A new book from Island Studies Press will examine and compare the stories of abortion access in Prince Edward Island and Ireland. Crossing Troubled Waters: Abortion in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Prince Edward Island is co-edited by UPEI’s Dr. Colleen MacQuarrie. The book launches Monday, November 19 at 4:00 pm in Schurman Market Square of UPEI’s Don and Marion McDougall Hall. Crossing Troubled Waters shines a light on two islands—Ireland (north and south) and Prince Edward Island, Canada—and considers for each island, the nature of the discourse of abortion on the island, the impact that restrictions have had, ongoing efforts to improve access, and recent activist successes. Island Studies Press is proud to publish this pivotal academic text that is rooted in local research and activism. Accessing abortion services is challenging in many countries around the world. Barriers result from poor access to healthcare, geographic location, legal restrictions, abortion stigma, and moral conservatism. Repeated studies indicate restricting access to abortion does not prevent it happening, but rather displaces it and often results in unsafe abortion contributing to maternal mortality. Those living on islands face particular challenges presented by their geographic isolation, including travel to other jurisdictions, which is financially and emotionally burdensome. Crossing Troubled Waters: Abortion in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Prince Edward Island is co-edited by Dr. Colleen MacQuarrie, Fiona Bloomer, Claire Pierson, and Shannon Stettner. Dr. MacQuarrie is a professor of psychology at UPEI and a co-founding member of the Abortion Rights Network, Abortion Access Now PEI, and RAARN, the Reproductive Activism and Abortion Rights Network. Please join Island Studies Press in celebrating this new book. For more information about the book or the launch, please contact Bren at ispstaff@upei.ca or call (902) 566-0386.

UPEI’s Executive MBA program offers a high-quality learning experience for working business professionals. The program is designed for those working in, or aspiring to work, in a management or leadership position. Classes are offered bi-weekly on Fridays and Saturdays with the option to complete the program in 20 months.    To learn more about the program and to meet with staff, faculty and students from the Faculty of Business, we invite you to attend the following information session:   Tuesday, November 20 The Gallery @ The Guild  Charlottetown 5 pm   Please call (902) 566-6474 or email mba@upei.ca to reserve a seat.   For more information on UPEI's EMBA Program, please visit upei.ca/business/emba

The public is invited to the Harry Baglole Memorial Public Symposium in Island Studies, “Measuring Quality of Life on Prince Edward Island,” on Thursday, November 22, 7-9 p.m., at UPEI’s MacKinnon Auditorium, Room 242, McDougall Hall. This event is sponsored by UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies, in conjunction with UPEI Research Services.  The principal speaker will be Gwen Colman, who, in 1997, along with her husband Ron, founded Genuine Progress Index (GPI) Atlantic, a pioneering research organization in creating new measures of wellbeing and progress. Gwen will be speaking about GPI’s work in collaborative development of wellbeing measures with communities in Bhutan, New Zealand, Thailand, and Nova Scotia. Recently, GPI has worked with a network of universities and NGOs in Southeast Asia, developing a methodology for collaborative development of wellbeing measures at the community level. She will speak about recent work in two communities in Thailand, and about previous work with the creation of Community GPIs in two communities in Nova Scotia. Gwen will identify the elements for creating successful community partnerships to measure wellbeing and their resultant impact.  Gwendolyn Colman is Executive Director of GPI Atlantic which has worked intensively with the small Himalayan country of Bhutan to create the Gross National Happiness Index, and with the Maori nation and New Zealand governments to create core measures of progress. Gwen’s work with GPI recently focused on community partnerships in measuring progress in Southeast Asia, and with youth volunteerism to create wellbeing. Previous to her work with GPI, Gwen managed documentation of primary research by 28 scientists for the Goose Bay EIS, the largest Environmental Impact Statement for North America for Lavalin, and worked for high-tech firms IBM and the Solar Energy Research Institute on large-scale documentation projects.  Joining Gwen Colman are panelists Dr. Jim Randall and Wendy MacDonald, who will address the relevance of GPIs to the health and prosperity of this island. “Too often what we think constitutes Quality of Life is divorced from the everyday lives of people,” says Dr. Randall, UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability, Chair of the Institute of Island Studies, and Co-ordinator of the Master of Arts in Island Studies program at UPEI. “By asking people how they feel about themselves, their neighbourhoods and their communities, we can start to get a better picture of islanders’ values, hopes, and dreams and whether these are being fulfilled." As an economic and social geographer, Dr. Randall carried out QOL research in neighbourhoods in Saskatoon which was used to help direct public policy in such areas as neighbourhood inequality, health determinants and perceptions of personal health and security. Some of this work was also repeated in assessing newcomers’ perceptions of quality of life in Charlottetown. Throughout her career, Wendy MacDonald has learned the impact of measuring the right things in the right ways. For nine years, starting in 1989, she worked in a range of policy and management roles in the provincial government, before establishing her own consulting firm in 1998. Over the next decade, she worked in many areas of public policy. Her best memories from this period include a number of Harry Baglole's visionary projects, notably the Knowledge Assessment Methodology, the PEI Population Strategy, the PEI Employment Strategy, and, in a volunteer role, the Quality of Island Life Co-op. In 2008, Wendy rejoined the provincial government and in 2010 she was appointed Clerk Assistant. Since then, she has worked on various policy projects including kindergarten, early childhood, education governance, and poverty reduction. As Secretary to the Cabinet Committee on Priorities, she works to support Cabinet decision-making processes and to strengthen policy capacity in government.  The Symposium will be chaired by Andrew Lush, member of the Institute of Island Studies Advisory Committee. Following the presentations, there will be ample time for discussion and questions from the floor. Admission is free and everyone is cordially invited to attend.  The Symposium series is being newly renamed after Harry Baglole, the Institute of Island Studies' first Director, who passed away in May. Harry was the architect of many Public Symposia over the years, born out of his passionate vision for strong, Prince Edward Island-made, public policy frameworks. For more details, go to www.islandstudies.com, e-mail iis@upei.ca, or call 902-894-2881. 

