UPDATE as of 12:00 PM: Power has been restored to all campus buildings. Classes will resume as planned.
Please be advised that an unexpected power outage has occurred affecting some buildings on campus. The situation is being investigated. A list of the affected buildings is below for your reference.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT CLASSES IN UNAFFECTED BUILDINGS WILL CONTINUE AS PER SCHEDULE.
Operations, including classes in affected buildings are cancelled, resuming operations at 12:00 PM (noon) today, Friday February 28.
BUILDINGS WITH NO POWER AFFECTING CLASSES:
- Annex
- J Bruce Brown
- Keating Centre
- Nicholson Tower
- Saputo Centre
The Alumni Aquatic Centre has resumed operations for swimming lessons and the PHAST practice this evening. There will be no open swims tonight, 28 February 2025. Regular hours will resume tomorrow, 1 March 2025.
In celebration of African Heritage Month, we welcome StFX students, faculty, and staff to join us virtually for the third annual: Black X-cellence Panel.
DATE: Wednesday, February 26th 2025
TIME: 8pm Atlantic
LOCATION: Virtual
This online panel will include an inspiring conversation between five Black StFX alumni from across the decades on their experiences at StFX and their careers. Panelists include:
- Buttons Ashe-Henry (BA '94, BEd '95) - Elementary School Teacher in the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic School Board; MVP of the 1994 X-Women Basketball Team.
- Peter Thurton (BA '84)– recently retired Business Law attorney, who has represented large corporate clients such as Manulife Financial, CIBC, Royal Bank Insurance, & Enbridge; Lecturer on corporate ethics and governance at the Rome Business School, Italy.
- E.L. Adams II (BA '03) - Child Psychologist with his own practice and therapy groups; presentations on Mental Health, Mood, and Music; X-Men Basketball team 2x National Champion.
- Sharonne King (BBA '22 ) - StFX’s International Recruitment Officer; winner of the Trudy Eagan Women in Business Award and the McKenna Centre's Racial Justice Leadership Award.
- This conversation will be hosted by StFX alumnus Kwame Osei '10, '12, who is a motivational speaker, author, former X-men and CFL player and finalist on the Amazing Race Canada. Kwame is the co-founder of the LIFT Bursary, established to support Black student leaders at StFX.
This will be a powerful conversation - we hope you can join us!
*Exciting News! StFX is delighted to announce that these Black X-cellence conversations have inspired the establishment of the first-ever Black StFX Alumni Chapter. If you identify as a Black alumnus, please fill out this survey to share your feedback on the Chapter’s focus and activities.
This event is brought to you by: StFX Alumni Office, StFX Alumni Association, StFX Black Student Advising Office, StFX Office of the Associate Vice President, Research, & Graduate Studies, and the LIFT Bursary for Black Student Leaders
The Angus L. Macdonald Library is seeking qualified students to join our team for the 2025-26 academic semester, as well as 1 student to work with us full-time (35 hours) from April 28th, 2025 to August 29th, 2025. We offer:
- Flexible scheduling
- Shift switching
- Competitive wages
- Hands-on training
- Teach you how to use the library to help others and yourself
- Plus much more...
Job Description & Position Details:
Deadline to apply is 4:30pm on Wednesday, February 26th, 2025.
AMANDA COCKSHUTT (she/her)
ACADEMIC VICE-PRESIDENT & PROVOST
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia · Canada
I acknowledge that StFX is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
The Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership is pleased to announce that the Hon. Maryam Monsef will deliver the 2025 McKenna Scholar in Residence Lecture on February 25, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. in McKenna Hall. In this Lecture, Maryam Monsef speaks to the “how”, as well as to the challenges and opportunities that exist in building programs and policies that advance greater belonging, while enhancing the bottom line and social impact of organizations.
To the campus community,
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Erin Morton as the next Associate Vice-President, Research, Graduate, and Professional Studies (AVPRGPS). Dr. Morton is a distinguished scholar and experienced academic leader with a strong track record in research, graduate education, and strategic academic initiatives.
Currently serving as Dean of Arts at StFX, Dr. Morton has played a pivotal role in shaping the university’s academic landscape, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and strengthening research capacity within the institution. With an extensive background in research leadership, she has been actively involved in advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education. A historian of art and culture by training, her research interests span visual and material culture studies, critical cultural theory, and Atlantic Canadian studies, and she has contributed significantly to academic discourse through her three published books with McGill-Queen’s University Press, editorial leadership at Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region, and mentorship of nearly 20 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at the University of New Brunswick and Dalhousie University.
