With only four games remaining in the regular season, the UPEI Men’s Hockey Panthers face a tough test this weekend, as they look to solidify their playoff positioning.

Having clinched postseason berths already, the Acadia Axemen (17-5-2) and the Saint Mary’s Huskies (15-7-2) travel to the Island’s capital with hopes of spoiling UPEI’s chances to compete for an AUS title.

“We’re still fighting and we have to scratch and claw for everything just to get in,” said head coach Forbes MacPherson of the Panthers’ pursuit for a playoff spot.

With three teams jockeying for the two remaining spots, every point matters. The fifth-place Panthers hold a slim two-point lead over Université de Moncton, while Dalhousie trails by only six.

“There is so much parity in this league that we’re not taking anything for granted,” said MacPherson.

The Panthers are hoping to build off a weekend split where they lost a close 2-1 battle against the first-place UNB Varsity Reds, but came back the following day to defeat the St. Thomas Tommies 6-3.

On Friday night, UPEI hosts a powerful Acadia squad that features three top-10 scorers in forwards Mike Cazzola (27 points), Brett Thompson (26 points) and defenceman Matthew Pufahl (25 points).

At this point in the season, MacPherson said his team has to fight through fatigue and come out focused and energized if they want to stay competitive against the league’s best.

“You wait 11 months a year to get to this part of the season and we expect our group to be ready to go every game.”

Completing the back-to-back weekend, the Panthers face the red-hot Saint Mary’s Huskies in Saturday evening’s matchup.The Huskies won nine of their last 10 games and field a strong defensive unit led by goaltender Cole Cheveldave, who is 10-7 with a 2.20 goals against average – good for second best in the league.

“They’re built to win this year and they’re really coming into their own in the second half of the season.”

Puck drops Friday at 7 pm against the Acadia Axemen and again Saturday versus the Saint Mary’s Huskies. Both games are at MacLauchlan Arena.

Saturday, February 6, also marks the annual UPEI Men’s Hockey Alumni Night.

The four-team mini-tournament begins at 4 pm at MacLauchlan Arena and will feature alumni players competing against one another for bragging rights. Each game is 20 minutes long.

Leading up to the UPEI-SMU game that night are on-ice introductions of former Panthers, followed by a reception at the south end of the arena.

Contributed by Thomas Becker

The UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the Week for the week of February 1-7 are Sam Sweet, Women’s Hockey, and Nelson Armstrong, Men’s Hockey. On a weekly basis, UPEI Athletics and Recreation recognizes these talented student-athletes for their hard work and dedication to their respective sports. UPEI Athletes of the Week are then nominated to Atlantic University Sport and Canadian Interuniversity Sport for possible recognition in the region and/or country.

Who:  Sam Sweet, Women’s Hockey, and Nelson Armstrong, Men’s Hockey

What: UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the Week

When: Week of February 1-7, 2016

Where: University of Prince Edward Island

Why: Sweet, a fifth-year Bachelor of Science student from O’Leary, PEI, showed great leadership and effort during the Panthers 3-2 win over Mount Allison and 3-2 loss to Dalhousie, where she recorded a goal. Captain Sweet is the consummate team player who gives all she has each and every time she steps on the ice. She plays in all critical situations. 

Armstrong, a fourth-year Bachelor of Business Administration student from Peterborough, Ontario, has been a workhorse on the blue line all season for the Panthers. Armstrong logs a heavy load of ice time and plays against the opposing teams’ best players. During last week’s 2-1 overtime loss to Acadia and 6-2 loss to Saint Mary’s, Armstrong recorded an assist, and is currently fifth in scoring amongst AUS defencemen.

About UPEI Athletics and Recreation
• Nine varsity sports and six club team programs
• Proud member of the AUS and CIS
• Athletic facilities include: Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre, UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place and UPEI Turf
• Home of Panther Sports Medicine
• Other facilities available to students and the community at large include: fitness centre, squash and racquetball courts, competition and leisure pool with hot tub, and two ice arenas

UPEI is accepting nominations until Friday, February 12 for the inaugural Diamond Awards. The Diamond Awards celebrate students’ personal development and achievement outside the classroom by recognizing positive contributions to campus life and the external community. The Diamond Awards recognize up to five students each for Sustainability Leadership; Health & Wellness Leadership; Educational Leadership; and Campus Spirit.

The UPEISU issued the following release to mark the launch of the awards:

The UPEI Student Union is excited to see the launch of the
Diamond Awards, a new awards program that introduces up to
$10,000 a year in new scholarship & award funding for UPEI students.
The Diamond Awards recognizes students based on their extracurricular achievement on campus and in the external community. The awards program encompasses four categories: Sustainability Leadership, Educational Leadership, Health & Wellness Leadership, and Campus Spirit. Up to five awards are available in each category, and are valued at $500 each.

