By Melissa Baluk on June 3, 2022
UBC consistently ranks as one of the world’s top research universities. Globally connected, we attract the highest-calibre research faculty and students and more than $750 million in research funding each year across both our Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.
In partnership with universities, industries, government and communities worldwide, our research discoveries are hugely influential. They are advancing new knowledge and have led to countless new products, treatments and services. In 2020/21, UBC was involved in over 10,000 research projects.
In 2022, UBC ranked #13 in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking.
Thanks to researchers at our two campuses and affiliated teaching hospitals, UBC ideas, innovations and discoveries are improving lives around the world.
View the Research in Focus profiles to learn more about the people behind the research.
Posted in Catalyst #3: I am shaping the future of research, teaching and work | Link | No Comments
By Melissa Baluk on June 3, 2022
In 2021, UBC launched a remote work pilot for faculty and staff to reimagine how we work at the university.
The Remote Work program helps to create a flexible workplace environment that supports a range of institutional goals, including the attraction and retention of faculty and staff, as well as our commitments to inclusion, wellbeing, and climate action.
The program was modelled to respect the highly different roles and contexts that exist across UBC, while continuing to support the student experience and academic mandate of the university.
Whether we work on-campus or remotely, collectively we make UBC an inspiring place for students to learn, as well as for faculty and staff to research, teach and work.
Learn more about Remote Work at UBC
Posted in Catalyst #3: I am shaping the future of research, teaching and work | Link | No Comments
By Melissa Baluk on June 1, 2022
The Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning workshops are for UBC faculty, staff, and educators who wish to cultivate a teaching or facilitation practice that serves as a form of solidarity, and is premised upon research and popular education pedagogy in the areas of anti-racism, equity, and inclusion.
This is an exceptionally challenging and wildly important time to be an educator, as our students grapple with isolation from their regular social connections, a new educational landscape, traumatic images in the media, and some big questions that arise as a result of current events. Sometimes referred to as a “double pandemic,” the systemic racism resulting in George Floyd’s murder and the COVID-19 crisis have created circumstances that challenge us to reflect, unlearn, look inward, and imagine new ways to generate educational – and societal – change.
Through the Anti-Racism Teaching and Learning workshop series, participants are guided through reflection on their own roles and fears as educators, and develop an introductory understanding of concepts such as anti-racism, privilege, allyship, and solidarity especially in the context of online teaching and learning. They also include the identification and intensive unpacking of harmful phrases that can lead to further marginalization of racialized or excluded students. Particular attention is paid to helping educators with specific teaching strategies, practical tools, and relevant resources for their teaching practice.
Recent workshop topics included Identifying and Responding to Harmful Phrases; Identity Maters: Connecting Power, Privilege and Bias to Anti-Racism Work; and Exploring Complex Classroom Dynamics Using Case-Studies.
Visit the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology for future workshop offerings.
Posted in Catalyst #2: I can grow my career | Link | No Comments
By Melissa Baluk on April 23, 2022
Equity, diversity and inclusion are necessary conditions for attracting and retaining the best and brightest students, faculty and staff from around the world. This requires that we create inclusive environments free from racism in which to work, learn and live.
Over the last year, UBC has launched a series of initiatives addressing systemic racism within our community. They include launching an Anti-Racism Initiatives Fund on both campuses, providing $200,000 for cultural programming; launching the Beyond Tomorrow Scholars Program to support recruitment and scholarships for Black Canadian students; hosting Canada’s first National Forum on Anti-Asian Racism; launching UBC’s Inclusion Action Plan and establishing a task force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) supported by the Office of the President and the Co-Executive Leads for Anti-Racism.
The ARIE Task Force, which includes 32 students, faculty and staff, convened for an intense period of work between March and July 2021. In April 2022, the task force put forward 54 recommendations in a final report to address systemic racism against Indigenous, Black and People of Colour (IBPOC) within the UBC community and to promote inclusive excellence across UBC’s two campuses.
The recommendations collectively underscore the reality that UBC has a deep-seated problem of institutionalized, systemic, and other forms of racism that cut across its various units on both campuses, and affect Indigenous and racialized students, faculty, and staff.
Six major themes emerged:
- There is a need for anti-racist education for all individuals at UBC, including senior administration
- There is a need to both recruit and retain IBPOC faculty members and staff
- There is a need for developing a system for handling complaints involving IBPOC faculty members, staff and students
- There is a need to establish and routinize anti-racism as academic, intellectual and activist work at UBC, including through an office and a living library
- The well-being and sense of belonging of IBPOC members of the community featured prominently in the recommendations
- Finally, action is required to address workload inequities experienced by IBPOC faculty members and staff
View the full report
The ARIE task force joins the Indigenous Strategic Plan, the Inclusion Action Plan and other projects as primary aspects of UBC’s continuing efforts to address all forms of discrimination and to make for a more equitable and inclusively excellent institution.
Visit https://antiracism.ubc.ca to learn more.
Posted in Catalyst #1: I am part of a diverse, inclusive, safe and vibrant workplace | Link | No Comments
By Melissa Baluk on April 20, 2022
For the 11th consecutive year, UBC is recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers in 2022.
This special award recognizes Canadian employers that lead the nation in creating a culture of environmental awareness, developing exceptional sustainability initiatives, and are attracting employees because of their environmental leadership.
Some of the reasons why UBC is being recognized with this award include:
- UBC’s Workplace Sustainability Fund offers small grants to Sustainability Coordinators in departments to support a range of impactful sustainability projects across the campus, such as recycling of surplus office equipment, a campus farmers’ market, plastic reduction initiative, and community climate action virtual movie nights.
- UBC adopted the LEED Gold certification standard for all new construction and major renovations of institutional buildings, with 26 registered and certified buildings (the most for any Canadian university) — and with over 400 buildings, UBC has long-standing building renovation programs (dating back to 1998) to retrofit and upgrade with new energy saving features.
- UBC offers an impressive range of highly focused sustainability initiatives across campus that aim to foster a culture of sustainability among staff, students and the community — from Sustainability Tours to the Green Labs Program that promotes sustainable behaviours to the 24-hectare on-campus certified organic farm with over 200 varieties of crops.
UBC puts sustainability at the heart of teaching, learning and research and is integrated through our operations and infrastructure. We are committed to leadership in Climate Action, and our sustainability efforts are proudly delivered by students, faculty and staff — learn more about how you can get involved.
In addition to being recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers this year, UBC was also recognized as one of BC’s Top Employers, one of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People, and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers.
To see all of Canada’s Greenest Employers in 2022, visit https://www.canadastop100.com/environmental/
Posted in Awards, Catalyst #3: I am shaping the future of research, teaching and work | Link | No Comments