As AVPRGPS, Dr. Morton will oversee research services, graduate programs, and professional studies at StFX, leading efforts to expand research capacity, enhance graduate education, and foster external partnerships. She will work closely with faculty, students, and external stakeholders to position StFX as a national leader in research and professional studies, bringing deep institutional knowledge and a forward-thinking approach to research administration and graduate education.
Dr. Morton’s deep knowledge of research administration and graduate education, combined with her commitment to fostering a collaborative research environment, make her an outstanding choice for this role. Her vision and leadership will be instrumental in advancing StFX’s strategic priorities in research excellence, innovation, and graduate studies.
On behalf of the university community, I would like to extend thanks to the search committee for their time spent working with KBRS Executive Search on this critical hire for the university.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Erin Morton on her new role as Associate Vice-President, Research, Graduate, and Professional Studies. She will begin her new role starting on July 1, 2025.
Amanda
AMANDA COCKSHUTT (she/her)
ACADEMIC VICE-PRESIDENT & PROVOST
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia · Canada
I acknowledge that StFX is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
With the impending weather, the Angus L. Macdonald Library will be closing at 5:30pm today, Thursday, February 13th, 2025, along with the rest of campus. We regret any inconvenience. Stay safe tonight!
Thursday January 30th, 2025
6:30p.m.
120 Dennis Hall
Coady West, St. Francis Xavier
Free Event
Everyone is welcome
Join author Andrea Currie, Dr. Jane McMillan, special guests and members of the Indigenous Students’ Society in conversation with the wisdom shared in Finding Otipemisiwak.
Books available for purchase and signing $20.00.
ABOUT THE BOOK: A Sixties Scoop survivor’s journey back to her Nation and the truth of who she is
“Weaving myriad forms—poetry, family history, personal
essay, cultural criticism—Andrea Currie tells her story with mercy and force, revealing the warp and weft of the racist system that codified the robbery of Indigenous children through the Sixties Scoop and the devastating consequences for those children, their families, and their communities.…Finding Otipemisiwak is a necessary, searing, and luminous gift of a book.” —Rebecca Silver Slayter, author of The Second History
ANDREA CURRIE is a writer, healer, and activist born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She is a psychotherapist working in Indigenous mental health and has accompanied the We’koqma’q Residential School Survivors on their healing journey for the past twenty years.
Many thanks to the Ulnooweg Foundation & the Deveau Centre for Indigenous Governance and Social Justice and the Indigenous Students’ Society @ X.
Campus cleanup crews continue to work diligently to clear snow, making campus accessible and safe to reopen. As of this 8:30 AM this morning, while much progress has been made, the wind continues to blow snow back onto pathways, walkways and roads. There is still more snow removal that must occur before the university can safely resume full operations.
StFX University will remain closed, reopening at 2:30 PM, Thursday, January 30, for cleanup crews to continue their work. Essential services will remain open.
Online classes will continue as per schedule unless notified otherwise by the professor.
Faculty, Staff and Students:
Here are some reminders about staying safe on our campus during the winter months.
Snow Clearing Safety
For your own safety and that of our snow-clearing employees, please be careful when walking near plows, snowblowers or other equipment being used to keep walkways, roads and parking lots clear. Give the equipment the right-of-way, unless the operator makes eye contact and signals you to pass. In winter conditions, it is difficult for the equipment operator to see their entire surroundings and your assistance is needed to help keep everyone safe.
Trucks and Walkways
If you park a truck on campus, please do not back-in so far over walkways that the truck is impeding the clearing of snow. See the attached photo for an example of this type of parking to be avoided.
Safe Winter Walking
Please review our Safe Winter Walking Alert. Our seasonal reminder about the importance of walking safely on campus during winter conditions.
Len and Cub exhibition opening reception & curator's talk
Thursday Jan. 9, 7 pm
Please consider yourselves warmly invited to the opening reception for the exhibition Len and Cub, on at the StFX Art Gallery until Feb. 1, 2025.
Leonard "Len" Keith (1891-1950) and Joseph "Cub" Coates (1899-1965) were two young men living in the rural village of Havelock, New Brunswick, who formed a relationship during the early 20th century. While keeping their attraction for each other hidden, they privately captured their relationship via photographs, producing one of the oldest known surviving photographic records of a same-sex couple in the Maritimes. These remarkable archival images, held at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, are as important socially and historically as they are unique in the photographic canon of eastern Canada.
Len and Cub is curated by Meredith J. Batt and Dusty Green and organized by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick.
At 7 pm, opening remarks will be delivered, and curator Meredith J. Batt will give a talk via Zoom, projected in the gallery. Refreshments will be provided.
Admission is free for all.
