After spending a month at AVC’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, a northern saw-whet owl was released in southern Kings County in late October.

The bird was found near the home of Melissa Mullen and Rob MacLean in Lewes, PEI, on the morning of September 27. Gary Kennedy, who found the owl, took it to AVC where the Wildlife Service determined through a physical examination and radiographs that it did not have any broken bones. However, the bird could not fly or stand without support. The wildlife team suspected that it was suffering from head trauma caused by striking a window, and the best treatment would be supportive care and time to heal.

AVC Wildlife Service staff and students fed the owl until it was able to eat on its own. It gradually improved, flying short distances, and was moved into a larger enclosure with more room to fly. After making sure it was able to fly and forage well, the wildlife team released it close to where it was found.

Northern saw-whet owls are tiny birds with catlike faces, oversized heads, and bright yellow eyes. They are efficient hunters, silently swooping down on their prey—primarily small rodents. One of the most common owls in North America, these nocturnal owls live in mixed-woods forests.

Congratulations to Zoe Grutzner, AVC Animal Resources, on winning the 14th annual Lab Products Technician Award for Canada from the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). This award provides a deserving animal care technician from each of the eight AALAS districts and Canada with the opportunity to attend their first AALAS national meeting. Zoe received her award at the national AALAS meeting in Austin, Texas, in October.

Clients of AVC’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) got a “behind-the-scenes” look at some of the specialty services offered by the hospital earlier this month, including dentistry, oncology, theriogenology, and CT scanner technology, during the College’s second annual Client Appreciation Reception.

About 70 people attended the event. Guest speakers included Donna Hassard, a long-time client and vice-chair of the veterinary medicine priority in UPEI’s current INSPIRE! fundraising campaign, and Cheryl Jewell, of Jewell Dale Farm Inc. Jewell Dale Farm is a client of the VTH and has been since it opened in 1988. The Jewell family plays an important part in the College’s teaching program, providing opportunities for thousands of veterinary students to learn about bovine medicine, herd production, and management. For their contributions to AVC and veterinary medicine, the Jewell family and Jewell Dale Farm were awarded the College’s 2017 Honourable Eugene F. Whelan Green Hat Award earlier this fall.

The reception was jointly organized by the UPEI Department of Development and Alumni Engagement and the AVC Dean’s Office, with support from the VTH.

Forty-eight UPEI students were recognized for effective writing skills at the sixth annual MacLauchlan Prizes for Effective Writing celebration held in Don and Marion McDougall Hall on Friday, November 24.

The MacLauchlan Prizes for Effective Writing were established in 2011 by the MacLauchlan family to honour Premier Wade MacLauchlan for his contributions to UPEI as president and vice-chancellor from 1999–2011. The prizes recognize the importance of effective writing as a foundational skill for academic success and lifelong learning.

UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz congratulated the award winners and thanked the MacLauchlan family for their generosity, and Premier MacLauchlan, an accomplished writer and author, for his commitment to encouraging excellence in writing among students.

Dr. Ed MacDonald, professor and chair of the Department of History—and an award-winning writer—addressed the gathering, saying effective writing communicates, convinces, and inspires.

“Martin Luther King … knew something about the power of words both spoken and written. The descendant of slaves, he knew that one of the ways to keep a people in chains was to keep them ignorant. To deny a people the chance—or the incentive—to read and write was to deny them knowledge and learning and—to some large extent—the ability to fulfill their aspirations and their ideas. But literacy by itself is not enough. To grasp the potential in a language, to make it your servant, to bend it to your will, is to free yourself and to give you true power. That is why effective writing matters.”

Stephanie Cairns, third-year Science, and Lindsay MacGregor, fourth-year Arts and Science, read from their award-winning submissions. After a short address, Premier Wade MacLauchlan presented the winners with their prizes. He congratulated the winners and thanked the faculty who help students develop their writing skills.

2017 MacLauchlan Prizes for Effective Writing recipients:

Faculty of Arts: Eric Andersen, Michele Fabienne Bub, Dana Doucette, Emily Eddie, Robbi Henderson-Canning, Elizabeth Iwuna, Charlotte Large, Tristan Lewis, Lindsay MacGregor (Arts and Science), Amy Mol, Rebecca Mullen, Brett Roche, C. Lorraine Rumson, Nick Scott, Elizabeth Shangguan, Katie Van Leeuwen, Grace Wedlake, and Michaela Wipond

Faculty of Business: Jillian Craig, Nathan Hood, William McGuigan, Dami Emmanuel

Faculty of Education: Joseph Doohan, Zachary Gauthier

Faculty of Nursing: Olivia Cass, Jaime MacDonald, Hannah Myers, Kemi Monsurat Tajudeen

