Bishop’s University will hold an event on Sunday, March 20^th at 4:00 p.m. at Centennial Theatre to show our support for the people of Ukraine and to raise funds to support Ukrainian students who wish to come to Bishop’s. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Speakers will include Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, the Honourable Bob Rae and members of the Bishop’s community. The event will also feature a performance by the cast of Godspell. The Musical and a silent auction. Donations can also be made online through this link.

What : Fundraising Event “Solidarity with Ukraine”
Free Admission

When : Sunday, March 20^th,2022
4:00 p.m.

Where : Centennial Theatre, Bishop’s University
2600, College Street, Sherbrooke, Quebec J1M 1Z7
Campus map

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Sonia Patenaude
Manager of Communications
spatenau@ubishops.ca
819-342-2587

Musique Chez Nous is pleased to welcome bassist and composer Fraser Hollins and his quartet on March 15^th at 8 p.m. on the Centennial Theatre stage. The first guest in the student-run series from Bishop’s Music Department since the series was abruptly cancelled in February 2020, Hollins will present his second opus Treehouse with fellow jazzmen, American drummer Brian Blade, Joel Miller on saxophones, and Jon Cowherd on piano.

Originally from Ottawa, now based in Montreal, Hollins recorded Treehouse in 2016 and released the 11-tracks of original compositions in 2019. He now is preparing a Quebec and Ontario tour with his original bandmates following an extensive pandemic-imposed pause.  The concert will feature music from Treehouse as well as some selections from his sophomore release, Aerials, and new material.

The Fraser Hollins Quartet featuring Brian Blade will also offer a masterclass to pre-selected Jazz combos from the Music Department at Bishop’s University and a short performance of selections from their new CD. The workshop will take place the following day, March 16th, at 11:30 a.m. in Bandeen Hall. All are welcome to this free event.

Join us for this very special Musique Chez Nous concert with the Fraser Hollins Quartet on March 15th at 8 p.m. at Centennial Theatre. Tickets are $25 and free for all students upon presentation of a valid student ID and must be reserved in advance. Tickets can be purchased in advance or on the day of the concert at the Centennial Theatre Box Office 819-822-9692 or visit Musique Chez Nous on Facebook.

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MEDIA REQUEST
Sonia Patenaude, Communications Manager
819-342-2587
spatenau@ubishops.ca

Sherbrooke, February 23, 2022 – Students of the Bishop’s University’s Musical Concentration are presenting their first-ever production, an imaginative retelling of the classic Broadway show, Godspell. The Musical. Director Dr. Art Babayants and Musical Director Fannie Gaudette lead the cast of 14 students and 4 musicans who will take the stage at Bishop’s Centennial Theatre from March 10 to 13. Take a glimpse at the promotional video.

Dr. Art Babayants, the new director of the musical theatre concentration, chose Godspell. The Musical, as it speaks to “building a community” and to “have a musical that allows you to focus on the singing, on being together and to continue working even if someone gets sick.” Dr. Babayants is one of many renowned professors students will get the chance to learn from.

The musical is the first public offering from the University’s new Musical Theatre concentration, which aims to enhance Bishop’s existing drama and music programs with specific training in dance, acting and history for musical theatre. This concentration offers yet another opportunity for students to explore and learn across disciplines.

The Bishop’s experience is truly on display in this production, featuring a 14-member company with talented performers majoring in psychology, education, and neuroscience, as well as from the performing arts. Diversity in the acting company extends to language as well, and audiences can expect to experience French, English, Hebrew, Spanish and American Sign Language.

Godspell. The Musical was created Off-Broadway in 1971 by 1971 by John-Michael Tebelak with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz,

Tickets can be purchased online or in person though the Centennial Theatre Box Office

www.centennialtheatre.ca  | 819-822-9692.  Mandated sanitary measures will be applied.