“We are very excited about the launch of this awards program,” said Nathan Hood, UPEI SU Vice President Student Life. “Our students make considerable contributions to our campus and our community, and it is our hope that this awards program will further recognize the positive impacts of our students.”

Last summer, the UPEI SU proposed the Diamond Awards to the UPEI administration, who were keen to develop the awards program alongside the Vice President Student Life. With the awards criteria based on extracurricular achievement, the UPEI SU believes this awards program will recognize students who are not necessarily recognized for purely academic reasons.

“We are very happy the awards program recognizes students beyond their academic achievement,” added Hood. “Students’ impacts and contributions often stretch far beyond the classroom.”

The deadline for 2016 applications is February 12, 2016. Additional information can be found at http://www.upei.ca/studentlife/scholarshipsandawards/907. 

The UPEI English Department is thrilled to announce that Children's literature and creative writing professor Deirdre Kessler has been named PEI's Poet Laureate.

At the announcement, the Honourable Doug Currie, Minister for Education, Early Learning, and Culture, said “From her works of poetry and children's literature to her work teaching creative writing, Ms. Kessler has already made a significant impact on our culture.”

Kessler has been a sessional lecturer at UPEI for years, and has taught thousands of UPEI students. She is the Island's sixth poet Laureate. The full announcement can be found here.

Congratulations Deirdre!

The Institute of Island Studies Lecture Series continues Tuesday, February 23, with a talk by Dr. Tiber F.M. Falzett, research associate at the Institute. His public lecture, “Mar bhlàth an fheòir” (“like the flowering grass”), focuses on the oral and written interfaces in local Scottish Gaelic song composition on Prince Edward Island. The lecture takes place in UPEI’s SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge at 7 pm.

Dr. Falzett investigates a once vibrant, yet fragmentarily documented, tradition of local song composition and performance as expressed throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Scottish Gaelic speakers on Prince Edward Island. By engaging contemporary printed texts, as well as sound recordings of remaining speakers and semi-speakers in the second half of the twentieth century, it is possible to piece together a multifaceted and dynamic body of oral tradition. In turn, these reassembled fragments of oral tradition can be reinterpreted to reveal a multi-accentual dynamic in what has since become a silenced ethno-linguistic community. Ultimately, it is intended to place these expressive forms of intangible cultural heritage as created and carried down by Gaelic-speaking Islanders in the context of the wider multicultural zone of the Canadian Maritimes to which they once belonged.

Dr. Falzett’s research explores the documentation and dissemination of archival intangible cultural heritage on Prince Edward Island. His doctoral research explores the relationship between language and music through sensory metaphor as expressed among Scottish Gaelic speakers on Cape Breton Island. A fluent Gaelic speaker as well as a singer and bagpiper, Dr. Falzett has presented his research and performed for broadcast media, including the BBC Television and Radio in Scotland and CBC, and is an active public folklorist in Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. He, his partner Giulia, and their dog Sofia live in Summerside.

Admission is free. Everyone is welcome to attend.

This is the second in a series of an Island Studies Winter/Spring Lecture Series. Watch for details for another lecture about islands–near and far–March 22.

For more information, please contact Laurie Brinklow at iis@upei.ca or (902) 894-2881.

The 2016 Dr. Frances Gray Performance Competition finals were recently held at the UPEI Department of Music. The judges for the final competition, Alan Reesor, Kelsea McLean, Kirsten MacLaine, Natalie Williams-Calhoun, and David MacDonald, are all well-known musicians and educators in PEI.

The students chosen from the preliminary round were baritone Parker Clements, oboist Marc DesRoches, clarinetist Leah Jordan, soprano Lindsay Gillis, saxophonist Emily Proude, soprano Alexandra Smith, and clarinetist Johanna Vessey.

After an exciting evening of performances, the winners were announced. First place went to Johanna Vessey, Parker Clements took second, and Emily Proude was named third.

Johanna Vessey is a third-year UPEI student pursuing a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Science, majoring in computer science. With clarinet being her primary instrument, Johanna has been a student of Dr. Karem Simon at UPEI. She has been a member of the UPEI Wind Symphony since 2012 and is presently involved in the ensemble as the librarian, president of the executive, and principal clarinetist.

Before attending UPEI, Johanna performed in school bands and provincial honours bands for many years. As a member of the Cadet program, she participated in Cadet bands and performed in the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo in 2011 and 2012. This May, Johanna will be immersed in another musical experience as a member of the National Youth Band of Canada 2016.

Congratulations to all the finalists! 

The topic of local governance is the focus of an upcoming public symposium, “The Geography of Governance,” sponsored by UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies, in conjunction with UPEI Research Services. The symposium begins at 7 pm, on Thursday, February 25, in the Alex H. MacKinnon Auditorium (room 242), UPEI’s Don and Marion McDougall Hall. The storm date is the following evening.

