LFS Today Oct 6, 2022

News

Last Reminder: LFS Curriculum Change – Oct. 10 Deadline

Time again to submit any Curriculum Change Proposals you are considering.

Proposals can include a variety of changes to an LFS course or program, from changing the title of a course to adding a new program.

The steps listed below are required prior to submitting your proposal.

Forward your Curriculum Change requests to Virginia Frankian, cc Sandra Brown by October 10, 2022.

LFS Curriculum Change Process

Create the proposal using the Curriculum Proposal Form (2-Column form). You can find the guidelines here. See especially Appendix E.

Members of the LFS Curriculum Committee representing your disciplinary group can provide guidance and feedback prior to submitting your proposal form to the Committee. See Members list in the LFS Intranet here.

Get approval from your disciplinary group (e.g., applied animal biology, food science, food and resources economics group, etc.) followed by your corresponding Program (APBI, FRE, and FNH etc.). Graduate programs (e.g., SOIL, PLNT, HUNU, etc.) need to approve curriculum changes for their course codes. Cat 1 changes should be circulated and discussed prior to voting, while simpler Cat 2 changes may be decided by e-vote.

Submit the approved forms – following program approval, curriculum change forms should be compiled and submitted as a package to the LFS Curriculum Committee via Virginia Frankian (virginia.frankian@ubc.ca , cc sandra.brown@ubc.ca before the cut-off date. If needed, the Curriculum Committee will return the proposal to the originator for clarification or revision.

Proposals approved by the Committee will be presented to the LFS Faculty Council at its next meeting for approval.

Category 1 changes (e.g., new course and new degree program): a proposal approved by the Faculty Council typically requires external unit and library consultation, and budgetary approval. Subsequently, the proposal will be submitted to the Senate Curriculum Sub-committee, then to the Senate Curriculum Committee and finally to the Senate for approval.

Category 2 changes: a proposal approved by the Faculty Council will be submitted to the relevant Senate Curriculum Sub-Committee for approval.

The Curriculum Proposal review and approval process is a long one, especially for Category 1 changes. Items may be sent back to the originator for corrections at any level. Some Proposals require consultations with parties outside UBC.

For these reasons, it is important to plan and submit your proposal as early as possible.

Acting Dean

Please note that David Kitts will serve as the Acting Dean from October 6 to 7 while Rickey is away.

LFS in the News

Tabitha Robin Martens is featured in Kci-Niwesq (Native Women’s Association of Canada magazine) in an article titled Land Reconciliation is the Key to Nourishment. She draws connections to past, present, and futures through food. See pages 16-17.

https://issuu.com/kci-niwesq/docs/issue_14_-_v3/18

LFS Internal TLEF/OER Reviewers Needed

LFS Internal Reviewers are needed to review small TLEF and OER proposals and offer feedback to applicants. It will take about 6 to 8 hours of your time.

• November 4 to 10, review 3 to 5 draft proposals and meet once with rest of the committee to offer feedback to applicants.
• November 21 to 24, review submitted proposals again and be ready to rank them at a meeting.

In return, you will get a chance to see what innovative teaching practices are being proposed in the Faculty. Faculty, staff and grad students are all welcome. No previous TLEF/OER experience is needed; current applicants are also welcome!

If you are interested or have further questions, please free to contact Judy Chan at judy.chan@ubc.ca or Cyprien Lomas at cyprien.lomas@ubc.ca.

Random Acts of Recognition

Congratulations to Thilini Leitan (Student Engagement Officer), Rob Kim (Career Strategist) and Niki Glenning (Alumni Relations Manager) on the launch of another successful year of the LFS Mentorship program. Kick off events last week brought together over 200 student participants and 119 mentors (the highest number of mentors to date). Over 100 of the mentors are LFS alumni, and it is inspiring to observe the continuity and enthusiasm with which our graduates (new and veteran) give back to make a difference in the lives of our students, by supporting their career exploration and learning. The program begins for participants now, but there have been months of hard work and dedication to get us to this point, and Vivian Li, LFS Mentorship Program Assistant (Work Learn student) has been instrumental in developing the programming and executing the event planning needed to ensure all runs smoothly. Thank you to all four of you for your contributions and coordinated efforts to engage such a significant number of students and mentors in this valuable and impactful program.