HOURS
Jan. 9 - Feb. 1, 2025
Wed. 2:30 – 6:30 pm
Thrs. 2:30 – 6:30 pm
Fri. 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Sat. 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Extended hours
Thurs. Jan. 9, 2:30 - 9 pm
Call For Applications
The Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries is sending out a call for applications for the AtlanticOER Development Grants. Funding is provided by the four Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island).
What are Development Grants?
AtlanticOER Development Grants are intended to provide financial support to instructors in the Atlantic Region with the process of creating and adapting new Open Educational Resources. Our goal is to support instructors to increase the availability of quality, free, openly licensed resources to support student learning.
There are three different tiers of funding that you can apply for, depending on the scope of the project. The tiers are as follows:
Tier 1: Creating an Open Textbook (up to $7,000)
This funding is intended for the development of a new open textbook. The topic should not be covered in an already existing open textbook. This tier is meant for creation projects at a larger scale.
Tier 2: Adaptation of an Existing Open Textbook (up to $4,000)
This funding is intended for substantive adaptation projects. Sometimes, it can be possible to find an open textbook that covers foundational knowledge, but which needs to be adjusted. For example, the textbook might need adjustments to ensure it adheres to local educational standards, adjustments might be made to make it relevant to the local context (eg, an American business textbook may need adjustments to make it suitable for a Canadian business context), or new examples and interactive elements may be added to a book.
Tier 3: Creation of Ancillary Materials (up to $1,000)
This funding is intended for smaller creation projects. Ancillary materials can be defined as course materials that are meant to supplement and support a textbook. Examples of ancillary materials include: slide decks, interactive tutorials, and quiz and test banks. Often, ancillary materials can enhance student learning.
Who Can Apply?
Applications are open to individuals who are affiliated with a CAAL-CBPA member institution. In the case where an application is being submitted by a team, at least one team member must be affiliated with the member institution. The proposed OER must be intended for a credit bearing course at the member institution and at least one applicant must be affiliated with the course.
What Can Funding be Used For?
Funding can be used for the following activities:
Support: funding can be used to financially support the hiring of another individual, such as an undergraduate research assistant, to assist with the project. Activities may include support uploading content into a Pressbook, technical expertise, support with designing any graphics that may be required.
Events: funding can be used to finance events, such as sprints, that are used to generate the content for an OER. The funding can also be used to finance resources for the events such as facilities and refreshments.
Funding cannot be used to pay the instructor for their work on the project nor can it be used to fund any administrative overhead. As part of the application, you will be asked to outline your expenses and a rationale for each expense.
Application Requirements
A description of the proposed OER and the gaps that exist in already-existing openly licensed materials on the same subject.
Detailed assessment of the costs, including an itemized list of expenses along with a description of each expense.
A detailed timeline for the project, including milestones.
An assessment of the potential impact of the project on student experience and learning. Impact should include projected student savings.
A plan for maintaining the currency and relevancy after the end of the grant period.
Completion of required forms.
Applications can be submitted in either English or French. Applications submitted in French will be translated into English by the selection committee for the adjudication process.
Application Timeline
Applications are open starting on January 6th 2025. The application period will close on February 14th 2025. Review of the applications will start immediately thereafter. Successful applicants will be notified mid-March. At this time, successful applicants will be told which tier of funding they have qualified for and will be given a detailed document that outlines the expectations of grant recipients. Funds will be disbursed to the lead applicant’s institutional grant office or equivalent as a full lump sum in April.
Give the gift of wellness and active living this Holiday Season! From December 1st to 20th, you can purchase 10 open swim, or public skate passes for just $10. Don’t miss out on this awesome deal before it’s gone!
10 for $10 Open Swim and Public Skates
10 Pass Punch Card with STFX Wellness & Active Living
Promo on from December 1st - 20th
Terms and Conditions:
- This punch card is non-transferable
- Card must be present to receive punch - redeem
- Non-refundable
- Expires on March 31st, 2025
Dear Faculty and Staff:
Before you leave for the holiday break, we are asking that you please:
- Close all windows, including any labs/offices/other.
- Power down and unplug any computers or other electronic equipment, especially those that are not connected to surge protectors.
- Unplug space heaters and other appliances that are not in use.
- Remove any perishable food or beverage from desks, offices and/or refrigerators.
Please note that Environment Canada has issued a Special Weather Statement, and there is significant snow forecast, starting Friday night into Saturday. Keep this in mind as you are preparing for the holiday break.
Thank you for your cooperation.
StFX Safety & Security Services
Cohen Pictou – Winner of the Regional Tom Longboat Award from Nova Scotia
Cohen Pictou, a first-year student in Human Kinetics was honoured with the Regional Tom Longboat Award for Nova Scotia. He recently traveled to Ottawa to be celebrated along with other provincial and territorial honourees.
