Convocation Celebration

Dear Faculty of Arts, 

What a wonderful week it has been with proud families taking photos in the quad, bouquets and graduations gifts in high supply, and pride and joy brimming in the eyes of mothers and fathers, sisters, and brothers. There was a pulsing and palpable feeling of elation on campus throughout the week as graduates from across the University crossed the stage, cheered by faculty decked in delightful regalia representing a range of programs of study. This update pays a heartfelt “hurrah!” to all who made this week’s celebrations a reality – not just to the students who are celebrating convocation this week, but also to *you*, our wonderful faculty – who have done so very, very, much to help our students on their way, to support, coach and mentor them, to urge them onward and promote their growth, to invest in their development, and to help them reach the far shore. Our hearts go out to you!

Rebecca Yoshizawa (Chair of SOCI) found a creative way to offer some fun and celebratory photo-ops for SOCI graduates!  Well done, Becky! 

Celebrate Pride with KPU! Volunteers! 

Happy Pride month/season! It’s time to dust off that rainbow gear and help KPU celebrate at two major events this summer! First, join KPU and the Pride Advocacy Group in being out and proud (or a proud ally) at the Surrey Pride Festival on Saturday, June 25 from 4-9 p.m. at Central City Plaza. Stop by the KPU booth to say hi, or better yet, email pride@kpu.ca to help host (about 10-12 volunteers needed)! Also, check out SPF-hosted events taking place throughout June at https://www.surreypride.ca/pride-2022. And for an even better opportunity to strut your stuff, join the KPU Toonie Brigade in the Vancouver Pride Parade on Sunday, July 31! We need about 40 volunteers to help carry the giant rainbow flag along the entire parade route, collecting donations for the Vancouver Pride Society Community Bursary fund. 2SLGBTQ+ KPU community members and allies of all abilities are welcome; again, please email pride@kpu.ca to sign up. Best of all—this year, we’re going to have our own DJ dance music! Can’t wait to hear from you! 

Help Needed! 

Faculty Member Needed for a Search: The Director of Flexible Learning and Academic Integrity needs assistance forming a search committee to find a faculty member for a one-semester, one-course (Fall 2022) T&L Time Release Position to work on restorative justice approaches to academic integrity and mentor faculty using this approach during the fall. The Search Committee needs one (1) faculty member selected from the Faculty of Arts as a whole. Please contact Associate Dean Shelley Boyd (shelley.boyd@kpu.ca) by Monday, June 27 at the latest if you are willing to serve on the search committee. 

A Second Searching Opportunity: The Faculty of Arts will be offering a 50%-time-release position over Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 for an Arts Educational Consultant in Indigenization and Decolonization. The posting is here – Position Description (taleo.net) –  if you have expertise in these areas, please consider applying via that link. We are also seeking expressions of interest to serve on the Search Committee that will assess these applications. Please email the Dean pro tem directly (greg.millard@kpu.ca) no later than July 4 (4:30 PM) expressing your interest and a brief statement outlining your relevant qualifications for service on this committee. Thank you for supporting this exciting initiative! 

Peer Reviewers and Test-Pilots: We are ***still*** seeking one more volunteer to pilot the post-probationary review process! If you’re teaching this summer, please pounce on this opportunity for dynamic and formative feedback. We are also looking to create a pool of seasoned peer reviewers who could aid faculty in need of this collegial feedback during the process. To pursue either of these opportunities, please reach out to arts.facultyreview@kpu.ca. 

Students In Distress 

The Green Sheet and Buddying Up: The pressures of the midterm season can sometimes lead to challenging situations. Please find attached the Students in Distress handout (the famous “Green Sheet”), which is a one-stop resource for those rare moments where a student appears to be in serious trouble. Counseling is always available, of course, and can be of great benefit to students who are wrestling with issues beyond the familiar challenges of academe. The Student Rights and Responsibilities Office can also offer invaluable help for hard cases. Equally important are KPU’s Working Alone protocols: faculty who find themselves proctoring exams, or otherwise working, in liminal time-slots with few other people around are encouraged to bookmark these and make reference to them. In addition to these, those seeking further reassurance may find it helpful to practice a buddy system for late-night or weekend exam invigilation – e.g., a colleague can, in the spirit of university service, sit in on the class and grade their own papers or otherwise put the time to fruitful use while a faculty member oversees an exam.    

The real action is at the preparty! Dr. Rob Adamoski, former Dean of Social Sciences and Music at KPU, was on hand during Convocation to renew acquaintances and receive his well-deserved Emeritus designation. And Dr. Asma Sayed was recognized as Recipient of the Distinguished Scholarship Award for her astonishing array of contributions to her field and to KPU. Congratulations, Robert and Asma! Spring Convocation 2022 Emeritus & Distinguished Award Recipients | KPU.ca – Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Hold the Line 

Upholding Integrity: It is a truth universally acknowledged that peak periods for assignments and exams often bring spikes in academic integrity violations (AIVs). We highly recommend our AIV One-Pager for an overview of the processes and best practices around integrity violations – please check it out! Under Policy ST2, we have an obligation to report all violations, and doing so is vitally important, as it is the only way we can track multiple violations across courses and act accordingly. Arts has a convenient Sharepoint portal for submitting an AIV report here; please use that for reporting violations. We also have a suite of further resources, including strategies for minimizing AIVs. Rest assured, Arts is committed to a “restorative” approach to integrity violations which approaches the first violation as a learning opportunity wherever possible. Reporting violations thus also offers students the benefits of a helpful and formative conversation with the associate dean.  But what if you confront a case where you have reason to believe that an integrity violation occurred, but proving the “balance of probability” looks to be unusually onerous or time-consuming? Please report the case anyway! Arts now has access to a team of expert Academic Integrity Investigators whose mandate is to investigate challenging cases and provide the associate dean with additional information for adjudicating the case. We are hopeful that this will offer some relief for those exceptionally hard cases and encourage the reporting of these through the AIV portal.  

