Every week, UPEI Athletics and Recreation recognizes two student-athletes for their hard work and dedication to their respective sports. Congratulations to Alysha Corrigan (women’s rugby) and Jeff Moore (men’s soccer), the UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the week for September 26–October 2. Watch video profile

Alysha Corrigan, a third-year Bachelor of Business Administration student from Charlottetown, set a new school record for points scored in a women’s rugby game. The Subway Player of the Game and centre scored 31 points on 3 tries and 8 converts to help propel the Panthers to a dominating 76-0 win over the Saint Mary’s Huskies on Saturday afternoon.

“She sees things that other people don’t,” said Panthers head coach John LaBoyne. “She's just an amazing young woman and athlete.”

Jeff Moore, a fourth-year Bachelor of Business Administration student from Stratford, PEI, continues to be strong for the Panthers, playing at the full back position. During Friday’s 3-0 win over Mount Allison University, Moore was outstanding both offensively and defensively; he scored for the Panthers and played both left and right back.

It’s not too late to purchase your Panther Package, the best sports deal on Prince Edward Island! Your $75 season ticket gets you into every home Panther home game, in every sport (except men’s hockey). Find more details at gopanthersgo.ca.

The following was released today from the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

HALIFAX, NS – Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) has been appointed Chair of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU).

The AAU is an advocacy organization working on behalf of the Presidents of the region’s 16 universities (learn more about the AAU atwww.atlanticuniversities.ca).

Dr. Abd-El-Aziz will lead the AAU over the next two years.  He was appointed by his colleagues during the AAU’s recent annual fall meeting at Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

Following his appointment, Dr. Abd-El-Aziz said that the region’s university leaders are extremely heartened by the results of the AAU’s 2016 Graduate Retention Study which indicated that 87% of graduates from the region’s universities are satisfied with the quality of their education.  The study also revealed that 70% of graduates would recommend their province of study as a place to live and work.  Most notably, 75% of international student graduates would remain in their province of study after graduation if given a choice.

“These extremely positive results further confirm the high quality of our institutions and their reputation for a unique student experience which attracts local, out-of-region and international students in growing numbers.  Attraction of talented young people to the region is a major component of the federal government’s Atlantic Growth Strategy and universities have an important role to play along with our governments and the private sector to help retain students following graduation,” said Dr. Abd-El-Aziz.

Dr. Abd-El-Aziz added, “The largest program award in the country of nearly $100 million in research funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) to Dalhousie University, Memorial University of Newfoundland and UPEI for the Oceans Frontier Institute, is a great testimony to our universities commitment to collaboration and partnership.” 

To learn more about Dr. Abd-El-Aziz please go to:  www.upei.ca/president/about-president.

The Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU) represents the interests of universities across the region, ensuring public visibility for the important role they play in preparing future leaders of our communities, in path-breaking research and innovation, and in contributing to the economic, cultural and social prosperity of life in Atlantic Canada.

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For further information, contact:
Peter Halpin, Executive Director, AAU
(902) 425-4238/phalpin@atlanticuniversities.ca

University of Prince Edward Island President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz issued a statement today on the passing of UPEI honorary degree recipient, the Honourable Barbara Hagerman.

“On behalf of UPEI students, faculty, staff, and alumni, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to Dr. Hagerman’s husband Nelson, their children, and extended family and friends,” said UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. “Barb was not only a tireless community volunteer, beloved music educator, and former Lieutenant Governor of our province, but she was a great friend of this University.”

During her five-year term as Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Hagerman connected directly with the University and established two major initiatives which have had a profound and positive impact on UPEI students: monthly public recitals featuring UPEI music students at Fanningbank, her official residence, and a Family Mentor Program, whereby PEI families would become "hosts" to incoming international students. She and Nelson were proud "Island parents" to twelve UPEI students and remained in close touch with many of them since their graduation. Dr. Hagerman was also the first Honorary Patron of the AIRS project at UPEI.

