The Centre for Conflict Resolution Studies at UPEI hosted a graduation on November 29 to award the Certificate in Conflict Resolution Studies. Among the 42 graduates were 22 women who participated in the program through the Supporting, Training and Enhancing Problem Solving Skills (STEPS) for Women project. The STEPS project was created to extensively train women engaged in community organizations across the province to gain skills to become educators and supporters for their peers.

Dr. Jim Randall, Vice-President Academic, was on hand to greet the graduates and present them with their certificates. 'All of these graduates lead busy hectic lives. I congratulate them for persevering in the face of their many commitments,' said Randall. 'The knowledge and skills they have gained will benefit their careers, their families and the social and economic future of their communities' he added.

Shauna Sullivan Curley, Q.C., Deputy Minister, Environment, Labour, and Justice spoke of the importance of having conflict resolution skills during her convocation address. 'Conflict resolution is a skill that we use every day or fail to use to our detriment. As situations that generate conflict become more and more complex it becomes even more essential to bring about peaceful and mutually-beneficial solutions.'

STEPS graduates learned new skills and gained the confidence to be prepared to handle difficult situations. They are changing their relationships and workplaces to be more understanding and collaborative.

Fellow graduate, Michelle McCallum added, 'What we are talking about is integrating a new way of doing things into our workplaces and into our communications with decision makers and into our personal lives. As an alumna (of UPEI), I am bursting with pride that this type of excellence in lifelong learning is offered right here in my backyard.'

Graduates of the program, Darrell Gallant and Cathrne Chambers also spoke during the ceremony. Following the convocation, the more than 100 family and friends present gathered for a short reception in honour of the graduates.

About The Centre for Conflict Resolution Studies:

The Centre for Conflict Resolution Studies at UPEI provides a skills-based, 210-hour certificate in conflict resolution studies, including mediation, negotiation, and facilitation. The program is based on the belief that conflict can be dealt with in safe, mutually acceptable, and healthy ways. One hundred and twenty seven individuals have now graduated from the program while hundreds of others have taken individual workshops to meet their particular needs. It is one of the most comprehensive professional development programs in conflict studies in Canada.

UPEI President Alaa Abd-El-Aziz was amazed by the turnout and warm greetings at UPEI's New Year's Day levee. This was his first time hosting a UPEI levee since his installation as UPEI's sixth president.

UPEI Environmental Studies 409B students are hosting the first student-led environmental symposium on January 12 in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre. The symposium will focus on the true costs of what we eat, wear, and use.

The students will present posters that relate to their term papers which discuss true costs and impacts on the local, national, and global economies. The poster presentation will take place from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm.

Evening activities, from 6:00 - 9:00 pm, include three informative guest speakers followed by a student video presentation and panel discussion. Guest speakers include Phil Ferraro from the PEI Adapt Council, UPEI Associate Professor of Chemistry Michael Shaver, and Halifax author Chris Benjamin. Speaker topics range from sustainability by using food resources to a bioregional approach to local economy, sustainability, and responsibility, to the true costs of plastics and the environmental implications.

The video, created by student Connor Leggot and his girlfriend, Ashley Prince, follows their month-long garbage challenge that saw who could produce the least amount of waste.

From Sunday, May 27 to Wednesday, May 30, 2012, the University of Prince Edward Island will host the annual conference of the Atlantic Association of College and University Student Services (AACUSS).

Every spring, professionals who work directly with students at post-secondary institutions across the Atlantic provinces gather to share best practices, professional development, and research. This year's conference theme is Collaboration: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The focus will be on sharing pragmatic collaborative solutions and creative strategies for making the student experience successful.

The AACUSS membership is made up of student affairs officers and professionals from counselling, health services, financial aid, housing, accessibility services, international services, career services, and other areas that deal directly with student life. At this year's annual general meeting, a new division for academic support services will be established.

'We want to offer tangible takeaways for our membership,' says James Reddin, conference chair and counsellor at UPEI Student Services. 'Open dialogue about how we use collaboration to get the job done -or not- is critical to student engagement, retention and success.'

