Mount Royal University Summit Spring/Summer 2017

DUS ERA Spring/Summer 2017

MODUS OPERANDI A look at the intimate inner-workings of campus.

Also in this issue: The Social Media Virus 50 Years of Nursing at MRU Alumni Q+A

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CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE I N E V E RY I S S U E :

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Letter from the president

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Bleed blue: events and highlights from campus, plus a special find

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THE SOCIAL MEDIA VIRUS Stop the spread! Does social media bring out the worst in people?

20

PASSION, DEDICATION AND STRENGTH TO CARE Celebrating 50 years of nursing at Mount Royal

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Alumni Q+A

COVER STORY:

MODUS OPERANDI

The special section explores why and how we do what we do at Mount Royal.

Components include:

26 Mount Royal to the future: Campus Master Plan 31 The library reimagined: The Riddell Library and

Learning Centre is set to open this fall

36 Breaking down barriers: Campus accessibility 38 A leaner, cleaner, greener campus:

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Environmental efforts streamline processes

Future-proofing the next generation: Inspiring brains bombarded by information

Psyched up and (way) out: The Centre for Psychological Innovation

50

Artificial intelligence: It’s here. Now what?

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

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SUMMIT

FROM THE PRESIDENT

U

niversities are complex and intriguing places.

In this issue, we take a look at the inner workings, the modus operandi of Mount Royal University. It’s about why we do what we do, and how.

Externally, we are a responsive community resource. Internally, we provide an exceptional undergraduate educational experience. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to playing both of those roles, especially when it’s estimated that on any given day about 15,000 people use Mount Royal’s campus.

We provide housing, food services, recreational facilities, cultural and academic activities, health services, meeting spaces and access to technology and information, to name just a few of our functions. We’re used to expanding and contracting our day-to-day operations quickly and efficiently. And,

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to top it all off, we’re centrally located and easily accessible.

Because we are fully selfsufficient, universities and colleges are often called in to help during emergencies, such as the Calgary floods and Fort McMurray fires.

In just a few months, the Riddell Library and Learning Centre will open its doors. This promises to be a magnificent building, connected to the latest learning technologies and experiences. We can’t wait to invite the community in to access these amazing resources.

And we’re not done. Our new Campus Master Plan looks 20 to 30 years ahead, as Mount Royal continues to evolve to reflect the needs of our campus and our city. Campuses are more than the bricks and mortar of buildings, so the process will be collaborative.

Our employees, students, alumni, donors and neighbours will bring their knowledge,

enthusiasm and experience to this transformation. Our plans will support the densification and sustainability of Calgary, with a campus busy all year long and committed to minimizing its environmental footprint.

Equally important to the growing campus is the tone of our conversations, as noted in the article on social media.

At Mount Royal, we actively encourage inquiry and dialogue, bringing together a wide range of perspectives on the same topic. If these conversations remain respectful — where everyone can be heard and belong — then we are well on our way to nurturing responsible and engaged global citizens of the future.

David Docherty, PhD President, Mount Royal University

TAKE OUR SURVEY

V I C E P R E S I D E N T, UNIVERSIT Y A DVA NCEMENT Paul Rossmann

MEET THE TEAM

DIRECTOR, M A R K E T I N G A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S Melanie Rogers

In this issue we look at some of the gadgets and gizmos that are used to run Mount Royal. We asked our contributors, “What ‘in-the-future’ technology are you most looking forward to?”

C O M M U N I C AT I O N S M A N AG ER , M A R K E T I N G A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S Andrea Ranson

EDITOR-IN- CHIEF Paul Rossmann

MARKETING MANAGER, M A R K E T I N G A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S Dave McLean

EDITOR

“I THINK I WOULD JUST LIKE AN AUTO-CORRECT FUNCTION THAT WORKS.”

Michelle Bodnar Bachelor of Communication (Applied) — Journalism (2005)

Summit is an award-winning magazine published in the fall and spring of every year. Each issue introduces you to the exceptional students, faculty, alumni and supporters of Mount Royal University. Summit tells the University’s ongoing story to its various audiences, showcasing the aspirations, achievements and contributions of the Mount Royal community. In doing so, the magazine illustrates Mount Royal’s profile as a Canadian leader in undergraduate education.

ART DIRECTOR Michal Waissmann Bachelor of Communication (Applied) — Electronic Publishing (2007)

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

“A GREAT BIG CLIMATE-CONTROL DOME OVER CALGARY THAT ACTIVATES IN WINTER IF THE TEMPERATURE FALLS BELOW ZERO. HECK, LET’S ACTIVATE IT IN THE SUMMER TO MAINTAIN A STEADY 22 TO 25 C.”

Deb Abramson Journalism diploma (1977)

COPY EDITORS

ISSN 1929-8757 Summit Publications Mail Agreement #40064310

Andrea Ranson Public Relations diploma (1985) Frankie Thornhill Social Work diploma (2007)

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Mount Royal University 4825 Mount Royal Gate SW Calgary, AB, Canada T3E 6K6

COVER Illustration: Eric Chow

Summit website You can enjoy Summit online by visiting mru.ca/Summit If you would like us to deliver a print copy to your office or home, simply email summit@mtroyal.ca

DESIGN

“STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN BEAM ME INSTANTLY TO ANY TRAVEL DESTINATION, IDEALLY FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST OF AIRFARE (AND WITHOUT JET LAG).”

Leslie Blondahl Bachelor of Communication — Information Design (2014) Christina Riches Bachelor of Communication — Information Design (2014) Michal Waissmann Chao Zhang

Sustainably yours.

Mount Royal University is located on the traditional lands of the Blackfoot people, the Niitsitapi.

P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D I L LU S T R AT I O N S Eric Chow Max Foley Bachelor of Communication — Journalism (2016) Christina Riches “GOURMET CHEFBOT.” Michal Waissmann Chao Zhang

Tell us how to make Summit even better and win $150

mru.ca/SummitSurvey Thank you!

FSC

“JETPACKS.”

Your opinion will help us keep improving on the effectiveness of Summit. Take our short survey and be entered to win a $150 credit towards an on-campus activity.

CONTRIBUTORS

“AUGMENTED REALITY! NO MORE PERIPHERALS. I WOULD LOVE AN IMPLANT THAT ALLOWS ME TO ACCESS EVERYTHING MY SMARTPHONE OFFERS, LIKE LISTENING TO MUSIC INSIDE MY HEAD, AND TAKING PICTURES AND FILMING VIDEOS WITH MY EYES.”

