A message from Dr. Claire Grogan, Interim Provost and Vice-President Academic
I trust this message finds everyone well as the Spring Semester winds down. Take a moment to enjoy the amazing flowers and scenery wherever you are and reflect on a job well done.
There are so many fabulous events taking place to celebrate the work of students and faculty. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to join in year-end events for our tiwšɛmawtxʷ campus, Information Technology and Applied Systems, Media Studies, Interior Design and Education here in Nanaimo, as well as enjoy a delicious lunch served by the Cowichan Culinary Arts program to celebrate Auntie Marlene’s retirement.
A particular shout-out to Leon Potter, who was recognized at the Nanaimo Culture Awards last week for Excellence in the Arts. The skit performed by current and former Theatre students was a hilarious tribute to Leon and his work over many years at VIU.
Asian Heritage Month is also fast approaching. Our Centre for Experiential Learning and Student Engagement team is organizing an event on May 14 from 12 to 2 pm in the Malaspina Theatre lobby. The event will include refreshments, performances and displays. The display will be up all week (May 12 to 15). Please keep an eye on your inboxes for more details.
With that, I have a few housekeeping items to share:
Convocation
I encourage you to participate in one or all of our convocation ceremonies scheduled for June 8 and 9 and Semélshun Indigenous Graduation Recognition ceremony is on June 11. These ceremonies are a public celebration of the efforts of not just graduating students, but everyone who has been instrumental in their success. If you haven’t already, you can sign up to be a convocation assistant.
Our 2026 valedictorians are:
- Autumn Clark, Bachelor of Social Work, Faculty of Health Sciences and Human Services
- Kendra Neary, Bachelor of Education, Faculty of Education
- Tejas Sawant, Master of Business Administration, Faculty of Management
- Chiara Sedola, Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies and Bachelor of Science in Biology (Honours), Faculties of Social Sciences and Science and Technology
CIEL
Did you know the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) has a bi-weekly newsletter for employees? Faculty members are automatically subscribed. If you’re not receiving it or would like to subscribe, I encourage you to fill out the subscribe form.
Changes to Senate policies
As you know, the Academic Leadership Team has been working with the Office of the Registrar to update our Senate policies with a view to removing unnecessary procedural steps that overburden staff and faculty, removing obstacles to student participation across our academic faculties and supporting timely and successful completion.
Specific policy changes are:
- Policy 94.05: Evaluation of academic achievement: The INC (Incomplete) transcript notation has been reduced from 180 days to 30 days. This will be in effect for grade submissions as of April 1, 2026. Further details will come from the Office of the Registrar. Faculty and students can avail themselves of other policies or provisions to deal with longer extensions or deferrals.
- Policy 97.22: Bachelor's degree requirements: Senate approved four changes to this policy. The two major changes are:
- the option for students to double-count up to nine credits toward their degree.
- the reduction of upper-level credits required to graduate with a bachelor's degree from 42 to 30.
This does not alter the upper-level credit requirements for a minor, major or honours, but it will help students using some of the 120 credits required for a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science to explore and complete lower-level classes and electives across faculties.
Lifting of suspensions
Senate approved the lifting of the suspension for the Philosophy Minor and Major (incorporating Liberal Studies-coded courses) and the Global Studies Minor (now housed in the Political Studies Department).
These are reconfigurations of the credentials in response to concerns that prompted the suspensions in June 2025. I would like to publicly recognize the hard work undertaken by the faculty members and respective deans to rework these areas of learning in a more sustainable and accessible way.
At the same Senate meeting, the Liberal Studies Minor and Major, the Global Studies Major and the Philosophy Honours were cancelled.
Academic restructure
Last, but by no means least, on April 20, the Academic Leadership Team presented the full proposal, under Policy 31.17 and Procedure 31.07.001, to Planning and Priorities for the restructuring of VIU from the current eight faculty/dean structure to a four faculty/dean structure.
The full proposal, the culmination of several years’ work, creates a tighter framework in which we collectively move toward ensuring a more sustainable, yet vibrant, delivery of programming at VIU.
Following healthy debate, the full proposal was approved, and it will be presented at Senate on May 7.
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