 15 new works anchored by the eponymic series riffing on a poetic form all the rage in 17th-century France.

The event will be hosted by publisher New Star Books on the Zoom platform. Author Roger Farr will open for Cabri, reading from his work-in-progress After Villon. To attend, email info@newstarbooks.com and request the Zoom link.

The University of Windsor will livestream a Celebration of Life for renowned track and field coach Dennis Fairall this Saturday, Nov. 14, at 1 p.m. from the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse in the St. Denis Centre. Fairall died Nov. 6 following a long illness.

In-person attendance is closed to the public, but the event will be available via Microsoft Teams. The program will include tributes from speakers who will appear both in-person and remotely via pre-recorded videos, as well as other memorial videos that speak to Fairall’s life and impact.

Fairall, who joined the University of Windsor in 1985, was one of the most decorated coaches in Canadian university history, recognized 65 times as Coach of the Year by national and provincial governing bodies in track and field and cross country. In his 28 seasons with the Lancers, Fairall's teams won 25 championship titles at the national level and 46 in Ontario University Athletics.

When her daughter was diagnosed with a neurological condition that caused her to be sensitive to certain sounds, Abeer Ahmed had a mission — to find solutions to help not only her daughter, but others struggling with similar disorders.

She founded Avid Sensory Wellness and is now participating in the EPIC VentureWomen program, giving her access to mentorship, workshops, industry connections, and tools and resources specific to her startup’s needs.

“I try to have services available that are not around yet in abundance,” Ahmed says. “As for the products, I hope to make them easier to find, better priced, and faster to arrive.”

Already holding degrees in medicine and clinical and chemical pathology when she arrived in Canada from Cairo in 1996, Ahmed started working as a vision therapist in 2007. She hopes the EPIC VentureWomen program will improve her business skills.

“I hope to find a way to product development, which is a skill that I have to develop,” she says. “I hope to turn these ideas into real products and have a start on the market if possible.”

Read a full profile on the website of the Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre.

This is the third in a series of articles introducing the current cohort of EPIC VentureWomen.

Campus partners are working to maintain a robust set of Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs).

The KBA team will continue to compile a weekly digest of the most-referenced KBAs to streamline student-focused questions to ask.UWindsor to support consistent communication with current and future students.

These are this week's top-five referenced KBAs:

• How do I know when to register for classes?
• How do I sign in to UWinsite Student?
• How do I validate my courses in UWinsite Student?
• How do I manage my classes on a UWinsite Student waitlist?
• How can I change my program?

Find Winter 2021 KBAs by clicking here.

You can submit common questions to askkba@uwindsor.ca.