69´«Ã½

The 69´«Ã½Cross Country/Track & Field Club will host their major fundraiser-the Panther Pace 5km Fun Run on Tuesday, October 2 at 6:00 pm at the 69´«Ã½Alumni Canada Games Place. Registration will begin at 5:00 pm inside the turf facility clubhouse.

The newly developed, student-administered club brings together students who enjoy running-both long and shorter distances-and who support and motivate each other in personal running goals. The student-athletes involved in the club are able to compete in all Atlantic University Sport (AUS) invitational events and also run in other local and regional events.

Although the club is a student initiative, there is an advisory group with representation from the Government of Prince Edward Island, Athletics PEI, PEISAA, PEI Roadrunners Community, 69´«Ã½Athletics & Recreation, and 69´«Ã½student-athlete runners. The advisory group was put in place to provide the students with any support needed along the way.

'69´«Ã½Athletics & Recreation is pleased to support the development of a running club,' said Ron Annear, director of Athletics and Recreation at UPEI. 'The opportunity has been made possible through strong interest from the community to partner with the club and to work closely with the student-athletes to form a training group. It's a natural sport to promote, especially with the quality of our athletics facilities and our athletes here at UPEI.'

Melanie McKenna is a student-athlete and the club's president, 'I'm very excited to be a part of the creation of this new running club at UPEI,' she said. 'With the tremendous facilities and quality of athletes we have, I think it will take off. Having so much support from the community and partners thus far, I have no doubt that we will grow as a sport and become a strong AUS contender.'

Club members are beginning to train together, and encourage all 69´«Ã½students interested in running to join them. The club is also great for varsity athletes who wish to receive some extra training throughout their regular and/or off-seasons. For more information on the Panther Pace or to join the 69´«Ã½Cross Country/Track & Field Club, please contact Melanie McKenna at mjmckenna@upei.ca or Janice Robertson, 69´«Ã½Program and Athletic Facilities coordinator at (902) 566-0305 or robertson@upei.ca.

The following was distributed jointly to media by the 69´«Ã½ and the 69´«Ã½Faculty Association.

The 69´«Ã½ and the 69´«Ã½Faculty Association have ratified a four-year agreement, the two parties announced today. The agreement, tentatively reached earlier this month, was voted on by members of the Faculty Association's Bargaining Unit #1 on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of this week, and then approved by the University's Board of Governors.

'By working together, we have achieved a fair and equitable agreement for our members that puts our salary base and benefits on a competitive footing with our colleagues at other Atlantic provinces' universities,' said 69´«Ã½Faculty Association President Betty Jeffery.

The four-year deal marks a commitment by both the Faculty Association and University administration to work cooperatively to reach a fair deal, and which led to the agreement being approved only three months after the previous contract expired on June 30, 2012.

The agreement largely preserves existing terms but allows for a 7.25 per cent net salary increase-spread over four years. Additionally, there will be a 3 per cent increase to the salary to offset a corresponding higher contribution by the academic staff to the 69´«Ã½Pension Plan, putting their average level of contribution to 9.04 per cent. Both the University and Faculty Association acknowledged that it was important to solve the pension shortfall situation and did so through a collateral process.

'On behalf of UPEI, I appreciate the efforts and hard work of both negotiating teams in putting the interests of our students at the forefront of their deliberations,' said 69´«Ã½President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. 'As we face continued budget constraints, an underfunded pension, and challenging times ahead, I am extremely thankful that this agreement will allow 69´«Ã½to continue its tradition of providing quality higher education and thank all those who contributed to the process.'

On Monday, October 1 and Tuesday, October 2, the 33rd annual Deans' Honours and Awards Evening, sponsored annually by the deans of all faculties and schools will recognize student academic merit. Tonight, the University will honour students in the faculties of arts and education and the school of business.

Tomorrow night, the faculty of science and school of nursing students will be recognized for their achievements.

The ceremonies take place in the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre at 7:00 pm.

On behalf of the University community, we offer congratulations to our students for their past achievements and best wishes for continued success!

The 69´«Ã½ honoured three individuals last week who have contributed to the University in an exceptional way. Over 100 people attended the 13th annual Recognition of Founders ceremony to show their respect and appreciation and to honour UPEI's rich heritage and traditions.

