What we do right in Waterloo
I have posted enough about what is broken… Not everything is. Heck UW is in great shape compared to other schools in Ontario. So what works? I currently work in a great example of what works at UW—despite the natural aversion to change in some areas we embrace risks that challenge our assumptions on how things work. What are some of the good projects in the time since I have been working at UW that I know of:
- VeloCity (but I am biased)
- Living and learning programs in housing
- Special Projects Group in IST even existing (a project team tasked to build stuff in the age of ‘just buy it’)
- Institute for Quantum computing. Before Perimeter was here, IQC has been pushing quantum physics from theory to practice.
- The Daily Bulletin – a blog like thing that has been online since before the internet (there was a gopher presence)
- Engineers without Borders started at UW
- The Warriors football team got their own field even though everyone seems to like basketball more—but you can’t share a home field with another team.
- The Research and Technology Park and its growth—it is the place to be if you want to connect to what is really going on in the Waterloo tech space. This one is the biggest in my mind.
- Canada 3.0 – ambitious, out of place, unexpected, brilliant
There are countless other projects, big and small, that have been exciting to know about or participate in. All of them show that even in the face of a challenging culture that is found all across higher education, UW finds a way to make cool stuff happen.
I am not going to drop the ‘we can do better’ position but I do need to celebrate some successes every once in a while.
UW logo woes continue, institutional culture roles along
The new UW logo continues to create a stir with the request for feedback on the new logo and a couple alternatives. Pretty much immediately after the request went out UW Opinion was lit up with a range of colourful commentary, some useful suggestions, and some posts that are way out to lunch.
With regards to the new logos I don’t have much to offer about any specific design but I still think the staff at UW could do way better. I don’t think they will though as the process is broken (something I mentioned in my post back in July). A post by Sanjay on UW Opinion touches on it as well.
I think a big part of the problem with the logo boils down to an organizational cultural one that speaks to how people value art, communications, and design in this community. Over the years working at UW I have had a chance to work with many talented designers that have been treated as contract staff that are to simply create exactly what they are told. They aren’t seen as authoritative talent that was hired to handle ‘how things look.’
Usually what happens to the designer is they are forced to use bad photos, odd fonts, colours, and layouts as dictated by the client when they know they don’t work together. What it comes down to in design consultant terms, staff groups at UW are the nightmare client that you can’t get away from because it is your full-time job. They aren’t allowed to do what they are hired to do…. and yes, I said staff groups at UW are nightmare clients. I have been on both sides of it and I don’t think people do it intentionally but I do think people in general do not value the skills and expertise of others—particularly design talent.
It is likely that a lot of other higher ed institutions suffer from this organizational culture issue.
What I would ask from the leadership in higher ed in general is to let professionals do their jobs, don’t let them step outside their roles and step on the jobs of others, and understand good design can not be done on the cheap. Otherwise you will have burned out staff that feel overworked and under appreciated—the type of people that shut off and loose the passion for their work.
I should add… a lot innovation, personal growth, and good experience comes when people step outside their defined roles. My point is that people should be challenged to step outside their roles in a more strategic way. It should not just be normal that an admin assistant takes on a co-ordinator role for the admin assistant pay or worse take on the role of a co-ordinator that is already trying to fulfill that role.
VeloCity 101 on September 19th
The fall term at VeloCity kicks off with a one day conference that aims to set the tone for the term and introduce the students here to some of the community’s greatest assets—the people. Speakers for the day include:
- Ali Asaria, Well.ca
- David Crow, Microsoft BizSpark
- Ilya Grigorik, PostRank.com
- Jacqui Murphy, TechCapital
- Steve Lightstone, Corner Office Leads
Along with some folks from PriceWaterHouseCoopers the day should be filled with some great conversations. We start off at 9:30am with a breakfast and close out the day by 3:30pm and the event is taking place in RCH. We do have tickets available to non-VeloCity residents with different rates for VeloCity Alumni, students, and community folks. The spots are limited so please only register if you are sure you can come.
Since I have something to do with the organization of the one day conference I am trying to make this as unconferencey as possible but we do have an agenda (will post the PDF soon). There is also a new VeloCity site coming next week—which is where stuff like this will be posted as well.
