AVC’s Class of 2018 celebrated their entry into the profession of veterinary medicine at two ceremonies—AVC’s annual White Coat Ceremony on May 11 and UPEI Convocation on May 12. 

During the White Coat Ceremony, the graduates were presented with white lab coats, symbolizing their transition from veterinary students to veterinary professionals. The event also included the presentation of student and faculty awards. The following day, the graduates were presented with their doctor of veterinary medicine degrees at UPEI’s morning convocation ceremony and then attended a post-convocation reception hosted by Dr. Greg Keefe, dean of AVC.

Dr. Stephanie Maloney won the R.G. Thomson Academic Achievement Medal, given to the AVC graduate with the highest cumulative grade average over the four-year program in both pre-clinical and clinical disciplines. Dr. Mitchell Carr was awarded the Dr. J. Regis Duffy Academic Achievement Award, given to a graduating UPEI student who has demonstrated to an outstanding degree the qualities of scholarship and leadership within the University community.

Congratulations, Class of 2018!

Approximately 100 people gathered on May 7 at UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place for the historic raising of the Mi'kmaq National Flag.

With blue skies and a brisk wind perfect for the occasion, Elder Junior Peter Paul began the ceremony with a smudge and members of the Indigenous community joined him in performing the Mi’kmaq Honour Song.

Chief Brian Francis of the Abegweit First Nation, UPEI student Dawne Knockwood, and Elder Junior Peter Paul joined President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz in raising the flag. 

Chief Francis said, “It's certainly an honour. As we all know, flags are all proud symbols of who we are; in this case, the Mi'kmaq National Flag. And we're extremely proud to be flying it at the University of Prince Edward Island.”

Just as Chief Francis began to speak, the Elder pointed out that there was a visitor, gesturing skyward to an eagle that appeared on cue, flying directly over the flags. The crowd erupted into applause as the eagle, which is revered in Mi’kmaq culture and represents everything positive, flew overhead.

“This is a truly a historic moment for UPEI,” added President Abd-El-Aziz. 

The Mi’kmaq flag will also appear at UPEI events and was alongside the Canada, Prince Edward Island, and UPEI flags at the recent Convocation.
 

Chris Huggan, UPEI’s director of Athletics and Recreation, is pleased to announce Matt Gamblin has signed on to be the next head coach of the UPEI Women’s Basketball team. Gamblin has an impressive track record as both a coach and player, most recently leading the Mount Allison Mounties to win the 2017–2018 Atlantic Collegiate Athletics Association (ACAA) women’s basketball title.

“I am excited to welcome Matt, his wife April, and son Cohen to the UPEI Panther family,” said Huggan. “Matt has been a head coach for seven years, and in that time, has led teams at both the high school and college level to championships. He is a very knowledgeable, passionate, and hard-working young man who builds champions both on and off the court. He is a proven winner and a great fit to lead our women's basketball team to many successes in the years to come.”

Before coaching the Mounties, Gamblin spent four years with the Amherst High School Vikings’ boys basketball program. After two years as assistant coach, he transitioned to head coach and led the team to a provincial championship. He has also worked as a coach for the Northumberland section of Basketball Nova Scotia’s Regional Training Centre program. Before coaching, he played for Team Nova Scotia on four different occasions. He played ACAA basketball at Kings College and Mount Saint Vincent University before a knee injury ended his playing career.

“I feel both privileged and excited to join the family at UPEI,” said Gamblin, “It has been abundantly clear through the process that there is a deep commitment to growth and excellence on and off the court here. I am joining a program which is in great shape, with a strong core, and I can't wait to get started working with the team.”

Gamblin has signed a three-year contract with the Panthers. He begins June 1.

Go Panthers Go!

The University of Prince Edward Island Board of Governors approved a balanced operating budget of $120 million for the 2018–19 fiscal year at its May meeting last night.

“The annual operating budget outlines how operating expenditures of the University are funded,” said UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. “Our budget process helps us identify opportunities to invest in strategic initiatives that expand UPEI’s community impact and global reach while minimizing the burden of tuition costs on our students.”

One of UPEI’s principal revenue sources is the annual provincial operating grant. As was announced in provincial legislature last month, the Government of Prince Edward Island increased UPEI’s operating grant by two per cent for 2018–19. The Atlantic Veterinary College, which is supported by all four Atlantic Provinces, also saw an increase of one per cent to its operating budget from the PEI government as outlined in the ten-year interprovincial funding agreement.

