Message from the President: Season's Greetings!
The following message and video was also distributed to faculty, staff, and students on December 16, 2025.
Dear UPEI Community,
We are coming to the end of 2025—filled with as much excitement and hope as when we entered it!
Best wishes to all who are preparing, studying for, writing, and grading exams! It’s a culmination of all your collective hard work throughout the term. Learning, knowledge seeking, and understanding are always collective activities—we must all participate and play our roles. Teachers must challenge students—and students must challenge teachers! Complex and vexing problems must challenge scholars and researchers, and scholars and researchers must challenge existing and traditional knowledge and understanding. We engage in this cycle so that, together, we can be better and do better.
This year we launched our new strategic plan: Making our world a better place. If we make UPEI a better place, we make the world a better place. Our recent economic impact study showed that the University is an economic driver and a sound investment—both as an employer and through the purchasing power of our employees. Our graduates go on to accomplish great things in their employment and their communities. There is no question that UPEI is essential to the prosperity of PEI and to the many other industries that comprise the provincial economy and knowledge sector.
As the year winds down and we welcome 2026, let’s reflect on the kind of world we want and the kind of UPEI we aspire to create. In our Strategic Plan, we reaffirmed our core values: academic freedom; accountability and integrity; pursuit of excellence; equity, diversity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging; and reconciliation. As we undertake our annual planning, let’s keep these principles at the forefront. A key question we have posed to our community is, ‘what can we expect from ourselves and others to uphold our values?’ For all these core values, we identified behaviours such as kindness, respect, listening, courage, follow-through, making space for others, integrity, and taking responsibility. If each of us chooses to embody one way to live each value, we can begin shaping the culture we desire.
The holidays always offer opportunities to demonstrate kindness, compassion, giving, and receiving; qualities and behaviours we all strive to carry throughout the year. They also pose certain challenges and stresses. As we head toward the holiday break, we work so hard during the exam period (studying and marking and entering grades and supporting those doing the studying and marking). There is a lot of evidence that the holidays come with some added stresses and can exacerbate existing stresses. It’s a time to look out for each other and to check in with ourselves, making sure we are ok, coping, and engaging in healthy ways. Our recent feedback shows our community wants to be helpful, wants to listen, and wants everyone to reach their potential. It’s ok to ask and it’s ok to reach out. There are several resources available for those looking for more information or a bit of help. Visit the UPEI Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Human Rights website to learn more about available supports and services.
Another exciting year awaits us! Let’s carry our momentum forward, foster it, and all work towards the future we want to be part of.
With very best wishes for a successful and constructive end to 2025 and an optimistic and prosperous 2026. (View the video message)
Wendy
Wendy M. Rodgers, PhD (she/her)
President and Vice-Chancellor