The 2012 founders are Ms. Heather Love, Mr. Don MacCormac, and Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Heider, recipient of The Honourable Eugene F. Whelan Green Hat Award, which pays tribute to individuals who have had a significant and positive impact on the Atlantic Veterinary College.

'The Recognition of Founders ceremony is one of the most exciting events at our institution where we take time to honour tradition by recognizing the pioneers who have helped shape the University,' said 69´«Ã½President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. 'Our founders are those who have contributed to UPEI, 'daring to dream' each in their own way, offering their wisdom and experience so that we can be prepared for the future.'

An academic procession opened the ceremony and was led by mace bearer Kate VanGerven, 69´«Ã½Student Union president. 69´«Ã½Board of Governors chair Tom Cullen acted as the master of ceremonies, while University chaplain Sister Sue Kidd provided the invocation, with Abd-El-Aziz delivering the welcoming remarks. Citations were read for Love, MacCormac, and Heider by VanGerven, Christie Love, a business co-op student, and Dr. Tim Ogilvie, respectively. A reception followed the award presentations in W.A. Murphy Student Centre's McMillan Hall.

About the Founders

A research project examining the ecology and behaviour of urban red foxes on Prince Edward Island is seeking the help of the public through a new website, launched today. The public can report sightings of red foxes at upei.ca/redfox, which will track the distribution, abundance, movement, and habitat of the animals.

'Tracking animal movements and distribution, especially for a large animal such as the red fox, is time-consuming and expensive research,' said Dr. Marina Silva-Opps, a terrestrial ecologist and Associate Professor of Biology at UPEI. 'It requires trapping, affixing a radio collar, and a lot of human resource time. We know from the experiences of other researchers in Europe that we can map fox sightings using the public's help, which is a great first step toward our goal.'

The website uses Google Maps technology to easily allow users to plot out the exact location of a fox sighting. Users can also contribute details about their sighting.

'The more detail of the sighting, the more valuable the contribution,' said Dr. Silva-Opps. 'I'm extremely grateful for the participation in this project of The Wildlife Division of the PEI Department of Forest, Fish, and Wildlife; Dr. Sheldon Opps from the Animal Movement and Resource Selection group; and 69´«Ã½biology student William Robbins.'

Islanders are encouraged to report their fox sightings regularly to help the research team build a rich amount of data to draw upon.

The 69´«Ã½ invites high school science students on PEI to a day of discovery for the 2012 Gairdner Student Lecture. The lecture is Wednesday, October 17 at 10:30 am in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre's McMillan Hall.

After the lecture, students are invited to take a guided tour of campus with a special focus on the Faculty of Science and the Atlantic Veterinary College. As part of the tour, 69´«Ã½would like to treat visiting science teachers and students to lunch in the Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall.

Tours and lunch will be finished by 1:30 pm to allow students to return to school.

About our lecturer: Dr. Lorne Babiuk is the 2012 Canada Gairdner Laureate, and vice-president of research at the University of Alberta. In his research career, he brings together two areas of health usually addressed separately: animals and humans. One third of all human deaths are caused by infectious disease; about 70 per cent of the new diseases of the last 30 years are transmitted from animals to humans. Dr. Babiuk identified a vaccine to control rotavirus in calves, which was then developed into a human vaccine.

Please RSVP by October 10 to Rebecca Drum at recruitment@upei.ca or (902) 628-4353. We look forward to seeing you!

Dr. Jan Pechenik, professor at Massachusetts's Tufts University and author of 'A Short Guide to Writing About Biology' was on campus last week to deliver two writing workshops to science faculty and graduate students.

On Thursday, October 4, Dr. Pechenik spoke with science professors about how to teach through writing, and shared tips on how to incorporate writing into courses without 'killing themselves in the process.' Issues covered included plagiarism, peer review, and teaching students to write well. The workshop was ideal for professors who want to incorporate more writing into their curriculum. The workshop was attended by faculty from Science, Education, AVC, and Holland College.

On Friday, October 5, Faculty of Science graduate students were treated to Dr. Pechenik's advice on how to write brilliant papers, lab reports, and theses. This session was considered an applied workshop in the Biology Seminar Series, and was co-sponsored by the Science Graduate Studies committee and the Department of Biology. Support was also received from Science Atlantic, through a fund for speaker tours for Atlantic universities, and support from the Office of the VP Academic. Science students were in attendance, as well as students from AVC, Business, and Education.

