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spinoff company Tessonics, an outstanding example of that, he
adds. Maev’s work led to the establishment of the Institute for
Diagnostic Imaging Research after he secured a $5-million grant
from the Ontario government in January 2008.
The University is tied to the community in many other areas as
well. There is the Innovation Annex, where researchers will study
advanced computer technology and its use and impact on society,
including the Connecting Windsor-Essex network.
Recently, Dr. Peter Frise, executive director of automotive
research and CEO of AUTO21 at the
University, headed up a new committee
with the development commission
designed to help prepare young students
to become “model citizens” by learning
such traits as being punctual, reliable and
taking initiative.
The arts community and the University
also interact closely. University Players,
which is celebrating its 50th anniversary
this season with a full line-up of six
productions, enjoys an annual audience
membership of almost 14,000.
The University and community
complement each other in another very
important area as well: advancing social
justice issues. The city’s strong labour
history and record charitable contributions
to the United Way, for example, has
influenced UWindsor’s tradition of social
justice research and in the establishments
such as the clinics at the law school.
The clinics are not the only way that
the law school stands out as a vivid example of the town-gown
connection. Access to justice is one of its themes. It manifests itself
in many ways – from public lectures (the school hosted former
prime minister Paul Martin Jr. and Canada’s Auditor General Sheila
Fraser in the same week last year) to its admissions policy.
Dean Bruce Elman says the law school looks beyond just grade
point averages and school admission test scores to community
involvement because “we want to make sure that we’re getting
people who are committed to the community, who understand that
to be a lawyer is a privileged position, and that we have a role to
play in the greater community to better the community.”
In that respect, Dean Conway at the Odette School of Business
says that students learn that “at the end of the day, the objective is
to build a community, build a country.” Conway says the school’s
namesake, the Odette family, are a model of successful business
leaders, who also invested in local hospitals, the arts and the
school itself.
The inter-connection between town and gown clearly extends
Another example is the Odette School of Business’s
Virtual Incubator.
Odette Dean Dr. Allan Conway says the idea grew out of
a school initiative to try to create an investment climate for
entrepreneurship and will help diversify Windsor’s economy.
The payback to the University, he says, is that it may “kick-start”
technological and research and development opportunities on
campus. “We really have to create this climate for entrepreneurship
within the community.”
Burton adds that the commission
helped obtain $600,000 in provincial
funding for the Virtual Incubator. It will
help entrepreneurs turn their innovative
ideas into businesses by providing them
with legal, accounting, business planning
and marketing expertise.
As well, the commission is
collaborating with the Odette School of
Business and other local organizations
to establish a program that will
attract immigrant investors to the
Windsor region.
Burton says an estimated 9,000
immigrants bring with them a minimum
of $800,000 to invest in Canada every
year, but most pick large centres, such as
Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal as their
destinations. The university-community
collaboration aims to establish local
ambassadors who come from different
countries to act as business envoys in
attracting some of the visa investors,
Conway says.
Odette’s Dr. Francine Schlosser and Law Professor Myra
Tawfik also recently received $77,500 from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council for their business and law students to
deliver workshops, mentoring programs and public legal education
clinics to help under-served immigrants set up their own businesses.
Their students from the Centre for Business Advancement
and Research (CBAR) and the Intellectual Property and Legal
Information Network (IPLIN) are also aligning their services to
provide co-ordinated legal and business advice to local businesses.
A new CBAR-IPLIN program (partially funded by the WEDC)
will commence in fall 2009. This will involve entrepreneurial
mentoring for post-secondary international and domestic
student entrepreneurs.
Burton says he has seen more growth in the
“commercialization” of University research. The efforts of Dr.
Roman Maev, the industrial research chair at UWindsor whose
groundbreaking work in acoustical imaging research led to the
Dr. Francine Schlosser