As noted in the citation read at Convocation in 2014 when her UPEI honorary doctor of laws was conferred, Dr. Hagerman always felt that music had been the key to unlock many of life’s doors, giving her confidence, creative inspiration, and a career. She often said, “I have always lived to sing.” A very organized person and planner, she had even composed her epitaph many years ago, “She just wanted to make a beautiful sound, personally and professionally.”

“The entire UPEI community is saddened that the Honourable Barbara Hagerman’s ‘beautiful sound’ has been silenced, but is heartened that her tremendous contributions to the creative life of our province will be remembered forever,” added President Abd-El-Aziz.

Dr. Hagerman passed away in Charlottetown on October 6, 2016 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year.

Season preview contributed by Thomas Becker

The UPEI Men's Hockey Panthers are a team on the hunt.

After upsetting the Acadia Axemen in the AUS quarterfinals last season but losing to the eventual national champions, the UNB Varsity Reds, the Panthers are hoping to use that experience as their championship pursuit begins.

To combat the inevitable injury bug that decimated their lineup last season, the Panthers armed themselves with a group of skilled recruits who will provide much-needed depth to their lineup.

“The teams that do well in our league are able to protect themselves against injuries, suspensions and illness,” said Panthers head coach Forbes MacPherson. “At this time last year, we felt like we had a pretty good team. But all of sudden three weeks into the regular season, and we were down three top-six forwards and we just couldn’t recover from it.”

Now, after a successful offseason in which they acquired 10 new players, the Panthers are eager to hit the ice when it all matters Saturday night.

“We had a big recruiting year, both in quantity and quality,” the coach said. “Bottom line, we just had to get better and we had to get deeper and I think we did that.”

Strong relationships with past and current Panthers helped make the acquisitions possible, promising their new linemates a small but welcoming school with a hockey program gearing up for a championship run.

“We wanted to bring in players who have all the qualities we are looking for in a person and as a player.”

Among them are former NHL prospects Austin Levi (third-round pick by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2010) and Cody Payne (fifth-round pick by the Boston Bruins in 2012), Kurt Etchegary (former captain of QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts), Beau McCue (Tri-City Americans of the WHL), J.C. Campagna (St. Thomas Tommies), Riley Whittingham and Bobby Zinkan (Summerside Western Capitals).

“From a hockey perspective, they increase our skill level.”

Forwards Payne, Etchegary, McCue, Campagna and Whittingham will help shore up an offence that struggled to score at times, notching just 78 goals in 28 games – the fewest of any playoff team. They’ll join winger Marcus Power (32 points) and P.E.I.’s own Brent Andrews (25 points) to form a skilled attack that will have opponents scrambling for answers.

“We won’t be relying on one or two players to carry the workload offensively,” said MacPherson. “It’ll be more of an offence-by-committee and that will make us more difficult to go up against. We’re going to get everyone involved so our depth becomes an asset.”

Physically the Panthers are a bigger team, built with the strength necessary to push top-tier teams like UNB and St. FX off the puck while making their rivals uncomfortable throughout the game.

“We have to use our size, physicality and aggression on the forecheck to make an impact.”

Led by all-star and Summerside native Ryan MacKinnon and fellow defenceman Nelson Armstrong, the defence aims to improve after allowing 100 goals in the 2015-16 campaign – the third highest of any team.

While Levi’s NHL experience will be felt behind the blue line, the key to success will likely come down to sound fundamentals and a team approach that MacPherson has been preaching throughout training camp.

Longtime Panther Mavric Parks’ place between the pipes has been taken over by Matt Mahalak, who is expected to get the majority of the starts this season. Mahalak put together a respectable season as a reserve, posting a 2.77 goals against average with a .917 save percentage. Connor Wilkinson, meanwhile, will serve as Mahalak’s backup.

“The two goalies left behind are going to be handed the keys and we believe they can get the job done.”

While the (AUS) conference has a lot to offer in terms of national superiority (UNB, St. FX and Saint Mary’s finished as CIS’s top ranked teams), the Panthers aren’t ready to just hand over a championship. They’ll have a lot to say about it when the puck drops for real on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be the most competitive year ever for this conference. Anybody who’s watched our team over the last few years knows when they buy a ticket, they’re going to see a very fast-paced, competitive, hard-hitting, aggressive hockey team.”