'The workshops were engaging and fun, with great practical examples for both students and faculty,' said Dr. Donna Giberson, Professor, Department of Biology. 'Both faculty and students were extremely impressed, and are already asking if we can do something like this again.'

Dr. Pechenik has a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology from Duke University, and a PhD in Biological Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island. He directed the ‘Writing Across the Curriculum' program at Tufts University for six years, and has given workshops all over the world to faculty and students on various aspects of writing. Dr. Pechenik is currently a professor of Invertebrate Zoology and Marine Biology in Tufts' Department of Biology.

Dr. Pechenik also delivered workshops and presentations to students and faculty at St. Francis Xavier and Cape Breton University.

The Mickey Place Memorial Basketball Tournament presented by Rodd Hotels & Resorts begins on Friday, October 12 with eight basketball teams from across Canada competing in the annual three-day event.

69´«Ã½men's basketball team will tip-off against the University of Regina, Ryerson University, and Saint Mary's University, while the women's team will take on the University of Guelph Gryphons, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, and the Memorial University Seahawks of Newfoundland.

'We are very excited to kick off our 2012-13 season by hosting the Mickey Place Tournament. Regina, Ryerson, and Saint Mary's are all competitive CIS and AUS championship contenders, and we are looking forward to this early test,' said Kendrick. 'There is no doubt that this will be a wonderful weekend of basketball action!'

The tournament is named after John Thomas 'Mickey' Place, a long-time friend of Panther Sport, a former 69´«Ã½student union employee, and a 69´«Ã½honorary degree recipient. 69´«Ã½is also excited to announce that Rodd Hotels & Resorts is on board as presenting sponsor for the next three years.

The annual Sport Legacy Dinner to honour Academic All-Canadians from the last varsity season and to celebrate named award winners takes place on Thursday, October 11, in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre's McMillan Hall, with a reception at 6:30 pm and dinner to follow at 7:00 pm. The 69´«Ã½Hall of Fame induction will also take place during this year's annual celebration.

The 69´«Ã½Sports Hall of Fame committee is pleased to announce that it will induct 69´«Ã½basketball star Jennifer Moore (née Johnston), and UPEI's football defensive star Hubert 'Socky' MacDonald.

The 69´«Ã½men's hockey team begins their regular season on Friday, October 12, when they host rival Université de Moncton at 7:00 pm at MacLauchlan Arena. Members of the AUS championship winning 69´«Ã½women's hockey team will be on hand to drop the ceremonial puck at 6:55 pm.

Although the Panthers have lost AUS all-star forwards Jared Gomes and Matt Carter who graduated this spring, they have retained most of their core players. Last weekend's pre-season exhibition game in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, saw 69´«Ã½defeat Université de Moncton 3-1, so the team will look to continue its recent success in the ultra-competitive AUS men's hockey conference.

'There is no question that we lost some great players due to graduation,' said Head Coach Forbes MacPherson. 'Those players had been with me since day one, and they are to be credited with being part of the solution that has taken our program to the next level. The goal this summer was not to re-build, but to re-load, and we are excited about our new group going into the season.'

Continuing the trend from last year, the Panthers' line up will be filled once again with local talent-nine Islanders have committed to the program. New to the Panthers this season is Cole MacMillan, a rare dual athlete at UPEI, who played last season with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, and the Amherst Ramblers, and will join the hockey Panthers following the soccer season. Also new are Colin Beck (Truro Bearcats), Mason Wilgosh (Tri-City Americans), Tyler Brown (Kingston Frontenacs and Sarnia Sting), and Jordan Mayer (Mississauga Majors and Belleville Bulls).

Dylan Quaile, in his second year as captain, alongside Jordan Knox, Chris Desousa, Harrison McIver, Matt Maione, and Matt Boyle will round out the leadership group. Desousa, an AUS All-rookie forward is attending an AHL camp for the Chicago Blackhawks. Goaltending will be a strength for the Panthers this season with all-star Mavric Parks, and former team MVP Wayne Savage returning.

'We will be a very hard working team that will offer an exciting brand of hockey,' added MacPherson. 'There has been a tremendous amount of interest in our program recently and I believe that we will be a team the community will enjoy watching.'

The men will host St. Thomas University next on Saturday, October 13 at 7:00 pm at MacLauchlan Arena.

Season seats are still available but are selling quickly. Visit gopanthersgo.ca to purchase tickets. The Box Office will open at 6:00 pm on October 12.