Happy long weekend everyone! I hope all of you get a chance to relax and play this weekend. As the winter term comes to an end, I want to thank all of you for your unfailing commitment to our students. This has been an exciting and challenging year: the launch of the Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Governance degree; the communities Early Learning and Child Care project; planning for an additional intake in Practical Nurse; discussions of realigning academic supports for students; follow-up on the Health Care Assistant program review; revamped recruitment efforts at YSOVA; the start of a Bachelor of Social Work accreditation review; and course development for the Community Education and Employment Support certificate and the Yukon First Nations Arts certificate. I’ve likely missed other big projects, and AA faculty and staff have continued to be key figures in broader conversations about transition to Yukon University, indigenization and reconciliation, research and scholarly activity, distance delivery of courses and programs. I need to sit down–recalling all this effort is making me light-headed.

So, against that backdrop of remarkable Applied Arts accomplishments, here are some long-overdue updates and news from around the division and College.

Retreat! Retreat!

An all-day Applied Arts Retreat will be happening on May 10 at Sky High Ranch. The details of the day are still being worked out, but some of the activities will centre around experiential learning (that term might be misleading, but bear with us). We had a bit of a setback earlier this week, when some resource folks we were counting on had to back out—but all is not lost! And huge thanks to Jay Dobson and Carolyn Kauth for the work they’ve put in, and for doing so without losing their sense of humour.

YSOVA Year-End Exhibition

If you’re planning to be in Dawson on Friday, April 26, make the Yukon School of Visual Arts’ Year-End Exhibition part of your plans. YSOVA students will be displaying their work and celebrating the close of the academic year with faculty, family, friends, and the community. I’ll be driving up for the event on Friday, with YSOVA’s English instructor and library tech, Jeffery Langille. Just imagine: two English majors in a car for five hours. We’ll have room for more passengers, if anyone is looking for a spring road trip and craves more talk about metaphor and the derivations of words.

Congrats Brittany Tuffs

A shout out to Heritage and Culture alumni Brittany Tuffs! Earlier this month, she received a SSHRC award to support her master’s education in Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.

Faculty, Know Thyself

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, faculty will need to write a short piece of reflective writing as part of the wrap up to this year’s Performance Management Planning process. I believe I said the piece should be 1 page maximum, but that should probably be 1 page minimum, as I know some of you will feel constrained by 250 words. Your reflections should focus on 2-3 domains: (1) teaching, (2) institutional service and, if it was a requirement as part of workload, (3) research/scholarly activity. This reflective practice is likely the first step in a phased roll-out of a peer component to performance evaluation/faculty development.

Spring/Summer @ Work

Janet Welch has asked me for an inventory of the range of activities faculty will be embarked on during those periods of the summer when they are not on leave. I emphasize not—no need to tell me about your fabulous beach vacay in Maui, although I’m sure it will be lovely. Janet is particularly interested in the amount of curriculum development happening across the institution. As your spring/summer plans become clear, please let your chair know what is on your to-do list, and then the chairs and I will somehow compile the info and get it back to the VPA.

Early Learning and Child Care Articulation

The BCCAT articulation committee for Early Learning and Child Care will be meeting at Yukon College this year, May 8-9. The meeting will be followed, on May 10, by a professional development day for Yukon’s early learning educators, as part of the communities Early Learning project.

3-Month Forecast

The end of April means the start of another forecasting process for the College. Carolyn Kauth will be reaching out to many of you for updates on your respective budgets. The message around forecasting remains the same: once we project numbers to Year End, we need to strive to stay within those projections.

IGD Program Advisory Committee

This past Monday—and at long last!—the inaugural meeting of the Program Advisory Committee for the Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Governance degree took place. PACs are one way the College maintains close ties with the community around us. The first meeting was mostly about everyone getting to know one another, but a discussion of the role/importance of ceremony at future meetings tells me this group is going to go deep when it gets together.

Protocol Issue

I’ve been told that folks within the College are, on occasion, inviting Yukon First Nation chiefs to events that aren’t really on the level that would ordinarily merit an invitation to a chief. The rule of thumb should be: If we aren’t planning to invite the Premier, then we shouldn’t be inviting a YFN chief. When in doubt about protocol questions, it’s always good practice to reach out to College and External Relations.

Convocation 2019

Our last convocation ceremony as Yukon College will take place on May 23, between 10 am and 12:30 pm, in the College’s gymnasium. Please plan to be there to celebrate (with) our students.

That’s all I can think of for the time being. Now, stop reading and take yourself for a walk outdoors.