Faculty of Extension Dispatch

on January 11, 2012

New Hope for Aya: Extension’s English Language Program reaches out to Japan Earthquake survivor

It was mid-afternoon on a Friday at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport in Sendai, capital city of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture; by all auspices, it was business as usual for Aya Miura and her office-mates. And then the building started shaking.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in Japan; because the country lies atop four major (and constantly-shifting) tectonic plates, the nation’s written history documents strong earthquakes dating back at least the last 1600 years. As the first shocks of this March 11, 2011 quake thrummed through the Ministry, Aya and her co-workers took cover under their desks, as they had been taught to do since grade school.

“I just waited for the earthquakes to stop,” said Aya. She would end up waiting what seemed like an eternity.

What Aya was living through would eventually be known as the 2011 Tokohu earthquake (or “Eastern Japan Great Earthquake Disaster”)—the most powerful known earthquake to ever hit Japan, and the most expensive natural disaster on record. The epicenter at the quake was a mere 130 km from Sendai.

Famously, the magnitude-9.0 quake also triggered massive, 130-foot-high tsunami waves, causing unthinkable damage to Japan’s population and infrastructure, as well as large-scale meltdowns at three nuclear reactors.

“After the quake was over,” explained Aya, “everyone [at the Ministry] went up on the roof and watched seawater rushing up a nearby river, but luckily our office was a safe distance from the tsunami.”

Mercifully, Aya’s family home in Sendai was not destroyed by the tsunami, but as she explained, “We didn’t get gas, electricity, or water for about a week.” More, she said, “we had to line up for hours to buy gas, and several days, I had to bike 20 kilometres to work.”

For months afterward, the Internet was glutted with photos illustrating the extent of the destruction wrought by what Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan called “the toughest and most difficult crisis for Japan.” Offers of aid poured in from all corners of the globe, and here at Extension’s English Language program, Executive Director Mimi Hui and team scrambled to do everything they could to contribute to the relief effort.

“Many of our students come from Japan, and we have many partner institutions throughout the country,” said Mimi. “The shock, uncertainty, and sadness brought about by this disaster shot through our classrooms and offices immediately.”

The point where these two timelines converge is the “Hope for Japan” program for survivors of the Japanese Earthquake.

A bursary support system proposed by Mimi and coordinated by Languages Canada, Hope for Japan offered scholarships to 150 Japanese students to study English in Canada at any of 30 accredited language schools, including the University of Alberta.

“My family friends in Canada told me about this program, so I checked out the details on the Canadian Embassy website,” said Aya. “I had a working holiday in Vancouver a few years ago and have always wanted to come back to Canada. Last year was very stressful in Japan, so the Hope for Japan Project sounded like an excellent opportunity for me to come to the U of A.”

The scholarship, through which the University’s English Language Program covers Aya’s course tuition, was lauded by Canada’s Minister of International Trade, the Honourable Ed Fast:

“Thanks to these generous scholarships, we hope that Japanese students… will enrich Canada through the strength and courage they have displayed here, which will no doubt help them become global leaders.”

For Aya, the program has already yielded positive results: last December, she completed her first semester of study (“weekly vocabulary tests, unit tests, and assignments are very hard, but I’m learning a lot”), and acclimatizes to a fickle Edmonton winter in the company of her homestay family.

She acknowledges that much still needs to be done to reverse the incredible destruction brought on by the earthquake, but remains positive about Japan’s future.

“In 1995,” she pointed out, “there was a big earthquake in Kobe, but the city has recovered as though it never happened, so I believe Japan and Japanese people will recover again in the future.”

The Faculty of Extension would like to extend its warmest wishes to our partners and friends in Japan for their stoicism in the face of unbelievable adversity.

[Ed. Note: for a poignant and unique look at the destruction brought about by the 2011 Japan Earthquake, check out the “Japan, Before and After the Tsunami” interactive slideshow on the National Public Radio website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/12/21/144018316/japan-before-and-after-the-tsunami?sc=fb&cc=fp)

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on January 4, 2012

Strip Appeal appeals to The Globe and Mail

Reprinted from The Globe and Mail, December 26, 2011

Rooftop soccer, outdoor movies: The new strip mall?

By DAWN WALTON

University of Alberta's international design competition calls for creative re-imaginings of the often unloved urban fixture

Imagine a strip mall that allows pedestrians to walk up a ramp onto a grassy rooftop to play soccer in the summer and toboggan in the winter.

