The University of Ottawa announced on Thursday that in-person spring 2020 convocation ceremonies — which are scheduled to take place from June 7-10 — have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aaron Hemens
The 2019 Ontario Sunshine List was released earlier this month, which revealed that of the 5,750 staff members employed at the University of Ottawa, nearly 1,600 of them had made more than $100,000 last year.
The University of Ottawa announced on Tuesday that 2020 spring and summer courses will still be offered, but will be carried out online via distance learning, due to the spread of COVID-19. They also revealed that a special emergency fund has been developed that students can access for financial support due to the pandemic.
Due to growing concerns of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Ottawa’s office of the vice-president, research (OVPR) has asked that all non-essential critical research or non-time sensitive research begin scaling down their activities by Friday.
A candidate looking to become the University of Ottawa Students’ Union’s next advocacy commissioner and the sole student life commissioner candidate have both been disqualified from the general elections. Both candidates deny the allegations in the CEO’s ruling and are appealing the decision.
With only three days left until the Sunday deadline move out, University of Ottawa students living in residence have expressed concerns that the school’s measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has only added more strain to an already stressful situation.
With the remainder of the semester to be completed online as of Wednesday, University of Ottawa president Jacques Frémont is urging all students to practice social distancing to help prevent the COVID-19 virus from spreading throughout the community.
As the University of Ottawa prepares to move the semester online on Wednesday due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration hosted an information session for international students on Monday to answer questions during the period of uncertainty.
As a response to the growing concerns of the spread of COVID-19 in Ottawa, the University of Ottawa announced on Monday that all of their library locations would be closed for the day, while most food services on campus will close indefinitely.
A University of Ottawa student was found dead in one of the school’s on-campus residences on Saturday. The death is not linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a public forum promoting inclusion and anti-racism on campus on Thursday, University of Ottawa president Jacques Frémont called the June 2019 carding incident of Jamal Koulmiye-Boyce, a Black U of O student, “a good crisis,” drawing backlash from the school community.
The Ontario Ministry of Health confirmed Ottawa’s first case of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, a man in 40s who contracted the virus while travelling in Austria. He is currently in self-isolation and was not symptomatic during his return flight to Canada.
With the recent resignation of their chief electoral officer, the University of Ottawa Students’ Union’s elections committee would need to fill the position at least a week before their scheduled town hall debate on March 23 in order for the process to run smoothly, according to the temporary chair of the elections committee.
Less than a week before the campaign period for the University of Ottawa Students’ Union’s general elections is set to begin, both the chief electoral officer and the bilingual elections officer have resigned, citing circulating concerns from board members and employees over their former work as co-founders of the union.
In a four-day span, two mental health demonstrations outside of Tabaret Hall were organized by University of Ottawa students.
The University of Ottawa’s Students’ Union hosted a town hall engagement panel on Feb. 27 at the University Centre’s Agora, where the executive committee provided updates on the various initiatives they’ve undertaken and answered questions from students.
The University of Ottawa was one of the many schools across Canada that hosted a student walk-out to show support for hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation on Wednesday. An information session was set up in the school’s University Centre, where Indigenous youth helped attendees make sense of the situation.
In its ninth annual report for the 2018-19 academic year, the University of Ottawa’s Office of the Ombudsperson offered a number of recommendations to improve how specific issues or concerns are resolved on campus, including clear communication for parties involved in sexual violence cases and creating a resource roadmap for all students.
Student life commissioner Jason Seguya highlighted a number of experiences he described as racial discrimination that he and operations commissioner Rony Fotsing have faced from their colleagues while members of the executive committee.
In a display of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en, hundreds rallied and marched through downtown Ottawa on Monday. The goal was to pressure MPs to meet with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and several members of the group staged a sit-in outside of the Prime Minister’s Office following the march.
Eighteen recognized student governments at the University of Ottawa, eight student union board members, and four co-founders of the uOCollective 4 Mental Health have released an open letter to president Jacques Frémont, calling on the administration to take a collaborative approach to address the ‘mental health crisis’ the school is facing.
The group blocked off the intersection of Lyon Street and Wellington Street for at least half an hour, where many joined hands to form a circle around a handful of drum song performers.
Several University of Ottawa students pushed for immediate action on improving the school’s mental health system at a town hall discussion for the faculty of arts on Wednesday, with many asking president Jacques Frémont for concrete next steps on how he plans to address the situation.
University of Ottawa president Jacques Frémont acknowledged on Tuesday that the school is facing a mental health ‘crisis’ while responding to the death of a student over the weekend, the fifth in the past 10 months.
This past Sunday marked two years since Gerald Stanley was acquitted of the murder of Colten Boushie, and nearly 100 people in Ottawa braved freezing temperatures that night for a vigil ceremony and demonstration that both honoured Boushie’s life and called for his justice.
