Hello everyone,

It is that time of year again! We are in the midst of our graduation ceremonies, and this spring, we are celebrating 10,380 graduates at UBC Vancouver and 2,618 graduates at UBC Okanagan. To each and every one of you—congratulations! We are incredibly proud of you and excited to see you on your way to a successful and self-determined life.

As the 2024-25 academic year comes to a close, I also want to offer my heartfelt congratulations and sincere thanks to every member of the UBC community for another strong year under what remain challenging circumstances. You make UBC great and your work is deeply appreciated.

There is no question that the year unfolded in a world that continues to be complex and at times unsettling. From geopolitical conflicts and tensions, to challenges within higher education and the very real pressures unfolding in our own communities—these are times that call for a clear sense of purpose. In that context, the role of a great university becomes even more important, in championing education and research with a commitment to academic excellence and academic freedom that reflects who we are and what we stand for.

UBC, like all universities in Canada, also navigated significant financial constraints this year. The impact of changes to international student policies, combined with inflationary cost pressures and a shifting global economy, are impacting the entire sector. In response, we have taken a disciplined and prudent approach to financial planning. Our academic and operational units continue to work thoughtfully and carefully to manage our resources, while staying focused on long-term sustainability and our core academic mission.

Thanks to these collective efforts, we were able to present a balanced operating budget for 2025-26, which was approved by the UBC Board of Governors in March. That is no small accomplishment, and it speaks volumes about the dedication and stewardship across our community. I also want to acknowledge our partners in government, industry and non-profit organizations, as well as our great alumni and donors for their continued support of UBC’s mission and operations.

In addition, as part of our broader financial planning and to support ongoing renewal and UBC’s long-term future, we have recently introduced a voluntary retirement program for eligible faculty and selected staff. This program, designed in collaboration with our Faculty Association and unions, will provide our Faculties and Administrative Units with another option as they look to support their long-term objectives and priorities.

Amidst it all, UBC researchers have continued to lead significant and impactful research discoveries. This year saw major momentum in biotech and health innovation, including a $31-million provincial investment—on top of $140 million in federal funding announced last year—in Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub, strengthening UBC’s capacity to support public health and prepare for future pandemics. Another health highlight was the opening of the superb Gordon B. Shrum Building, the new home of UBC’s School of Biomedical Engineering.

Across disciplines and campuses, UBC scholars advanced knowledge in ways that captured international attention and informed public understanding—from identifying 128 new moons around Saturn, to uncovering how specific brain cells help us remember, and mapping Canada’s food flows to strengthen food security. UBC Okanagan researchers also quantified the economic value of developing NHL talent in local communities, and work by a UBC philosopher was cited in a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Among many important Indigenous initiatives, UBC Vancouver launched a new Bachelor of Indigenous Land Stewardship program—a first-of-its-kind degree in Canada, co-developed by Indigenous leaders and the UBC Faculty of Forestry. Created in response to the growing need for Indigenous-led land management, the program integrates Indigenous science and ways of knowing with courses in ecological science, governance, law, economics, and business.

UBC Okanagan will celebrate its 20th anniversary on July 1, marking two decades of educational advancement and community impact. This milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on progress while also envisioning future development. This past April, the UBCO Senate approved a new Bachelor of Commerce program, transitioning from the current Bachelor of Management degree. The UBC Okanagan Debates series continues to demonstrate the university’s commitment to fostering critical public discourse, with recent debates tackling the opioid crisis, and Canada’s relationship with the United States.

Looking ahead to next year, we are preparing to launch our refreshed strategic plan, “UBC’s Strategic Directions 2025-2030”. The refreshed plan articulates the kind of university we aspire to be by 2050, defines a focused set of academic priorities for the next five years, and reaffirms our ongoing commitment to the institutional and faculty-level plans that continue to guide us—notably the Indigenous Strategic Plan, UBCO Declaration of Truth and Reconciliation Commitments, StEAR Framework, and Climate Action Plan. My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed ideas and feedback to this year long process. The plan has now been endorsed in principle by both Senates and we look forward to sharing the final version in the fall.

As we transition into summer, I encourage everyone to take time to rest, reflect, and recharge. Whether you’re graduating, preparing for the next academic term, or simply pausing to take stock, I hope you all carry a strong sense of pride in what we have accomplished together this year.