Opportunities for Students 

You Could Be a Student Assistant: The Faculty of Arts Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Network is hiring students to assist in furthering the development of the network and in promoting awareness across Arts of the various projects, programs, and initiatives underway. If you know a student who might be interested in this role, please contact Wade.Deisman@kpu.ca or alternatively, ask the student to contact Dr. Deisman directly. The positions are properly remunerated and would constitute gainful wages for students looking to support themselves as they complete their schooling. If you have any questions about this opportunity, don’t hesitate to reach out! 

Upcoming Events 

Arts Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Network Workshops on SSHRC: Please mark your calendars for June 27 (4:00 – 5:00 PM) and June 28 (4:00 – 5:00 PM) for a two-part workshop on applying to SSHRC.  In partnership with the Office of Research, Graduate Studies, and Innovation, the Arts Network will be co-hosting grant writer Fiona Haynes on June 27 as she provides strategies for writing successful grant applications.  The next day, the Network will host a panel featuring previous SSHRC recipients from Arts (Danny Bernstein, Jennifer Hardwick, Paul Ohler, Kent Mullinix, and Asma Sayed) as they reflect on their SSHRC experiences and share tips for faculty thinking of applying to SSHRC this fall.  MS Teams invites should appear in your calendars. 

Marginalized Voices Speak: A Reading & Listening Series:  You are invited to register and join Marginalized Voices Speak in reading, reflecting on, and conversing about critically acclaimed books that highlight how various forms of oppression operate and reproduce inequalities in various parts of the world and during different historical periods. If you would like to volunteer as a ‘Lead Reader” and/or for more information, please contact Dr. Amir Mirfakhraie at: amir.mirfakhraie@kpu.ca   The first event in the series will focus on Vandana Shiva – Soil not oil: environmental justice in an age of climate crisis, Friday, June 24, 2022, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Sociology Pod, Third Floor, Surrey Main Building.  The second event will focus on Lee Maracle: My Conversation with Canadians, Friday, July 29, 2022, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Sociology Pod, Third Floor, Surrey Main Building. 

Appreciation Nation: Save the date for our upcoming Teaching & Learning event on October 13-14: Appreciating Teaching Excellence. The event will provide an opportunity to reflect on the lessons of teaching and learning through the pandemic, celebrate innovation, learn from one another, and connect with your colleagues across KPU. More details to come.

Supports for Student Success: We are delighted to announce that the Mentoring Network for Youth Aging out of Care – now rebranded as the Supports for Success Program is slated to resume operations this fall. Faculty members who are interested in becoming mentors to these students can contact Tracy Sherlock Tracy.Sherlock@kpu.ca or Wade Deisman Wade.Deisman@kpu.ca . More information, including dates for fall training, will be forthcoming throughout the summer. This is a fabulous opportunity to connect with students and build supportive coaching relationships. 

PENN Idea Award to BFA Grad!  BFA alum Jacob Strohan has been awarded the PENN Idea Award. For this award, a recent graduate is commissioned to create a piece of artwork to be installed in VGH.  Jacob Strohan had the winning proposal! Jacob was awarded $5000, and his artwork will be permanently installed in the Emergency waiting room at VGH.  Congratulations Jacob!  Here is some information about his piece, and about the PENN award: https://www.trappprojects.com/exhibitions-1 

Congratulations to Hammond Tarry, Valerie Vezina, Jacob Bailey, and Leah Lopes whose article “Political orientation, moral foundations, and COVID-19 social distancing’ has recently been published as an open access article here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=printable&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267136

Whether you find yourself basking in the sun while you are beachcombing, exploring the fairy forest, out for a hike, or hunkered down at home with a good book and a bottle of something divine, we wish everyone a wonderful weekend replete with summer sun and lots of fun!

Greg, Shelley, Danny, Billeh, Wade 

Wade Deisman, Ph.D.  Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts – Pronouns (he/him/his) t 604.599.2395 m 604.367.6616 e wade.deisman@kpu.ca  For appointments contact: Arts.DeansAssistant@kpu.ca  KPU Anti-Racism – Academic Integrity – Early Alert  Arts Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Network

Kwantlen Polytechnic University ► Where thought meets action   I am grateful to the q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), SEMYOME (Semiahmoo), sc̓əwaθən (Tsawwassen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Peoples. Our work at Kwantlen Polytechnic University takes place on the territories of these First Nations. We hold ourselves accountable to participating in the work of decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenization at KPU and in our communities.   This email may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you received this email in error please delete the email and inform the sender immediately. Unauthorized distribution or use is strictly prohibited.