We're wrapping our tenth anniversary year of Soup for the Soul with two more servings in March! 

Enjoy a warm bowl of soup from 11:30 am-1:00 pm on March 11 (served by the Athletics and Recreation Department) and March 25 (served by the staff from the Robertson Library) at the Chaplaincy Centre. 

As the Muslim community celebrates Ramadan, we will continue to have to-go cups available at both Soup for the Soul events.

Got a business idea you’re excited about? Join the Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship for MiniPitch on Thursday, March 20 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. It’s a great opportunity for students to sharpen their presentation skills and develop new ideas. Prepare a three-minute pitch, face a three-minute Q&A, and participate in a two-minute feedback session to discover what you did well, where you can improve, and what steps you should take next to move forward with your idea!

The first eight presenters to register will have their spots booked, and we will have some wildcard spots at the event if you don’t get registered in time!

Sign up here!

Join us for an exciting, useful, and hands-on workshop focused on "Elevator with Amy Andrews and Jeremy Heartz" of the Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship. The workshop will be taking place at Schurman Market Square on Tuesday, March 18, from 4:00--6:00 pm. This workshop will provide tools, tips, and tricks around executing an elevator pitch effectively, efficiently, and engagingly. This workshop is open to both Harry W. MacLauchlan Entrepreneurship Program participants as well as the general public. There will be pizza!

Register to attend here!

The fourth UPEI Board of Governors meeting of the 2024-2025 Academic Year will take place on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. in Room 102, Alumni Hall. All board meetings generally include sessions that are open to the public. Certain agenda items, including but not limited to human resources discussions, may require the board to go into a closed session. For logistical purposes, members of the public who wish to attend the open session of a meeting are asked to contact board@upei.ca one week prior to the meeting. Members of the public wishing to attend the public portion of a meeting must adhere to the UPEI Board of Governors' Meeting Observer Guidelines.

Title: Repurposing Biomass and Organic Waste into Engineered Biocarbon Materials

Presenter: Dr. Yulin Hu, assistant professor, Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island 

Date and Time: March 21, 2025, 1:30–2:30 PM (Atlantic Time) 

Registration: https://t.ly/f2e2q (The webinar is free, but registration is needed to receive the Zoom link).

Join us for the 35th UPEI Faculty Development Summer Institute (FDSI) with multiple days of great professional development focusing on active learning in higher education. The FDSI is relevant to educators at all career stages, especially early career faculty and those looking at tenure and promotion. Ask your Dean or talk to colleagues about their FDSI experiences! Don't miss this opportunity to participate in what past participants have found to be a milestone experience in your teaching career! Join colleagues from across Canada for this year’s FDSI from May 26 to 29, 2025. To learn more, ask questions, and register, check out the FDSI website.  

Building work-integrated learning (WIL) into your courses can help students gain experience, build their network, and learn new skills. Join our lunch and learn with Experiential Education; we'll provide you some examples of what WIL looks like at UPEI and workshop in real time how to build WIL into your programs, courses, and assignments. Learn about what supports are available for planning, programming, and identifying partnerships. Join us on Tuesday March 25 at 12:00 noon in the Teaching and Learning Centre, Robertson Library, Room 230.

The UPEI World University Service of Canada Committee is hosting a free Human Rights Education workshop on Monday, March 17 at 4:00 pm, SDU Main Building, Room 320, with guest speaker Shaun Perves. This workshop will discuss our rights on Prince Edward Island, and help university students with diverse backgrounds to understand their human rights. See you there! 

This event is free for all students to attend. 

IMPORTANT! All final exam scheduled from April 9-May 2 must be booked by March 26 at 11:59 pm!

Final exams are now available to be booked through accommodate! This deadline is to provide our testing services team with enough time to coordinate rooms, accommodations, and proctors. 

EARLY BOOKING INCENTIVE: Book before March 19 at 11:59 pm to be entered for prize draws. 

FINAL BOOKING DEADLINE: Wednesday, March 26 at 11:59 pm (late bookings will not be accepted.)

Please Note: 

• The 7-day booking minimum DOES NOT apply for final exams (April 9 - May 2). If you have any technical issues, an email must be sent to astesting@upei.ca by March 26 at 11:59 pm at the latest to ensure a seat for your exam.
• Due to the high volume of accommodated exams for finals, late bookings will not be accepted. Please double check in accommodate that you have all your exams booked. If the exam information is not in accommodate, please email astesting@upei.ca immediately. 
• 7:00 pm exams - all 7:00 pm exams are scheduled in accommodate to start at 6:30 pm. 
• Students with an accommodation for more than 1.5x - If you have a time accommodation that is greater than time and a half, you must contact astesting@upei.ca to request accommodations, as we need to manually book your exam. 

How to book a test or exam: Video | Step-by-step guide

PRIZE DRAW BONUS:  If you register for your final exams in accommodate by Wednesday March 19 at 11:59 pm, your name will be entered into a draw to win some prizes! If you do not have any final exams and would still like to enter, please email astesting@upei.ca to let us know, and your name will be entered into the draw. 

