The UPEI music department is pleased to present a series of junior and senior recitals throughout the month of March. This week, Nik Dragatakis (jazz guitar) and Cora Wong (flute) will be presenting their junior recital on Friday, March 15 at 7:30 pm at UPEI's Dr. Steel Recital Hall. Wong, of Westville, Nova Scotia is a third-year music major in flute performance. She has competed extensively in the New Glasgow Music Festival and the Nova Scotia Provincial Music Festival and has also represented Nova Scotia in the National Music Festival for woodwinds. Her junior recital program will feature works of Bach, Feld, Clarke, and Casella. Wong will be accompanied by Frances McBurnie.

Dragatakis will be performing jazz classics by Kenny Wheeler, Jimmy VanHeusen, Wayne Shorter, and Bobby Timmons. His trio will feature Isaac Williams on bass and Patrick LeClair on drums. He will also be joined by guest performers Robyn Verhoeven on trumpet and Dan Rowswell on alto saxophone. Dragatakis studies jazz guitar with Ian Toms.

On Sunday, March 17, classical guitarist Tim Sherran, of Nine Mile Creek, PEI will perform at 7:30 pm at the Dr. Steel Recital Hall. Sherran began studying classical guitar in April 2008 with Dr. Jim Dickson and he's now studying with Paul Bernard. He will be graduating this spring from UPEI with a bachelor of music in guitar performance. Sherran's recital will feature works by Bach, Tarrega, Dominiconi, and Albeniz, Villa-lobos.

All recitals are free to attend and everyone is welcome! For information, contact Susan Stensch at music@upei.ca or (902) 566-0507.

Students, staff, faculty, alumni, and the public are invited to The Wave in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre on Wednesday, March 13 at 6:30 pm as four outstanding alumni take the stage to discuss their experiences at UPEI and how they have transitioned into successful careers.

Joining the panel will be Shannon MacDonald (BBA'90), managing partner with Deloitte; Spenser MacPherson (BSc'93) owner of SEM Partnerships specializing in safety management; Erin McGrath-Gaudet (BA'03), director of provincial affairs for Prince Edward Island with the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, and David McMillan (BA'97) owner of Home Instead Senior Care (PEI) and Island Ease Concierge.

'Whenever UPEI alumni are able to connect with UPEI students and share their experiences, it is a win-win situation. Students have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of those that have gone before them, and our alumni are able to give back to UPEI in a meaningful and rewarding way,' said Anthony Gill, manager of Alumni Affairs.

Kate VanGerven, UPEI Student Union president, agrees. 'Students at UPEI need to know that they're not facing their challenges alone. Being a student at UPEI means belonging to a community that includes alumni who know what those challenges are and how to overcome them.'

There are more than 20,000 UPEI alumni spanning fifty countries and eight decades, creating a network of resources that current and future UPEI students can leverage to their advantage. Events like this are just one of the many opportunities for students and alumni to connect.

This is an initiative of the UPEI Student Union and is supported by Student Affairs and the UPEI alumni office. For more information on volunteer opportunities for alumni, please contact Anthony at (902) 566-0761 or adgill@upei.ca

The Signal, an online publication of the United States Library of Congress that chronicles trends in digital preservation, recently profiled the work of UPEI Librarian Mark Leggott. The article, entitled 'Islandora's Open-source Ecosystem and Digital Preservation: An Interview with Mark Leggott,' can be read in full here.

The article is part of a series from The Signal on open-source software and the role it plays in digital preservation. Leggott is the founder of Islandora, an open-source software package which marries content management and presentation with long-term preservation.

'The Islandora project is a great example of a sustainable open-source ecosystem,' said Leggott. 'With a community of individuals, institutions and companies all working together on the same goal: the preservation of digital content.'

'Islandora is changing the way institutions and organizations around the world care for their digital archives,' said Dr. Robert Gilmour, UPEI's Vice-President Research. 'We're extremely proud of the work put forward by Mark's team in the Robertson Library on the Islandora Project.'

For more information on the Islandora Project visit the Islandora website.

Fourth-year Panthers hockey forward Jordan Knox received the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Dr. Randy Gregg Award at the SaskTel Awards Presentation at TCU Place in Saskatoon on Wednesday, March 13. Knox was honoured with the award for his excellence in hockey, academics, and community service.

The Skinners Pond native also received an Academic All-Canadian mention in each of the four seasons he played in the Atlantic conference. He finished this past season 16th in AUS scoring with nine goals and 16 assists to give him 25 points in 28 games. During his Panther career, he has collected 33 goals and 67 assists for a total of 100 points in 108 regular season games.

Knox's volunteer efforts have not gone unnoticed. He was instrumental in raising funds for two families during times of tragic loss-families of former Panther Drew Power, and Kameron Cooke, who was from the same West Prince community as Knox. Knox has also volunteered with hockey camps, hockey associations, fundraising events, and community awareness activities.