Picture these mundane suburban retail spaces transformed into greenhouses, outdoor movie theatres or the meeting places for a caravan of food trucks.

Or envision a strip mall that has been stripped to the ground and a new tiny neighbourhood of homes has risen up from the inventory of leftover parts.

These are some of the creative re-imaginings of the ubiquitous and often unloved strip mall. Twenty concepts have made the shortlist in an international design competition dubbed "Strip Appeal," now under way at the University of Alberta.

Architects, designers, academics, students and regular folks from 11 countries - places as far-flung as Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Germany and Iran - contributed more than 100 ideas for 21st century strip malls. They may be the postwar model of suburban retailing, but in many cases the concept is long past its best-before date.

"It's functional, but there's so much lacking," said Rob Shields, the University of Alberta professor who spearheaded the competition. "It isn't something that actually contributes in more than the most minimal way in terms of making life better."

While some ideas might be fanciful, the concepts might not be that far-fetched and could be incorporated in redevelopments throughout the commercial real estate world.

"Things that are viable economically are real contenders to be picked up very fast," added Prof. Shields, who is also director of the university's City-Region Studies Centre, a research unit dedicated to making communities more livable.

In terms of design competitions, the prizes are meagre -- $1,000 to the winner, a spot in a travelling road show and a book of designs -- but the impact could be significant. Strip malls have been a fixture of the landscape as development sprawled out from city centres. Arterial roads took workers between their suburban homes and downtown workplaces and asphalt pads were plunked along them to accommodate parking and single-storey retailing. Up sprung rows of convenience stores, pizza joints and drycleaners.

"You drop in, you get your groceries and you get back into your car and you drive home and you drive into your garage and you go into your suburban dream," said Merle Patchett, a postdoctoral fellow at the research centre. "Of course, the suburban dream as we know it has turned a little bit sour."

The suburbs are becoming urbanized. The Internet is transforming shopping. Big-box stores, or so-called "power centres," are replacing small ones. Getting around in cars isn't as easy, and it's expensive. Municipal planners are finally demanding building densification. And younger generations want to live somewhere hip where they can walk to local stores.

"The endless expansion of the commercial strip - that homogeneous cluster of sign clutter and asphalt that leads out from every town - is reaching the end of its useful life," according to Edward McMahon of the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute, who has written much on the future - or lack thereof - of strip malls.

The problem might be most pronounced in the United States where, between 1960 and 2000, retail space increased tenfold - in some years, it was growing five to six times faster than retail sales, Mr. McMahon pointed out.

Estimates now suggest that 11 per cent of U.S. strip malls are derelict - victims of an outdated mode of retailing and a crumbling economy.

Prof. Shields said his initial research suggests that a strip mall has a 50-year lifespan and in that time, the property is really only successful for the first 15 years. Then, it becomes a matter of land value speculation and tax write-offs.

"Essentially, an owner would need a portfolio of these properties and some would be booming and others would be just carrying," Prof. Shields said. "They're carrying and they're looking for an idea or an opportunity."

Bigger landlords are looking at redevelopment ideas to bring in more people to higher quality tenants, said John O'Bryan, vice-chairman of the commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Ltd.

He points to RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns and manages Canada's largest portfolio of shopping centres, as one of the leaders in the strip mall revolution.

In a recent management presentation, RioCan told investors that its U.S. expansion is focused on grocery-anchored strip centres and that it has been rezoning its urban properties to accommodate mixed use projects over the last few years.

But Mr. O'Bryan isn't quite ready to pronounce the death of the strip mall.

"Retail evolves anyway," he said. "It is the most fluid of all of the asset classes. If you look at office buildings and industrial buildings, they're not radically different than they were 30 or 40 years ago, but if you look at retail, it is."

A jury of experts will select the winners in the Strip Appeal contest, but the public can also vote early next month at www.strip-appeal.com. The finalists will be announced Jan. 18.

Already some developers have been sniffing around, according to the organizers. "What we see in the potential for these is to reinvigorate the communities," Ms. Patchett said.

on October 28, 2011

A Program of One’s Own: Fledgling life skills program grows legs thanks to Extension’s Fay Fletcher

Six years ago, Extension instructor and academic researcher Fay Fletcher was tapped to help lead an initiative to create and sustain a one-of-a-kind life skills program for the Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation. Located Northwest of Edmonton, the Alexis Nation had identified a need to create a program that would educate their children about substance abuse.