“This is great news for our University and we are incredibly grateful for the Government’s investment,” commented President Abd-El-Aziz. “The University works very closely with the Government of Prince Edward Island on shared priorities—including the attraction and retention of students from the Island, across Canada, and around the world. This support reflects the importance of postsecondary education to the future wellbeing of our province. It is especially rewarding to see that our collaborative efforts have also resulted in a multi-year funding agreement that will allow the University to better plan for the future.”

Tuition and fee revenues are an important part of UPEI’s plan to balance the operating budget, representing approximately one-third of the operating revenues each year. This year’s budget includes an overall tuition increase of two per cent; this is equivalent to a $12 increase per undergraduate course.

UPEI continues to offer one of the most affordable undergraduate tuition rates in the Maritime Provinces.

“The Student Union has, for the past few years, advocated for tuition hikes to remain below CPI, which is clearly reflected in this budget,” said UPEI Student Union President Will McGuigan. “It is great to see the university administration paying attention to student concerns and recommendations.”

Revenues are used to cover core-operating costs for student and ancillary services, faculties and schools, academic support, administration, and property maintenance activities. The University carefully monitors the fiscal realities associated with increased labour costs, important infrastructure upgrades, increasing supply costs, and inflationary pressures.

“We continue to work diligently to grow revenues to help offset these costs and pressures,” said President Abd-El-Aziz. “We do this by expanding our unique offerings and delivering them in innovative ways. Our recruitment success has led to increased enrolments, allowing us to grow our budget and hire more faculty and staff to support new programming developments.”

In the past two years, UPEI has grown by an unprecedented number of 108 faculty and staff to accommodate new program developments.

In this fiscal year, UPEI will see the infrastructure upgrades to Dalton Hall completed. The Student Experience Hub will be a key component in serving prospective and current students, and in their successful completion of the enrolment process.

The operating budget does not include research funds, which are budgeted separately on a project-by-project basis, but it does include the budget of departments that provide support to research. Capital projects are also budgeted on a project-by-project basis and reported within the capital assets fund.

“UPEI is very proud of the continuing success of our students, faculty, and researchers,” added President Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. “We have embarked on an exciting journey that has enabled us to re-imagine the many possibilities of what it means to study, explore, create, discover, work, and belong at UPEI. We have ambitious goals and we are managing during challenging times. We are working together as we look ahead and think about what we can do to provide our students with outstanding education, conduct research, and contribute to our community and beyond in new and transformative ways.”
 

UPEI is holding information sessions to learn about its Bachelor of Integrated Studies degree program. The Bachelor of Integrated Studies program is designed to accommodate the personal, educational, and career goals of adult students, most of whom already possess diverse learning and who study part-time.

Three sessions will be held in Charlottetown, at the UPEI Department of Development and Alumni Engagement, located at 618 University Avenue, room 103. Join us Thursday, May 31 at 4:30 pm, Thursday, May 31 at 6:00 pm, or Wednesday, June 6 at 4:30 pm.

The Summmerside sessions will be held Monday, May 28 at 4:30 pm and Monday, June 4 at 6:00 pm in the Key Family room of the Summerside Rotary Library, located at The Inspire Learning Centre, 57 Central Street.

Attendees will learn about study options and the admission processes, and have an opportunity to ask questions of UPEI staff and faculty.

All attendees will have the $50 application fee waived when they apply to UPEI. For more information, contact bis@upei.ca.

All are welcome!

From May 25–27, the Folklore Studies Association of Canada/L’Association canadienne d’ethnologie et de folklore will be holding its annual meeting at the University of Prince Edward Island in collaboration with the Institute of Island Studies. This year’s theme, “Carried on the Waves: Contemporary Currents in Folklore and Ethnology / Porté par les Vagues: Courants Actuels d’Ethnologie et de Folklore,” inspires researchers to explore the flow of expression among various groups over time and place.