Once again, thank you for everything you do for UBC!

Sincerely,

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

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Faculty, staff and students are being asked to be on alert for any possible phishing emails requesting UBC credentials.

The UBC Integrated Service Centre and the UBC Cybersecurity team have identified a sophisticated phishing website designed to closely mimic the UBC CWL authentication site and UBC Workday system. The site appears to be created to capture CWL user credentials.

We are reminding all members of the UBC community to be vigilant and suspicious of any email that asks you to click on links that require you to enter your UBC credentials. If you receive an email asking you to log in to Workday or any other system at UBC, please note the following:

• Emails received from senders outside UBC will usually have a yellow banner stating [CAUTION: Non-UBC Email] at the top. If you receive an email requesting you to log in to a UBC system, and that email has a yellow banner, it means it is not from UBC and you should report the email to UBC Cybersecurity immediately at security@ubc.ca
• Always take a moment to verify the legitimacy of any link before clicking. If you receive an email requesting you to log in to a UBC system, the safest approach is to navigate to the system log in page via trusted UBC sources and websites, rather than clicking on links embedded in the email.
• The correct UBC Workday URL is hxxps://myworkday.ubc.ca which will take you to the official CWL login URL for Workday starting with hxxps://authentication.ubc.ca
• Please check any email claiming to be from Workday to ensure that the URL matches exactly. If you receive a new or unfamiliar email notification that asks you to log in to Workday (especially if it conveys a sense of urgency or requires you to enter personal details), and you cannot navigate to the site via other means, double-check the URL to ensure it is a trusted UBC website.
• If you encounter anything suspicious or you have accidentally provided your credentials, please report this immediately to UBC Cybersecurity at security@ubc.ca

For more information, please review our resources on phishing emails here: hxxps://privacymatters.ubc.ca/phishing-emails

Thank you for your continued attention to cybersecurity and for helping to protect the UBC community.

Jennifer Burns
Associate Vice-President, Information Technology
Chief Information Officer

Don Thompson
Chief Information Security Officer

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Last September, UBC launched a process to refresh its strategic plan in order to better define the university’s long-term vision and establish priorities and actions, largely focused on our academic and research mission, for the next three to five years.

Since then, more than 3,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and other members of the UBC community have contributed their thoughts, through a series of surveys, workshops, pop-ups and other events and activities.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the process. Your input has helped inform the development of a draft 25-year vision for UBC, together with emerging academic and research priorities, that will strengthen our position as one of the world’s leading universities.

As we get close to completing the strategic plan refresh, we are offering an opportunity for the wider UBC community to give input. We are asking for your feedback in relation to what extent you believe the emerging priorities will help advance the university over the next three to five years.

You are invited to complete this survey: https://president.ubc.ca/strategic-plan-refresh-survey. The deadline for responses is April 11, 2025.

Your input will help ensure the final priorities reflect the diverse perspectives of our UBC community. Survey responses will remain anonymous and will be analyzed in aggregate. The data will be used to further refine the priorities.

Looking ahead, we plan to finalize the priorities and actions identified within the plan, with the intention of seeking endorsement from both Senates and the Board of Governors this spring. The final, refreshed strategic plan will be officially launched in the fall. You can learn more at https://president.ubc.ca/strategic-plan-refresh .

The UBC community has already played a key role in this process, and I hope you will continue to support this final phase by sharing your feedback.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

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I invite you to join me for UBC Vancouver’s All-Faculty Forum on March 17, hosted by the Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic. This gathering is an opportunity to engage in an open discussion about our academic mission at UBC and the evolving role of faculty in shaping it for the future.

UBC is committed to cultivating academic excellence and impact—advancing innovative teaching, supporting faculty wellbeing, and stewarding the academic resources that empower our students and research while we deliver on commitments to the Indigenous Strategic Plan and reconciliation, and to equity, diversity and inclusion.

As we navigate an increasingly complex landscape, we have to ask: How do we continue to lead in teaching and learning innovation when technology and our students’ worlds are changing so fast? How do we sustain a strong and supportive environment for faculty development and wellbeing, especially in the wake of the COVID pandemic? How do we ensure responsible stewardship of our academic resources to serve both current and future generations? And how do we maintain the support of the public and the government for post-secondary education?

