Please join us as our three Master of Education cohorts wrap up their degree with a conference to showcase their work from the program. The sessions are open to everyone and feature keynotes, posters and presentations that highlight a wide range of educational issues, topics and research. Feel free to attend the whole conference, or use the attached program to attend individual sessions. Come celebrate the students’ success!

You’re invited to join in Summer Reunion Weekend! The University, through the Department of Development and Alumni Engagement, hosts Summer Reunion Weekend every July to celebrate our over 23,000 alumni. This year, many of the events focus on the SDU Class of '65, celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the SDU Class of '55. Faculty and staff are invited to the Staff, Faculty, and “All Years” Alumni Mixer on Thursday, July 23 from 3:00–5:00 pm in Schurman Market Square in Don and Marion McDougall Hall. Senior management has been advised to encourage all to attend. This will be a great opportunity to kick off the weekend, and mix and mingle with a cross section of our campus community, while enjoying some refreshments, and entertainment. Everyone is welcome!

The Department of Student Affairs, in partnership with the Student Diversity Office and the UPEI Rainbow Alliance, will be raising the pride flag on Monday, July 27, 2015 at 12:00 pm at the flag plaza near Kelley Memorial Building. The raising of the flag is to recognize that UPEI supports all of its students, faculty, and staff and to celebrate PEI Pride Week. PEI Pride will be raising flags that same day at other locations across the province.

The J.S. Palmer Conference was created in 2010 to bring together some of the finest minds across the country to discuss public policy issues of high priority to the public sector and to Canada. Dr. Tim O’Neill, founder and president of O’Neill Strategic Economics and former Executive Vice-President and Chief Economist of BMO, will open the conference with the keynote address. The J.S. Palmer conference includes an extraordinary group of speakers and presenters. They include, Dr. Pamela Palmater, Mi’Kmaq lawyer, professor and activist; Tanya Davis, spoken word poet; Dr. Andrew Light, Special Advisor to the White House on Climate Change; Dr. Teo Dagi, neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and ethicist; Nora Young, CBC Spark host and author; Phil Fontaine, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations; and Jeremy Webber, Dean of Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

On Tuesday, August 11, 2015, the Faculty of Science Graduate Studies Committee will host a Master of Science Defence. Gillian K. Potter, BA will defend her Master of Science thesis entitled: “Examining Pain Anxiety in Young Adult Athletes.” Everyone is welcome.

The campus community is invited to a reception to celebrate Dr. Rosemary Herbert on her retirement as Dean of Nursing. Please take this opportunity to join us in the McCain Foundation Learning Commons at AVC on Tuesday, August 25, 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. to celebrate Rosemary's many successes during her time at UPEI.

This year, UPEI will be holding its 12th annual UPEI Science Undergraduate Research Conference (USURC). This conference provides UPEI students with a chance to present their summer research projects before a public audience, allowing the students to develop their formal presentation skills, and learn about a crucial part of scientific research. Presentations will begin at 9:30 am, and will continue throughout the day. Students from a variety of Faculty of Science departments will be presenting, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Psychology, and Applied Human Sciences. For program and abstract details, see the attached PDF.

With guest speaker Dr. Dan McKenney (Canada Forest Service) As PEI gardeners, we’re quite aware of the challenges of growing plants that may be borderline hardy in the region where we live. “Will it grow in my zone?” is the pertinent question about winter hardiness for perennial plants. Scientists have developed maps of plant hardiness zones for Canada based on seven climate variables (not only the average annual minimum temperature). Now they are beginning to assess how changes in climate affect what can be grown in different regions. New plant hardiness data compiled by Natural Resources Canada over a 50-year period was released last year, by Dr. Dan McKenney and others, describing a northern shift in zones across Canada. They compared the data used for the original zones and maps from the 1931 to 1960 period with more recent observations used for the 1981 to 2010 indexing of plant hardiness. Most areas in Canada along the U.S. border are at least half a zone higher now. Come hear Dan describe how plant hardiness zones have changed on PEI as the climate has changed and become warmer. Dan McKenney is a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service and team leader at Great Lakes Forestry Centre (GLFC). The presentation will take place on Friday, August 14th from 12 pm to 2 pm at The Regis and Joan Duffy Research Centre on UPEI campus (550 University Ave., Charlottetown).  Lunch will be provided. Space is limited.    There is no cost to attend the presentation, but registration is required.  To register, please email climate@upei.ca. 

A public lecture by Scottish scholar-activist, Alastair McIntosh, will open the national Quaker annual meeting at the University of Prince Edward Island on Sunday, August 16, at 7:00 p.m. The free talk is in Room 242, MacKinnon Auditorium of Don and Marion McDougall Hall. McIntosh's talk is titled “Decolonising Land and Soul: a Quaker Testimony.” McIntosh is known for the way he brings together theology, anthropology, and human ecology with the organization of citizen based campaigns that can save valued landscapes and human communities from industrial degradation. In 1991 he was part of a campaign that prevented the biggest road stone quarry in the world from being located on one of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands. There he had support from Cape Breton Mi’Kmaq First Nations. In 2005 he travelled to Digby Neck to help on a campaign against a super-quarry proposal. He has written ‘Soil and Soul’ and has a book out shortly to join other publications. Holding a visiting professorship at Glasgow University, he has twice previously lectured at UPEI on land reform and liberation theology. The public is invited to worship with Quakers earlier that day (10:00 a.m.) in the same auditorium. Further information at quaker.ca or media@quaker.ca  

The Faculty of Science Graduate Studies Committee invites the campus community to a MSc thesis defence, presented by Tessa K. Roche, BSc. Her thesis is titled: ASSESSMENT OF BALANCE BEHAVIOUR, EYE-MOVEMENT, AND ATTENTION: A STEP TOWARDS A MORE COMPREHENSIVE CONCUSSION RETURN-TO-PLAY PROTOCOL Everyone is welcome.