universityrelations

Email: universityrelations@newsbuild.ok.ubc.ca


 

Susan Hillock, associate professor of social work, is a member of the Kelowna branch of Rotary International and is looking to help connect UBC students with international learning and volunteer experiences.

She is helping host an on-campus open house and info session on November 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Arts building, room ARTS 112.

To find out more contact Susan Hillock at 250-807-8701.

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UBCO.TV spotlight: June 5, 2013

UBCO.TV spotlight: June 5, 2013

Okanagan campus people, achievements and events are showcased on UBCO.TV. Check out what’s new:

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UBCO.tv spotlight: May 15, 2013

UBCO.tv spotlight: May 15, 2013

Okanagan campus people, achievements and events are showcased on UBCO.TV. Check out what’s new:

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UBCO.tv spotlight: May 1, 2013

UBCO.tv spotlight: May 1, 2013

Okanagan campus people, achievements and events are showcased on UBCO.TV. Check out what’s new:

The post UBCO.tv spotlight: May 1, 2013 appeared first on UBC's Okanagan News.

UBCO.TV spotlight: April 17, 2013Okanagan campus people, achievements and events are showcased on UBCO.TV. Check out what’s new:

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IT, Media and Classroom Services at the Okanagan campus and UBC IT department at the Vancouver campus will soon be ready to roll out the same email service for both UBC campuses.

In November 2009, UBC announced a plan to provide this type of service to faculty and staff. To accommodate the large number of accounts that would need to be migrated to this integrated email service, UBC IT at the Vancouver campus has developed a new email service called FASmail that will accommodate up to 20,000 mailboxes.

This new FASmail service will bring a number of improvements over the current email system, including improvements in calendaring, room resource booking, client software support, and iOS device support.

On the Okanagan campus, IT, Media and Classroom Services (ITMCS) will start migrating faculty and staff to the new FASmail service in the second and third quarters of 2013. ITMCS will start by contacting department administrators to work out a migration date in the second and third quarters of 2013.

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UBCO.TV spotlight: April 3, 2013Okanagan campus people, achievements and events are showcased on UBCO.TV. Check out what’s new:

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UBCO.TV spotlight: March 20, 2013Okanagan campus people, achievements and events are showcased on UBCO.TV. Check out what’s new this week:

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Events planned for March 23 and 24

Members of the School of Social Work and the BC Association of Social Workers are combining their efforts raise funds in support of Inter-Cultural Women Education Network (IWEN). IWEN provides educational opportunities for girls in rural Nepal.

The funds will be used to support IWEN’s Classrooms for a Cause project, which sends IWEN volunteers to Nepal to help to expand capacity for a school that protects young girls who have been sold into the sex trade and harsh labour conditions.

The fundraising events include a Pub Night at the 97 Street Pub on March 24 as well as a Bake and Scarf sale in the Fipke Centre foyer on March 23. Tickets for the Pub Night are $20 and include food and one drink.

These events are being organized in conjunction with the International Social Work Week (March 20 to 26), and the presentation of a Global Action Agenda for Social Work and Social Development to the United Nations on March 20. This Action Agenda commits the profession to collaborating with other organizations, governments and UN systems to promote human rights, social justice, economic equalities, environmental protection and healthy communities across the globe.

To purchase tickets, or find out more, contact Dixon Sookraj or Corinne Dolman in the School of Social Work.

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Faculty of Health and Social Development conducts multiple research projects

Gordon Binsted, acting dean, Faculty of Health and Social Development

Universities are places of learning and discovery, and that drive for knowledge has produced countless breakthroughs. Numerous health research projects underway at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus have the potential to lead to major advances that will benefit the public.

Gordon Binsted is the acting dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Development, which includes the Schools of Nursing, Social Work and Health and Exercise Sciences – all areas where research is being conducted with the goal of helping people live healthy lives.

“Universities have a number of different roles when it comes to research,” says Binsted, adding the first role is the creation of new knowledge.

Universities do not simply teach what others have learned, but actively seek new information which is then directly passed on to students, making their learning experience as current as possible.

“That’s at the heart of any university,” says Binsted. “The core of research is the discovery and application of knowledge.”

That application can be found in the community, which ultimately benefits from the discoveries made by university research.

“Research is a lot of baby steps, but without those you will never have the big breakthrough. Our job is to keep taking those steps,” says Binsted, noting the next baby step could be the one to change the world, or it could add another piece to the puzzle. But neither would happen if that first step is not taken.

Paul van Donkelaar, associate professor and acting director of the School of Health and Exercise Sciences, is one of many professors and students actively involved in a variety of research projects.

Paul van Donkelaar, associate professor and acting director of the School of Health and Exercise Sciences, says there is no shortage of areas that require academic investigation.

Van Donkelaar, who took over as acting director in July 2011, says his school is actively researching transitions in health care for the elderly, how exercise impacts chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, how the brain functions in low oxygen situations, and a variety of other projects with potential to improve people’s health.

“With a fairly quick turnaround, we can get the resulting information into the hands of people who are seeing patients,” says van Donkelaar, adding that a lot of the research investigates how to prevent disease in the first place.

Patricia Marck, director, School of Nursing

Also new to campus is Patricia Marck, who took over as the director of the School of Nursing last fall.

Marck says she is excited about research partnerships with the BC Ministry of Health, Interior Health, and several Okanagan communities in community, rural and global health.

There are new projects in Aboriginal and Metis health and in primary care, as well as continuing strategies to reduce tobacco use, provide effective end-of-life care for rural British Columbians and partnerships with institutions in Africa.

“It is gratifying to see more and more of our researchers supported by provincial and national funding agencies,” says Marck. “But it is even more rewarding to see our faculty and students creatively use social media to promote tobacco reduction, collaborate with rural communities to improve palliative care, or work with the Zambian Ministry of Health to study patients’ experiences of hypertension treatment. These are research activities that make concrete contributions to improving health.”

Edward Taylor, director, School of Social Work

School of Social Work director Edward Taylor says research has always been important within the School of Social Work, but it has increasingly become a major component — and indeed an expectation — of what the school does.

Taylor says the School of Social Work is collaborating with the School of Nursing and psychology program to develop a mental-health centre at UBC’s Okanagan campus.

“There’s a partnership for developing a teaching, treatment and research clinic focused on mental disadvantages and major medical adjustment issues,” says Taylor, noting major research is also being developed in the area of immigrants, health disabilities, and child and family welfare.

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