The Department of Psychology welcomes faculty, students, and the campus community to join us at our next Fiona Papps Colloquium Series on Thursday, November 22nd at 3:00pm where Dr. Stephen Butler will present " Capitalism in the "hot seat": Challenges and opportunities for young people”. The presentation will take place in KMB237 with a reception to follow in the faculty lounge.  Suggested reading: Butler, Stephen (2018). The Impact of Advanced Capitalism on Well-being: An evidence-informed model. Human Arenas, available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0034-6

The Honourable Robert Mitchell, Minister of Health and Wellness, along with the Canada Games Council, invites you to a major announcement regarding the Canada Games. Friday, November 9, 2018 at 1:00 pm McMillan Hall, W. A. Murphy Student Centre at the University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown The event today will be live streamed at www.youtube.com/govpeca/live

Did you know that it is illegal to travel with dogs, and other companion animals, unsecured in the back of a pickup truck? Are you aware that cosmetic surgery on animals, such as tail docking in dogs, cattle, and horses, or ear cropping in dogs, is prohibited? These regulations—and more—are part of the new PEI Animal Welfare Act, passed into law in 2017. How does the Act impact Islanders and their animals? Dr. Alice Crook, Coordinator of the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at AVC, will provide a “big picture” of the Act, focusing on the evolution of a distressed-based model to a standard–of-care model. Dwight Thompson, PEI Department of Agriculture and Forestry, will speak about the rights and responsibilities of owners, and Mike Gilbertson, PEI Humane Society, will focus on how the Society handles animal welfare complaints. Everyone is welcome. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served. For information, contact (902) 566-0589 or upei.ca/avc.

Hosted by WUSC and the Rotaract Club of UPEI, What Tomorrow Brings is an award-winning documentary directed by Beth Murphy. The film tells the story of a group of Afghan girls as they fight to gain an education in a village recently freed from Taliban control. Education is a powerful tool, but it is something that is unfortunately denied to many. All proceeds from this film will be given to the Shine A Light Project, an initiative that seeks to raise money for the education of girls and young women in refugee camps. Admission is free, but there will be donations accepted at the door. Any amount can make a difference in someone's life.

The University of Prince Edward Island and the UPEI Alumni Association invite you to the annual UPEI New Year's Levee! Join us as we kick off the celebration of UPEI's 50th Anniversary in 2019!Tuesday, January 1, 201911:30 am - 1:00 pmFaculty of Sustainable Design Engineering Building For more information: 902-566-0687 / alumni@upei.ca

Robertson Library would like to hear from UPEI students! What do you need? What do you want? Join us for FREE pizza on Monday, November 19th in the Library LINC, Room 265, from noon – 1 pm. There will be a brief survey and a Q&A group discussion. All UPEI students are welcome! Pizza while supplies last.

All are welcome to attend this week's FSDE Graduate research seminar on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 12:00pm in FSDE 212. This week's presenters are: Rodolfo Nino-Esparza – MSc Student with his title, "Development, validation and application of a fully automated portable and smartphone-operated saliva-based cortisol biosensor" and Kendrew Larkin - MSc Student with his title, "Residual Stress Characterization for Rapid Part Production Using DMLS Additive Manufacturing."