'Jordan exemplifies exactly what the spirit of this award represents,' said UPEI head coach Forbes MacPherson. 'Jordan is the epitome of outstanding AUS achievement in hockey, academics, and community involvement. Jordan ‘gets it' and he is a model student-athlete. He is a leader in our program, is becoming a young strong leader of our community, and is a tremendous nominee for the Dr. Randy Gregg Award.'

'For Jordan to be recognized at the national level for his commitment, academic success, and community work is something we are very proud of,' said UPEI's Director of UPEI Athletics and Recreation Bill Schurman. 'Jordan leads by example and is the perfect example of the character that we look for to play for the green and white.'

UPEI congratulates Jordan on this prestigious and well-deserved award!

UPEI's Executive MBA (EMBA) program and the PEI Business Women's Association partnered on a workplace bullying presentation on Wednesday, March 13. The event took place in Schurman Market Square, Don and Marion McDougall Hall, on the UPEI campus.

Jodi Murphy, a UPEI EMBA graduate and teacher with the Prince Edward Island English-language School Board shared her research findings from her signature project, an independent research project and key component of the UPEI EMBA program. These signature projects provide structure for students to conduct a deep examination of a particular area, advised by a faculty member. It also provides students with the opportunity to apply management concepts and skills that they have acquired during the EMBA program.

Her project focused on the current state of workplace bullying in Canada and the implications that this issue has on organizations. Some of her findings include the costs associated with workplace bullying, which come from loss of productivity, legal settlements, and loss of good employees who have been bullied and chose to leave the organization. Workplace bullying has negative effects on the target of bullying, the other employees who witness the incidents, the organization as a whole, and some believe there are societal consequences as well.

During the session, Murphy discussed trends in workplace bullying in Canada and made a call to action. 'Awareness and education is not enough to stop bullying, there needs to be action,' said Murphy. 'Awareness and education are a good start, but these approaches alone are not enough to stop bullying. We need to encourage people to stand up and not be silent to this epidemic in our workplaces. I believe our collective efforts can help us create the respectful workplaces we all desire to work in.'

'It is a pleasure to partner with the PEI Business Women's Association on this event and we are pleased to share some of the valuable and interesting research by our executive MBA students,' said Dr. Roberta MacDonald, director of UPEI's EMBA program. 'This sharing and working together will help us to become a stronger community of PEI business women.'

'Prince Edward Island workplaces are not immune to workplace bullying. Jodi's research will raise awareness about this important issue and hopefully encourage further ongoing discussion within our own business community to nurture healthier working environments,' said April Ennis, president of the PEI Business Women's Association.

Murphy's research illustrates that for such a serious problem, Canada has been slow to implement legislation which would make workplace bullying illegal. There is no national legislation in Canada dealing with workplace bullying and only four provinces have adopted provincial legislation-Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan-to make workplace bullying illegal.

For more information on the event, or UPEI's executive MBA program, contact Grace McCourt at (902) 566-6474 or mba@upei.ca

Clea Roberts lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, on the Takhini River. She will read and talk about her poetry on Monday, March 18 at 7:30 pm in the UPEI Faculty Lounge, Main Building as part of the Winter's Tales Author Reading Series.

Here Is Where We Disembark, her debut collection, consists of two sections. The first follows cycles of the season and domestic life. 'You know you've found a real poet when she observes that mud, in a Yukon springtime, was ‘never so exotic, / tracked across the kitchen floor,'' writes poet and critic Gary Geddes. The second section portrays the people and backdrop of the Klondike Gold Rush. We hear a pioneer wife speak to the river, a prostitute to a sergeant, and a woman to a king salmon. Roberts gives voice to river, fish, and fire, as well as to human settlers and sojourners.

'From many perspectives-historical, social, biological-Roberts' keen poetic intelligence imagines an ecology of inclusion that the landscape of the North, or of any particular ‘here,' calls us to,' states poet Sharon Thesen. 'Survival is a major theme, but there is a transcending joy and beauty in these poems.' (The Malahat Review).

Roberts is a three-time recipient of the Yukon Government Advanced Artist Award and co-organizes the Whitehorse Poetry Festival. Her poems have appeared in The Antigonish Review, The Dalhousie Review, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, Lake: A Journal of Arts and the Environment, and other magazines. Her work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, and she was a finalist for the 2011 Gerald Lampert Award for Best First Book by a Canadian Poet.

Her reading is sponsored by the UPEI English department with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Yukon government. A reception will follow her reading. Admission is free.

The UPEI curling team is off to Kamloops, BC, for the 2013 CIS/CCA University Curling Championship which takes place March 20-24 at the Kamloops Curling Club. The team, consisting of skip Veronica Smith, Jane DiCarlo, Emily Gray, and Aleya Quilty, is coached by Paul Smith.

