To better serve students, Accessibility Services has officially moved to our NEW office space in the Robertson Library annex!

While the main library is still not open, our new space is. We are still unpacking, and there are a few details for finish work, but we are ready for students and faculty to stop by for services!

New Location: Robertson Library, room 215 (Just down the hall from the Teaching and Learning Centre)

Main Office Hours: 8:00am - 4:00pm (closed from 12:00pm - 1:00pm daily)

Test Centre Hours: 8:00am - 8:00pm, Monday to Friday

Over the past several months renovations have taken place to create a larger, more centralized Test Centre to accommodate the increasing demands for test accommodations. This new location will also be home to the entire Accessibility Services team, who are excited to offer these more centralized services, in a more accessible location. 

For general inquiries please email accessibility@upei.ca or call 902-566-0664 for assistance.

Over the coming weeks the City of Charlottetown will be doing traffic counts at major intersections on and around the UPEI campus. This will be done by cameras which will record the number of cars, cyclists and pedestrians at each intersection throughout the day.  License plates and other identifying information are not being collected.  The information will be used by the City for planning purposes, and will also be used for an ongoing research project led by Dr Travis Saunders.  If you have any questions or concerns about this work, please contact trsaunders@upei.ca.

Join Marissa Clapson (Chemistry) and Ashton Dougan (Nursing) for an interactive lunch-and-learn where you won’t just hear about escape rooms, you’ll experience one. In this session, participants will take part in a mini educational escape room, explore the tactile and digital materials we use to design them, and learn how escape rooms can promote engagement, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem-solving across disciplines. We will share examples from nursing and chemistry, discuss student reactions and learning outcomes, and walk you through the first steps of planning your own classroom escape room. Whether you teach in the sciences, health, or beyond, you’ll leave with practical ideas, adaptable resources, and inspiration to bring playful, high-impact learning into your courses.

Looking for dedicated time to make progress on a writing project? Join our Show Up and Write (SU&W) drop-in sessions in the Teaching and Learning Centre beginning October 2, held Tuesdays and Fridays at 9:30 am. Bring your laptop, books, notes, and favourite morning beverage, and spend an hour focused on whatever you're writing: an article, chapter, grant application, thesis, conference proposal, or any other project. Research suggests that academics often write more productively when they write alongside others. SU&W sessions provide a structured, distraction-limited environment that helps participants focus and make steady progress. To make it even easier to attend, consider inviting a colleague or fellow graduate student to be your "accountabilibuddy." 

Drop in on Tuesdays or Fridays at 9:30 am in Robertson Library, Room 228. We look forward to writing with you!

The Faculty of Science Environmental Sciences / Human Biology Seminar Series invites the campus community to a presentation by Dr. Corey Baimel (Dalhousie University) entitled "Pathway specific connectivity in motivated behaviours" on Friday, September 25, 12:30 pm in the Duffy Science Centre, room 204.

Everyone is welcome 

Faculty, staff, and students are invited and encouraged to serve on a committee helping to implement programming for this year's senior class. Ideally, the group meets approximately 4 to 6 times during the academic year to discuss events, interests, and engagement promotion to those graduating between August 2026 and May 2027. The Office of Student Culture and Community Standards are particularly interested in hearing student perspectives. Those interested are asked to be willing to assist with some tasks related to the developed programming. 

For more information, please reach out to Student Engagement Officer, Krissi Ewing, or refer back to the 2026 Convocation Countdown programming. 

The excitement for this Saturday's Gold Rush draw is growing as big as the pot! With no winners in the last ELEVEN draws, the total pot has grown to more than $40,000, with half going to the winner of the draw.

Gold Rush is a virtual fundraising initiative that raises funds for UPEI’s athletic and recreation programs. You can now select a specific team, club, or program to direct your proceeds from each of your tickets. 

Play today and every week for a chance to win! Download the UPEI Panther Recreation app from the App Store or on Google Play, or play from your computer. The weekly draw is held at 8:00 pm every Saturday.

Flags at UPEI will be flown at half-mast on Sunday, September 27, to commemorate Police and Peace Officers' National Memorial Day. In 1998, the Government of Canada officially proclaimed the last Sunday of September as a national memorial day to give Canadians an opportunity to formally express appreciation for the dedication of police and peace officers, and to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in keeping communities safe.