Jonathan Anderson Bachelor of Communication — Public Relations (2013) Valerie Berenyi Michelle Bodnar Marlena Cross Brendan Greenslade Bachelor of Communication (Applied) — Public Relations (2010) Lisa Kadane Rob Petrollini Emily Pratt Lauren Price Bachelor of Communication — Public Relations (2017) Jenna Reimer Bachelor of Arts — English (2012) Melissa Rolfe Bryan Weismiller Bachelor of Communication — Journalism (2013) Felicia Zuniga

“I'M SURE STAR WARS-TYPE DROIDS ARE EVENTUALLY COMING, BUT IN THE MEANTIME, I'D BE HAPPY IF MY ROOMBA HAD SOME PERSONALITY. ASSUMING IT DOESN'T TURN AGAINST ME, OF COURSE ...”

“SO MANY OF MY CONVERSATIONS BEGIN WITH, ‘I CAN'T REMEMBER THE DETAILS, BUT ...,’ THAT I WOULD BE AN EARLY ADOPTER OF ANY EXPANDABLE-MEMORY CAPABILITY, BE IT AN IMPLANT OR AN EXTERNAL, CONNECTABLE DEVICE.”

"INSTANT DOWNLOADABLE KNOWLEDGE. KIND OF LIKE IN THE MATRIX. HOW COOL WOULD IT BE TO SUDDENLY NEED TO KNOW KUNG FU AND, WITH THE PRESS OF BUTTON, BE ABLE TO KICK BUTT?"

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

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BLEED BLUE H I G H L I G H T S F R O M T H E M O U N T R OYA L C O M M U N I T Y Complete listings of events and happenings at MRU can be found at mtroyal.ca/Events

JONATHAN WITHEY BEGINS TENURE AS DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Joining Mount Royal in January, Jonathan Withey, DPhil, previously served as a faculty member at MacEwan University, most recently as chair of the Department of Physical Sciences. He enjoys teaching chemistry, mentoring students and facilitating undergraduate research.

As an accomplished organic chemist, Withey was involved in new medical applications for organic molecules and is credited with securing MacEwan’s first Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant for his work on biowaste conversion.

He completed undergraduate and graduate studies in chemistry at the University of Oxford.

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NEWLY DISCOVERED FLY SPECIES NAMED AFTER ACADEMIC LEADER Interim Provost and Vice-President, Academic Jeffrey Goldberg, PhD, has earned the unique distinction of being immortalized in the study of insect biology. Last fall, the Entomological Society of Alberta named a newly found species of fly after him. The Jeffrey Goldberg fly is the fourth species of the genus Phyllomyza identified in North America.

Goldberg received the honour for his previous work as head of the University of Calgary’s Department of Biological Sciences, where he helped expand the department’s invertebrate/ entomology collection into a comprehensive teaching, learning and outreach tool.

At less than two millimetres long, the fly is known for its symbiotic relationships and co-operative working style — the very characteristics that made it so suitable to be named for Goldberg, according to his colleagues.

“For a group like that to bring me back and honour me out of the blue, it was really tremendous,” says Goldberg. “I couldn’t have predicted that in 100 years.”

Calgary Peace Prize points towards the importance of nuclear disarmament The Peace Studies Initiative at Mount Royal University showcased its commitment to increasing awareness of issues of peace and violence at its annual award ceremony March 15. This year’s recipient was the Honourable Douglas Roche, O.C., who was recognized for his advocacy in favour of human security and nuclear disarmament.

Additional Peace Studies Initiative events this year included: Everything You Treasure — For a World Free from Nuclear Weapons, an exhibition commemorating the 55th anniversary of Japanese educator Jõsei Toda’s Declaration Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons; A Nuclear Janus: The Return of Disarmament, a talk by Professor David Mutimer of York University; and a visit from Alberta’s 17th lieutenantgovernor, the Honourable Donald S. Ethell, who spoke about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Canadian military.

BLEED BLUE

MRU ALUMNI MAKE TOP 40 UNDER 40 Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 celebrates Calgary’s innovators, educators and entrepreneurs who are working hard to make a difference in their community and beyond. Mount Royal alumni were among those recognized.

Kurt Kinnear Bachelor of Applied Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership, 2005 Director of Active Living and the Outdoor Centre at the University of Calgary Kinnear is known for bringing the Outdoor Centre back from the brink of closure and growing it into what is now the largest university outdoor centre in North America.

Deanna Thompson General Insurance and Business Administration Diploma, 1999 Executive Director, Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) Since Thompson became AARCS’s first fulltime employee, it has grown into a respected animal welfare agency specializing in pet rescues after natural disasters.

HONORARY DEGREE PRESENTED TO ELDER MIIKSIKA’AM During the Fall 2016 Convocation, Mount Royal University elder, Clarence Wolfleg (Elder Miiksika’am) was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Arts — Sociology. Miiksika’am has deep roots in the Siksika Nation. His guardian ancestors trace back to the 1600s, when his fourth great-grandfather watched over the eastern tribal boundaries. Miiksika’am served in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1966 to 1970 with the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. He finished his service by participating in the United Nation’s peacekeeping initiatives in Cypress and the NATO forces’ Continental Europe missions during the Cold War. His contributions span national, regional and local organizations. Nationally, Miiksika’am advises Health Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada. Regionally, he is involved with the Siksika Horn Society as a spiritual adviser to the chief and the Treaty 7 Tribal Council. Fluent in the Blackfoot dialect, Miiksika’am has been adopted by many Indigenous nations. Locally, he serves as an elder and spiritual advisor for Bow Valley College, Heritage Park and Mount Royal.

Kylie Toh Bachelor of Communication — Public Relations, 2012 Founder of Chic Geek Chic Geek is a supportive community for women already in, and those wanting to enter, male-dominated technological fields.

NEW PUBLIC RELATIONS PARTNERSHIP PROVIDES EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES In December 2016 President David Docherty of Mount Royal University and President Ramona Lumpkin of Mount Saint Vincent University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) solidifying the long-time, collaborative work between each public relations department. The two were for many years the only degree-granting programs in Canada. Students have been studying public relations at Mount Royal for more than 50 years, first through a two-year diploma program, then a three-year applied degree, and in 2008, MRU launched a four-year Bachelor of Communication — Public Relations.

Some of the initiatives currently being developed through the MOU include student and faculty exchanges, transfer credit agreements and collaboration on international education strategies.