AACUSS 2012 will engage participants with exciting keynote speakers and showcase the considerable talents of student services professionals right here at home. Conference participants are invited to give presentations and workshops or participate in panel discussions about how collaboration works on their campuses. The AACUSS conference also offers a unique networking opportunity with social events and an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding achievement in the field.

In January, watch for more information on AACUSS 2012 on aacuss.ca.

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Canada's Minister of State for Science and Technology, recently announced a new Canada Research Chair at the University of Prince Edward Island's Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC). Dr. Sophie St-Hilaire joins UPEI as the Canada Research Chair in Integrated Health Research for Sustainable Aquaculture.

Dr. St-Hilaire moves her research to the AVC from Idaho State University. Her research has taken her across the world, having studied aquaculture in Chile, Europe, and both coasts of North America.

'As an epidemiologist, I work on many different problems,' said Dr. St-Hilaire. 'The breadth of my research projects enables me to collaborate with many different types of researchers, from microbiologists to agricultural engineers. The ultimate goal of my research is to improve aquaculture systems and make them more economically and environmentally sustainable.'

'Dr. St-Hilaire's wealth of international expertise complements AVC's already world-renowned aquatics program,' said Dr. Don Reynolds, dean of the Atlantic Veterinary College. 'She also exemplifies the high quality of education at AVC, having graduated from our doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1994. It is gratifying to see our graduates returning to AVC to share their knowledge with their colleagues and the researchers of the future.'

'Dr. St-Hilaire builds on an already stellar team of epidemiology researchers at UPEI,' said Dr. Katherine Schultz, UPEI's vice-president of research. 'Her unique expertise examines the short- and long-term costs of an intensive aquaculture system, with a careful eye on environmental sustainability.'

The Canada Research Chair in Integrated Health Research for Sustainable Aquaculture is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

'The Canada Research Chairs Program helps to position Canadian post-secondary institutions as world-class research centres,' said Suzanne Fortier, president of NSERC and a member of the Canada Research Chairs steering committee. 'With this funding support, researchers are finding solutions to today's social, health and economic issues and are training the next generation of innovative scientists and scholars.'

'I'm excited to be back at the Atlantic Veterinary College,' said Dr. St-Hilaire. 'This is where I received my DVM. I'm now working on projects alongside professors who were my teachers. That is really gratifying."

UPEI is home to seven Canada Research Chairs and the prestigious Canada Excellence Research Chair in Aquatic Epidemiology.

Read more about Dr. Sophie St-Hilaire.

Six students from UPEI's bachelor of applied science in radiography (BScR) program were awarded the top and second- place prizes in a recent Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT) video and photo contest.

Marla MacAusland, Krista Betts (MacDonald), Sue Donahoe, Lisa Norton, Holly Manning and Rob DeWolfe entered CAMRT's ‘Very Image of Care' contest, submitting both a video and photo. Their entry, 'We NOD because we care,' demonstrated the daily tasks of an MRT and the importance of their role within the healthcare team.

Their video portion, the grand prize winner, promoted the main goals of MRTs including radiation safety, the NOD approach, and patient care. Their photo, which earned second place, illustrated MRT equipment which they incorporated into the CAMRT logo. All contest entries were judged by a jury and then voted upon by visitors to the CAMRT website.

Before the students learned of the contest results, they tried not to get their hopes up. The team was impressed when their photo received second place, and they were even more thrilled to find out they had also won the grand prize for their video. 'We are so grateful for all the votes from our friends and families, and the QEH staff who voted and got their loved ones to vote, too,' said MacAusland. 'It was definitely all of those email votes that helped us win!'

The team wanted to show their friends and family what their future career is all about and how it differs from other healthcare professions. The team was able to use their clinical work experience to create a successful contest entry.

The team was presented with a grand total of $4,000 ($3,000 for the video and $1,000 for the photo) which they spent this week on airline tickets to Toronto to attend the CAMRT conference in June.

The ‘Very Image of Care' contest was open to all MRTs in Canada, as well as students in CMA-accredited programs in Canada.