In conversation with Dr. Kamal Al-Solaylee, Director of the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, I will discuss key issues shaping our collective work, including:

• The future of universities and UBC’s focus on teaching and learning
• UBC’s place in a changing global and socio-political landscape
• UBC’s budgetary environment and the pressures on international enrolments

There will also be an opportunity for you to share your thoughts on these and other topics, with half of the event dedicated to faculty questions.

In-person attendance will be limited, but the event will be streamed online. Please RSVP as soon as possible to reserve a seat in person. The deadline for in-person and online registration is March 12, 2025. If you cannot attend or wish to submit a question in advance, you can do so via the registration link below.

For those attending in person, please bring a mobile device, as we will use Slido for live Q&A.

Provost’s All-Faculty Forum

Date: March 17, 2025
Time: 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Location: Jack Poole Hall, Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre
Register (for in-person and streaming link): https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dgpHLyyUdjJQ4ui

I hope this event helps generate important dialogue within the UBC Vancouver faculty community, and I look forward to welcoming you on March 17.

Gage Averill
Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBC Vancouver

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Each year, the President’s staff awards recognize and celebrate staff members who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and excellence within the UBC community, and who enable us to shape the future of research, teaching, and work.

I invite you to nominate your staff colleagues for the 2025 awards. Nominations may be submitted by faculty, staff, and students. The deadline for nominations is 4pm on March 28. There are two award programs currently open, each with distinct criteria and eligibility:

President’s Service Awards for Excellence

This is the premier staff award at UBC which honours staff with sustained exceptional contribution. All UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan staff with five or more years of continuous service are eligible for this award. Up to five recipients receive a medal and $5,000 each.

For the 2025 nomination details, visit: https://focusonpeople.ubc.ca/awards/presidents-awards-for-staff/

To view past recipients, visit: https://focusonpeople.ubc.ca/awards/presidents-service-award-for-excellence-recipients/

President’s Staff Awards for UBC Vancouver staff

The President’s Staff Awards for UBC Vancouver honour exceptional contribution in six specific areas that are important to the university. All staff at UBC Vancouver with two or more years of continuous service, and who are actively employed by the university at the time of the award presentation, are eligible.

The six categories of the President’s Staff Awards are:

• Leadership
• Enhancing the UBC Experience
• Creativity and Innovation
• Advancing Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence
• Wellbeing
• Collaborative Excellence (open for groups of two or more staff)

Up to 12 recipients/groups can be selected (two per category) and recipients receive $2,000 each. Groups of two or more staff may be nominated for the category of Collaborative Excellence and the prize will be split accordingly.

For the 2025 nomination details, visit: https://focusonpeople.ubc.ca/awards/presidents-awards-for-staff/

To read about last year’s award recipients, visit: https://focusonpeople.ubc.ca/awards/2024-presidents-awards-for-staff-recipients/

Staff Awards of Excellence for UBC Okanagan staff

Every year, the Staff Awards of Excellence for UBC Okanagan celebrate outstanding contributions in specific areas that are crucial to the university. Nominations to the award program will open later this year. To learn more, visit: https://hr.ok.ubc.ca/learning-and-engagement/awards-recognition/staff-awards-of-excellence/

Thank you for taking the time to nominate your colleagues and for helping to showcase the excellent work of our staff at UBC.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

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In September, UBC launched a process to refresh its strategic plan in order to better define the university’s long-term vision and establish priorities and actions, focusing on our academic and research mission, for the next three to five years.

Throughout the fall, we invited students, faculty, staff and alumni to share their thoughts in a series of surveys, workshops, pop ups and other events and activities. More than 1,600 participants took part, contributing over 5,900 ideas.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the fall engagement phase. Since then, the project team has carefully analyzed the feedback and identified a number of recurring themes that were seen as critical to our shared long-term vision.

To ensure these emerging themes align with our community’s vision for UBC’s future, we are now inviting students, faculty and staff to participate in a short survey. Your input will help ensure that the themes identified in last year’s engagement truly reflect the diverse perspectives of our UBC community.

We would ask that you please complete the survey by February 7, 2025. You can access it at https://president.ubc.ca/strategic-plan-refresh-survey.