September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day to “honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada). The University will be closed on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to observe the provincial statutory holiday and flags will be lowered to half-mast. Read more about how UPEI will mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

ITSS will be performing a critical update to the Firewalls that control access to the Internet.  The update will be applied Sunday, September 27, 2026.  The maintenance window for the update on Sunday is 8:00 am to 9:00 am.  Expected outage duration is 1 hour.

Outage scope: Internet access in and out – wired and Wi-Fi.  This includes Remote access and VPN connectivity into UPEI.  Any Internet hosted services (including Email, OneDrive and SharePoint) will not be accessible from the UPEI networks during the outage window.

Not impacted: Access to internal UPEI resources from within UPEI will not be impacted.  Log in, printing, file server etc. will remain available within UPEI.

Multiple-choice questions provide an efficient means of assessing a broad range of knowledge. Still, mistaken assumptions persist (such as multiple-choice tests being limited to only assessing recognition of basic facts, rather than the effective application of principles).

In this session, Drs. Scott Cassidy and Blake Jelley (both of whom have used psychometrics in high-stakes testing contexts), will discuss how multiple-choice testing can be effectively deployed within course assessments – with a specific focus on promoting psychometric effectiveness. The session, which will use examples from in-class tests, will include a general discussion regarding the construction, quality assurance, and refinement of multiple-choice questions; as well as a demonstration of how statistical information available through the Remark® software in ITSS can be used to evaluate and refine such assessments.

Faculty and staff are invited to share their feedback on Welcome Week 2026! Whether or not you participated in Welcome Week events or activities, your feedback will help the Office of Student Culture and Community Standards inform future planning and support the student experience at UPEI.

The faculty and staff Welcome Week feedback survey is anonymous and takes approximately 3-5 minutes to complete. Complete the survey by September 25, 2026, and you can enter for a chance to win one of two UPEI prize packs.

Faculty and Staff Survey Link

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Student Experience Coordinator Susie Zavala at szavala@upei.ca. 

Join the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation's virtual Lunch and Learn series this week exploring Indigenous perspectives, reconciliation, leadership, health, and confronting residential school denialism. Campus colleagues are especially invited to gather in the Teaching and Learning Centre, Robertson Library 228 on Thursday, September 24 at 3:00 pm to watch Honouring Indigenous Leadership: Perspectives for a Shared Future together.

Campus2Market Discover Bootcamp is the one-stop shop to get you started on your entrepreneurial journey, whether you already have an idea or not! Learn how to ideate with a customer focus, structure your concept into a business model, identify your most attractive customer segment, and communicate your early-stage idea effectively!

Campus2Market Discover Bootcamp is the only way to make yourself and your team eligible to participate in the new Aspire stream of the Harry W. MacLauchlan Entrepreneurship Program next semester for first and second year students!

The best part? You can complete the whole program in just 3 DAYS! The full bootcamp is taking place in FSDE 128B on the UPEI campus on the following dates:

• Friday, October 2 from 5:30 - 7:00 pm
• Saturday, October 3 from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
• Sunday, October 4 from 9:30 am - 2:00 pm

Any current UPEI and Holland College student, faculty member, or recent graduate within the last 5 years is eligible to attend. Food is provided throughout the bootcamp! Register today

October offers a variety of learning and professional development opportunities for UPEI employees and leaders. Whether you're looking to build existing skills or expand your knowledge, these offerings are designed to support your ongoing professional growth.

• October 1: EFAP Employee Orientation
• October 6: Campus Connections
• October 7: Supporting Employee Wellbeing- A Guide to Illness, Injury, Return to Work & Accommodations at UPEI (Leader Session)
• October 8: Microaggressions: Subtle Acts of Exclusion
• October 13: Fostering Neuroinclusion: inclusive practices for in-person, online, and hybrid workplace (CCDI Webinar)
• October 14: Exploring UPEI Professional Development Opportunities
• October 14: Supporting Employee Wellbeing- A Guide to Illness, Injury, Return to Work & Accommodations at UPEI (Employee Session)
• October 15: DCU (Data Collection Utility) Training
• October 21: Psychological Health and Safety Workshop
• October 28: Job Classification at UPEI: What You Need to Know

Visit Grow Here: Professional Development Opportunities or Human Resources Calendar to view all upcoming learning opportunities and register. If you have any questions or difficulties registering, please contact learnandgrow@upei.ca 

We will continue to add new learning opportunities throughout the fall and winter. We encourage you to visit these pages regularly to stay informed about new offerings and upcoming events. If there is a learning opportunity you would like to see added, please click here.  