Check out the team's winning video and photo.

The University of Prince Edward Island announced the creation of a new position today: Vice-President Student Affairs. This role enhances relationships between the departments and areas that serve and support students, ensuring that a dedicated voice supporting positive student experience operates directly within the senior management team.

Dr. Wendy Carroll, currently Associate Professor in the School of Business and Faculty Director of the MBA program, has agreed to accept the position of Vice-President Student Affairs on an interim basis, commencing immediately, while a formal search process gets underway.

Students see the new role as a positive move and in keeping with the structure of most other Canadian universities. UPEI Student Union President Rob Livingstone said, 'It is very encouraging to see UPEI create this position-it clearly shows that senior administration understands that a quality experience for students contributes to the successful operation of the University. This is something we have been hoping for a long time now and we are glad to see it implemented.'

Reporting to the President and working collaboratively with the Vice-Presidents and Deans, this new Vice-President will lead a portfolio encompassing: the Registrar's Office, Athletics and Recreation, Student Services, and the Webster Centre for Teaching and Learning. Strategic planning in relation to improving the overall quality of the student experience throughout the entire student life cycle i.e. recruitment, retention through to graduation and beyond, will be the immediate priority.

The Office of the Vice-President Student Affairs will be located in Student Services in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre.

Five business students recently took part in the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (I.C.B.C.) hosted at Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario. UPEI brought an ethics team and a business policy team to compete in Canada's premier undergraduate business case competition.

The ethics team, consisting of Duncan Sturz and Kathleen Van Ekris, were awarded second place, while the business policy team, consisting of Alana McKie, Becky Arnold, and Janell MacDonald, were finalists. The competition's preliminary round brought together 165 submissions from 38 universities across Canada and around the world in eight divisions including: accounting, business policy, debate, ethics, finance, HR, marketing, and management information systems.

Sturz enjoyed preparing for and competing in the competition, 'It's been an excellent learning, networking, and team-building experience,' he said. 'And although the UPEI School of Business is small relative to most universities who attended the competition, I can confidently say I felt no disadvantage representing our ambitious Island university.'Sturz' teammate Van Ekris agreed, 'It was a lot of hard work but it was nice to be able to show that such a small school can still perform on a national scale.'

This was UPEI's first year applying to the competition and the case team was delighted to have two preliminary round submissions selected to compete in the competition's final round. Alan Duncan, dean of UPEI's School of Business was thrilled to learn of the students' success. 'Their motivation and dedication highlights the benefits of hard work.' Professor Duncan also believes the win reflects UPEI's ability to successfully compete against other universities, regardless of their size. He added, 'These results, coming from this environment, continue to illustrate the unique benefits that UPEI provides. These students make all of UPEI proud of the experiences we share.'

More information on the I.C.B.C. competition

UPEI Faculty supervisor: Edward Gamble, Assistant Professor, UPEI School of Business

UPEI advisors: Kyle Smith and Ashley Adams

Finalist teams in ethics: Concordia University, Dalhousie University, Okanagan College, Saint Mary's University, University of Calgary, and UPEI

Finalist teams in business policy: Concordia University, Okanagan College, Queensland University of Technology (Australia), University of British Columbia, UPEI, and the University of Regina

For more information: http://icbconline.ca/

The Canada-Wide Science Fair is coming to Prince Edward Island this year for the first time ever! UPEI will host CWSF 2012 from May 13 to 18.

The Host Committee is planning a Community Launch for the fair with an opportunity to sign up as a volunteer. Information about the CWSF and volunteer roles will be presented, as well as fun activities. This will take place from 4-6 pm on Thursday, January 19, at the Atlantic Veterinary College McCain Foundation Learning Commons.

UPEI will be celebrating its fourth annual Diversity Week, January 23-27, with all events open to the public. The 2012 theme will be 'Celebrate, Educate, Motivate' with an aim to celebrate the rich diversity at UPEI, further educate and motivate the public about diversity, and personal promotion of inclusion.