Best of luck with your exam preparation, and please reach out if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Accessibility Services Team

Are you or someone you know living with Alzheimer’s disease? We are conducting a research study to explore how physical activity (e.g., walking, jogging) affects mood, thinking skills, social engagement, and quality of life in people with Alzheimer’s disease on Prince Edward Island.

We are looking for adults aged 55 or older with a formal diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease to take part. Participation includes:

• Wearing a small, lightweight device (called an actical) for 7 days to track physical activity levels (not location).
• Answering questions about mood, thinking skills, social support, and quality of life (approximately 1 hour, online, by phone, or in-person).
• An optional follow-up interview (30 minutes) to discuss your experience with physical activity.

Participation will help improve understanding of how physical activity can support dementia care on PEI. All information will remain confidential. Participation is voluntary, and participants can withdraw at any time.

For more information or to sign up, please contact Fairouz Gaballa at strongresearchlab@gmail.com or leave a massage at 902-566-0941.

This research is part of a master’s degree in Island Studies with a focus in psychology. Some of the data will also contribute to an honours degree in psychology. This project has been approved by the UPEI Research Ethics Board and complies with tri-council guidelines for research involving human participants. 

The Application Review Committee invites campus community members to attend the research and teaching seminar by Dr. Hilary Caldwell, candidate for the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Children, Youth and their Educational Geographies.

Dr. Caldwell completed her PhD in Kinesiology at McMaster University (2020). Currently, Dr. Caldwell is a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Health System Impact Fellow (post-doctoral stream) with the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and Dalhousie University’s Healthy Populations Institute. Dr. Caldwell's proposed research program at UPEI will generate evidence that can be used to update policies, programs, and environments to promote outdoor play and physical activity, with the overall goal of improving child health and well-being.

Teaching Seminar:

• Date/Time: Monday, March 17, 2025, 9:30 am
• Location: Memorial Hall 417

Research Seminar: 

• Date/Time: Monday, March 17, 1:15 pm
• Location: Memorial Hall 417

The teaching and research seminars will be recorded and available after the session.  There will be access to virtual attendance. Those interested in the recording or requiring access to the virtual session may contact mlsteele@upei.ca.

The Island Lecture Series is pleased to present a talk by Heidi Haering on Tuesday, March 18, at 7:00 pm in the Faculty Lounge, SDU Main Building, Room 201.

Drawing on anthropological fieldwork for a master’s thesis, this talk will deal with the struggle to define the “family farm” in PEI and how this ambiguity helps or hinders the work of farmers, agribusiness and government. It will discuss how participant definitions of the “family farm” contrasted with how they farmed and were sometimes at odds with their ideals. This talk will also shed light on the possible reasons that agribusiness and governments look to the pastoral romanticism of “family farm.”

Heidi Haering lives in Charlottetown and has recently completed her MA in Anthropology from Memorial University. Her thesis is entitled: “Three keywords in the campaign against farmland consolidation and the loss of small farms through the lens of the Prince Edward Island Chapter of the National Farmers Union." 

This event is hosted by the Institute for Island Studies at UPEI. Free, all are welcome. 

The Department of Companion Animals will interview Dr. Julia Cusack for a tenure-track faculty position in Diagnostic Imaging. Dr. Cusack will be on campus on Wednesday, March 19, and Friday, March 21, 2025. 

Dr. Cusack received her DVM in 2019 from the Atlantic Veterinary College, UPEI. She then completed a large animal rotating internship and is currently completing an DVSc and clinical residency program in Diagnostic Imaging at the Ontario Veterinary College.

As part of the interview process, she has been asked to present a 50-minute seminar on two separate topics: the first, a topic that would be appropriate to teach to third-year veterinary students; the second, to present her research interests:

SEMINAR NOTICE - Dr. Julia Cusack

“Common Pitfalls in Pulmonary Patterns”

“Bilateral Limb Postmortem CT Imaging of Racehorses: Insights into Fractures, Stress Remodeling and Developmental Orthopedic Disease”

Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 12:30 pm, AVC Lecture Theatre B

Any interested faculty and staff are invited to attend. A copy of her CV and cover letter will be available from Jill Blaquiere (jnblaquiere@upei.ca). 

Join UPEI alumni and the Graduate Student Association on Friday, March 21, from 12:00-1:00 pm in Bill and Denise Andrew Hall 142 for a Lunch and Learn!

Information will be provided on

• building professional connections with alumni
• how alumni can stay involved
• the importance of building connections
• benefits of being UPEI alumni

All students are welcome to join. Pizza and drinks will be provided. Students can RSVP here. 

If you have any questions, please contact Faith at fsteeves@upei.ca

The Employee Services team, Human Resources, invites you to join GreenShield Canada Insurance Services on March 18 from 1:00-200 pm ADT for their next free webinar, which delivers honest and unfiltered conversations about mental health.

GreenShield continues their Let's Be Real series on topics that matter with Canadian broadcaster and mental health advocate, Michael Landsberg. This month's focus: The impact Nutrition has on Mental Health.