The Tom Longboat Award (established in 1951) is the most prestigious and longstanding award that recognizes aboriginal athletes for their outstanding contributions to sport in Canada. Tom Longboat (1886-1949), an Onondaga distance runner from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, had a dominant running career and became the first Indigenous person from Canada to win the Boston Marathon and in record time. He went on to represent Canada at the 1908 Olympics, set a record in 15-mile world record in 1912, and served in the First World War as a dispatch runner. He was notably recognized with a Heritage Minute.
Cohen was recognized for his athlete prowess as a basketball player on the North American Indigenous Games team in 2023. Cohen was also acknowledged for his hockey expertise coming from his invitation to the Cape Breton Eagles QMJHL Camp in 2023 and his participation in the 2023 National Aboriginal Hockey championships in Winnipeg.
IT Services has received reports of widespread phishing messages that appears to originate from StFX accounts. The subject line of recent phishing email was JOB VACANCY! and details a job opportunity. This email is not authentic.
Please continue to be diligent when reviewing email. If you see a message that seems suspicious or odd, such as messages that prompt you to enter log in credentials, personal or banking information or ask you to send money, report it using Outlook’s Report Message feature.
For more helpful tips on identifying phishing messages please click “How to spot a phish” on the IT Services web site - stfx.ca/ithelp.
If you have any questions regarding the information in this bulletin, please contact IT Services.
IT Services, St. Francis Xavier University
Angus L. Macdonald Library
mystfx.ca/ithelp
(902) 867-2356
"Land and the Highland Clearances from the soil upwards"
The Department of Celtic Studies at StFX is pleased to present a guest lecture by Euan Healey, PhD candidate in History and Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, on Thursday 5th of December at 2:30pm in Mulroney Hall 3030. All are welcome.
Abstract: Despite their significance, popular experience of the Highland Clearances, a series of mass evictions and forced migrations in Gaelic-speaking Scotland from c1750-c1886, remain understudied in both history and archaeology. Using a combination of landscape archaeology and oral testimony this study proposes a new way of understanding the relationship between evicted Gaelic people and the places they lived and worked. In doing so, this paper recentres Gaelic people in their own histories, and provide new ways of looking at key debates on land rights and knowledges in the Gàidhealtachd as well as provide a challenge for future, bottom-up, interdisciplinary studies.
Bio: Euan Healey is a PhD historian and archaeologist at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. His work focuses on the interactions between subsistence labour and the environment in rural and maritime settings, with his PhD exploring fishing in Gaelic-speaking Scotland. He is currently a visiting researcher at Simon Fraser University, BC, and an uninvited guest on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations, where he is considering interactions, parallels and colonialisms involving Gaelic-speaking and Indigenous people in Canada.
The CEI is excited to announce registration is open for the 2025 offering of the Leadership for Young Professionals course! The course will run from January 16 to March 20, 2025, and will be held online. Registration will remain open until December 3, 2024.
This course is intended to support young professionals in the early stages of their careers (less than 5 years in the workforce) as they explore what leadership means to them in the context of their work and future goals. It will offer participants the chance to grow their understanding of what leadership means, explore their personal strengths as leaders, learn new skills, and begin to think through how they can apply their leadership in the workplace.
Full bursaries are available from the CEI for eligible applicants from the Nova Scotia Works system. To access the bursaries, individuals from the Nova Scotia Works system should contact their Executive Director or the CEI for a voucher code. A limited number of full bursaries are also available for First Nations, Métis and Inuit persons residing in Canada as well as persons from African Nova Scotian communities. If you belong to one of these communities and would like to request a full bursary, please reach out to coadyadmit@stfx.ca - once the email is reviewed, a voucher code for free registration will be provided.
To learn more or to register, please visit our course page: https://online.stfx.ca/product?catalog=Coady-LFYP
For questions, please email cei@stfx.ca.
Help us spread holiday cheer by making a card for local seniors at the R.K Macdonald Nursing Home❄️❄️❄️
The Angus L. Macdonald Library has partnered with Flourish at X and the R.K to make holiday cards and drop them off for residents on December 19. Stop by the Library, Kiknu or pop up tables around campus to make a holiday card starting on December 2nd!
If you If you would like to contribute to StFX Winter Wishes but can't make it to the in-person crafting sessions, create a card at home with your thoughts and messages, and we will pick up your card from you or you can drop it off at the library front desk or to Bethany in Bloomfield 303D.
For more information, contact Grace Bourret: gbourret@stfx.ca