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CROWCHILD CLASSIC 2017 The Mount Royal Cougars and the University of Calgary Dinos duelled to a draw in the fifth installment of the Crowchild Classic on Feb. 2. The women’s side easily skated to a 3-1 victory, while the men’s side was downed 4-3 in double overtime. The event, which took place at the Scotiabank Saddledome, saw 11,902 fans participate in the sports spectacle. Mount Royal University received massive support leading up to the event, primarily from notable alumni, including Ryan Varty (TSN), Will Nault (Sportsnet 960) and Harnarayan Singh (Hockey Night in Canada). Alex Hayvren, a fourthyear health science major, was the MRU winner of $5,000 towards her next semester’s tuition for her excellent intermission challenge skills.

ADAPTED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SYMPOSIUM

From March 23 to 25, Mount Royal played host to the Adapted Physical Activity Symposium — a collaboration with the University of Alberta’s Steadward Centre. The three-day event was organized by fourth-year Bachelor of Health and Physical Education students as part of their communityfocused capstone courses. The symposium delved into para-sport and recreation, explored inclusive communities and worked to break down silos.

Mount Royal rolls out $60,000 worth of new scholarships and bursaries Each year, Mount Royal donors continue to show their support through outstanding gifts of generosity.

Since November 2016 over $60,000 worth of new scholarships and bursaries have been established. These include memorial awards, academic excellence scholarships and community engagement awards. An example is the new Pride Scholarship, which goes to two full-time students who demonstrate a positive contribution to the LGBTQ community and who show strong academic achievement. All are tangible rewards that are often a much-needed source of encouragement for students.

Scholarships and bursaries have the power to transform lives. Scholarships are awarded to students based on academic achievement, outstanding class participation, research projects and community or campus involvement.

Bursaries are based on financial need — they may have academic requirements, but generally focus on helping students who may not have the resources to pay for their education on their own.

Interested in supporting students and becoming a champion for accessible education? Visit mtroyal.ca/Giving for more information.

MRU PARTNERS ON GROUNDBREAKING HEALTH PROMOTION MOVEMENT Mount Royal University is one of six Canadian post-secondary institutions leading an international effort to create campuses that will improve the health and well-being of students, faculty and staff. MRU, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Memorial University, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge were the first to formally adopt the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges. This charter calls for a campus-wide commitment to health and well-being in all policies and practices, and was developed in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

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BLEED BLUE

UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT WELCOMES NEW DIRECTORS

Treaty 7 and Métis flags fly at Mount Royal On the morning of Nov. 1, 2016, the Treaty 7 and Métis flags were both raised to their new and permanent positions on the Mount Royal campus.

The event marked an important step towards raising awareness of the history of treaties and Indigenous rights, and symbolized MRU’s commitment to reconciling with the past while building partnerships that benefit the future.

Iniskim Centre turns 10 On March 21, Mount Royal University celebrated the 10th anniversary of the naming of the Iniskim Centre, which offers programs and services to increase the engagement and success of Indigenous students and raise awareness of Indigenous peoples and culture. The story is as follows: Long ago, food had become scarce for the people of the plains. The inii (buffalo) showed compassion for them and sent a message through Weasel Woman. As she was collecting water from a river near her camp, she heard a stone calling to her from the bushes.

The stone told her how to perform a ceremony to call the buffalo towards a pisskan (buffalo jump).

Weasel Woman took the sacred buffalo stone back to her camp and told the spiritual leaders about the ceremony. The people performed the ceremony and soon they had enough food, better shelter and tools by using all parts of the buffalo.

The evening also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Aboriginal Education Program, a University preparation program offered by the Iniskim Centre for students of Indigenous ancestry wanting to pursue post-secondary education.

Rebecca Bowman Director of Advancement Services and Annual Giving An alumna of Mount Royal’s Bachelor of Applied Communications — Public Relations program, Rebecca Bowman has held roles of increasing responsibility in development and community relations with a range of notfor-profit agencies in Calgary, including the United Way, the Developmental Disabilities Resources Centre and Between Friends, as well as the Aga Khan Foundation and the Salvation Army.

She is returning to Mount Royal after four years with the University of Calgary, where she held director-level roles in annual giving and development services.

...

Eleanor Finger Director of Alumni Relations Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Eleanor Finger has lived in Alberta for the past 10 years and has held high-level development roles in public organizations such as the Calgary Public Library, the Alzheimer Society of Calgary and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

She played a leading role in the Calgary Public Library Foundation’s transformational Add In capital campaign, and with a heart and an ear for music lends her strategic expertise to the Cowtown Opera as vicepresident of the board of directors. Finger will work to build additional bridges between alumni and students and to find more ways to celebrate Mount Royal’s amazing graduates.

Terry Kellam Executive Director of Development Terry Kellam is a proven fund developer and strategic planner who is committed to collaboration and growth. He has returned to Calgary after spending 15 years in a series of progressive leadership roles at the University of British Columbia, most recently serving as the director of Development, Central Major Gifts. In addition, Kellam has held senior fundraising positions with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT and Nunavut, and Alberta Ballet. He will work with MRU’s academic and executive leaders and the Mount Royal Foundation Board of Directors to set institutional fundraising priorities, strengthen ties with the community and advance Mount Royal’s strategic priorities.

Your opinion matters to us Help us keep improving Summit by taking our short survey. Hosted by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, results will be reported in aggregate form and you will not be identified.

The final page of the survey will give you the option to enter our draw for $150 to be used towards: concert or event tickets; a credit or non-credit course; a Recreation membership; the BookStore; accommodations; Event and Theatre Services or food and beverage services.

Go to mru.ca/SummitSurvey and start now!

BLEED BLUE

At a glance: Faculty and staff awards & accolades

Peter Choate, PhD, professor, Department of Child Studies and Social Work, is serving on the provincial government’s child intervention panel, formed after several reported cases of children suffering from injury, harm and loss of life while under government care. The panel will present its complete findings in late July.

Peter Choate

Joseph Osuji, PhD, professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, was selected for the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) through the Institute of International Education. CADFP, a higher education fellowship created to help avert brain drain in Africa, will fund 69 new projects at African universities this year.

Joseph Osuji

FIRST WE’D LIKE TO THANK ...

It’s been an awardwinning year for Summit as we’ve been recognized by our peers and publication organizations. The magazine’s team wishes to thank everyone in the Mount Royal community for their participation and support in helping us realize these achievements.

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Micheline Maylor, PhD (Calgary’s current Poet Laureate), Richard Harrison and derek beaulieu, PhD, professors with the Department of English, Languages and Cultures, were invited to take part in Universities Canada’s Converge 2017 conference in Ottawa due to the success of Mount Royal’s Pop-Up Poetry events. Each typed out custom poems for attendees.