Michael is joined by therapist Katerina Alexopoulos, M.S.W., R.S.W, Nurse Karma Stanley, and special guest Dr. Jeff Alfonsi MD, FRCPC, Dip ABOM, Dip ABLM, and co-founder of RXFood. Join them as they explore how mindful eating and healthy diet can help support your mental wellness by increasing brain function, mood, and overall well-being.

Register at All-in-one virtual event platform | Zoom Events

Sign up to claim your spot!

Workshop #3 in the monthly Lunch and Learn Library series for UPEI graduate students will take place on Wednesday, March 26, 12:00 noon-1:00 pm Atlantic. In this session, we will cover different online tools for showcasing your publications such as ORCID and Google Scholar, as well as discuss open access publishing, including author processing charges (and discounts), publishing in your institutional repository, and predatory journals.

The workshop is virtual. Register for the link at https://forms.gle/qkWLfFR9UMF7Cjxz6

The facilitator is Keri McCaffrey, UPEI One Health and Scholarly Communications Librarian.

For more information, please contact: Kendra Mellish, FGS Graduate Programs Officer, at kmellish@upei.ca

Consent is a key part of all social interactions and healthy relationships. This is true for friends, family, sexual partners, acquaintances, coworkers, classmates, and people we don’t know yet! Making consent a priority is about respect and safety for each other and building a healthy community. 

Let’s make collages! This event will take place on March 25 at 11:00 am in McMillan Hall, W.A Murphy Student Centre! You will have the chance to be creative as you share your perspectives on consent, boundaries, and respect across campus. What does consent look like to you? How does it manifest in class, at parties, in residence, at the library, at the gym, online? Why is consent important to you and to the UPEI community?

Choose a part of campus life and consider what roles consent can play. Create a collage on your theme using any materials you wish!

All art supplies will be provided. Everyone is welcome--students, staff, and faculty! 

The event is hosted by the UPEI Student Union Student Wellness Coordinator and the UPEI Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office. 

The Asian Studies Program and the Centre for Korean Studies are pleased to invite everyone to this special academic event, Asian Studies International Seminar: Confucian Studies Speaker Series 2025.

Speaker: Dr. Richard Kim, associate professor, Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago

Title: “The Contemporary Significance of Confucianism: A Guide to Wellbeing and Good Life”

Date and location: Thursday, March 27, 2:15–-4:00 pm, Faculty Lounge, Room 201, SDU Main Building.

Reception and healthy refreshments from 2:15-–2:30 pm.

Welcome address by Dr. Greg Naterer, UPEI Vice-President Academic and Research

Thank you and farewell address by Dr. Sharon Myers, Dean of Arts

This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to learn and discuss the Confucian way of “well-being and good life” together with Professor Kim’s comparative (East-West) and contemporary perspectives. 

Bio: Richard Kim (BA, UCLA; MA and PhD, University of Notre Dame) is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago. He specializes in comparative ethics, Confucian philosophy, and moral psychology. He has recently published a monograph, Confucianism and the Philosophy of Well-Being (Routledge), and many journal and book chapter articles and presented numerous conference papers in his areas of expertise. He is currently preparing a major book manuscript Ritual and Human Flourishing in Confucianism (under contract with Cambridge University Press). He is also the co-host (with Justin Tiwald ) of This Is The Way—a podcast on Chinese philosophy. Dr. Kim is an established young researcher who is destined to become a prominent world-class scholar in the near future. Everyone is welcome to attend.

For the event poster, e-mail jbbandara@upei.ca or chung@upei.ca.

Special acknowledgement: This Confucian Studies International Speaker Series is funded by Dr. Edward Chung’s international Lab Program for Korean Studies grant at UPEI (AKS-2022-LAB-2230002), thanks to Korean Studies Promotion Service (KSPS), the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS),  Ministry of Education, Government of South Korea.

Contact Name: Jay K. Bandarage jbbandara@upei.ca, 566-0331 (AST admin assistant); Dr. Edward Chung (AST Director), 566-0324.

Got a business idea you’re excited about? Join the Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship for MiniPitch on Thursday, March 20 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. It’s a great opportunity for students to sharpen their presentation skills and develop new ideas. Prepare a three-minute pitch, face a three-minute Q&A, and participate in a two-minute feedback session to discover what you did well, where you can improve, and what steps you should take next to move forward with your idea!

The first eight presenters to register will have their spots booked, and we will have some wildcard spots at the event if you don’t get registered in time!

Sign up here!

Join us for an exciting, useful, and hands-on workshop focused on "Elevator with Amy Andrews and Jeremy Heartz" of the Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship. The workshop will be taking place at Schurman Market Square on Tuesday, March 18, from 4:00--6:00 pm. This workshop will provide tools, tips, and tricks around executing an elevator pitch effectively, efficiently, and engagingly. This workshop is open to both Harry W. MacLauchlan Entrepreneurship Program participants as well as the general public. There will be pizza!

Register to attend here!