Campus Notices
The New Student Orientation (NSO) team have been busy preparing for the fall. This year, we are focusing on building healthy connections between our incoming students and key people and places at UPEI and in Charlottetown at large. This will be accomplished by building on the successes of past years and incorporating more personal interactions with staff, faculty, mentors, alumni, and community members.
This year, NSO runs from Saturday, September 3rd to Tuesday, September 6th. The week kicks off with Welcome Day, which is always an exciting day for UPEI. This year, students will be introduced to various departments and services on campus as they move through a campus tour. This allows them to become familar with our talented staff and faculty, as well as learn where to find these supports later in the year.
Throughout the rest of the week, there will be student led workshops, engaging activities, and fun celebrations - all with the purpose of building healthy connections, and lasting memories for our incoming Panthers. This will culminate in a fundraising event on the last day. This year, we are supportingg four local charitable organizations so our students can see the fruit of their efforts. The PEI Humane Society, the Canadian Mental Health Association (PEI Division), the Alzheimer's Society (PEI Branch), and PEI Family Violence Prevention Services will be receiving all money raised during NSO and have agreed to invite our students to continue volunteering with them throughout the year.
The NSO team is very excited for this event and would love to answer any questions you might have. Also, if you would like to get involved and lend us your talents and ideas, we would love to hear from you. Please contact our coordinator, Tayte Willows, at 902-628-7282, or send her an email at nso@upei.ca.
Dr. Avena Ross, Department of Chemistry, Queen's University will present a seminar on Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 10:00 am. The presentation is entitled "Connecting Genes to Molecules - Discovery and Biosynthesis of Natural Products in Pseudoalteromonas". The seminar will be held in the Duffy Research Centre, Lecture Theatre, Room 212.
All are Welcome!
Faculty and staff are welcome and encouraged to participate in the many events taking place for the 2016 UPEI Alumni Reunion activities. A full schedule is available by visiting www.upei.ca/alumni but the highlights include:
- August 4, 2pm - Opening of the new School of Sustainable Design Engineering
- August 5, 3pm - Staff, Faculty, and Alumni mixer featuring some of UPEI's favourite professors: Ab Ferris, Ron Collins, Fr. Bolger, Fr. Charlie, Rosemary Herbert, Harry Love. and Lowell Sweet.
- August 6, 2pm - Panther Family Party, a chance to get the kids out for a couple of hours, there will be bouncy castles, balloon twisting, cotton candy, face painting and best of all it's FREE. We will be drawing for a family pass to Shining Waters Family Fun Park (which they generously donated) during the event,
- August 6, 9pm - The Barn Awakens for one night. Come and relive the days of Main Events and Pigs. DJ's Blake, Doyle, Joel Ives, and Scott Ferris will keep you entertained for the night. There will be door prizes, a selfie station, and more memories than you can shake a barn shingle at. www.upei.ca/barnreunion
The Faculty of Science wishes to announce Krista Gill, PhD candidate from the Department of Chemistry, will be defending her thesis entitled "Discovery of novel microbial natural products using a chemical screening approach and identification of gene clusters responsible for biosynthesis" on Thursday, August 11, 2016.
Time
Tuesday August 11, 2016 - 1:00 PM
Location
Room 212, Regis and Joan Duffy Research Centre
Additional Information
All PhD defenses are open to the public and you are welcome to attend. Please note seating may be limited.
Join in the celebration as the campus community marks the official opening of the UPEI School of Sustainable Design Engineering on Thursday, August 4 at 2 pm. Tours of the facility will take place following the ceremony. All are welcome. Please view the upei.ca calendar listing for more details.
All staff, faculty, alumni, and friends of UPEI are invited to attend the 4th annual mixer on August 5th at 3 pm in the new School of Sustainable Design Engineering. This year will feature some of UPEI/PWC/SDU's favourite professors, including Ab Ferris, Lowell Sweet, Rosemary Herbert, Fr. Bolger, Ron Collins, Harry Love, and Fr. Charlie.
The UPEI Athletics Department is excited to announce the return of the Panther Package season ticket option. The Package is excellent value for all UPEI staff and faculty members. Every season ticket purchased will also support your favorite varsity team.
With a purchase of a Panther Package, it grants our athletes to; compete, prepare and contend with the best teams in the AUS/CIS.
For more information regarding the packages, check out our new website - www.gopanthersgo.ca
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram -- @UpeiPanthers to stay up to date with Panther Athletics throughout the season. #GoPanthersGo
Tuition Waiver forms for the Fall 2016 semester must be submitted to Human Resources by no later than August 15, 2016. When completing the form, please include all of the required information (Course name, time, start and end date, cost and the number of semester hours) to avoid any delays in processing the waiver. Please submit original forms directly to Human Resources (lower level Kelley building, room #143).
If you have any questions please contact Heather Walsh at: (902) 566-0514 or hwalsh@upei.ca.
To support Project Beacon and to extend our capability to provision end users, ITSS is migrating from Novell Directory Services (NDS) to Microsoft Active Directory Services (AD). In order to do this, ITSS will need to visit your location and update software and configurations on your computer. We will need you to be available at this time to enter passwords to complete this process. We are estimating this process will take approximately 30-60 minutes to complete on each computer.
If you have not meet with a staff member from ITSS to do the changeover, please email Adam Arsenault at ajarsenault@upei.ca to set up an appointment. Thank you.