Micheline Maylor

Richard Harrison

2017 COUNCIL FOR THE ADVANCEMENT AND SUPPORT OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT VIII COMMUNICATIONS AWARDS Gold — Print General Interest Magazine, circulation

Kandi McElary, director of Wellness Services at MRU, was appointed to the provincial Advisory Panel on Post-secondary Mental Health, which exists to help develop a provincewide system of addiction and mental health supports for Alberta postsecondary students.

derek beaulieu

Winner — Editorial

She Wants You! Women in

Photography

STEM (Spring 2015)

Rapid Momentum — MRU

Silver, Digital Presence —

Cougars (Spring 2016)

Website

Winner — Photography Use Rapid Momentum — MRU Cougars (Spring 2016)

Editorial Design

Cougars (Spring 2016)

Jennifer Pettit

Winner — Editorial Design

Summit (Spring 2016)

Rapid Momentum ­— MRU

Pam Nordstrom

2017 APPLIED ARTS COMMUNITY AWARDS

Honourable Mention —

Photography

Brent Oliver

Pam Nordstrom, PhD, interim dean of the Faculty of Health, Community and Education and Jennifer Pettit, PhD, chair of the Department of Humanities, were each awarded The Chair Academy’s 2017 International Exemplary Leadership Award for advancing academic and administrative leadership.

2016 CANADIAN REGIONAL DESIGN AWARDS WINNERS

30,000-74,999

Gold — Excellence in

Kandi McElary

Brent Oliver, PhD, professor, Department of Child Studies and Social Work, was named principal investigator for an HIV prevention project funded under a catalyst grant titled Gay Men and Other Men who Have Sex with Men in Alberta: Establishing a Community Based Research Agenda to Inform Provincial HIV Prevention Initiatives.

Semblance of Faith (Spring 2016)

ALBERTA MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION AWARDS

Summit online (mtroyal.ca/Summit) Silver, Photograph ­— Essay or Series Rapid Momentum — MRU Cougars (Spring 2016)

MOUNT ROYAL REMEMBERS On Feb. 13 the lives of two of Mount Royal’s much-loved and well-respected Aviation program instructors were tragically lost after an accident during a routine training flight. The Mount Royal community will never forget Jeff Bird and Reyn Johnson, who were exemplary members of the aviation community and shining examples of lives well-lived. Thank you, Jeff and Reyn, for teaching us how to fly.

JEFFREY MICHAEL BIRD

REYNOLD (REYN) JOHNSON

November 11, 1981 — February 13, 2017

December 30, 1952 — February 13, 2017

Before becoming a flight instructor at Mount Royal, Bird was a wellrespected member of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for over a decade. He first served with 4 Wing Cold Lake, earning his flight wings in 2009. Next posted to the 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Edmonton, Bird was deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Athena, Roto 11, from March to September 2011. In 2012 he was posted to CFB Moose Jaw as an instructor pilot until his retirement from the RCAF in 2016.

“Jeff was an amazing character to be around,” says Robin Robinson, a second-year aviation student. “He was incredibly friendly and helpful.”

Leon Cygman, chair of Mount Royal’s Aviation program, says, “Jeff left us with a mark that we won’t forget. He inspired our students and he had a deep passion for his family, his kids, flying and service to our country.”

Lt.-Col. Chris Morrison flew with Bird for close to 400 hours, and describes him as an exceptionally competent pilot. “’J-Bird was a term of endearment we used for him,” says Morrison. “He was an absolutely first-rate person. Incredibly positive, very friendly and very compassionate.”

Born and raised in Calgary, Bird graduated from Lord Beaverbrook high school before earning a degree in mathematics from the University of Calgary. He and his wife Carly had two young children, daughter Celeste and infant son Shane.

At Bird’s memorial service, Carly told those in attendance that being a dad was what Jeff was meant to do in this life. “Without a doubt, it was by far his most proud accomplishment.”

“This is someone who touched so many lives, who people loved to be with, and he loved to be with them,” says David Docherty, president of Mount Royal University.

Mount Royal University’s Aviation program chair, Leon Cygman, remembers Johnson’s firm handshake, big smile and the twinkle in his eye when he first interviewed for a flight instructor position.

With 35 years of experience as a commercial pilot and over 20,000 flight hours, Cygman knew Johnson would be invaluable to the program and its students.

“He was the type you hoped to capture even a small piece of wisdom from to make you a better person,” says Cygman.

Student Josh Burrill flew with Johnson on many occasions.

“Reyn was easily the kindest person I have ever met. He exemplified every possible aspect of a professional pilot and a gentleman.

“He was many things to me — a colleague, a teacher and a mentor. I take peace in knowing that Reyn has traded in his manmade wings for angel wings.”

Johnson was a proud and devoted husband to his wife Brenda, whom he met at the University of Lethbridge and married in 1977.

Their life together was built on a foundation of love and strength, and they were dedicated to their family, church, friends and community. Johnson began working on obtaining his commercial pilot licence in Lethbridge, beginning with crop spraying. After moving to Calgary in 1985 he was employed with Jordan Flight Training, Business Flights and then Time Air, which eventually became Jazz Aviation. The couple welcomed their son Lucas to the family in 1988 and their daughter Maryse in 1991, and were proud grandparents to Isaac, Abigail and baby Jacob.

MRU President David Docherty says, “He left that spark and that drive in our students and inspired them, not just to be better pilots, but to be better people. He had time for every single one of our students and that made an impression.”

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MUSIC TO YOUR E ARS CONCERT SERIES

The last five events of the 2016/17 Music to Your Ears concert season range from an interactive performance where musicians respond to “game-players” on stage to an intimate serenade by instructors from The Conservatory. Immerse yourself in rich and wonderful sounds supported by the amazing acoustics of the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts.

Get your tickets now! Enter the promo code MRUMAY for 30% off select shows while supplies last.

ANDRÉS CÁRDENES AND THE CALGARY YOUTH ORCHESTRA

JOURNEY LIVE! Friday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m.

The Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble will team up with composer Austin Wintory to present an original, interactive live performance of his Grammynominated score to the video game Journey. Never the same each time, Journey LIVE! is an interactive parable, an anonymous online adventure to experience a person’s life passage and their intersections with others. In this unprecedented collaboration, live musicians respond to the actions of game players in real time.

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Ron Sexsmith has … an insight into the human heart and a melodic purity.” — Elvis Costello

RON SEXSMITH Wednesday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m.

Ron Sexsmith and his touring band are coming to Calgary to share his emotional 13th solo album, The Last Rider.

Described as, “romantic, bittersweet, uplifting and humorous,” Sexsmith’s latest release resonates with the artist himself, and will also resonate with his audience.

His songs are known for revealing the commanality among humanity and for illuminating what is often the hidden magnitude — and beauty — of life.

Sunday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m.

Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes has parlayed his myriad talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. An intensely passionate and charismatic artist, Cubanborn Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling performances as a violinist, conductor, violist, chamber musician, concertmaster and recording artist.

Cárdenes will share the stage with Mount Royal University Conservatory’s Calgary Youth Orchestra.

mru.ca/Enjoy 403.440.7770

Photo by: Jim Callaghan

LAND’S END ENSEMBLE 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION WITH GUEST PERCUSSIONIST EVELYN GLENNIE Friday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m.

The Juno-nominated Land’s End Ensemble of Calgary (John Lowry, violin; Beth Root Sandvoss, cello; Susanne Ruberg-Gordon, piano and Vincent Ho, artistic director) is dedicated to introducing audiences to new music by Canadian and international composers, and to performing landmark chamber works from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Land’s End Ensemble is proud to be celebrating its 20th anniversary as a part of The Conservatory’s Soundscape Series.

This concert is presented in partnership with the Land’s End Music Society.

LOOKING GLASS DUO (LUCIE JONES AND GIANETTA BARIL) Sunday, May 28 at 2 p.m.

Enjoy the wide palette of musical colours created by the combination of harp and flute as the Looking Glass Duo explores compositions ranging from the Baroque Era to modern day. Experience their unique blend in the TransAlta Pavilion as part of the Spotlight Series, which features instructors from The Conservatory.

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W H AT’S T HI S FI ND

Found in the Mount Royal University Archives and Special Collections, this Class 1 Burroughs adding machine was manufactured in Detroit between 1908 and 1910. Invented

by William Seward Burroughs, these machines were made with the greatest of care (designs were created using a microscope) and using the finest quality materials, such as cast iron, brass and glass. Often referred to as the first computers, a Burroughs adding machine sold for $300 to $500 (about $7,500 to $12,400 now).

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The Social Media Stop the spread!

How the Internet is killing civility.

WORDS BY LISA KADANE

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A nationwide U.S. study carried out this year titled Civility in America found that 75 per cent of Americans consider the general tone and lack of politeness in the country to be at crisis levels. Social networking sites (43 per cent) and specifically Twitter (35 per cent) were pegged as arenas where incivility trumps civility. What’s more, 45 per cent of respondents said they have defriended or blocked someone online because of rude or hateful comments or behaviour. There’s a growing sense that these platforms are being slowly

Virus

overtaken by effrontery and hostility, and that the layer of decorum that’s enabled humans to get along for so long — because of a tacit agreement not to talk about politics, religion or tax brackets face-to-face — has been peeled away by the Internet, a forum that allows people to comment anonymously and without fear of repercussions or reprimands.

A m anufactured n or mali ty

“O

n average, people are spending about 25 hours a week with their online activities, whether text messaging or Facebooking,” says Malinda Desjarlais, PhD and a professor with the Department of Psychology at Mount Royal. Desjarlais studies the integration of social technologies within daily life and how they’re used in friendships.

On campus, students use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube to connect with each other and with the University. They tweet @mountroyal4u specific questions like, “How do I find the Y Wing?” and, “Where can I find out about my exams?” Karen Richards, Mount Royal’s social networking strategist and an instructor with the Faculty of Continuing Education and Extension, answers.

Over the course of her 11 years at MRU, Richards has noticed several social trends, including an increase in video consumption and the shortening of videos for distribution on Instagram and Twitter. There’s also been a “BuzzFeed-ification” of the news that’s shared among students, with Top 10 lists edging out meatier reads. And impolite commentary online in general has been rising.

“Twitter has the most negativity of the platforms we’re involved in. It’s the Wild West,” says Richards.

Unfortunately, the spread of animosity has long been a plague for Twitter. And though its rules technically prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of other users, realistically they can’t be enforced since tweets happen in real time. The platform can only block an account after the fact. Twitter is also where people can find their “tribe,” people of a like mind and sentiment. As a result, hate speech that wouldn’t normally have an audience easily finds followers.

“There’s a much quicker spread of those destructive conversations,” Richards explains.

“It’s a fine line. Because we’re a university, we encourage healthy debate and free speech and respecting others’ opinions, so it can be quite tricky.”

Mount Royal has guidelines for identifying and reacting to threatening or hateful online behaviour that involves the institution, staff or a student.

Negative comments are assessed to determine if they’re racist, homophobic, misogynist, threatening or otherwise offensive, and then deleted if they cross that line. If the individual repeatedly tweets or comments in that vein, they are then blocked.

“We have had in the past someone like that.

You delete their comments, let them know, block them, and then they create another fictitious account and they start over again,” says Richards.

“It can be exhausting.”

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

13

Social media and self-worth

K

eeping up with social media might even be contributing to student stress, according to experts. Students are among the most likely members of society to report a mental health issue. New data collected in the winter of 2016 from the annual National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey showed that almost 50 per cent of students reported a mental health issue affecting their academic performance. In addition to providing several on-campus wellness services, such as counselling and online programs, Mount Royal, along with the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Memorial University, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge, recently formalized its commitment to student well-being through the adoption of the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges (fall, 2016), which calls for a campus-wide commitment to health and welfare in all policies and practices.

The high number of reported mental health problems among students could be because of a heightened self-awareness among this population, and come from a combination of factors, says Pat Kostouros, PhD, a registered psychologist and professor in the Department of Child Studies and Social Work at Mount Royal.

From clinical diagnoses, including depression and anxiety, to external influences such as the financial cost of post-secondary education, juggling multiple classes and jobs and the demands of friends and technology, social media may actually add to student stress, she says.

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SUMMIT – SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Pat Kostouros, PhD Registered psychologist and professor, Department of Child Studies and Social Work

let’s say somebody puts up a nasty picture of you. that nasty picture not only makes it all over your social connections, it doesn’t go away.

– Pat Kostouros, PhD

And due to the fact that social media is being used by businesses more and more often, involvement is mandatory for some students.

“I have to be on social media as part of my program. It’s an expectation,” says Arlene Ridgeway, a fourth-year public relations student.

“You have to be extremely thoughtful in the use of those tools,” she says. “It’s social communication, but can also impact your career. Potential employers will often check accounts, so they want to see that you’re active and posting appropriately.”

While trying to be all things to all people, disparaging and rude or threatening behaviour inside a student’s social

network can cause stress to escalate even further.

“Let’s say somebody puts up a nasty picture of you.

That nasty picture not only makes it all over your social connections, it doesn’t go away. People can bring it up again six months later or a year later and then you are traumatized again by that experience,” Kostouros explains.

And though it’s upsetting when a friend or acquaintance lashes out online, at least the source has a name and face.

