As the last vestiges of the spring term draw to a close and as preparations for summer term teaching begin, the Faculty of Arts is flying high on a beautiful windfall from the Provost’s Office. Last week we learned that several of our most significant one-time-only asks related to high-priority Arts commitments were granted. We are pleased to announce these initiatives today and believe that they will have a significant impact on moving our faculty forward on Indigenization; Academic Integrity; Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity.

  • Indigenization: In the months ahead the Faculty of Arts will hire an Arts Indigenous Liaison who will help to coordinate, support, and liaise with Indigenous faculty and staff in Arts. This will be important in helping to launch the INDG department while sparing our small number of INDG faculty an unreasonable burden of consultation.  Planning is also underway to search for an Indigenous Writer in Residence and an Indigenous Artist in Residence. Finally, the Faculty will seek to hire a special Arts educational consultant on Indigenization. Finally, regarding new hires, KPU has asked for an exemption to the Human Rights code to allow for a targeted Indigenous hire and this request has recently been granted.
  • Arts Academic Integrity Student Ambassadors. To create a culture of academic integrity we need to involve students at the bedrock level.  We will be seeking to recruit several students who will play an educational and mentoring role on academic integrity matters and be available as resources for fellow students seeking to better understand academic integrity.  
  • Further developing the Arts Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Network. The Arts Research Scholarship and Creativity Network online platform was launched [https://courses.kpu.ca/course/view.php?id=53036] this November to promote, nourish, and encourage research culture at KPU. It now has over 70 members. Propelling it forward will involve building resources, organizing panels, helping to construct data sets, liaising and marketing, etc. The support received will allow for faculty-level leadership and significant student involvement. 

** Artwork by Brandon Gabriel

High Priority: Reminders and Deadlines 

Spring Term Grade Submission Deadline: April 28th (11:59 PM): Grades for all students must be entered by April 28th (before midnight at the latest). Please submit your final grades using the Online Self-Service. All students in a section must be graded by the grade submission deadline– please do not leave a student’s grade blank.  If you are going ahead with an Incomplete Grade Contract (IGC) for one of your students, be sure to submit the grade “I” for the student in the system. The “I” grade(s) must then be followed up with the IGC signed by you, the student, and the Dean/Designate. To request the Dean’s signature, please email the completed IGC to the Dean’s Office at Arts@kpu.ca. Also, a New Grade Entry application is now available in the Online Self-service. However, both the “old” and the “new” versions of grade entry remain active/usable. If you are not yet familiar with the new application, feel free to use the old one this time around. You can find detailed instructions on Grade Reporting in the Faculty and Instructional Staff Handbook.  If you have questions, please direct them to the IT Service Desk for help/support.

Academic Integrity Survey: The Arts Academic Integrity Committee invites all Arts faculty to participate in their survey on academic integrity processes at KPU. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes and would be most helpful to the committee. The deadline is the end of the month, though earlier participation is encouraged. You can access the survey via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/D8TKRHM 

COVID-19 Update: In five days the spring term will end and so too will the masking requirements. Notwithstanding this measure, we urge you to continue to be vigilant where COVID is concerned, use the hand sanitizing stations, and make recourse to the rapid testing kits if circumstances warrant it.  If you have COVID-19 symptoms, please stay home until you feel better or your period of self-isolation has ended.  You can still collect two test kits per visit to a campus bookstore during opening hours at Langley, Tech, Surrey or Richmond, or the reception desk on the sixth floor at Civic Plaza. 

The Joys of Service: The Faculty of Arts is now accepting nominations for the Dean of Arts Service Award. The Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding service by faculty members in the Faculty of Arts. Service includes contributions to Faculty and University committees and engagement and leadership in activities that support good governance of the Faculty or the University. Candidates for the Dean of Arts Service Award will have demonstrated outstanding contributions in any or all of the following areas: educational and/or governance activities or committees at the departmental, program, and/or institutional level; department and University affairs; fostering student life, teaching excellence, and effective education at KPU through service; organizations (including learned and professional associations) external to the University. Nominations are now open and must be submitted by May 2, 2022. For more information or to submit a nomination, please visit: https://www.kpu.ca/arts/service-award . If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at arts@kpu.ca . 

Research, Scholarly and Creative Opportunities Abound 

Researching EDI: Dr. LiIach Marom, PhD (EDST) would like to invite you to participate in her research project, ‘EDIing Higher Education: Unpacking Multiple Tensions and Perspectives‘. The study aims to explore faculty and administrators’ perceptions and to unveil tensions surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) processes in higher education through a case study of EDI processes currently underway at KPU. This project might touch on complex and controversial issues, but Lilach is looking forward to navigating it carefully while having meaningful discussions with faculty members and administrators.  The study involves one interview of a maximum of 90 minutes. The interview will take place online and will be scheduled according to your availability.  Your confidentiality will be protected. Please contact Dr. Marom at lilach.marom@kpu.ca if you are interested or would like to explore this opportunity further.

International Collaboration: The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute is reaching out to researchers and academicians from our member councils to explore potential partnerships and collaboration opportunities related to the IDRC’s ‘Climate Adaptation and Resilience’ (CLARE) program. Three key research areas have been identified as central to all proposals: Understanding climate risk, Risk-informed early action: and Developing in a changing climate:  Interested researchers/leads may like to form a team of scientists based on their expertise in the key research areas mentioned above from SICI’s member institutions (https://shastriinstitute.org/member-council) from India and Canada, and submit the Expression of Interest (attached) to us on prachi@sici.org.in by May 6, 2022.

Teaching Through Research: The next iteration of the Arts Speaker series is fast approaching. Each Arts Speaker Series talk showcases innovative and original creative endeavors, research, and scholarship activities is one hour-long (30 minutes for presentation and the rest of the time for discussion/questions), and will either take place online or in a blended version. Proposals for the 2022-2023 Arts Speaker Series should be 250 words long and sent to Nancy Norman at: nancy.norman@kpu.ca no later than May 10th.

Wildfires and Art: Liz Toohey-Wiese (FINA) will be giving a talk on Zoom this Sunday about wildfires, art, and environmental justice. This is coinciding with her art exhibit at the Galiano Library, up until June 3rd!  Registration for the talk can be found here: https://sgicl.bc.libraries.coop/event/galiano-library-burning-questions/?instance_id=27273 .

Click on the green “register” button on the upper right-hand side, and that will bring up the Zoom registration link.

Preparing for the Summer Term

Faculty Handbook Reminder: We wanted to inform all new faculty members, as well as provide a reminder to continuing faculty, about the existence of the following two resources: 

  1. Faculty and Instructional Staff Handbook can be found here: https://kpuemp.sharepoint.com/sites/fh/SitePages/Home.aspx  
  2. More resources for Faculty can be found here:  https://kpuemp.sharepoint.com/sites/arts/resourcesforfaculty/SitePages/Home.aspx 

Onboarding and Orientation: A New TLC Orientation Site is Available: We would like to remind all faculty that the Teaching and Learning Commons has developed a special orientation site on Moodle which provides a compendium of useful information and resources to help get you onboarded and orientated. This is a new sire that brings together a collection of resources not seen before. Log into Moodle with this link: https://courses.kpu.ca/course/view.php?id=50728for for more information.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, full of sunshine, merriment, and festivities with family and friends.

Greg, Danny, Billeh, Shelley, and Wade