Participants are being sought for a study on the effects of acute sauna therapy on controlling blood sugar levels in individuals living with overweight or obesity. The study is led by Dr. Étienne Myette-Côté, assistant professor of Applied Human Sciences at UPEI.

The purpose of the study is to understand how a single 45-minute infrared sauna session affects blood sugar levels. Participants will complete two sessions (sauna and rest), wear a small blood sugar sensor, and attend a total of three lab visits. All meals for study days will be provided. All sessions take place at the Steel Building, Room #119.

Potential participants may be eligible if they are 30 to 55 years old; have a body mass index equal to or greater than 27 kg/m2; have a waist size greater than 102 cm for men or greater than 88 cm for women; and are cleared for participation based on the results of a physical activity readiness questionnaire. People are not eligible if they take medications that affect blood sugar; exercise intensely twice a week; have diabetes, heart issues, and low blood sugar or pressure; are pregnant; regularly use saunas or other heat therapy; and consume more than seven alcoholic drinks per week on average. 

To find out more about the study, email researchupei@outlook.com

The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies Community of Practice on Graduate Supervision is hosting their first 2026-2027 national webinar entitled "From First Conversations to Final Stages: Setting Expectations, Building Communication, and Supporting Completion."

This webinar welcomes UAlberta's Dr. Tracy Raivio and Dr. Kara Schick-Makaroff, who will explore how supervisors can establish clear, mutual expectations from the start of the supervisory relationship, and share strategies for supporting students through the final stages of completion, including those in the All But Dissertation (ABD) stage.

2:00-3:30 pm Atlantic
September 25, 2026
Click to Register

The National Community of Practice on Graduate Supervision was created for and by those doing the work of graduate supervision. It is a space for open exchange, shared learning and informal collaboration across institutions, roles and experience levels.

The Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, invites all to attend Allison Vandaele’s public dissertation defense presentation of Allison’s PsyD research titled: "Implementing Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) in an Acute Geriatric Psychiatry Unit"

Please join us in supporting Allison on this momentous occasion!

Date and Time: September 25, 2026 at 10:30 am 
Location: Memorial Hall, Room 104

Are you a graduate student looking to strengthen your teaching practice, prepare for future academic roles, or build confidence as an instructor? Whether you're new to teaching or have completed the Certificate in University Teaching Quick Start, the University Teaching Domain Certificate: Learner Centredness offers an opportunity to explore evidence-informed approaches to teaching and learning. 

Designed for graduate students, this program helps participants develop practical teaching skills for teaching assistantships and future instructional roles. Through self-paced learning, reflection, discussion, and application, you'll build a foundation in effective and inclusive teaching practices. 

Dates and Times: 

• October 1 – How People Learn, 12:00-1:00 pm (Please note the change in the date for this session.)
• October 21 – Presentation Prep, 12:00-1:00 pm
• November 18 – Universal Design for Learning (UDL), 12:00-1:00 pm

Bring your own lunch and join us for an engaging session.

Location: Robertson Library Annex 230

Hosted by: The Teaching and Learning Centre

Click here to learn more, or Register for this series 

The next UPEI Senate meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 25, 2026, 3:00 pm at Alumni Hall, Room 102, 618 University Avenue. All meetings are open to members of the University community. Certain agenda items, including but not limited to granting of degrees, academic dismissals, and human resources discussions, may require the Senate 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 senate@upei.ca by 3:00 pm on the day prior to the meeting.  While Senate is an in-person meeting, members of the University community may request a virtual connection when they are unable to attend in person. 

View the schedule of UPEI Senate meetings for the 2026–2027 academic year.

Campus2Market Discover Bootcamp is the one-stop shop to get you started on your entrepreneurial journey, whether you already have an idea or not! Learn how to ideate with a customer focus, structure your concept into a business model, identify your most attractive customer segment, and communicate your early-stage idea effectively!

Campus2Market Discover Bootcamp is the only way to make yourself and your team eligible to participate in the new Aspire stream of the Harry W. MacLauchlan Entrepreneurship Program next semester for first and second year students!

The best part? You can complete the whole program in just 3 DAYS! The full bootcamp is taking place in FSDE 128B on the UPEI campus on the following dates:

• Friday, October 2 from 5:30 - 7:00 pm
• Saturday, October 3 from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
• Sunday, October 4 from 9:30 am - 2:00 pm

Any current UPEI and Holland College student, faculty member, or recent graduate within the last 5 years is eligible to attend. Food is provided throughout the bootcamp! Register today.