Though such programs have existed in various incarnations for several years worldwide, to implement one in a First Nations community while integrating the history, culture, and language of its people was going to require a level of expertise, tact, and ambition uncommon in most academic circles.

Professor Fletcher, whose research for several years has concentrates on exploring social determinants of health in minority populations, particularly in Canada’s First Nations, was selected by team lead Lola Baydala (of the University’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry) to develop the Nimi Icinohabi program for the Alexis Nakota.

“Initially, the community had approached [Professor Baydala] about the program, since she was at the time working as a pediatrician in the Alexis Nation,” explained Fay. “I was brought aboard as co-investigator to lend some community experience and qualitative research abilities to the project.”

But this was by no means the full extent of Prof. Fletcher’s involvement, she explained:

“We found a program developed by a Dr. Botvin from Cornell University that had a great proven rate of success, but of course, it had never been adapted for delivery in First Nations communities. We knew we absolutely had to make the program culturally-relevant to the lives of the Alexis Sioux children and to their community history overall.”

All on a shoestring, piecemeal budget, no less.

“At the beginning, we were going from small grant to small grant to try to get this program off the ground,” said Professor Fletcher. “What time we weren’t spending on community consultations, surveys, focus groups, and other research was spent scratching together funding from various agencies.”

By 2006, Nimi Icinohabi was ready for its pilot year, delivering to grades three to eight lessons in self-management and social skills to avoid potential substance-abuse problems in adulthood.

The pilot was an almost instant success, so much so that today, the Alexis Sioux Nation has taken over all funding for the program, which is now a permanent fixture in their school system. More than this, the program is now being implemented this Fall in the Cree nations of Hobbema, Alberta.

The secret of success, according to Prof. Fletcher, was a conjoined effort in research and collaboration between the Alexis Sioux and the University.

“Alexis has a history of doing research in their community,” she said, “and it was wonderful to have the support of the elders in mobilizing the community. We’re hoping to enjoy the same sort of success now, as we’re seeking funding to do a similar project with the parents in the community.”

Dr. Fletcher takes a community based participatory approach to research, partnering with communities in order to identify critical issues, appropriate methodologies and relevant recommendations for future research and program development. This approach is grounded in the belief that documenting and exploring individual experiences of culture and diversity in Canadian society will increase our understanding of their impact on health and education.

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on October 27, 2011

A Graphic Display: Extension Art Gallery hosts The Collective Memory Project on Eugenics

To see or hear the word “eugenics” is likely to dredge up grotesque tableaus of a less-enlightened time in human history; a time when the notion of eliminating so-called “unwanted elements” of the gene pool was not only considered justifiable, but even academically-legitimate. For most of us, it’s a thought so unpleasant we’d prefer to let it collect dust in the annals of our collective memory rather than look any further into it.

However, the Collective Memory Project, spearheaded by the NGO Eugenics Archives Canada and supported by the University of Alberta, is trying to bring light to a eugenics movement whose branches extend into the very recent Albertan past, and, it is argued, the present as well as the future.

What their website describes as “part art exhibition, part grassroots organizing,” the Collective Memory Project capped off a series of nine events that took place October 17 to 23 with an unveiling of an art show currently on display in the Extension Gallery in Enterprise Square.

The show, which displays “various forms of advocacy, negotiations of identity, and explorations of memory,” officially debuted with words from Edmonton Member of the Legislative Assembly, Laurie Blakeman; Dean of Extension, Katy Campbell; Principle Investigator for the Project, Rob Wilson (also of the U of A); and the Guest of Honour, Leilani Muir.

If there is a living cautionary tale about eugenic practices, Leilani is it: A perpetually-smiling, well-spoken fledgling author, Ms. Muir was left by her mother at the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives in Red Deer, Alberta, at the age of nine. Believed to be of sub-standard intelligence (though an IQ test would not be administered until a full two years later), she was accepted to the PTS only after her mother provided a signature submitting Leilani to compulsory sterilization.

In a reading from her nearly-complete autobiography, punctuated by a number of pauses during which the whole of the Enterprise Square atrium was uncharacteristically dead-silent, Leilani described in vivid detail her memories of being abandoned by her family, slowly integrating into the bizarre world of the PTS, and being confined alone to a small, austere cement room for misbehaviour.