When it doesn’t, it’s downright frightening. Kostouros says not knowing who the person is, why they are targeting you and if you may even actually encounter them somewhere is unpredictable and therefore increases fear.

MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA GREAT AGAIN

Beware the camera: when private disagreements become public fodder student was bombarded with more than

strategist and an instructor with MRU’s

America Great Again” hat to campus last

200 messages from strangers via her

Faculty of Continuing Education and

fall, a predictable debate ensued. A female

Facebook account some threatening

Extension. Richards spent seven

student asked the young man to remove

sexual assault and even death. Some even

full days mitigating the reactions on Mount

the hat, saying President Donald Trump’s

implored her to kill herself.

Royal’s social accounts.

When a male student wore a “Make

election campaign slogan was offensive,

On Twitter, the hash tag #TrumpHat

The video has now been viewed over

represented racist views and constituted

was quickly hijacked by a mostly American

two million times. Although the students

“hate language.”

(68 per cent), mostly male (57 per cent)

have resolved their differences, their

audience, who called for the student’s

simple disagreement has been turned

a third party and posted to Facebook,

expulsion and condemned the University

into a trope for interest groups, and the

garnering more than half a million views

for not disciplining her.

conflict resurrected over and over again.

Their exchange was videotaped by

within 48 hours. When local news outlets

“There were no good discussions. There

The personal is now an indelible part of the

jumped in to report on the story, the

was just anger and blame and aggression

public realm, and nothing seems to be able

conversation quickly devolved. Things

and violence,” says Karen Richards, Mount

to stop its spread.

got ugly fast on social media. The female

Royal University’s social networking

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

15

O

nline incivility — whether anonymous or not — is a form of bullying and this type of bully has a name: a troll.

A troll is someone who deliberately posts provocative or offensive material online. It’s the person who engages in name-calling, or enters a discussion with the intent of upsetting or disrupting the conversation.

Or both. Sometimes they are anonymous, sometimes they are well-known, but those who fling insults or hate are not just acting in an anti-social way. Their behaviour is actually linked to what researchers call the “dark tetrad of personality traits.”

A recent study looked at trolling and found evidence that the people behind it had four personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and, especially, sadism. They exhibit — to varying degrees — self-centredness, a lack of empathy and remorse, and enjoyment derived from humiliating or demeaning the objects of their derision.

“Both trolls and sadists feel glee at the distress of others,” wrote the researchers in a University of Manitoba article titled, “Trolls

16

SUMMIT – SPRING/SUMMER 2017

just want to have fun,” published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

“Social media hasn’t created this behaviour in people. I think this behaviour has always been in a certain percentage of the population and social media puts a spotlight on it and makes it easier for them to behave this way and get more attention across more platforms,” says Richards.

“They just get something out of it that most of us don’t understand. Some kind of fame. They like to cause trouble and they like negative attention.”

Mike Morrison Calgary social media personality and writer of Mike’s Bloggity Blog.

If we all step away from Twitter and let one side — either side — take it over, it’s still a powerful tool and now we’ve given them the licence to do whatever they want with it.

– mike morrison

Mike Morrison, better known in Calgary as the personality behind Mike’s Bloggity Blog — a popular entertainment and travel website — has a large following on social media and a reputation as a social activist; someone who is not afraid to advocate online for causes he believes in, from bike lanes to gay rights.

Because he’s so vocal, and willing to call out politicians, journalists or others for posting material he believes is false or misleading, he attracts a lot of attention.

Two recent examples: Morrison was called “Mike’s Dickety Dick” on Twitter by the employee of a well-known politician (the person deleted the tweet and apologized), and Morrison had to block a different Twitter user after they started serially screen-grabbing his tweets to spread and fuel political fires.

Over the years, Morrison has developed a strategy for handling this kind of behaviour. When someone disagrees with him on the platform, or “goes

low,” he looks at their feed to decide whether to engage with them. He rarely acknowledges anonymous accounts.

“If I see they’re sharing Rebel (media) stories or really nasty stuff, or memes calling Rachel Notley terrible names, I’m not going to engage with them because they’re not up for a discussion,” says Morrison, who taught the Continuing Education course Basics of Blogging at MRU, and who instructs on online etiquette during his annual Social West, a digital marketing and social media conference.

The irony is that Morrison himself has been called a troll, but he says there’s a difference between disagreeing with someone’s opinion (debate), which he does regularly, and personally insulting or attacking someone (being uncivil), which he does not do. In fact, he doesn’t think there’s a place for such behaviour online.

“I don’t think that moves the conversation forward at all,” Morrison says.

If anything, it only widens the gap between

two sides of a debate — a gulf that can seem insurmountable, he says.

“If we all step away from Twitter and let one side — either side — take it over, it’s still a powerful tool and now we’ve given them the licence to do whatever they want with it.”

Morrison says that managing the meanness takes a psychological toll, but he refuses to leave the showground where the conversation — no matter how ugly — is taking place.

Karen Richards Mount Royal University’s social networking strategist

Tips for staying safe online You are the only one who can control what you put out publicly on the Internet, says Karen Richards, Mount Royal University’s social networking strategist. Therefore, think twice about what you post. Likewise, be careful how you engage with others online. Here are Richards’ five tips for staying safe on social media: Be aware of joining

If you are targeted

Don’t post to the

Be aware of sharing

Be very aware when

controversial

by an individual

Internet when you

too much information

meeting someone

or volatile

troll or group on

are highly emotional,

across social media,

in person that you

conversations, such

social media, take

whether angry, bitter,

such as email

have previously only

as those about

a screenshot of the

jealous or deeply

addresses, your

known through social

politics, reproductive

offensive posts (or

sad. Emotionally

home address or

media. Choose to

rights or religion.

private messages

fuelled posts are

location, your daily

meet at a networking

These topics attract

they may send),

the ones people

routine or vacation

event or bring a friend

trolls and participants

block them and

most often regret.

plans. Consider

with you and meet in

with extreme views

report them to the

disabling your

a public place.

who might target

site’s administrators.

geolocation on social

you personally.

Use the screenshot

media apps.

with your report, if possible.

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

17

W

hile Twitter battles the troll, Facebook is fighting a different affliction: the rise of fake news.

During the U.S. presidential campaign, stories with outrageous headlines from dubious news sources were shared widely on the social networking platform.

“FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide,” blared one from the Denver Guardian, a hoax website. “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement,” declared another from Ending The Fed, an extreme, right-wing-biased conspiracy website.

The headlines were so far-fetched as to be laughable.

Instead of being summarily dismissed, however, the provocativeness of stories like these can cause them to go viral, in many cases without having been read.

