Michael Phair, a former longtime Edmonton city councillor who is widely acknowledged for his leadership in the early years of AIDS, has been named chair of the University of Alberta Board of Governors for a three-year term. Phair is an adjunct professor with the Faculty of Education and a member of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services advisory committee. He replaces Dick Wilson, who served as acting chair since Doug Goss stepped down in August 2015. Wilson will continue to serve as vice-chair.
The university has launched UAlberta North to promote northern research and bring together educators, researchers and northern peoples. More than 100 faculty at the university call themselves northern researchers in fields as diverse as climate-change adaptation, cross-cultural medicine, food security, water, Indigenous knowledge and polar bears. UAlberta North renews work previously taken on by the retired Canadian Circumpolar Institute.
The university is implementing recommendations from a new report aimed at enhancing the campus community's response to sexual assault. The report by a sexual violence review group examined the supports and services available at the U of A. The result was 46 recommendations in six areas that will be acted on by a new working committee led by the Office of the Dean of Students. A priority is creating a stand-alone sexual assault policy and procedures that clearly outline expected behaviour, practices and standards for the university community.
Three students have been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, the largest number of students ever chosen in a single year in the university's history. Billy-Ray Belcourt, Zia Saleh and Carley-Jane Stanton were among 11 Canadian students selected to study for two years at Oxford University in England.
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