Data from the survey will be used to validate and refine the themes that emerged from our consultation on the university’s long-term vision. Responses will remain anonymous and will be analyzed in aggregate.

In the next phase of the project, we will work with the academic community to define the priorities and metrics for the next three to five years, together with specific initial actions. The community will be invited to comment on priorities later in the term, and we are aiming to complete the final document by June 2025. If you would like to learn more, please visit https://president.ubc.ca/strategic-plan-refresh.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey and for continuing to support this important process. The world is changing and we are continuing to adapt. The future is bright for UBC!

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

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If you are a manager of staff whose work is not computer-based, please print this email and display it in a common work area for them to review.

At UBC, we deeply value a positive and inclusive workplace where faculty and staff feel engaged and supported.

To that end, I am pleased to invite you to participate in the 2024 Workplace Experiences Survey. Your insights and experiences matter and we want to hear from you.

Keep an eye on your inbox today for an email from survey@talentmap.com, our external survey provider. This email will include your unique survey link – please do not forward it to others. The survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and you can either do it in one sitting or save your answers and finish it later. You will have until November 22, 2024, to share your feedback.

In the survey, you will find questions on important topics such as professional growth, inclusion and respect, health and wellbeing, and your work environment. There are also faculty-specific topics such as tenure and promotion.

I strongly encourage you to share your experience of working at UBC. Your feedback is incredibly important and valuable. It not only helps shape decision-making at the university, but also plays a key role in improving engagement in our workplace.

Rest assured that your individual responses will remain fully confidential, and that survey results will only be reported in aggregate.

If you would like to learn more about the Workplace Experiences Survey and how findings from previous surveys have influenced UBC’s strategic people framework, you can learn more at https://hr.ubc.ca/WES

Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your experiences.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

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Making a positive impact in our local communities is something we deeply value at UBC.

In that spirit, we are pleased to announce that this year’s UBC United Way campaign officially launches on Wednesday, October 9 in Vancouver and the Okanagan.

United Way British Columbia serves over 4 million people by strengthening vital services and connections that support people in need in our local communities.

As part of the UBC community, you can help address the critical issues affecting our neighbours by taking part in the long-standing UBC tradition of supporting this great cause. Funds raised in our annual campaign are so important in supporting health, care and inclusion in the region.

How can you support United Way? Next Wednesday, October 9, you will receive an email from ubc-campaign@uwbc.ca inviting you to make a payroll pledge online. We encourage you to show your support by becoming a donor.

Our goal this year is to inspire 1,000 UBC faculty and staff across both campuses to contribute to the campaign.

To learn more about the UBC United Way campaign, please visit:

• UBC Vancouver: http://unitedway.ubc.ca
• UBC Okanagan: http://unitedway.ok.ubc.ca

Thank you in advance for supporting this year’s United Way campaign. Whether you give your time, energy or financial support, your contribution makes a significant impact and is deeply appreciated.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

Lesley Cormack
Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UBC Okanagan

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As announced in July, UBC is launching a process to refresh its strategic plan, to define the university’s priorities and actions for the next three to five years. The existing ten-year plan, Shaping UBC’s Next Century, was launched in 2018 and since that time UBC has made great strides in advancing all aspects of it.

The world has changed a lot since 2018 and we need to continue to adapt. We are calling this process a ‘refresh’ because the intention is not to replace UBC’s strategic plan, but to define a series of priorities and actions focused on our core academic mission of teaching, learning and research. When both higher education and our broader society is faced with so many challenges, the time is right to consider UBC’s priorities as they relate to three broad objectives:

1. Envision what kind of university UBC strives to be over the next 25 years, to 2050.
2. Define shorter-term priorities and actions over the next three to five years, especially with regards to our core academic and research mission.
3. Continue to mobilize and support the achievement of existing institutional plans such as the Indigenous Strategic Plan, Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism (StEAR) Framework, as well as Faculty-level plans.

An integral part of this process is engagement with the entire UBC community. We need your help to define our shared vision for the future. There are a number of ways to get involved over the next few weeks with a program of activity including on-campus ‘pop up’ events, in-person and online workshops, online feedback mechanisms and direct outreach on both campuses. For full details and to register for any of the workshops please go to https://president.ubc.ca/strategic-plan-refresh.