Fifty-nine per cent of links on social media have never actually been clicked on, according to a recent study by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute.

“The fake news crisis emerged in the journalistic war over Donald Trump,” says David Taras, PhD, communication studies professor and the Ralph Klein Chair in Media Studies at Mount Royal. “Somehow the Trump run for presidency and Facebook’s arrival as the great newsroom — basically the largest newsroom in the world — brought everything to a head.”

Of course, fake news has been around for decades.

Everyone has read about celebrities birthing alien babies in the World Weekly News while waiting in the grocery store checkout line. What’s new, says Taras, is the fake news factory — organizations dedicated to

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fabricating stories for clicks and shares that translate into dollars, and the ability of those stories to be rapidly disseminated to an audience of millions.

For a while, journalists from legitimate media outlets spent time disproving or calling out what was obviously made up. The Washington Post even ran a regular column called, “What was fake on the Internet this week,” that discredited bogus stories. The newspaper discontinued the column in late 2015 (over a year ago — long before fake news really hit its stride) because it found that readers refused to undo their thoughts on a fake story even after it had been proven untrue with hard evidence.

In fact, a recent survey conducted for BuzzFeed

by Ipsos Public Affairs found that fake news fools Americans 75 per cent of the time.

What’s disturbing isn’t that these hoaxes exist, but that so many people fall for them. Experts suggest that the intersection of cognitive bias and institutional distrust partially explains the phenomenon. People want to read stories that confirm their own beliefs, and they no longer trust traditional sources, so they’re susceptible to falsities that line up with their views (for example, people who supported Trump were likely to believe that he’d been endorsed by the Pope).

Contributing to the issue unwittingly are real journalists, who, in their rush to break a story in this “24-minute” (as Taras refers to it) news cycle, sometimes publish articles without confirming facts or talking directly with sources. When readers find out the website, newspaper or cable channel got the story wrong, confidence is lost.

In 2016 MRU had ...

120,250 followers across David Taras, PhD Communications Studies Professor and the Ralph Klein Chair in Media Studies,

all social media channels

48,000 unique mentions of the University posted online

30,000 tweets about the University (62 per cent of the conversation about MRU is from Twitter)

Part of the problem, too, says Taras, is a disconnected or uneducated public. People who aren’t attentive to politics or who haven’t been taught to be critical and check that a story is coming from a respected source are vulnerable.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to point fingers at the problem than come up with solutions. There’s been a huge backlash against Facebook for allowing fabricated stories to spread so freely (similar to the backlash against Twitter for not cracking down on hate language on its platform). As a result, Facebook hired Campbell Brown, a former TV journalist, to lead its news partnership team that liaises with news organizations to access reliable content for its “trending topics” and “instant articles,” a move that Taras commends.

“It’s the responsibility of platforms — like Google, like Facebook, like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit — to make sure there is some policing (of content),” he says.

At the same time, he says journalists also have a responsibility to be more diligent with the stories that they write, and ensure there are multiple sources and as much fact-checking as possible.

And we the people need to be more careful about the stories we read, redact and share.

“I think there’s an argument about people being more cynical and being more careful. A little bit of suspicion and worry goes a long way,” Taras says, adding that critical thinking, like civility, is taught, which perhaps means that we need to revisit curriculum and talk about how this new wave of media is changing the way we do business, think and communicate.

“Would the Pope really endorse Donald Trump? Like, who believes that?” Taras asks rhetorically. “But if people are that gullible, maybe there are issues we have to address within the system.”

In the short term, there are no easy answers and, unfortunately, no new Trojan to kill the viruses of incivility and alternative facts currently attacking social media. But Taras is hopeful awareness and reason will triumph.

“Our better angels will prevail.”

178,115 video views with 261,998 minutes watched on YouTube

12,340 clicks from social media to MRU stories and events on mtroyal.ca mtroyal.ca/Summit had 23,594 page views with 17,558 of those unique

Mount Royal Social Media Channels /MountRoyal4U @mountroyal4u /mrulife /mountroyal4u Mount Royal University @mrulife

For a complete list, including The Conservatory, Recreation, Cougars, Iniskim Centre, Continuing Education and more, go to mru.ca/SocialDashboard

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

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Passion, dedication and strength to care Mount Royal celebrates 50 years of nursing education WORDS BY LAUREN PRICE

f

1967 -

or half a century, Mount Royal’s nursing program has played a significant role in the health and vitality of Canadians and citizens around the world. Providing the education and training of thousands of highly skilled professionals who have dispersed to make local, national and international impacts, nursing at Mount Royal sets a continued standard of excellence.

It is firmly entrenched as one of Alberta’s most distinguished health care education programs.

In 1967, at what was then Mount Royal Junior College, 25 students were admitted to the inaugural class of Canada’s first twoyear nursing diploma. Now, the fall intake each year for the Bachelor of Nursing — the first four-year degree to be offered at Mount Royal — is 210 students, with many more having to be turned away.

“Since the ’70s, the nursing team at Mount Royal had their sights set on a degree,” says interim dean of the Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Pam Nordstrom, who has been with the institution for 22 years. “Just being a part of achieving something that had been building for years — that was huge.”

Also near to Nordstrom’s heart is the development and implementation of the Bridge to Canadian Nursing (BCN) program,

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which assists internationally educated nurses (IENs) in transitioning their skills to Canadian systems and standards. Her first-hand involvement in the development of competency evaluations for IENs placed her right in the heart of things when IEN assessment strategies were implemented in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. And again, when the policies were taken internationally to Ireland, England, India, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“Society and health care have experienced monumental changes in the past 50 years. Nursing education at MRU has kept pace with those changes and strives to be out in front to anticipate the role of nursing and provide our students with an education that prepares them to make a difference in the profession.

“I’ve been blessed to have been a part of this dynamic process for the past 22 years. It has been an incredible experience,” she says.

Nordstrom’s observation of the determination of those involved with nursing at Mount Royal leaves her feeling optimistic about what’s to come.

“Over the past 50 years, the nursing program and all students and faculty involved have accomplished so much and have much

1967

The two-year nursing diploma program begins, the first diplomabased nursing program in Alberta.

1969

The first graduates of Mount Royal Junior College’s two-year nursing diploma finish their program.

- 2017 to celebrate,” says Nordstrom. “It is such a gift to lead in an environment where all members of the team are making outstanding contributions to MRU’s nursing education programs.”

Paula Price, another 22-year Mount Royal veteran, is interim director of the School of Nursing and Midwifery and is excited about the opportunity to recognize and applaud the individuals and groups of people who have left an impression on the program.