Prince Edward Island has long served and continues to serve as an integral hub for multicultural contacts. As Marius Barbeau, widely acknowledged as the founder of Canadian folklore, observed in the Journal of American Folklore in 1918, “Prince Edward Island and some other parts of the Maritime Provinces are very conservative centers in which folklore still flourishes.” To this day the Island’s resilient communities continue their long legacy of offering key insights into the expression and transmission of communally maintained knowledge. Whether it is farming and fishing communities redefining their relationships to the land and sea based on the present realities of climate change, the digital construction of narrative in videogame design attracting new Canadians forging their own pathways, or the composition of a fiddle tune for commercial production within the music industry, all of the Island’s groups contribute to our understanding the ebb and flow of human experience.

The executive of FSAC/ACEF are very pleased to announce that both Georges Arsenault and John Cousins, two of Prince Edward Island’s most esteemed folklorists, will receive the association’s Marius Barbeau Medal. The medal is given in recognition of remarkable individual contributions to folklore and ethnology through teaching, research, and communication―activities in which both Arsenault and Cousins have excelled. Previous recipients of the Barbeau Medal with fieldwork links to PEI include Dr. John Shaw and the late Dr. Edward “Sandy” Ives.

As Dr. Edward MacDonald, chair of UPEI’s Department of History notes, “In the year when the Folklore Studies Association of Canada is meeting on PEI, it seems entirely appropriate to recognize two giants of Prince Edward Island folklore for their career contributions to the collection, study, dissemination, and popularization of folklore within this province and beyond: Georges Arsenault and John Cousins. Both Georges and John were born into the communities they have studied, giving them the unique perspective that comes from being at the same time both outsiders and insiders in their research. Both live a conviction that scholarship has a responsibility to speak to the general populace, a duty to help us all better understand the culture that forms our mental and physical landscapes.”

Both Arsenault and Cousins will be giving free lectures open to the general public as part of the conference. Arsenault will present a lecture in French on traditional songs with examples from his fieldwork in PEI’s Acadian communities, entitled “Recueillir, conserver et partager la chanson traditionnelle acadienne de l’Île-du-Prince- Édouard” on Friday, 25 May, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm in the Faculty Lounge of UPEI’s SDU Main Building. Cousins will present a lecture from his fieldwork and historical research in West Prince communities and beyond in “The Witch & the Song Maker as Law Givers in Island Farming & Fishing Communities” on Saturday, May 26, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm at Beaconsfield Carriage House, PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation, in downtown Charlottetown.

All are welcome!

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.

The following is released by the University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College.

The University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College have formalized a degree pathway for graduates of the Holland College Environmental Applied Science Technology program. Students will study two years at Holland College and two years at UPEI, earning a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from UPEI.

“This is an exciting partnership between UPEI and Holland College, and showcases just how important it is that these two institutions work together to create new opportunities,” said Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island. “With a solid technical foundation from the Environmental Applied Science Technology program, UPEI can help students build toward any number of futures.”

“This agreement represents another fine example of collaboration between our two institutions”, said Michael O’Grady, vice president of innovation, enterprise and strategic development at Holland College. “In the end, it is the students who benefit from an exciting educational opportunity that will enhance the contribution they will make to addressing today’s environmental challenges.”

UPEI’s Environmental Studies program will accept the Environmental Applied Science Technology diploma courses as transfer credits of up to 60 credit hours to enter the Bachelor of Environmental Studies program in the third year. Diploma graduates will be required to have a minimum average of 70 per cent to be admitted and must complete at least 20 courses (60 credit hours) at UPEI to earn their degree.

“Students who combine the practical technical skills with an integrated understanding of the environment will have diversified their portfolio of employable skills,” said Dr. Carolyn Peach Brown, director of the Bachelor of Environmental Studies program at UPEI.

At UPEI, the Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree equips students to respond to the need for employees who are logical and analytical, as well as thoughtful and creative. Environmental issues typically do not respect traditional academic boundaries and require scientific, technical, human and social perspectives to address. With courses that integrate knowledge across faculties of Arts, Science and Business, Environmental Studies students learn to make connections across academic fields and to analyze environmental challenges we face today.

“The articulation agreement with the UPEI Bachelor of Environmental Studies program is an exciting opportunity for graduates who wish to further their education and training after earning their diploma at Holland College”, said Brian O’Neill, Learning Manager of Holland College’s Environmental Applied Science Technology program.  “The technical training and skills students develop in our program will complement the integrated approach to understanding environmental issues provided by UPEI, and will enhance the student’s careers in the environment industry.”