The reform of local government on the Island has been much discussed in recent years, especially since the release of the 2009 Thompson Report of the Commission on Land and Local Governance. At that time, the Island had 75 incorporated municipalities–many of them with just a few hundred people–and 70 per cent of the province’s territory had no local government at all. The situation remains much the same today.

Judge Thompson recommended that local government might be extended to cover the entire Island, and that the units be large enough to be effective and sustainable—that is, with a population of at least 4,000 each. Many Islanders perceive that reform is now in the air, and some communities have initiated discussions with their neighbours about joining together to form larger governance units.

If we assume that larger municipal units are on the horizon, the question arises about the criteria to be used in deciding on new boundaries. Should cultural factors be paramount? Or “communities of interest”? Or geographical factors? Or environmental management—such as including a whole watershed within a municipality? Or some combination of these—and others?

The principal speaker for the evening will be Diane Griffin, noted Island environmentalist, Stratford town councillor, and vice-president of the Federation of PEI Municipalities. She will be joined by a panel of three individuals representing various points of view: Dr. Ryan Gibson, Dr. Michael van den Heuvel, and Jeanitta Bernard.

Dr. Gibson, who is currently chair of the advisory committee of the Institute of Island Studies, teaches in the Department of Geography at Saint Mary’s University. He has a special interest in collaborative governance in rural regions. He will share lessons learned from other parts of Canada and internationally on how they have built new regions and the processes they have utilized. These experiences could assist in shaping the process in PEI.

Dr. van den Heuvel is a professor of biology at UPEI and director of the Canadian Rivers Institute. He will discuss case studies and the advantages of defining municipal boundaries based on watersheds to enhance resources for environmental management.

The third panelist, Jeannita Bernard of St. Philippe, is a well-known Island singer-songwriter and community leader in the areas of health, education, and community development. She will explore the idea of creating a new Evangeline regional government unit, which would include the present villages of Wellington and Abram’s Village, plus 12 adjacent unincorporated communities.

Members of the public are cordially invited to attend. Admission is free. Following the presentations, there will be ample time for discussion and questions from the floor.

The UPEI Department of Music will present Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro,” February 26 and 27 in the Dr. Steel Recital Hall of UPEI’s Steel Building, 7:30 pm.

A marriage will indeed occur, but not before many machinations, both hilarious and sinister, take place. Under the direction of Associate Professor Sung Ha Shin-Bouey (music) and Stephen Bouey (staging), upper-year voice students and alumni will take the stage. The cast includes Parker Clements as Figaro, Lindsay Gillis and Andrea Corder as Susanna, Travis Boudreau as Count, Morgan Wagner as Countess, Jillian Clow and Alli Blom as Cherubino, Hannah Rose and Emily Roberts as Marcellina, Michael Gallant as Dr. Bartolo, William Millington as Basilio, Alexandra Smith as Barbarina, Daniel Aitken as Antonio, and Cody Collins as Don Curzio.

Tickets are $10 and are available online or by calling or emailing the music office at 902-566-0507/music@upei.ca. 

A video produced by the government of Prince Edward Island features the expertise of Jeff Collins, a sessional lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Prince Edward Island. Electoral reform was part of the election platform of Premier Wade MacLauchlan (president emeritus of UPEI). In the video, Collins explains the different electoral systems being considered.

Watch:

The UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the Week for the week of February 8-14 are Anne Kiberd, Women’s Basketball, and Tyler Scott, Men’s Basketball. On a weekly basis, UPEI Athletics and Recreation recognizes these talented student-athletes for their hard work and dedication to their respective sports. UPEI Athletes of the Week are then nominated to Atlantic University Sport and Canadian Interuniversity Sport for possible recognition in the region and/or country.

Who:  Anne Kiberd, Women’s Basketball, and Tyler Scott, Men’s Basketball

What: UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the Week

When: Week of February 8-14, 2016

Where: University of Prince Edward Island

Why: Kiberd, a fifth-year Bachelor of Science Nursing student from Halifax, NS, had a strong weekend for the Panthers. During the Panthers 72-63 win and 66-57 loss to Memorial, Kiberd averaged 15.5 points including 6 three-pointers. Kiberd also collected 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals.

Tyler Scott, a fourth-year Bachelor of Business Administration student, also from Halifax, NS, led the Panthers offensively on the weekend. During the Panthers 97-87 and 115-85 wins over Memorial, Scott had the following strong statistics: 48 points, 30 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 steals, 0.522 FG%, and was 8/17 from the three-point range.

About UPEI Athletics and Recreation
• Nine varsity sports and six club team programs
• Proud member of the AUS and CIS
• Athletic facilities include: Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre, UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place and UPEI Turf
• Home of Panther Sports Medicine
• Other facilities available to students and the community at large include: fitness centre, squash and racquetball courts, competition and leisure pool with hot tub, and two ice arenas