Emergency Preparedness Week 2024
Take part in Emergency Preparedness Week (EP Week), May 5–11, to increase the UBC community’s resilience by learning about emergency preparedness. You can get prepared for an emergency by learning about the risks in your community, making a plan and building a kit. Plus, on Wednesday, May 8, the national emergency alert system will be tested, with the alert broadcast on radio, TV and compatible cell phones. Learn more.
Participate in the 2024 Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey
All UBC faculty and staff are invited to participate in the Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey (CCWS) 2024 to help inform the Workplace Wellbeing team at UBC Vancouver and the Workplace Health and Wellbeing team at UBC Okanagan as they prepare to refresh our existing wellbeing strategies. Your insights will help shape how our community members live, work, learn and enjoy our campuses for years to come. Complete the survey by Friday, May 17.
Enter the Shoes for Crews monthly draw
As part of the new partnership with Shoes for Crews, SHCS Occupational Health and Safety is offering a monthly draw for a free pair of shoes—open to SHCS employees in Vancouver and the Okanagan. Enter this month’s draw for your chance to win! One entry per person, per month. Enter each month’s draw by the last day of the month at 11:59 pm. Learn more about the Shoes for Crews program.
Congratulations to our 2024 VPS Employee Award recipients
Please join us in congratulating two SHCS employees who received Vice-President, Students Portfolio Employee Awards in April 2024 (the inaugural year). Kulwinder Rai, Assistant Housekeeping Supervisor, Facilities and Building Services, received the Enhancing the UBC Experience award. Jessica Sterman, Compliance and Claims System Associate, Occupational Health and Safety, received the Workplace Wellbeing award. Read their profiles.
Try an E-bike for free
UBC has partnered with Zygg to allow UBC staff, faculty and students to try an e-bike for free for an entire week. The program runs from March 25 to October 31, 2024 for staff and faculty—and will be available to students in the Fall. Zygg is a subscription-based e-bike service that offers monthly e-bike rentals. To learn more and to sign up, visit the UBC Try an E-bike Program.
A heads up: Jump Start Move In Day 2024 on a weekday (Vancouver)
This year, Jump Start Move In (Vancouver) takes place on a weekday: Tuesday, August 27. With thousands of students and their families driving to and around campus that day, the Student Residence team wanted to provide advance notice and ask those who can, please work from home that day—to reduce traffic on campus and ensure a smooth move in experience for new students. More info to come!
Reusable mug program at UBC Okanagan
This past year, UBC Okanagan Food Services launched a new reusable mug program. Customers who bring their own mug and purchase a hand-crafted beverage, such as coffee or tea, at any of their locations, receive a $0.50 discount off their drink. Last fiscal (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024), an incredible 12,557 discounts were redeemed, which means they were able to keep the same number of single use cups out of the landfill.
Ubyssey feature story on UBC Child Care
Don’t miss this excellent and illuminating feature Ubyssey story, Child-sized, critical steps, about the unique work taking place at UBC Child Care, which features Barbara Undurraga, Senior Early Childhood Educator, Enalyne Point, Indigenous Relations Engagement Pedagogist, and Karen Vaughan, Director.
Pet pop-up at UBC Bookstore
On April 9, the bookstore hosted its first pet accessories pop-up event that featured a few beloved local vendors, as well as an ambassador and their rescue pup from Free Korean Dogs. Created and organized by Joanna Kwong, from the bookstore’s buying team, the event welcomed more than fifteen UBC community pets and their owners, including students from the Campus Canines club with their service dogs in training. Check out this Instagram Reel from the event!
Boundaries workshop recap
On March 21, nearly 20 staff from SHCS Vancouver and Okanagan attended a hybrid workshop on creating and maintaining healthy boundaries, delivered by Jhanelle Peters, a Registered Psychotherapist. This unique workshop was organized and offered by the SHCS HR Organizational Development and Leadership team, and they’re offering it again on May 15. Register today!
New UBC Child Care website
We are excited to announce the launch of the new UBC Child Care website. This new website better reflects the high quality of education and care that UBC Child Care provides, while also offering greater insight into the types of care, settings, admissions process, pedagogy and more. This project was a great collaboration between UBC Child Care, SHCS Marketing and Communications and SHCS IT.
Recent media coverage: UBCO Parking Food for Fines
This February, the UBC Okanagan Parking team’s Food for Fines program broke a new record, with more than 1,900 items donated to the SUO pantry. Since then, the story has been picked up by several media outlets, including Castanet, Global News and CKNW News Talk 980.
