Hey everyone,

Many recaps and updates for y'all!

Recaps & Community Messages

It's the third week of school already. We hope everyone is taking time for themselves as things start to ramp up this term.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Open House yesterday! I counted at least 12 new faces, which was more than I ever dreamed of. I hope this space can be part of your community.

Thanks to WPIRG and BASE and Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein for the amazing lecture last night!! Double thanks to everyone who came out! Chanda spoke about so many powerful things, including the right of students to accurate data about the racial and gender makeup of our campus, to faculty that represent students' identities, and to "an accessible campus free of racist and misogynist traditions." To keep up with Chanda, follow them on twitter and read their amazing work on medium.

WPIRG is facing a referendum on whether their fee ($4.75 applied to student tuition each term) should be changed to opt-in. If it weren't for WPIRG's help, we never would have been able to see Chanda speak last night. They support other work on campus like Fossil Free UW and work in the community like the soup kitchen Food Not Bombs. You can learn about the arguments of the yes committee at keepwpirg.com and no committee at voteremove.ca. If you are an undergrad, please consider voting at vote.feds.ca Mon Sept 26 - Wed Sept 28.

If you're interested in structural ways that being at UWaterloo impacts mental health and well-being, check out this ongoing student-run project aiming to start conversation and move towards action to form community and resilience on campus: mentalhealthprojectuw.com

Updates

Our General Meeting will be tomorrow (Thursday) from 5 - 6 pm in PHY 308. We'll have elections, talk about volunteering and events, and snack. Everyone is welcome. Hope to see y'all there!

The Canadian Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics will be held in Hamilton at McMaster from Jan 13 - Jan 15. CCUWiP is a place to connect with other undergrad women in physics across Canada, present research, and learn about important topics like LGBTQ+ and mental health issues in physics. The conference fee is $35, including food and accommodations. Travel costs from UW would be around $50. FemPhys will be helping to organize funding from the physics department. More details at http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/ccuwip/


Thanks for reading all this info! Take care <3

Emma McKay
FemPhys Rep