Faculty of Science: Ngozichukwuka Agwagom, Stephanie Cairns, Jenny Campbell, Adèle Corkum, Collin A. Dares, Michael J.D. Hannah, Imene Hank, Morgan King, Heather A. Laiskonis, Ama Lawson, Alex McFadyen, Janél Mackay, Precious Oluwabukunmi Ojo, Liam Payne, Kali Ross, Emma Taylor

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: Jessica D’Amico, Jaimee Gillis, Julia Kenny, Jenna Lane

Faculty/staff: Dr. Marti Hopson, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

The MacLauchlan Prizes for Effective Writing distribute up to $30,000 annually in awards. The family has made previous contributions to the Harry W. MacLauchlan Scholarships in Entrepreneurial Leadership, MacLauchlan Arena, Robertson Library, athletic scholarships, and student prizes in mathematics and entrepreneurship.
 

The following statement was issued to the UPEI campus community by Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, President and Vice-Chancellor, in observance of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.

Today, December 6, is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women in Canada.

Established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada, the day marks the anniversary of the murders in 1989 of 14 young women at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal: Geneviève Bergeron, Helene Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte.

As well as commemorating these young women whose lives ended twenty-seven years ago in an act of gender-based violence, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women represents an opportunity for our University community and for all Canadians to reflect on the phenomenon of violence against women in our society. It is also a time to consider the women and girls for whom violence is a daily reality, and to remember those who have died as a result of it.

Earlier today, UPEI’s Director of Student Affairs Treena Smith addressed those gathered at the annual Montreal Massacre Memorial Service about the “Bringing in the Bystander” program, a bystander intervention workshop that uses a community responsibility approach. How appropriate, as while today is about remembering, it is also a day for communities to come together to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and to challenge the culture that allows it to thrive.

UPEI will also observe the day by lowering the flags in front of Kelley Memorial Building to half-mast.

December is one of the busiest months in the academic year for students, filled with final assignments, exams, and presentations. A number of activities are being held across the campus to offer students some relief from the stress of studying and meeting deadlines.

The Robertson Library’s Stress-Free Zone is one such area that is in full swing, operating throughout the exam period and featuring board games, treats from Chartwells, and a comfortable spot to take a break. The Office of the President hosted its annual Festive Coffee and Cookie Break at the W.A. Murphy Student Centre on December 6, while a number of departments across campus are providing healthy grab-and-go snacks at various times and locations.

A favourite tradition is the chili lunches, this year taking place on December 6 and 7 at the Chaplaincy Centre. Robert “Rocky” Paquet, a long-time service worker with UPEI’s Facilities Management department, was famous for the free exam-week spread that he organized for students twice a year. Rocky’s untimely death in July 2017 after a brief illness affected so many on campus that they vowed to carry on his legacy. 

Sister Sue Kidd, Campus Minister and Rocky’s lunch collaborator, extended her gratitude to the faculty, staff, members of the Student Union, and staff at The Wave who stepped up to ensure the lunches continue. She added, “This year's menu will be healthier, generate less waste, and reflect the international diversity of the campus. In addition to chili, a vegetarian curry will be served!”

Last week on #GivingTuesday, students, friends, family, and colleagues gathered to unveil a plaque that dedicates the kitchen in the recently renovated Chaplaincy Centre to Rocky. Ways to donate towards the creation of a student award in Rocky’s memory were also announced:

1. Complete the UPEI Pledge Form
2. Contact Kim Roach at (902) 894-2888 or karoach@upei.ca
3. Enrol in Payroll Deduction

Dr. Ian Gardner, a professor of epidemiology and Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Aquatic Epidemiology at UPEI’s Atlantic Veterinary College, is being honoured with the prestigious Calvin W. Schwabe Award for lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine.

The Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM) will present Gardner with the award at the 2017 Schwabe Symposium on December 3rd in Chicago, Illinois. Gardner was nominated by Dr. Ian Dohoo, professor emeritus of epidemiology at AVC and a past winner of the award. His nomination was supported by Dr. Matthias Grenier, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, and Dr. Wesley Johnson, professor emeritus, University of California, Irvine.

In his nominating letter, Dohoo said that it was Gardner’s stellar reputation as a veterinary epidemiologist that enabled the University of Prince Edward Island to garner one of only 19 CERCs awarded to universities in Canada in 2010.

Before taking on the CERC, Gardner was professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He served as the president of both the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM) and the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD). He was an associate editor of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and on the editorial board of six other journals.

Dr. Gardner and his collaborators are world leaders in diagnostic test evaluation and validation in the veterinary sciences. An important focus of his work has been the fields of evaluation of diagnostic tests in the absence of a perfect reference test, developing quality standards for diagnostic tests, and pooled testing for detection of diseases in animals. His work with collaborators has led to a widespread acceptance of the legitimacy of the approach for test evaluation for chronic infectious diseases of animals.

