It’s a big week here at UNBC, the last week of classes. I’ve said it many times, but I can’t thank the community enough for the remarkable response during an unprecedented situation. From our students who have adapted marvelously to new ways of learning, and our faculty who have done terrific work in transitioning their teaching and assessment modes, to our staff who have provided outstanding service to facilitate our mission, all of you have responded exceptionally – thank you!

In today’s update:

• Grades: Adjusting our Approach
• Leveraging Online Resources
• Another Week of Virtual Activities

Grades: Adjusting our Approach

In a period of such rapid change, it’s worth re-visiting decisions on an ongoing basis. The options available for students regarding final grades this semester is one such decision. Over the past couple of weeks, we heard from students and faculty who indicated a need to change our approach to final grades. We reviewed what we were doing, reviewed approaches at other B.C. post-secondary institutions, and most important of all, listened to you. As a result, we sent some information to faculty and students via e-mail over the weekend that explains our new approach. We’ve also posted it on our website. My thanks to the Provost, Registrar, Deans, Program Chairs and our many faculty for their work on this matter. I hope our revised approach will ease some of the strain I know many of you are feeling.

Leveraging Online Resources

Many organizations are providing access to resources that can be extraordinarily helpful during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Our library team alerted me to the fact that many academic publishers and content providers are granting temporary open access to general content as well as pandemic-specific research and information. The library team is doing terrific work in keeping an updated list on the UNBC library website (that they update daily) of these resources. If you run into paywalls, broken links, or are aware of content they could add, send them a note at library@unbc.ca.

Another Week of Virtual Activities

A major shout-out to the Housing and Student Life teams for organizing a host of virtual events for our students, faculty and staff. This week, we have a number of activities for you to try, from a live “heart-to-heart” with our amazing counsellors and Trivia Tuesday, to Zumba on Zoom, yoga and a virtual drawing class. All events are listed on the events section of the UNBC website.

I know the rapidly nearing end of semester looms large in our vision right now, but I also know that the collective enthusiasm and persistence we are demonstrating as a community will see us through it. We will emerge stronger on the other side of this pandemic!

Be well!

Geoff Payne
UNBC Interim President and Vice-Chancellor