Winter 2017/18 VANCOUVER VIU ISLAND magazine UNIVERSITY Plastic Ocean Scientists don't fully understand the impacts of microplastics on ecosystems, and VIU faculty and students are on the cutting edge of research on the issue. Green Energy Poets on Campus Mass Specmobile FREE ALUMNI BENEFIT CARD As a member of the VIU Alumni Association, you are entitled to receive a free alumni benefi t card to access special group rates and exclusive products and services that assist you in your personal and professional life. Connect with us and get your card at viu.ca/alumni/register AFFINITY PARTNER FREEFREE BENEFIT ALUMNI PARTNERS ALUMNI BENEFITBENEFIT CARD CARD As a member of the VIU Alumni Association, you are entitled to receive VIU Campus Store VIU Library VIU Residence As a member of the VIU Alumni Association, you are entitled to receive a free alumni benefit card to access special group rates and exclusive VIU Campus Recreation VIU Hairdressing VIU Theatre a free alumni benefit card to access special group rates and exclusive VIU Mariner Athletics productsproducts and services and services that assist that you assist in youryou inpersonal your personal and professional and professional life. life. 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Interested in becoming an alumni benefit card partner? /VIUAA/VIUAA Contact [email protected] @VIU_Alumni BENEFIT CARD Contact2 VIU Magazine [email protected] @VIU_Alumni As a member of the VIU Alumni Association, you are entitled to receive a free alumni benefi t card to access special group rates and exclusive products and services that assist you in your personal and professional life. Connect with us and get your card at viu.ca/alumni/register AFFINITY PARTNER FREE BENEFIT PARTNERS ALUMNI BENEFIT CARD VIU Campus Store VIU Library VIU Residence As a member of the VIU Alumni Association, you are entitled to receive VIU Campus Recreation VIU Hairdressing VIU Theatre a free alumni benefit card to access special group rates and exclusive VIU Mariner Athletics products and services that assist you in your personal and professional life. Interested in becoming an alumni benefi t card partner? /VIUAA Connect with us and get your card at viu.ca/alumni/register Contact [email protected] @VIU_Alumni AFFINITY PARTNER BENEFIT PARTNERS VIU Campus Store VIU Deep Bay Marine Station VIU Residence VIU Campus Recreation VIU Library VIU Theatre VIU Mariner Athletics VIU Hairdressing Interested in becoming an alumni benefit card partner? /VIUAA Contact [email protected] @VIU_Alumni L-R: Jenn McGarrigle, David Forrester, Janina Stajic David Forrester, L-R: Jenn McGarrigle, What a busy year we’ve had at Vancouver Island University! This partnership will boost the number of Indigenous students attending VIU, and put more supports in place once they are Thanks to a $60-million investment from the provincial here, thanks to a $13.5-million investment. We touch on VIU’s and federal governments, VIU and community partners, long-term commitment to Indigenous education on page 28 construction has begun on three major projects at the in Road to Reconciliation. Nanaimo Campus — a new Health and Science Centre; Marine, Automotive and Trades Complex; and a District You’ll want to check out our feature on the microplastics Geo-Exchange Energy System. See page 16 for more research VIU faculty and students are conducting. There are details on how the geo-exchange works. trillions of particles in the world’s oceans, and our researchers have found that these microscopic particles are ending up in As we write this note, construction activity is in full the shellfish we eat – an issue of global concern. swing, and the large crane in the heart of campus is in constant motion. You can check out a picture of the We also show off the Applied Environmental Research Lab’s crane on page 20, alongside a Q&A with VIU President new Mass Specmobile – a mobile lab that is revolutionizing and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ralph Nilson. Nilson shares the way environmental contaminants can be measured – his vision for the VIU Economic Enterprise Region, and showcase the work of two amazing poets on campus a strategy for the mid-Island region that removes barriers who have captured some big awards and titles. to accessing education and helps prepare people for Thanks to our alumni who shared their stories in this issue. the jobs of the future. We are so proud of all you’ve accomplished! Do you have a story to tell? Email [email protected]. Another highlight this year was the start of a unique learning partnership with The Mastercard Foundation, Happy reading! the Rideau Hall Foundation and Yukon College. Janina, David and Jenn WINTER 2017/18 3 When there’s a will, there’s a way. Support a future VIU student with a gift in your will, or