September 24, 2020
Dear Arts faculty and staff,
I want to start off by welcoming our faculty and staff to the 2020–21 academic year. Usually I would use a phrase like “back to campus,” but as we all know now, references to locality seem like quaint anachronisms during the current crisis.
To keep our university community and the broader community safe, UBC has clarified its plans to remain largely online for the Winter Terms 1 and 2, with only a few exceptions for courses that require face-to-face interaction. This year, if you are able to work from home, please do so. If circumstances require you to come to campus for teaching, research or work, our goal is for you to be able to do so safely. Arts has its own university-approved plans in place to bring into our facilities those who need to be on campus. If you’re unsure how these plans affect you, please talk to your department head, director or unit administrator.
There have been moments in the last couple of weeks that have challenged even my fairly resilient optimism — dark smoke over Vancouver serving as a persistent reminder of the accelerating climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic worsening in many places across the globe, as well as a deepening political crisis south of the border. In these challenging times, it has been our Arts community that has inspired me and raised my spirits.
I’ve seen our scholar-teachers double down on training and preparation to bring to life impactful and quality online education for our students. I’ve seen our staff transition to working remotely, dealing with technical problems and working in less-than-desired conditions, to continue to support the mission of the university. I’ve seen our UBC Creative and Performing Arts community engage with the crisis by adopting innovative means to continue creative programs, to exhibit and perform online and in face-to-face circumstances. And I’ve witnessed our amazing students transition to a new world of learning, demonstrating patience, flexibility and resilience. It has been a moving and humbling experience to cope with this crisis as part of such a dedicated and passionate community.
One of our goals when the COVID-19 crisis first broke was to bring all of the newly hired faculty members to campus, or to in some way make sure they were able to work and teach at UBC. We had remarkable success in that effort, difficult as it was, and I want to both thank and welcome our new faculty members. You, and we, will never forget the hard road we all walked to get you here, and I am deeply comforted by the certainty that it was all worth it — I am so excited by the quality and diversity you will bring to this community of scholars.
We recently celebrated the second iteration of UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan, and I’m proud that our campus is the first in the world to commit itself to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Along with the 94 Calls to Action from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the UNDRIP will help guide UBC to an implementation of reconciliation and decolonization in relation to First Nations and Indigenous peoples. As UBC-Vancouver moves forward with implementing the plan, we will continue to strengthen our close relationship with Musqueam, on whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory we work.
Finally, I should note that November 2 is the “go live” date for Workday, UBC’s new Finance and Human Resources platform. Our faculty’s transition to Workday is stewarded by our new Arts Service Centre, which will help coordinate the training of our administrators and ensure department heads, directors and faculty have the information they need to engage with the new platform. Because of the great work of our staff over the last few years, we don’t anticipate any major challenges as the “go live” date nears. We encourage everyone to sign up for Workday Basics training before November 2.
After two weeks of meeting (online) with many new students, our new faculty, and also celebrating our retiring (emeriti) faculty and our long-serving staff members, I’m cheered by the resilience, thoughtfulness, kindness and diligence of our extraordinary Arts community. I want to say a special thanks to you all.
Gage Averill, Dean of Arts