Dr. Sunny Lau from Bishop’s School of Education and recently appointed new Canada Research Chair on integrated plurilingual teaching and learning will present an online bilingual workshop with the collaboration of Dr. Geneviève Brisson, from the Faculty of Education at Université de Sherbrooke, through a partnership with Collectif CLÉ.

Created for parents of pre-school aged children, the workshop “Teaching your Child How to Think / Aidez votre enfant à apprendre et à penser”, will be presented on the Teams platform on Saturday, February 19 at 10 a.m.

What: Bilingual activity  “Teaching your Child How to Think / Aidez votre enfant à apprendre et à penser”

When:
Saturday, February 19, 2022
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Online: Presented by Collectif CLÉ

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MEDIA REQUEST:
Sonia Patenaude
Manager of Communications
spatenau@ubishops.ca
819-342-2587

Bishop’s University is pleased to announce that it has partnered with REES (Respect, Educate, Empower Survivors) to make online reporting available to the campus community.

REES is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week centralized online reporting and information platform that provides increased options for students, staff, and faculty to report sexual violence.

REES includes multiple reporting options and critical information about resources and supports available both on campus and in the community.

“We are committed to preventing sexual violence and to removing barriers to reporting acts of sexual violence,” commented Michael Goldbloom, C.M., Principal and Vice-Chancelier at Bishop’s University. “REES is a survivor-centric tool that provides students with an additional reporting option. We encourage the members of our community to familiarize themselves with this new tool which will complement our policies and our support network.”

According to a 2019 Stats Canada Survey on Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population, 71 percent of postsecondary students witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviours over the past year, yet less than one in ten spoke about what happened with someone associated with the school.

Bishop’s University is the first post-secondary institution in Quebec to adopt REES and joins Mount Allison University, St. Francis Xavier University, University of Windsor, the University of Winnipeg, and Okanagan College, and others in implementing REES.

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Media Requests:
Sonia Patenaude
Manager of Communications
Bishop’s University
spatenau@ubishops.ca

Contact REES:
Mary Lobson
Founder & CEO
REES Technology Group Inc.
mary@reescommunity.com

Integrated plurilingual teaching and learning 

Dr. Sunny Lau of Bishop’s University’s School of Education is awarded a Canada Research Chair to continue her work on plurilingual pedagogies, working with teachers to co-create teaching and learning conditions that promote the use of transferable strategies, metalinguistic awareness, intercultural education, and critical literacy learning. 

 Dr. Lau’s research highlights how language strategies used in one language can be applied in another language for more in-depth learning, and how this helps lessen the fear of acquiring a second or even third language. 

Dr. Lau’s research focus is especially relevant in a context where students’ mother tongue is neither English nor French and are rapidly increasing in the Eastern Townships and elsewhere. 

 “Many immigrant learners have competence in more than one language and culture, but these resources are often not being fully recognised and mobilized by teachers in language and content area classrooms,” argues Dr. Lau. “Most of these students are already plurilingual in the sense that they have competence in more than one language, and students are constantly making links to languages they know and use language strategies and learning strategies that they know to help themselves learn a new language.” 

Dr. Lau has previously worked with teachers in an Anglophone elementary school to integrate English and French second language (ESL and FSL) teaching and learning to achieve linguistic and cognitive coherence. Based on a year-long theme, the teachers read storybooks with children alternately in English and French to deepen their understanding. The English and French storybooks were different but shared similar themes that address social topics including poverty, homelessness, ablism, racism, to name a few. “When we teach languages in such a connected way, we are constantly building on what students already know and integrating concepts and ideas in a coherent way”, Dr. Lau explains. 

 Dr. Lau’s new Canada Research Chair on integrated plurilingual teaching and learning is another illustration of Bishop’s University’s commitment to   academic excellence and reflects on Bishop’s University’s focus on its local community, as it offers great potential for knowledge mobilization with education stakeholders locally and beyond. 

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 MEDIA INQUIRIES: 

 Sonia Patenaude 

Communications Manager 

Bishop’s University 

spatenau@ubishops.ca  

The Government of Québec is providing financial support to Bishop’s University to further advance the development of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (SAFS) program.