To nominate a faculty member, staff or graduate student that’s been doing an outstanding job or has gone above and beyond in some way, send an email to lfs.recognition@ubc.ca and tell us why this person should be recognized, along with their email. We’ll send them a $6 Starbucks gift card and acknowledge their good work in LFS Today.

Events

Today – WORK-LIFE BALANCE – an event by the Forestry Diversity Crew and UBC Conflict Theatre

Join us for storytelling and interactive theatre about the ever-elusive work-life balance. This event will be led by Professor Tom Scholte from Conflict Theatre @ UBC and will get us from our busy minds into our bodies to experience what happens when we learn to talk with the voices in our head. Students, graduate students, staff and faculty are welcome. Balance is a universal struggle!

When: Thursday, October 6, 2022, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm

Where: Forest Sciences Centre, 2424 Main Mall, Room 1221

Oct. 7 – Lunch & Learn Decolonization Series: Reviewing the Bus Methodology and discussing ‘What I Learned in Class Today’

Our next session will be held on Friday, October 7, 2022 at noon (PST). Will Valley (Associate Dean EDI, Faculty of Land and Food Systems) will be leading the session this week.

Starting October 2022, LFS Learning Centre will be hosting a new Lunch & Learn series on decolonization on the first Friday of every month at noon (PST). These sessions will be facilitated by Will Valley (Associate Dean, EDI at The Faculty of Land and Food Systems). These sessions will maintain the Lunch & Learn structure of being discussion-based and will have a short pre-reading associated with them to provide a brief context of the topic.

This week, Will Valley will review the Bus Methodology, an approach to develop the capacity to sit with the tension, complexities and contradictions that emerge when engaging with difficult materials related to decolonization. Further, he will talk about What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom, a research project undertaken at UBC’s Faculty of Arts that explores difficult discussions of Indigenous issues that take place in classrooms at the University of British Columbia.

Pre-Reading:

• [Video: 12 mins] The Bus within us
• [4 minute read] What I learned in Class Today: Project Background

Join Will and the Learning Centre team as we embark on this new series that discusses issues of decolonization and how to approach these topics in your teaching practice. To register for this session, please visit https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5cscumsqDwrG9OI5NHXco_FeqnmI0pzdWM1

Follow the Lunch & Learn Series on the Lunch & Learn Webpage!

Oct. 21 – David Fraser Public Talk

In celebration of the UBC Animal Welfare Program’s 25th anniversary, David Fraser will be featured at a public talk on the evening of Friday, Oct. 21 at Robson Square on 50 Years of Animal Welfare – discussing how animal welfare evolved as an area of social concern and policy, and how science is now helping to improve the lives of animals around the world.

We invite all faculty and staff to attend David’s talk on Friday, Oct. 21, an event which is hosted as part of the UBC Animal Welfare Program’s 25th Anniversary. This event is free – to register and for more information, visit the AWP site.

Deadlines

Nov. 11 – 2022 Killam Postdoctoral Fellow Research Prize Competition – call for nominations

The LFS internal deadline for complete applications, including all necessary supporting documentation is Friday, November 11th at 4:00 PM. Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted. Please submit applications/supporting documentation to lfs.gradasst@ubc.ca

The Killam Postdoctoral Fellow Research Prizes are awarded annually for excellence in research. Established in 2011, the Killam PDF Prize is in memory of Izaak Walton Killam and his wife, Dorothy Johnston Killam, who together created the Killam trusts. Two prizes in the amount of $5,000 each are awarded to fulltime Postdoctoral Fellows at UBC in recognition of outstanding research and scholarly contributions while at UBC.

The Killam Postdoctoral Fellow Research Prize guidelines, Killam PDF Prize Nomination Form, and the Killam PDF Research Prize Evaluation Guidelines can be found on the PDFO website: https://www.postdocs.ubc.ca/award/killam-postdoctoral-fellow-research-prize. This link also includes profiles of previous prize winners include LFS’ own Becca Franks!

The Killam PDF Prize will be administered through the PDFO. Deans, nominators and nominees will be apprised of the status of their nominations by April 1, 2023.