She began and ended her speech with this advice: “If anyone out there has children or is thinking about having children, you tell them everyday of their lives that you love them. And mean it from the heart.”

The Collective Memory Project Exhibit is open to public viewing in the main-floor atrium of Enterprise Square (10230 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton) from October 23 to November 23, 2011.

For more information about the Collective Memory Project, visit eugenicsarchive.ca; to learn more about Leilani’s story, visit her Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leilani_Muir.

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on October 5, 2011

University of Alberta Program wins National Access to Information Award

The Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada has selected for the inaugural winner of its Grace-Pépin award the University of Alberta’s Information Access and Protection of Privacy (IAPP) program for “an exceptional contribution to the promotion and support of the principles of transparency, accountability, and the public’s right to access information held by public institutions.”

On-hand to accept the award at the seventh annual International Conference of Information Commissioners in Ottawa were Dr. Katy Campbell, Dean of the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Extension, and Wayne MacDonald, Manager of the Program.

“As a Faculty, we are very proud of the role we play in bringing together academic expertise with community groups to meet the learning needs of stakeholders,” said Mr. MacDonald in his October 3 acceptance speech. “This is community engagement at its finest.”

The letter of nomination sent by Laurence Kearley, President of the Canadian Access and Privacy Association, posited that the IAPP Certificate program deserved to be honoured by virtue of its status as “the first and only comprehensive online, post-secondary program for information rights specialists offered by a Canadian University. It is unique in North America and around the world.”

Since its inception in April 2000, the IAPP program has provided hundreds of students worldwide with the theories, concepts, issues, and best practices involved in the proper administration of information rights legislation. Delivered exclusively online, IAPP curriculum is developed and taught by some of the nation’s leading experts in information access and protection of privacy.

The program has also long benefited from the support and contributions of Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial Information and Privacy Commissioners. The Grace-Pépin Award is the latest token of encouragement from the federal Information Commissioner’s Office.

The award was introduced this year in memory of two of Canada’s strongest contributors to information rights, John Grace and Marcel Pépin. Both originally journalists by profession, the late Mssrs. Grace and Pépin were fervent advocates of transparency, accountability, and freedom of information.

Fast Facts about IAPP:

• The IAPP program began in 2000 as one class offered through the University of Alberta’s Government Studies department, primarily aimed at municipal government employees working within Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy legislation (FOIP).

• During the development of this course, a proposal was made to the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner to establish Canada’s first access and privacy education program.

• The five-course IAPP program was officially inaugurated in 2003. Since that time, over 400 students have graduated from the program.

• Governments across Canada now require or give preference to IAPP program graduates in hiring for access and privacy administrative positions.

• In 2012, the program will also be offered completely in French.

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on October 3, 2011

Arts Day Afternoon

On Saturday, October 1, numerous local artists gathered in the art gallery space in Enterprise Square for Alberta Arts Days. Hundreds of unique paintings hung on the walls as art enthusiasts munched on food provided by Haweli Restaurant and co-hosted by Extension’s Liberal Studies unit and the Extension Centenary.

As one local artist put it “Arts Days are a great way to connect the community with local artists. People need to see the talent that the Edmonton Arts Community holds!”

Alberta Arts Days are an annual, province-wide initiative to explore the Arts in Alberta for one weekend.

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Posted from Edmonton, Canada

on September 21, 2011

CRSC discusses Strip Appeal over breakfast

Strip Appeal is an ideas design competition and travelling exhibit, intended to stimulate and showcase creative design proposals for the adaptive reuse of small-scale strip-malls.

An initiative by Extension’s City-Region Studies Centre, Strip Appeal was recently featured on Edmonton CBC radio’s Edmonton AM program. Click here to check out an interview with CRSC Director Rob Shields and Post-Doctoral fellow Merle Pratchett.

For more about Strip Appeal, visit the contest website at http://www.strip-appeal.com/.

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on September 21, 2011

Yoshi’s Grand Debut: New Director introduced in style as CUP welcomes the Age of the Happy Dragon

When Dr. Jeff Bisanz, Founding Director, of the University of Alberta’s Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families (CUP), announced that it was time for a change in leadership the Faculty of Extension, with its community partners, began the process to select someone capable of filling his BIG SHOES.