Nutrition and Wellbeing team update
Please join us in welcoming Kitty Seah to the Food Services Nutrition and Wellbeing team as the Food and Nutrition Coordinator, covering for Pauline Wong, while she is on maternity leave. Kitty was most recently the Quality Assurance Officer at Canada Six Fortune Enterprise and holds previous experience at UBC Extended Learning.
CCSP annual report features SHCS grocery RFP
The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) recently released their 2023 annual report, The State of Sustainable Public Procurement in Canada. UBC sits on the CCSP steering committee each year and contributes university-wide content to the report. This year, we are pleased to report that our Food Services Grocery request for proposal (RFP), a collaborative effort between SHCS Purchasing and the Food Services teams on both campuses, was featured as a member success story. To check out the story, see page 22 of the report.
Congratulations to Erica Toth, RLM, UBC Okanagan
In March 2024, Erica Toth, Residence Life Manager, UBC Okanagan, was awarded the 2024 New Professional Award by the Northwest Association of University and College Housing Officers. Since joining the Residence Life field as a professional in 2022, Erica has made significant and lasting contributions to the UBC Okanagan Residence Life program, our students and to the profession. Please join us in congratulating Eric on this accomplishment.
Dina Del Bucchia, UBC Bookstore, launches new book
Congratulations to Dina Del Bucchia, one of our long-standing UBC Bookstore employees, who recently launched her book, You’re Gonna Love This. The author of several collections of poetry, Dina is also a co-host of Can’t Lit, a podcast on Canadian literature and culture, the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series and a sessional instructor with UBC’s School of Creative Writing. Learn more.
Marketing and Communications team update
Charlotte Sander, Communications and Marketing Specialist, recently started her maternity leave, and we wish her all the best as she welcomes a new member of her family. We would like to offer a warm welcome to Jackie Hunter, who will be covering Charlotte’s role while she is away. Jackie, who joined the team in late-March, was most recently a Senior Accounts Manager with Akcelo, a global brand experience agency, where she led the account for TikTok North America.
Counsellors in Residence: events and initiatives
Did you know our Counsellors in Residence (CiR) also support student residents through a range of programming and resources, in addition to individual counselling? This academic year, the CiR team launched two new resource workbooks, launched a Kindness Challenge, and held many other events and initiatives from the Ask a Counsellor AMA on Instagram and a ChatGPT vs. Counsellor event to motivation and resilience-building workshops and a series of exam season drop-in mindfulness sessions.
Climate and sustainability training for Facilities and Building Services staff
In February and March 2024, Ricky Biring and Johanna Webber, Associate Directors in Facilities and Building Services, provided several training and education sessions on climate action and sustainability at UBC for staff across their department—including 40 Facilities (trades and stores) staff, 155 Building Services staff and 20 administrative and management staff. These sessions provided staff with a foundation of knowledge on climate issues and sustainability, what UBC and SHCS are doing and what staff can do to support our plans and goals.
Highlighting Kerry Boultbee, Sustainability Coordinator at UBC Bookstore
Sustainability is a key value at the UBC Bookstore, and the team there would like to highlight the work of Kerry Boultbee, Retail Floor Supervisor—also a recent SHCS Hero Award recipient—who has been their sustainability coordinator for over 20 years. A few of the initiatives completed during Kerry’s tenure include LED lighting upgrades, lighting automation for energy savings and the elimination of plastic bags. Learn more about sustainability at UBC Bookstore, and watch for more as they re-launch their sustainability committee.
ASIST at UBC Okanagan
Katrina Stefopulos, a Residence Life Manager at UBC Okanagan, recently became certified as an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) facilitator. This certification allowed Katrina to lead a two-day ASIST workshop in March for nearly 20 staff and students. The workshop was funded through the Vice-President, Students Strategic Initiatives Fund and has contributed to expanding the mental health fluency and capabilities of the Okanagan campus community.
Nutrition Month: A big success!
March is Nutrition Month across Canada, and this year Food Services celebrated with a number of events on the themes related to plant-based eating and food skills for life. During the month, they hosted nutrition and wellbeing booths at our residence dining halls, several signature events for students, held a Dietitian Q&A on Instagram, and published a series of nutrition-focused blog posts.
National Poetry Month at UBC Bookstore
April is National Poetry Month in Canada, and a wide range of classic and contemporary poetry at the bookstore is now featured at 20% off until the end of the month. Come browse an extensive display of poetry picks at the store or explore a curated collection online.