Minister of Higher Education Danielle McCann has announced a recurring yearly grant of $600,000 for the next three years aimed at developing regional expertise in the field of sustainable agriculture and food systems. The funds will be used to recruit professors and researchers that will strengthen the ongoing development of Bishop’s new SAFS program.

“Our universities have a role to play not only in training future workers, but also regarding research and innovation. The development of expertise in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems of biological agriculture is important for our economy and that’s why I’m glad for the support offered to Bishop’s. I’m confident the University’s expertise will allow for the development of this promising agricultural segment in developing knowledge that can benefit the entire population of Québec,” remarks Danielle McCann, Minister of Higher Education.

“The world is experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change. As individuals and institutions, we must act to address the climate crisis.  The SAFS program is an important initiative to help us respond locally to this global challenge. Many of our students are keen to learn the principles and practices of sustainable agriculture,” remarks Michael Goldbloom, C.M. Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Bishop’s University.

The support of the SAFS program by the Government of Québec will allow Bishop’s to accelerate the development of this program. Already led by a team of highly qualified academics, the additional professors and researchers will contribute to the expansion of knowledge in the Eastern Townships of this emerging academic discipline.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Sonia Patenaude
Communications Manager
Bishop’s University
819-822-9600 ext. 2617
spatenau@ubishops.ca

Bishop’s University has been awarded two Global Skills Opportunity grants for two international mobility programs for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to come together and learn about Indigenous cultures in Belize or Japan.

The $800,000 Belize program grant has been awarded to the Maple League of institutions (Acadia University, Mount Allison University, and Bishop’s University) to develop and launch a program for Indigenous students to participate in an international experience together. The program known as “Nation to Nation: Building Indigenous Knowledge Across International Borders” will see 60 students from the four institutions travel to Belize to learn about the experiences of the Yucatec, Mopan, Garifuna, and K’eckchi peoples. Collaborating with Galen University in Belize, students will learn about language preservation, Indigenous governance, the environment, land rights, Indigenous innovations, and cultural heritage through food and education.

The Japan project entitled “Communicating Across Cultures: Building Intercultural Competencies and Lasting Partnerships in Japan Using an Indigenous Wholistic Framework” will allow 12 Bishop’s students to travel to Japan for three weeks each year. The grant received for the Japan program totals $274,000. In collaboration with Hokkaido University’s Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, students will gather in talking circles, attend seminars and engage in meaningful dialogue and land-based and community activities. Learning will be facilitated both inside and outside of the university setting, with experiences that will foster a greater understanding of Japanese and Ainu history, land and cultures.

The federal government’s new Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) program, officially launched in early November, is expected to enable more than 16,000 Canadian college and undergraduate-level university students to acquire the global skills employers want and the Canadian economy needs.

The $95 million GSO program is a component of the Government of Canada’s International Education Strategy and is funded by Employment and Social Development Canada. Administered jointly by Colleges and Institutes Canada and Universities Canada, the program has been designed to allow participating colleges, universities and institutes to customize projects to their students’ needs.

While open to all Canadian postsecondary students, the program targets groups for whom such experiences have traditionally been less accessible – specifically Indigenous students, students from low-income backgrounds and those living with disabilities. It also aims to diversify destination countries where Canadian students pursue international learning.

Bishop’s will begin recruiting students for both programs in December, with the selection to take place in early January. Both projects will take place in May 2022, 2023 and 2024.

“We hope that students will have the chance to discuss these opportunities with their communities, Elders, families and friends over the December break. For instance, we know that many Indigenous students have various commitments in their home communities after the Winter semester, and that community support will be important for them to dedicate time to travel in May,” indicates Annick Corbeil, Manager of Bishop’s International and Student Life.

“We are looking for students who are eager to learn as much in Japan or Belize as they will from one another.  This is very much a group learning experience that will require tremendous curiosity and humility from each participant,” Corbeil adds.