Catch the Panthers at home on October 8 when they take on the defending national champions the UNB Varsity Reds at MacLauchlan Arena. Puck drops at 7 pm.

It’s not too late to purchase your Panther Package, the best sports deal on Prince Edward Island! Your $75 season ticket gets you into every home Panther home game, in every sport (except Men’s Hockey). Find more details at gopanthersgo.ca.

UPEI’s Dr. James Moran delivered the first of the 2016 Shannon Lectures at Carleton University. This year, the Shannon Lectures examine the social, intellectual and cultural history of health, sickness, disease and medicine. Dr. Moran’s lecture was entitled “Trials of Madness: Civil Law and Lunacy in a Trans-Atlantic World During the 18th and 19th Centuries.”

Dr. Moran is an associate professor in the history department at the University of Prince Edward Island. He researches and writes about the history of disease, medicine, and mental health. Recent publications include, ‘Travails of Madness: New Jersey, 1800-1870’, in Waltraud Ernst, ed., Work Therapy, Psychiatry and Society, c. 1750 – 2010 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016) and, with Dr. Lisa Chilton, ‘Mad Migrants and the Reach of English Civil Law,’ in Marjory Harper ed., The Past and Present of Migration and Mental Health (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). He is in the completion stages of a book entitled, Madness on Trial: English Civil Law and Lunacy in trans-Atlantic Context.

UPDATE: Matt Mahalak has also been named the Subway AUS Athlete of the Week! Congratulations, Matt!

Every week, UPEI Athletics and Recreation recognizes two student-athletes for their hard work and dedication to their respective sports. Congratulations to Carolina Del Santo (women’s basketball) and Matt Mahalak (men’s hockey), the UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the week for October 3-9!

Matt Mahalak is a third-year Business student and a goalie from Monroe, Michigan. With Mahalek between the pipes, the UPEI Men’s Hockey team won back-to-back games in the last week. The Panthers beat Université de Moncton 7-5, and won against the University of New Brunswick in an overtime shootout. “Matt played very well for us on the weekend,” said coach Forbes MacPherson. “It was important for Matty to get off on the right foot, and with two wins and 60 saves, he was a key factor in our two-win week.”

Carolina Del Santo comes to the UPEI Women’s Basketball team from Barcelona, Spain. The first-year science student kicked off her career as a Panther at the Concordia tournament in Montreal, pulling a double-double in her final two games. She scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against the University of Ottawa, and 14 points and 10 rebounds against the University of Guelph. She shot over 50% from the field and was selected to the tournament all-star team. “Carolina played very well at the Concordia tournament getting better in each of our three games,” said coach Greg Gould. “She gives us the low-post presence that we have been lacking. She not only gives us scoring and rebounding, but is someone who can defend opposing posts exceptionally well. I feel that as Carolina gets more experience at the CIS level she will become a dominant force in the AUS.”

Congratulations Carolina and Matt!

It’s not too late to purchase your Panther Package, the best sports deal on Prince Edward Island! Your $75 season ticket gets you into every home Panther home game, in every sport (except Men’s Hockey). Find more details at gopanthersgo.ca.

Fiction writer Elizabeth Hay is deservedly blessed with devoted fans across Canada, and PEI is no exception. She will read from her new work, including the novel His Whole Life, on Friday, October 21, at 7:30 pm in the UPEI Faculty Lounge, SDU Main Building. A reception and book signing will follow.

Novelist Annabel Lyon says of His Whole Life, “This most wonderful of novels offers an unsentimental look at the sweetness and pain of boyhood against the backdrop of Quebec’s independence movement in the 1990s. Conflicts large and small between city and country, French and English, [Canadian] wife and [American] husband, mother and son play out in Elizabeth Hay’s signature tender but incisive prose.”