Dr. Mark Braceland, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Aquaculture Technologies Canada, will present a special seminar, “Non-Destructive Biomarkers of Pathological Damage in Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar L.,” on Wednesday, August 3, 2016, at 9 a.m. in Room 286B, The McCain Foundation Learning Commons, AVC. Everyone is welcome.
Special seminar by Dr. K. H. Chu
“The Decapod Tree of Life: Stories from Nuclear Protein-Coding Genes”
Friday, August 5, 2016, 10:30 am
DRC 212 (NRC Building)
“The tremendous morphological diversity of decapod crustaceans is fascinating, but it is also a major hurdle for phylogenetic reconstruction due to challenges in acquiring and coding for sufficient homologous characters. The use of DNA markers has become integral in helping to resolve the question. Over the past decade, our group has developed several new nuclear gene markers for decapod phylogenetics and achieved good resolutions in gene tree topologies. In this seminar I will present a molecular phylogeny of Decapoda based on sequences from two mitochondrial rRNA and five nuclear protein-coding genes, using more than 500 species from >150 families, representing over 80% of the 190 decapod families. Monophyly of the Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata, and all pleocyemate infraorders is confirmed, with the surprise that Procarididea is nested within Caridea. Relationships within Caridea, Anomura and Brachyura will also be discussed. We believe we will soon attain a comprehensive decapod tree of life.”
Prof. K. H. Chu received his bachelor degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976 and completed his PhD study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography in 1984. He is a professor at the School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and was the founding the Director of the school. He is also an outstanding fellow of the Faculty of Science, and associate head of the New Asia College of the University. Prof. Chu has diverse interests in marine science and published over 180 papers. His primary research focus is molecular systematics and ecology of crustaceans, covering phylogenetics and population genetics, biodiversity conservation, and marine phylogeography of the Indo-West Pacific.
Everyone Welcome!
The testing for Main Building and the Tunnel System have been changed due to the holiday in New Brunswick on Monday, August 1st, see updated dates below.
Troy Life & Fire Safety will be performing fire alarm
Duffy Science Centre – June 28
Steel Building – July 4 - 5
Robertson Library – July 6-7
Cass Building - July 7
Alumni Canada Games Place – July 8
Memorial Hall – July 11
Regis & Joan Duffy Research Centre – July 12
Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre – July 13
W.A. Murphy Student Centre – July 15
Health Sciences Building – July 25
K.C. Irving Chemistry Centre – July 26
Central Utility Building – July 27-28
Main Building – August 2
Tunnel System – August 3
AVC – August 8 – 12
Bernardine, Blanchard, Andrew & Dining Hall - August 22-26
If you have any questions or concerns please contact Jackie MacPhail at jmacphail@upei.ca or 6034.
Many of us who have worked within teams have experienced the impact that conflict can have on the workplace. Left unchecked, it can create a very unpleasant working environment which can have negative effects on production and quality of work. In the worst cases, it can result in malicious office gossip, increased sick leave or members permanently leaving the team.
Conflict and problem solving skills are seen increasingly as desired attributes of a well-rounded team member. Being aware of your contribution to conflict, good and bad, is an essential step towards developing truly useful skills in group problem solving.
During this 3-day course, participants will use both Alow@ and Ahigh@*elements of an outdoor 25 acre, wheelchair accessible ROPES Course, developed by The Adventure Group and nestled in a forest minutes from UPEI, to explore the role they each play in problem solving and group conflict.
Date: September 12-14, 2016
For more information about this course please contact Jennifer Hogan, Business Development and Education Program Manager at 902-620-5216.
For over two hundred years, Prince Edward Island has been home to a strong fiddling tradition: a blend of Scottish, Irish and Acadian influences. Nearly every "district" had its stock of fiddlers who played their lively, highly expressive music year round at house dances, weddings, "frolics" (work parties), church picnics, community socials, and schoolhouse dances.
This traditional PEI fiddling style has not previously been well represented on either commercial or field recordings, but you can learn more about it in this two day course, taught by Ken Perlman, curator of the Bowing Down Home website and author of Couldn't Have a Wedding Without the Fiddler: The Story of Traditional Fiddling on Prince Edward Island.
Dates: August 17-18. 2016
Cost: $100
To register please visit http://www.upei.ca/
A workshop for faculty interested in creating video. Lead by Kristy McKinney, the E-Learning Instructional Multimedia Specialist, on August 9th 2pm-4pm. We will be covering basics on equipment, software, uploading and sharing video. This is the first time we are offering this workshop and spaces will be limited. Feel free to bring your own video device or equipment if available. Please fill out this form to register https://goo.gl/1dlgcK
If you have any questions please contact Heather Walsh at: (902) 566-0514 or hwalsh@upei.ca.
A one year Sports Centre membership for a UPEI employee is only $5.80 weekly - $300 for the year (+hst). Note this rate is also available to UPEI employee's spouse and UPEI retirees. Monthly payment plan available as well as payroll deduction.
Membership includes access to the fitness centre, squash courts, open gym time and indoor/outdoor track. As well as free access to some fitness classes and discount on Panther Fit Pack and Cycle classes. Sports Centre members also receive Free access to all our recreation programs include - badminton, squash, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, field hockey, ultimate frisbee and soccer.
UPEI Employees Personal Training Subsidy Program - Current UPEI Faculty and Staff only. We are pleased to offer UPEI employees a discount/training subsidy towards either a Panther Fit Pack or small group training at the UPEI Sports Centre. Complete a program registration form found on here - http://www.upei.ca/ar/wellness