UPEI and Saint Mary's University had strong showings at the AUS curling championship back in January-UPEI advances to nationals as Atlantic B final winners, while Saint Mary's advances as A winners. Both teams will represent the Atlantic conference with the hope of earning national medals.

'It's always a special feeling of pride when teams have the opportunity to compete on the national stage for the UPEI community and the province as a whole,' said UPEI Director of Athletics and Recreation, Bill Schurman.

UPEI will take on Thompson Rivers University in their first of seven draws at 10:00 am on Wednesday, March 20. National semi-finals will take place on Saturday, March 23 at 7:00 pm, with finals on Sunday, March 24 at 2:00 pm (PDT).

Best of luck to our UPEI team. Go Panthers Go!

CIBC has generously donated $125,000 to the University of Prince Edward Island and its School of Business to assist UPEI business administration students.

The CIBC Awards in Business Administration will be granted on an annual basis over a five-year period, to ten undergraduate students enrolled full-time in the bachelor of business administration program. The scholarships are valued at $2,500 each.

'We are delighted to present the CIBC Awards in Business Administration to ten deserving students this year,' said Alan Duncan, dean of the School of Business. 'We can't thank CIBC enough for their support. These students best reflect the vision and commitment of CIBC and are so grateful to be the first recipients of these new awards.'

Award recipients had the opportunity to thank representatives from CIBC during a reception held on the UPEI campus on Friday, March 15 at Don and Marion McDougall Hall. The first recipients of this scholarship include: Ashley Deighan, Christine DeVries, Amy Doyle, Kaleigh Duffy, Nikkie Gallant, Justin Lank, Rachelle MacArthur, Jeffrey Taylor, Michael Warren, and Alex Whalen. Representatives from CIBC included Dave Hopper, district vice-president for northern Nova Scotia and PEI; branch managers Floyd Jackson and Glenn Trueman; and representatives from CIBC Wood Gundy Rick Gallant, Deneen Ferguson, and Dale Turner. UPEI's dean of the School of Business Alan Duncan was the event's master of ceremonies.

'CIBC supports causes that matter to our clients, our employees, and our communities. With a community investment focus on kids and youth, CIBC is helping these students reach their full potential. We are proud to support the business administration program at UPEI,' said Hopper. 'Every year, CIBC invests millions of dollars in scholarship funding, skills training, and mentoring programs that benefit thousands of young people across Canada,' he added.

On Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm the UPEI music department will present 'Sing me a Story' featuring third-year soprano students Nadine Haddad and Morgan Wagner with the assistance of Frances McBurnie on piano. The recital will include works by J.S. Bach, Enrique Granados, Henry Purcell, Richard Strauss, Gioacchino Rossini, Antonio Vivaldi, and Hugo Wolf as well as traditional and jazz selections. After months of preparation Nadine and Morgan look forward to sharing many stories in song.

UPEI music student Echo Lau will present her senior piano recital on Sunday, March 24 at 2:30 pm. The program will include Chopin's Sonata no.3 in B minor, Debussy's L'isle Joyeuse, and Ravel's Concerto in G, accompanied by Dr. Frances Gray. Echo was born in Hong Kong and moved to PEI with her parents in 2004. She studied piano with Frances McBurnie throughout her high school years and is now studying with Dr. Frances Gray at UPEI. Echo has represented PEI in the National Music Festival and has twice been awarded the Rose Bowl at the PEI Kiwanis Music Festival. Echo has played violin with the PEI Symphony and is a member of the UPEI Jazz Ensemble.

On Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30 pm the UPEI Jazz Ensemble will present their end-of-semester concert under the direction of David Shephard. The ensemble will perform favourite big band charts from Duke Ellington to Gordon Goodwin. Once again, the jazz ensemble will be joined by members of the UPEI vocal department. Morgan Wagner will perform 'Step to the Rear' from the broadway production 'How Now, Dow Jones.' Melissa MacKenzie will join the band on 'At Last,' and recent Music PEI award winner Hannah Rollwage will be featured on 'Somewhere' from 'West Side Story.'

Over 70 high school students across the province are taking part in UPEI's first ever open class days being held March 18 and 19. UPEI invited high school students to attend classes, have lunch, tour the university, and experience what a university class is all about.

'This is a great opportunity for students to experience UPEI in the company of friends and classmates,' said Christian Lacroix, Interim Vice-President Academic. The open class days initiative was led by the offices of the Vice-President Academic, Recruitment, and the UPEI Student Union.

Students were able to register in a variety of classes from the nursing, science, arts, and business programs including first-year to fourth-year courses. On Monday, lunch was hosted by the Atlantic Veterinary College and followed with guided tours of the facility. Tuesday's lunch will be hosted by the UPEI Student Union and will follow with campus tours.