His Whole Life partly grows out of Hay’s experience of marrying an American and having dual-citizen children, her lasting regret for not getting her son a dog when he wanted one at age ten, and a question he asked during a camping trip: “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

Hay’s fictional worlds reflect her loving embrace of the landscapes and communities where she has lived, from her childhood years in Owen Sound and the Bruce Peninsula to a richly influential adolescent stay in England. Her adulthood and writing career have found her in Yellowknife, Winnipeg, New York City, Latin America, and now Old Ottawa South and her mother’s home region of the Ottawa Valley.

Her numerous prize and nominations include the Giller Prize for Late Nights on Air, the Ottawa Book Award for Garbo Laughs, and being a finalist twice for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction for Small Change and A Student of Weather. In 2002 she was honoured with the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career.

Winter’s Tales is sponsored by the UPEI English Department, Faculty of Arts, and the office of the Vice-President Academic and Research, with funding from The Canada Council for the Arts.

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.

UPEI’s Robertson Library is hosting a new book event series this fall called “Open Pages,” which will feature local authors speaking about their books: what inspired them, what they learned, what they shared. The public is warmly invited to this series. Light refreshments will be served. Books will be available for sale and signing.

The first Open Pages features Time and a Place: An Environmental History of PEI, published by Island Studies Press. The event is Wednesday, October 12, 7 pm in the second floor common area of the Robertson Library.

Time and a Place is the first environmental history of Prince Edward Island and the first such history of any Canadian province. It features 12 essays and explores how the Island has evolved from the Ice Age to the Information Age. One of the book’s strengths is the diversity among its expert authors. They discuss agriculture, fisheries, and forestry with some topics in common, including climate change. They also discuss the human impact on the Island’s fields, forests, and waters, and in turn, how nature has affected Islanders.

Several of the book’s contributors plus two of its editors, Dr. Ed MacDonald and marine biologist Dr. Irene Novaczek, will be featured at Open Pages to discuss Time and a Place, and encourage questions on its content.

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 Island Studies Lectures Series gets under way for a new season on Tuesday, October 18, at 7 pm in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus. Kicking off the season is UPEI historian Dr. Edward MacDonald, who will present a public lecture, “The Romance of Prince Edward Island: A Tour Through the 1941 Visitors' Guide.”

Along with fellow Islander Dr. Alan MacEachern of the University of Western Ontario, Dr. MacDonald has been working for many years on a history of Prince Edward Island tourism. In 1941, for special reasons, Prince Edward Island dressed itself up as “The England of Canada” in a bid to attract war-wary American tourists. One visitor saved the guide, adding their own comments in the margins. Six decades later, that guide has come back to the Island. Its pictures, text, ads, and annotations provide a revealing glimpse into an industry that was still struggling to define itself.

Dr. Edward MacDonald teaches in the History Department at UPEI. His research focus is the social, cultural, and environmental history of Prince Edward Island. Along with Dr. Josh MacFadyen and Dr. Irene Novaczek, he is co-editor of Time and A Place: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island, co-published by Island Studies Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. The best known of his seven books is If You’re Stronghearted: Prince Edward Island in the 20th Century (October 2000).

Admission to the lecture is free, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Watch for details for another lecture about islands–near and far–November 15. For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or (902)894-2881.

UPEI’s vice-president academic and research spoke recently at the inaugural Cardiovascular Research Day at the Ontario Veterinary College. In addition to his many duties at UPEI, Dr. Robert Gilmour is also a prominent cardiovascular researcher. His lab focuses on the cellular mechanisms for the development and suppression of heart rhythm disorders, in particular ventricular fibrillation, which is the leading cause of death in developed nations. A collaborative multidisciplinary approach involving physiologists, physicists, computer scientists, and engineers, as well as human and veterinary cardiologists, is used to develop new and better methods of detecting and treating these life-threatening disorders. His talk was titled “Cardiac Defibrillation: It’s been a LEAP Year.”

The inaugural research day for the Centre for Cardiovascular Investigations (CCVI) at the University of Guelph brought together more than 100 researchers, students, and research collaborators.