Weekly News Roundup

UNIONS | INSTITUTIONS | GOVERNMENT

UNBC Faculty Association welcomes new President Dr. Paul Siakaluk 

UNBC Faculty Association welcomes new President Dr. Paul Siakaluk. A democratic organization governed by constitutional bylaws, the UNBC-FA is governed by a volunteer executive and served by staff including a full-time Executive Director and Professional Services Officer.

BC | UNBC-FA

BC Universities Adopt Pass/Credit/No Credit Grading 

Senates approve new, temporary undergraduate pass/credit/no credit grading system for spring, summer, and fall 2021 terms.

BC | UBC | SFU

UVic waives medical notes needed for students

Faculty and instructors are asked to continue to waive the medical documentation requirement for students who are ill. This strategy was initiated on March 4, 2020 and renewed by the UVic Senate at their January meeting.

BC | UVic

UBC’s approach for 2021 Summer Session

UBC President Santa Ono outlines plans for the University’s upcoming Summer Session that starts in May 2021. 

BC | UBC

New chancellor inspires an update to Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s regalia

With a Coast Salish design and modern fit, the new academic robes honour Kim Baird, the first Indigenous woman to serve as chancellor at the institution.

BC | University Affairs

B.C.’s recovery economy: Pandemic’s toll on B.C. universities, colleges

While B.C. public schools resumed in-class instruction in the fall of 2020, many post-secondary institutions that closed lecture halls and went online in the spring continued to offer most of their instruction online in the fall. Campuses and dormitories became ghost towns. And it will continue to look that way for a few months to come. 

BC | Delta Optimist

Trend Micro to expand their education partnerships across Canada in 2021

American-Japanese multinational cybersecurity software company, Trend Micro, entered a partnership with Simon Fraser University to provide course lectures, lab exercises and assessments in cloud security to the first cohort of the university’s new Professional Master’s Program in Computer Science – Cybersecurity Concentration. 

BC | IT World Canada

UBC congratulates 2020/21 University Killam Professors

UBC announces the appointment of six new University Killam Professors, including CUFA BC distinguished academic award winner Dr. Bonny Norton. The highest honour UBC can confer on a faculty member, a University Killam Professorship recognizes exceptional teachers and researchers who are leaders in their fields, and who have received international recognition for their talents and achievements.

BC | UBC

Through the Lens: Cultivating Safe Spaces

The UBC Equity & Inclusion Office is excited to present another Through the Lens series, a series of interactive workshops exploring how different identities intersect, navigate and experience UBC while offering practical ideas on creating a more inclusive campus.

BC | UBC

Camosun, VIU face budget deficits as international enrolment drops

A drop in tuition revenue and the increased cost of delivering online learning are adding up to large budget deficits for the coming year that have some Island post-secondary institutions looking for new revenue streams.

BC | Times Colonist

Camosun College to train more community mental health workers

A new education and training program at Camosun College will enable people to train for high-demand jobs as community mental health workers.

BC | BC Gov News

UBC donor Peter A. Allard’s petition in court, a gift agreement, and the law around charitable donations

A judge rejected his attempt to seek judicial review after an arbitrator limited the extent to which his name would appear on degree certificates.

BC | Georgia Straight

Government of Canada announces support for innovation in clean technology and sustainable materials

Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada, announced $1.9 million in funding to the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus (UBCO) to develop an innovation hub that will promote clean technologies that convert carbon-based additives and components into new, sustainable products.

BC | Cision

Academic freedom entails both individual and social responsibility

Periodically, professors drop their commitment to objective truth to pursue political agendas. When this occurs, they become prisoners of their own ideologies. In a publication by Professors Ole Wæver and Barry Buzan, the authors reveal that some scholars within critical studies deliberately mislead readers by utilizing deepfake methodology.

National | Academic Matters

Editorial: Collegial governance is dead, executed by our Board of Governors

By rejecting General Faculties Council, the University of Alberta Board of Governors struck a fatal blow to academic democratic values.

AB | The Gateway

Join the Education for All campaign launch

With the pandemic shining a spotlight on long-simmering issues in the post-secondary education sector, CAUT has joined forces with the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada to develop the Education for All campaign. Together, our combined memberships of more than one million students and workers are putting forward a vision of a more affordable, accessible, high quality, publicly-funded postsecondary education system in Canada, a system that is ready to take on the challenges of today and tomorrow.

National | CAUT

What people are complaining about when they complain about performance-based funding

HESA provides an analysis of performance-based funding.

National | HESA

Hindsight Is 20/20: Key cases and developments in labour and human rights

Seasoned counsel will review the most important labour and human rights decisions from the past year and explain how they will affect you in the coming year. The panel will also flag significant ongoing litigation.

National | Lancaster House

In the era of COVID, too few institutions have been considering changes to policies and procedures that could support a wide range of researchers, writes Todd Butler.

International | IHE

Most boards aren’t structurally or culturally equipped to deal with a crisis.

International | Chronicle

Lecturers warn they will strike if forced to resume ‘unsafe’ teaching

University lecturers will not resume “unsafe” face-to-face teaching this academic year, and any attempt by the government or vice-chancellors to reopen campuses in February will fail, the UK’s largest academic union has warned.

International | The Guardian