The Maple League Global Skills Opportunity Belize program, along with the Bishop’s Japan GSO program, are two among the 124 such programs offered through 56 Universities across Canada.

The participation in this Global Skills Opportunity demonstrates Bishop’s University’s commitment to offering an outstanding learning experience centred on its students’ quest for academic excellence, strongly focused on the need of its diverse and inclusive community.

“The Belize and Japan programs are also another step on the path to reconciliation and decolonizing international education,” says Corbeil.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Sonia Patenaude
Manager of Communications
Bishop’s University
819-822-9600 ext. 2617
spatenau@ubishops.ca

Next week Bishop’s students won’t be attending classes, but they have a lot of tools at their disposal to help ensure they succeed in the final stretch of the Fall 2021 Semester.

Morning workouts and yoga session from 9-10 a.m., Study Café with free coffee and tea offered at the Gait between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., workshops and activities hosted by the Writing Centre and Student Success Centre, as well as Indigenous awareness activities, recreational sports and games, pumpkin carving, movies and more hosted by clubs and student life groups are on the agenda for all Gaiters thanks to the efforts of members of the Student Representative Council and the many event organizers from October 25-29.

“Student Success Week is a nice snapshot of what Bishop’s University is all about,” points out Dr. Stine Linden-Andersen, Dean of Student Affairs. “It is meant to give students the time they need to put in the work and effort required as they reach for academic excellence, but it balances this hard work with opportunities for social engagement and interaction within our close-knit community.”

“Student Success Week will include a mix of academic and leisure activities to provide students with a stimulating break from classes,” explains Bishop’s University Student Representative Council President Enzo Evangelisti. “The goal is to take a proactive approach to student success.”

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Sonia Patenaude
Interim Communications Manager
Bishop’s University
819-822-9600 ext. 2617
spatenau@ubishops.ca

Dr. Jason Rowe, Canada Research Chair in Exoplanetary Astrophysics at Bishop’s University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and, Dr. Stanimir Metchev, Canada Research Chair in Extrasolar Planets at Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration are the recipients of a $1.1 million (tax included) contract from the Canadian Space Agency to develop the prototype of what could become Canada’s next space telescope mission.

If the project’s development goes as planned, the Photometric Observations of Extrasolar Transits mission (POET as it is provisionally titled) could be in orbit, characterizing known extrasolar planets, or perhaps even discovering Earth-like exoplanets, by 2026. Unlike the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, which are collaborations between different space agencies, POET would be entirely Canadian-funded and Canadian-built.

“The Canadian Astronomical Society recently-published decadal report includes an endorsement for a new Canadian space telescope mission,” points out Dr. Metchev, Co-Principal Investigator of the project. “The proposed mission to detect and study extrasolar planets received high ranking in the small-mission category, and could be Canada’s next space telescope.”

The two main goals of the POET mission are to measure the extent and composition of the atmosphere of extrasolar planets closely orbiting their stars, and to detect Earth-like, potentially-habitable planets around the nearest, dimmest and coolest stars, which offer the best chance of detecting signs of possible life on other planets.

“We are very pleased to see the Canadian Space Agency support this project through their Space Technology Development Program, along with ABB and the University of Toronto Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS-SFL),” indicates Dr. Rowe, who is the Principal Investigator. “A new Canadian space telescope would be an invaluable tool to discover even more about the many planetary systems that have been discovered beyond our own solar system in recent years.”

UTIAS-SFL would provide the spacecraft, and ABB the telescope and control systems. Unlike the other space telescopes referenced above, which are collaborative efforts designed to support many different scientific missions, POET would be dedicated to its two very specific missions, making the project nimble and cost-effective.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Jeffrey Renaud
Senior Media Relations Officer
Western University
519-661-2111 ext. 85165
Jrenaud9@uwo.ca

Olivier Bouffard
Communications Director
Bishop’s University
819-822-9600 ext. 2840
olivier.bouffard@ubishops.ca