He is internationally recognized for developing methods to assess disease risk in terrestrial and aquatic food animals. These methods have been used in global veterinary and public health activities, and have influenced policies at the United States Department of Agriculture and the World Organization for Animal Health.

He is among the most cited researchers in his field, with more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications in leading journals, such as Preventive Veterinary Medicine, American Veterinary Medical Association, and Veterinary Pathology.

“Besides his outstanding achievements as scientist, researcher, and scientific leader and his superb records of research grants and academic awards, it is his reputation as academic teacher, his specific interpersonal attitude, the inspiration he is able to provide and deep humanity that makes him a role model for professionals truly engaged in knowledge generation and knowledge transfer,” said Dr. Greiner in his letter of support.

The Calvin W. Schwabe Award is presented annually by the AVEPM. Previous recipients include Drs. Calvin Schwabe, Robert Anderson, James Steele, S. Wayne Martin, Clive Gay, David W. Hird, Hollis Erb, Preben Willeberg, Dale Hancock, Ian Dohoo, Yrjo Grohn, Roger Morris, and Will Hueston.

In 2017, a new University Closure Policy was approved by the UPEI Board of Governors and endorsed by the University Senate. The policy and associated University Closure Procedures to help guide senior management in making decisions about storm closures and how to communicate them.

The decision to close UPEI is not made lightly. However, in weather situations where the potential risk to UPEI’s students and employees as well as property, are high, the University may “close,”* meaning classes and exams are cancelled and services are reduced.

How will I know if UPEI is closed?
The University uses a number of different channels to communicate storm closures. These include:

• A message on the home page of upei.ca
• An email to all students, faculty, and staff to their upei.ca email account
• Updates from the University’s Twitter account, @UPEI, and announcements posted to UPEI’s Facebook page
• Media outlets (radio, TV, and print news websites) are informed and encouraged to share our status
• A message is placed on the UPEI Campus Closure and Alert Phone Line (902-894-2882)
• A message is placed on the UPEI Campus Screen network (there are screens in several buildings across campus).

When will I know if UPEI has decided to delay opening or close?
When conditions develop outside of normal operating hours, announcements will be made according to the following schedule:

• 6:30 am - The decision to delay opening or close the University will be made on or before 6:30 am. If there is a delay, there will be a further announcement at 10:00 am.
• 10:00 am - The decision to open the University at 12:00 pm or again delay opening will be made on or before 10:00 am. If there is a further delay, the next announcement will be made at 2:00 pm.
• 2:00 pm - The decision to open the University at 4:00 pm for evening classes or close the University for the remainder of the day will be made on or before 2:00 pm.

If the decision to close the University is made during normal operating hours, it will be announced as soon as possible through the University’s various communications channels as outlined above.

Will the UPEI reopen after a closure announcement is made?
When the conditions that caused the closure improve and no longer pose a danger to the University community or prevent the normal operation of the campus, UPEI may reopen all or parts of the campus. The change in status will be announced as soon as possible through the University’s various communications channels as outlined above.

For more information, email communications@upei.ca

Reminder: Winter Parking Restrictions

From November 1 to April 30, winter restrictions on overnight campus parking are enforced. Parking Lot “A” is the only lot where overnight parking is permitted for the winter season. Residents of Andrew Hall and Bernardine Hall may park overnight in the Andrew Hall lot, provided that their vehicles are moved to Lot “A” during storm conditions and until the lots have been plowed after a storm.

If vehicles are left in any parking lot other than Lot “A” during storms or before snow removal is complete, the vehicle will be towed at the owner's expense. Facilities Management appreciates your co-operation to ensure parking lots are cleared safely. If you have any questions or concerns regarding winter parking, contact Mark Pharand, Manager, Security Services, at mpharand@upei.ca.

*Technically, UPEI is only closed completely in extreme circumstances, as there are essential personnel who need to work on campus and we have students living in residence. However, the University will use the word “closed” to communicate to the campus community that classes and most services are suspended.

Cavendish Farms has announced a $2 million donation to the University of Prince Edward Island’s School of Sustainable Design Engineering to support sustainable farming solutions in the agricultural industry.

“With our roots on Prince Edward Island, Cavendish Farms is proud to support the UPEI School of Sustainable Design Engineering as they develop innovations for the agriculture industry here on the Island and across the globe,” said Robert K. Irving, President of Cavendish Farms. “Cavendish Farms has a strong commitment to the environment and sustainable farming practices. This donation will help continue to further sustainable farming for years to come.”