This fall engagement phase is focused on the first objective, with further engagement planned in the new year. A steering committee comprising UBC’s Provosts and the Vice-President, Research & Innovation is guiding the plan refresh, with support from a project team. The aim is to complete it by the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.

I encourage you to take part in an event, or submit feedback and add your voice to this important dialogue. Thank you in advance for engaging in this process. The future is bright for UBC!

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

This message was sent to faculty, staff and students in Vancouver and the Okanagan.

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It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone back to our beautiful campuses for the 2024/25 academic year. I hope you like September as much as I do; there is always something special in the air as we get back to class and welcome new students, faculty and staff into our community.

Its been incredible to discover UBC this past year. We are one the most dynamic universities in the world thanks to the talent and dedication of our students, faculty and staff, and we still have room to grow in impact and reputation. As members of the UBC community, we all play a role in the university’s pursuit of excellence in learning, teaching and research – thank you for everything you do!

New students will find that UBC offers so much to explore both inside and outside the classroom. From extraordinary courses and programs to work-integrated and community-engaged opportunities, along with an amazing range of societies and clubs on campus. I encourage you to make the most of your time at UBC and seek out these opportunities to grow and to shine, both professionally and personally.

We also know that the challenges and complexities facing students today are more pronounced than even a decade ago. This includes the housing and affordability crisis, the effects of climate change, unstable geopolitics and the accelerating pace of technological change. UBC takes these challenges very seriously, with a focus on offering students a safe and inclusive environment and providing a broad array of services to support success.

In the context of the housing crisis, UBC is the largest provider of student housing in Canada, with more than 15,000 below-market-rate student residence spaces. The recently announced $300 million investment from the BC Government, and $260 million contribution from the university, in a new student housing initiative on the Vancouver campus will result in over 1,500 new student beds. This comes on the heels of the recent opening of Brock Commons Phase 2 which offers 600 student beds, and planning also is underway for the next phase of student housing on the Okanagan campus.

Research is how we find solutions to the challenges we are facing. In 2023/24, UBC attracted a record level of $893 million in research funding from government, industry and non-profit partners. In addition, UBC recently received a transformative Federal Government investment of $140 million to support the UBC-led Canada Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub, towards pandemic preparedness. UBC’s world-class research and scholarship is defining our understanding of our world and our place within it, improving health outcomes, spurring innovation across a wide range of industries, and leading high-growth sectors, including artificial intelligence, quantum, the life sciences, as well as clean energy and technology.

UBC is also a leader in sustainability on our campuses. In 2023, our Vancouver campus emitted 35% less greenhouse gas emissions than it did in 2007 – despite a 28% growth in building floor space and a 43% increase in student population. We are aiming to reduce campus operations emissions by 85% by 2030, as part of the Climate Action Plan, and we will seize any opportunity to accelerate this work. UBC Okanagan is installing a next generation heat pump for its district energy system, which will allow the campus to meet Paris Accord targets ahead of schedule.

This year we will also be refreshing the university’s strategic plan. Since the launch of Shaping UBC’s Next Century in 2018, UBC has made great strides, but the world has changed significantly and there are new opportunities to explore. Over the coming months we will be engaging the community to refine our vision for the future and define a series of priorities and objectives for the next three to five years, largely focused on our core academic and research mission. At the same time, we will further advance the implementation of our Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) and Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism (StEAR) Framework. More information about how we can all contribute to the strategic plan refresh will be shared shortly.

As we embark on the new academic year, it is important to acknowledge that geopolitical conflicts and humanitarian crises in Gaza, Ukraine, and other parts of the world are of grave concern for many in our community and around the world. If you are personally affected, I encourage you to seek out the supports available to students, faculty and staff. In discussing these issues, I urge everyone to remember that anger only begets more anger and that the only way forward is respectful dialogue and compassion for one another. Discrimination and intimidation of any kind have no place at UBC. At all times, ensuring everyone’s safety and wellbeing is our foremost priority.

I wish everyone a wonderful start to the term and invite you to attend the Create first-year student orientation event at UBC Okanagan and Imagine UBC day at UBC Vancouver, as well as the UBC Homecoming later this fall.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor

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