We found him. Over the noon hour of Tuesday, September 20, Dr. Yoshitaka “Yoshi” Iwasaki was introduced as the successful candidate for the Directorship, following what Dean Katy Campbell described as a fairly determined process of courtship.

“I’m here mainly to worship the ground that Yoshi walks on,” Dean Campbell began in her introduction, “and I think you will too. We have been pursuing Yoshi for some time during his recent work with Temple University, and two months ago, we were pleased to receive from him alist of his priorities as the new Director of CUP. One of the first on the list was ‘to build another floor on top of Enterprise Square.”

“With windows!” interjected Yoshi, immediately cementing his reputation at Extension as a person of good ideas.

Welcomed to address the crowd of community members, leaders, faculty from across the university, and others, Yoshi began his speech with a lesson in Japanese, drawing two characters on a flip chart representing “Yoshi” and “Taka,” the two parts of his first name, which, he explained, indicates “Happy Dragon” in his native language.

“I am Happy Dragon,” he went on; “I’m a casual person, I’ve lived in three countries, and I am happy to be back in one of the best countries in the world.”

He then proceeded to run through a verbal highlight reel of his career to date, encompassing his education in science-based applied health (PhD, 1998 & MA, 1995, Waterloo; BS, 1993, Maryland), his background in Community-Based Participatory Research, and his love of all things hockey.

Dr. Iwasaki also outlined his humanistic and holistic approach to his research, to which he pointed as key factors in choosing to join the team at CUP.

“CUP is about partnership and building human capacity, and I’m looking forward to this position and my future research here at the University of Alberta. I spoke with Jeff Bisanz, our former Director, and he told me that he looked forward to coming to work every morning, and I am certainly looking forward to the same.”

The celebration carried on throughout the noon hour, with guests from across the University and Community enjoying complimentary pizza, beverages, and what will most certainly not be Yoshi’s last CUPcake.

We welcome Dr. Iwasaki to our Faculty and look forward to his leadership as CUP continues to celebrate over 10 years of bridging the University of Alberta and its many partnering communities.

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on August 24, 2011

Let us inform you: Hundreds head downtown for Extension Fall Information Sessions

Out of a profound love for lifelong learning (or possibly out of latent guilt brought about by back-to-school commercials), 235 Edmontonians spent August 23 checking out the learning opportunities available over the Fall semester at the Faculty of Extension.

Beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Enterprise Square, the first six of the one-hour sessions brought together program representatives, instructors, and potential students to discuss the Adult and Continuing Education, Business Programs, Construction Administration, Fine Arts, Occupational Health and Safety, Spanish Language, and Master of Arts in Communications and Technology programs (the last of which, appropriately, welcomed even guests via web broadcast).

The second round of sessions, beginning at 7:30 p.m., welcomed those interested in Business Analysis, Environmental Resource Management, Government Studies, and Residential Interiors.

Our many thanks to everyone who attended, volunteered, and helped decimate the infestation of cookies, coffee, and treats provided by our square-mates at Fantasia Café.

on August 19, 2011

CRSC celebrates Arts 4 the Alley

Arts 4 the Alley was held Saturday August 13th in an alleyway north of Jasper between 103 and 105 street. Bringing together the City of Edmonton and a number of community groups for a full day of arts programming, the event asked people to think about how ‘lost spaces’ such as this alleyway might become dynamic destinations. As the first event in the space, the group of volunteer organizers were able to bring awareness to the alley as a unique venue.

Painting started early in the afternoon alongside the Farmers Market, attracting both children and adults, producing over a hundred images. Later in the afternoon, these paintings were displayed at the entrance to and along the alley, enticing passers-by check out the music and performances: John Tidswell, Ehren Flais, Whyte and the Avenues, Shawn Lamble, The Bayonets!!!, Mikey Maybe, Mercury Opera and Swensonic.

A lantern-making workshop (hosted by Harcourt House), and a booth setup by the Wee Book Inn enticed the audience to stay a little longer. To finish the evening, MADE’s screening of This is Berlin, Not New York asked people to question their relationship to art. Plied with free popcorn and beverages the audience left wondering… What’s next for the Alley of Light?

Read the article in The Edmonton Journal and check out some more pictures on the blog ‘Only here for the Food.’

The next Alley of Light event will be September 17, 2011, in conjunction with the Downtown Edmonton Community League Corn Fest. As the event approaches, more information will be posted on www.eote.ca/alley <http://www.eote.ca/alley>.

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