The UPEI School of Sustainable Design Engineering (SSDE) advances knowledge, grows industries, improves health, and betters society by developing engineers with exceptional design skills combined with global perspectives. Recognized nationally for program innovation, the SSDE works to find solutions to complex, real-world challenges through a collaborative team approach. Teams function like an engineering consulting firm where students work alongside global experts from higher learning, research and development, industry, and community partners.

Engineering is a key priority of UPEI’s friend- and fund-raising INSPIRE! Campaign. This donation is the largest single donation to the campaign to date.

“We are deeply grateful to Cavendish Farms for their generous support of our INSPIRE! Campaign, and for their vision to advance sustainable solutions of direct benefit to the agriculture industry and our communities,” said UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. “The generosity of Cavendish Farms will enable a level of innovation pursuit that we have not experienced here on PEI before. On behalf of UPEI, I thank Cavendish Farms for being a catalyst for the creation of new knowledge by supporting the science needed to unlock areas of potential that exist between PEI’s most traditional and most rapidly emerging industries.”

About the INSPIRE! Campaign – Building upon the University of Prince Edward Island’s impressive reputation of providing quality education, the INSPIRE! Campaign ensures that UPEI will continue to evolve and deliver exceptional learning experiences and opportunities that prepare students for success. Launched on October 2, 2015, the Campaign has four key priorities that align with the University’s strategic plan: Engineering, Experiential and Global Learning, Veterinary Medicine, and Athletics.

About Cavendish Farms – Cavendish Farms is a family-owned company that produces quality frozen and fresh potato and appetizer products for the North American and international food industry. They operate six processing plants including three on Prince Edward Island.

The L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History has announced its first-ever list of associates for 2017–2020, made up of 37 scholars from Canada and the United States who, according to the Institute’s website, are “pushing the field of Canadian history in exciting new transnational directions…asking new questions and bringing new perspectives to the writing of Canadian history.” Among the first cohort are two distinguished members of UPEI’s Faculty of Arts: Dr. Lisa Chilton and Dr. Robert Dennis.

The Institute’s goal for its associates program is to build a diverse network of scholars inside and outside of Canada, and to support the work of both Anglo- and Francophone scholars from a variety of institutions and at different stages in their careers.

From the L.R. Wilson Institute’s website:

Dr. Chilton is an associate professor of history, a member of the graduate faculty of the Master of Arts in Island Studies, and the director of a new program in Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prince Edward Island. Her areas of research and publishing expertise are the history of international migrations and the history of British cultural imperialism, especially as they relate to pre-World War Two Canada. Her publications include Agents of Empire: British Female Migration to Canada and Australia, 1860s-1930 (University of Toronto Press, 2007), articles and chapters in multiple journals and edited collections (one of which won a CHA article prize in 2016), and a CHA booklet in the Immigration and Ethnicity in Canada Series, titled, Receiving Canada’s Immigrants: The Work of the State Before 1930 (2016). She is currently writing a book on the history of Canadian immigration from the 1760s to the Great Depression.

Dr. Dennis is an assistant professor of religious studies and an intellectual and religious historian with a specialization in Roman Catholicism. He is currently writing a history of Saint Dunstan’s University from 1955 to 1969. Dr. Dennis has recently completed a manuscript on how transatlantic developments in Catholic social thought influenced the formation of social Catholicism in English Canada during the Depression and Second World War years. This study focused on how Catholic intellectuals across the country engaged normative assumptions in classic liberalism and social democracy, reframing them, often with great radicalism, within frameworks of neo-Thomist/personalist and distributist philosophies. This project situated the experience of the Canadian Church within the broader context European Catholicism and international Catholic social thought as the Church restructures in the decades before the Second Vatican Council.  

“UPEI is delighted that two of our leading scholars have been recognized by the L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History,” said Dr. Robert Gilmour, vice-president academic and research at UPEI. “Drs. Chilton and Dennis have impressive records as innovators, not only with respect to their research, but also as communicators of their work to the scholarly community and to their students.”

The associates will also help determine the winner of the annual Wilson Book Prize, an annual $10,000 award for the publisher of a book that makes Canadian scholarship accessible to a wide audience.

For a complete list of the Wilson Associates, go to https://wilson.humanities.mcmaster.ca/associates/.

The University of Prince Edward Island prides itself on people, excellence, and impact and is committed to assisting students reach their full potential in both the classroom and community. With roots stemming from two founding institutions—Prince of Wales College and Saint Dunstan’s University—UPEI has a reputation for academic excellence, research innovation, and creating positive impacts locally, nationally, and internationally. UPEI is the only degree granting institution in the province and is proud to be a key contributor to the growth and prosperity of Prince Edward Island.