Holland College’s Environmental Applied Science Technology program delivers scientific theory and applied skills training in core sciences such as environmental chemistry and microbiology, and in applied sciences including soil science, hydrogeology, air quality, water and wastewater treatment, and environmental management and planning.  Students utilize their skills and knowledge in a number of key areas such as watershed management, operation and process control of water and wastewater treatment facilities, monitoring of surface and groundwater systems, and environmental health. The program also has an on the job training component, giving students real world experience in the environment industry in PEI and abroad. The Environmental Applied Science Technology Program is a nationally accredited program with the Canadian Technology Accreditation Board (CTAB).

UPEI and Holland College have partnered on a number of transfer and articulation agreements to provide degree pathways to graduates of specific college programs. For more information, see the complete list at UPEI’s Programs and Courses site.

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.

The entire UPEI community is saddened by the death of Dr. Satadal Dasgupta, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, who passed away on May 27, 2018 in Halifax, NS. Flags on campus will be lowered to half-mast in his honour.

The depth and the enduring impact of Dr. Satadal Dasgupta's career at the University of Prince Edward Island are difficult to match.

“Dr. Dasgupta shaped the Sociology and Anthropology department,” said Dean of Arts Neb Kujundzic. “During his accomplished and extremely influential presence in the Department and the Faculty of Arts, Dr. Dasgupta touched the lives of countless students, colleagues, and friends. He has left a huge legacy and was a huge source of inspiration at UPEI.”

A past chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Dr. Dasgupta also was past president of the Association of Retired UPEI Employees and past chair of the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation. While highly regarded as a teacher and mentor to his students, Dr. Dasgupta was equally respected as a researcher and collaborator with colleagues. His research interests included peasant and rural societies; community; kinship and social organization; South Asia; social and cultural change.

UPEI extends condolences to his wife Krishna; children Kaberi, Mohua, and Keya; and six grandsons. His life will be celebrated on Saturday, June 1 at 2 pm at JA Snow Funeral Home in Halifax, NS with a second memorial service to take place in Charlottetown in July.

Read Dr. Dasgupta's obituary

It is with great sadness that UPEI announces that Mr. Harry Baglole, the "godfather" of Island Studies, passed away peacefully late Tuesday night in Charlottetown. Harry was the founding Director of the Institute of Island Studies and the visionary behind much of what has taken place in Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island since 1985. He served on the IIS executive committee up until his death. Harry also played a central role in many of PEI’s cultural institutions such as Ragweed Press, The Island Magazine, the Macphail Homestead, the Bonshaw Hall, and the Vinland Society. For his many contributions, Harry received the Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 and the Atlantic Book Awards Society’s inaugural Pioneer Award in 2014. 

The University sends condolences to Harry’s family, friends, and colleagues. Flags have been lowered to half-mast in his memory. Visiting hours to be held at Belvedere Funeral Home on Sunday, June 3, 2018 from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm. A celebration of life filled with stories and music will be held at Spring Park United Church, Charlottetown, on Monday, June 4, 2018 at 7 pm with a reception to follow. Read the obituary

Dr. Michael Cockram, Chair in Animal Welfare at UPEI, is contributing his knowledge and expertise to three important textbooks about animal welfare. In a chapter in Animal Welfare, 3rd Edition, Dr. Cockram and co-author Barry Hughes discuss relationships between health and disease and animal welfare. Edited by Michael Appleby, Anna Olsson, and Franciso Galindo, and published by CABI, this best-selling book provides a broad introduction to key topics on the welfare of animals.

In Ensuring safety and quality in the production of beef, Vol. 2, Dr. Cockram wrote a chapter entitled “Understanding the effects of handling, transportation, lairage, and slaughter on cattle welfare and beef quality.” Edited by Professor Emeritus Michael Dikerman, and published by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, this book has received very positive reviews. Dr. Cockram’s chapter shows how an understanding of the welfare of cattle can contribute to the quality of beef production.

Dr. Cockram is also contributing to the forthcoming fifth edition of Livestock Handling and Transport, edited by world-renowned animal scientist Dr. Temple Grandin. He is updating his chapter on sheep transport, which was published in the third and fourth editions. An invaluable guide for professionals and students in animal behaviour, animal and veterinary sciences, and other related fields, this book covers scientific research on the handling and transport of cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep, deer, and horses.