I would like to acknowledge that UBC’s Okanagan campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, and that UBC’s Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Musqueam. Board members and others are joining us remotely from many places near and far, and I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners and caretakers of those lands as well.
To our students, faculty and staff on both campuses and beyond, I hope the first Term of your Winter Session went well and to our students, good luck on your upcoming exams!
On behalf of the Board, we offer our heartfelt congratulations to all those who graduated from UBC this November. Achieving this milestone is something to be celebrated! We wish you all the best in carrying forward what you have learned here at UBC, and know that you will continue to inspire people, ideas and actions for a better world.
Today, we welcome our new President and Vice-Chancellor, Benoit-Antoine Bacon, to his first meeting of the Board of Governors. As you know, President Bacon began his term on November 1, 2023 and was installed during the first graduation ceremony on November 22, 2023. Benoit, welcome to the Board, we look forward to working with you.
I also wanted to welcome newly appointed Governor, Leonard Schein to his first Board meeting. Leonard founded the Vancouver International Film Festival as well as Festival Cinemas, which operated many independent movie theatres in Vancouver. Although qualified as a Registered Psychologist of British Columbia, classic movies have been a lifelong passion. After teaching Psychology at Capilano College, Douglas College, Vancouver Community College and Fraser Valley College in the 1970s, Leonard entered the film business. Leonard has experience serving on many boards, and we look forward to working with him here on the UBC Board of Governors. Welcome, Leonard.
Along with these welcomes, we also have some goodbyes to say today. Governor Chaslynn Gillanders will reach the end of her term as an appointed member of the Board at the end of the calendar year. Although Chaslynn could not be with us today, I wanted to express my gratitude for her contributions to the Board over the past six years, and particularly for her service as Chair of the Indigenous Engagement Committee and Vice-Chair of the Employee Relations Committee. Thank you, Chaslynn.
This will also be my last Board meeting, as my term as a Governor and as Board Chair will end on December 31st. It has been a great honour to serve on this Board with all of you.
As we do at each board meeting, I would like to acknowledge three faculty members of notable distinction:
- In the research category we recognize Professor Emeritus Pieter Cullis from the Faculty of Medicine, who has been appointed to the Order of British Columbia, the Province’s highest form of recognition. Dr. Cullis is best known globally for his work on lipid-based drug-delivery systems. This work has led to five drugs that have been approved by the FDA and other regulatory bodies, one of these drugs being Comirnaty, the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.
- In the service category we congratulate Katherine Bowers Associate Professor in Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, in the Faculty of Arts, for receiving the Award for Exemplary Service from the International Dostoevsky Society, in recognition of her long-standing service to the Society. An expert in Russian literature and culture, with particular emphasis on the nineteenth century, Prof. Bowers is actively involved in Dostoevsky studies.
- In the teaching category we recognize Tiffany Timbers, Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Statistics in the Faculty of Science, for being presented with the Early Career Educator Award from the Statistical Society of Canada. This award honours excellence in teaching statistics through commitment to evidence-based pedagogy was well as contributions to statistical education in Canada.
To these distinguished faculty members, and the others whose research, scholarship, teaching and other academic contributions have recently been recognized, we offer our recognition and appreciation.
We have a full agenda today, including the consideration of tuition for 2024-2025, as well as considering the submission of the Land Use Plan to the Minister of Municipal Affairs for adoption. Should that be approved, then we will also consider approval of two of the plans that the Land Use Plan enables, Campus Vision 2050 and updates to the Housing Action Plan.
I’d like to thank the Administration for their careful and consultative work on these plans, and to express the Board’s appreciation to everyone who participated in the November 7, 2023 public hearing on the Land Use Plan.
I look forward to our discussion.