consider making a gift today. I am forever thankful to those who have put these awards in place; I hope to honour their gift by applying myself and using my education to give back to the community that makes all this possible. Joseph Monaghan Bachelor of Science, 3rd year Contact Jason to learn how your gift can change lives: 250.740.6258 12 photo credit: Island Expressions Photography insideviu magazine | winter 2017/18 6 VIU Spotlight 12 Drowning in Plastic 16 Green is the New Black: VIU’s District 16 Geo-Exchange Energy System 20 Building a Barrier-Free Future 20 22 Poets on Campus 25 Introducing … The Mass Specmobile 28 Road to Reconciliation 30 Putting Their Skills to Work 33 Alumni News 38 Q&A with VIU Alumnus Mat Snowie COVER: VIU Biology student Maggie Dietterle, as well as other students and faculty at VIU, are studying how to remove microplastics 22 from Pacific oysters. photo credit: Island Expressions Photography WINTER 2017/18 5 VIU spotlight VIU Joins the Green Chemistry Commitment they will look for more benign and less wasteful alternatives once they are out in the workforce. “This is a big step forward for VIU’s commitment to sustainability,” says Chemistry Professor Dr. Alexandra Weissfloch, who spearheaded the University’s application to join the GCC. “It also means our chemistry program is going to be distinctive, not only in BC, but also in Canada. It is a perfect fit for a department that is already strong in environmental chemistry.” VIU is the second institution in Canada – the first being the University of Toronto – to sign on to the GCC. Dr. Alexandra Weissfloch and Peter Diamente and Weissfloch Alexandra Dr. About three dozen universities and A green transformation is taking and, ultimately, increase the number colleges in the United States have place in VIU’s Chemistry Department. of green chemists and scientists. also signed up. The University recently joined the What this means for the Chemistry Next up is working green chemistry Green Chemistry Commitment, a Department is that faculty and staff and toxicology into the new Major in consortium launched by the non-profit have committed to making continuous Chemistry program VIU hopes to offer Beyond Benign that aims to create improvements in waste and hazard once the Health and Science Centre, systemic and lasting change in reduction, as well as introducing green currently under construction in the university-level chemistry education chemistry concepts to students so heart of campus, is complete. PUBLISHER CONTRIBUTORS Communications & Public Engagement, Gloria Bell - Island Expressions Photography Advancement & Alumni Relations (select photos) Volume 2 / Issue 1 / Winter 2017/18 Vancouver Island University VIU Magazine is published in the spring and fall by MANAGING EDITORS We welcome letters to the editor. VIU’s Communications & Public Engagement Office Janina Stajic and Alumni Relations Office. It is distributed free of Manager, Communications and Public Engagement Editor, VIU Magazine charge to VIU alumni and friends. Communications & Public Engagement David Forrester 900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5S5 All material is copyright © 2017, Vancouver Island Manager, Advancement & Alumni Relations University, and may be reprinted only with written [email protected] permission. Opinions expressed in the magazine EDITOR Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40063601 do not necessarily reflect the views of Vancouver Jenn McGarrigle Island University. GRAPHIC DESIGN The VIU community acknowledges and thanks Sheila Warren the Snuneymuxw, Tla’amin, Snaw-naw-as and Quw’utsun’ First Nations on whose traditional lands WRITERS we teach, learn, research, live and share knowledge. Dane Gibson, Rachel Stern, Aly Winks 6 VIU Magazine On the Menu: Chinese Food with a Side of Cultural Connections the United States and the world, along with related items such as fortune cookie sayings, chopstick wrappers and takeout containers. Numerous menus were part of the Museum of Vancouver’s All Together Now exhibit (June 2016 - March 2017), which highlighted “rare, unconventional and awe-inspiring objects” from 20 collectors. As well, Lim’s menus and research were the focus of her presentation last October at the Chinese Food and Culture in Local and Global Perspectives conference in Guangzhou, China. “I think it’s important information,” Dr. Imogene Lim Dr. she says. “The menus represent a For VIU Anthropology Professor Dr. Lim has been collecting Chinese particular point in time and place. Imogene Lim, a menu isn’t just a list restaurant menus for decades and now For Vancouver’s Chinatown, they illustrate of food choices – it’s also a way of has hundreds – dating from the 1920s a vibrant, happening space which drew connecting with and studying society.