“That’s what I think this year is all about. Recognizing where we have come from, where we are going and the people who have made the difference along the way. Nurses play a big role in this world, and I can only see them playing an even bigger role over time.”

When providing care, nurses bring knowledge, compassion, competence, a sense of conscience and confidence in their skills.

They are always prepared to make a positive difference in the lives of those they encounter.

“You can be reassured when your RN (registered nurse) is an MRU graduate,” says Nordstrom.

For more information on how to be part of the 50th anniversary celebration, visit mru.ca/Nursing50.

1978

(1978 - 2013) Post Basic Mental Health Certificate provided for 35 years.

Society and health care have experienced monumental changes in the past 50 years. Nursing education at MRU has kept pace with those changes and strives to be out in front to anticipate the role of nursing and provide our students with an education that prepares them to make a difference in the profession.

Pam Nordstrom Interim Dean, Faculty of Health, Community and Education

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

21

1991 1988

(1988 - 2013) Studies in Aging (Gerontology) Certificate offered.

Athabasca University at Mount Royal College Bachelor of Nursing program begins. Last class graduates in 2012.

Calgary Conjoint Bachelor of Nursing program with the University of Calgary starts up.

2001 1995

Forensic Studies Certificate is offered to students.

2004

Last Mount Royal College nursing diploma class graduates.

Last graduating class of the Calgary Conjoint Nursing Program.

Foothills School of Nursing closes.

Many instructors relocate to Mount Royal.

Advanced Studies in Critical Care Nursing transfers from the Foothills School of Nursing.

Neonatal Intensive Care Certificate and Advanced Studies in Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing Certificate (now offered through Continuing Education) transfer from the Foothills School of Nursing.

What do you foresee in the next 50 years of nursing?

2006

2007

Bachelor of Nursing degree is granted, the first independent baccalaureate for Mount Royal.

Bridge to Canadian Nursing program begins.

(2006 - 2013) Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN) Assessment Centre operates on campus.

Pam Nordstrom Interim Dean, Faculty of Health, Community and Education “I think MRU will continue to hire faculty who really understand what it’s like to deliver high levels of care for the future of the community, and that our students will continue to be passionate about the difference they can make and understand the scope of what nursing can be — not limited by how they see it practised.

My dream is that the program carries on at its high standard, which takes hard work, but I am confident that it will only continue to improve, and MRU’s nursing students will continue to be a top choice for employers.”

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2009

Government of Alberta grants Mount Royal College the right to be a university.

2010

The College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta celebrates 100 years of providing registered nursing services in Alberta.

2016

Mount Royal’s first Bachelor of Nursing class graduates.

2017

Mount Royal celebrates 50 years of nursing education.

2011

Simulation Learning Centre opens.

2013

2014

Nursing program receives accreditation from the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing.

Mount Royal honours 25 years of Advanced Studies in Critical Care Nursing.

* Artifacts courtesy of the Mount Royal University Archives and Special Collections

Paula Price Interim Director, School of Nursing and Midwifery “Given the needs of society, health promotion will play a very big role in nursing education in the future. Because of health care delivery being so very expensive, we need to prevent disease from happening, so to promote health is really a primary focus.

I certainly see technology expanding, first in nursing education, and then in the interventions and treatment of patients. Who knew we would have the technology we do today 50 years ago? So imagine what can be possible 50 years from now.”

Jerry Macdonald President, College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta “It’s amazing to think about where we were at in 1967 — I was eight — and it was nearly impossible to predict what health care would look like now. At that time, we figured we’d be driving around in flying cars. But we are seeing some major shifts in terms of populations living longer, and living longer well. And that’s going to have implications on the design of our health care system.

The approach to health care is shifting. We’re seeing more community care settings — day procedures, ambulatory care and home care. So, ultimately that will determine how we evolve the nursing profession and, in turn, nursing education as we look to the future.”

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

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MOD OPER MODUS OPERANDI

The how and the why of mount royal ILLUSTRATIONS BY ERIC CHOW

A university campus is a complex mix. Discoveries are always happening, innovation is around every corner and curiosity is a way of life. The support of all of this human intellect is often unseen, with continuous operational assessments and maintenance happening behind the scenes and out of the way. Sometimes all the hustle and bustle can seem disconnected, but there are threads everywhere tying it all together, not just internally, but extending out into the external community.

This section peels back the layers of Mount Royal, exposing its intimate inner-workings.

DUS RAND

MODUS OPERANDI

CAMPUS MASTER PLAN Mount Royal’s infrastructure of physical, civil and digital networks are all inter-connected with accessibility in mind.

WORDS BY JONATHAN ANDERSON AND BRENDAN GREENSLADE

W

ith the opening of the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts in 2015 and the completion of the Riddell Library and Learning Centre, in fall 2017, Mount Royal will have officially completed the mandates of the University’s first Campus Master Plan (CMP), published in 1999.

Over the past two years, a new CMP has been developed to guide the evolution of the campus for the next 20 to 30 years.

Getting to the point of completing one CMP and starting another has been no easy task, says Duane Anderson, vice-president

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SUMMIT – SPRING/SUMMER 2017

of Administrative Services. When Anderson arrived at MRU 20 years ago, the grounds consisted solely of Kerby Hall and the main building of MRU’s Lincoln Park campus.Since then MRU has grown rapidly, with the addition of a number of new buildings including the Faculty of Arts (EA), Bissett School of Business (EB), Roderick Mah Centre for Continuous Learning (EC), Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts (ED), parkade, supplementary residences, an extension to the west wing (Recreation), an addition to the science wing and the soon-to-be completed Riddell Library and Learning Centre.

The original CMP was designed in two phases, with the first adding EA, EB and parts of EC. The second phase

was the construction of the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts and the Riddell Library and Learning Centre.

“The first CMP gave us that clear direction for the first 10 years of what we wanted to do, the placement of buildings and the reworking of the whole campus,” says Anderson.

The process to develop the new CMP has been a collaborative effort to further strengthen Mount Royal into an expansive system that can easily integrate with its surroundings. The once somewhat isolated campus is being more and more absorbed into its surrounds and the city’s infrastructure.

The neighbouring Canadian Forces Base Calgary (decommissioned in 1998) is now Currie Barracks, a nearly

THE HOW AND THE WHY

complete residential community.

Vacant lands along 50 Avenue S.W. are being transformed into the busy commercial hubs of the ATCO Business Park and the Westmount Corporate Campus.

As the vitality and density of the area intensifies, it has become critical to connect with community members, local businesses and surrounding developers.

A team of CMP consultants led

by DIALOG, the architectural firm responsible for the design of the Riddell Library and Learning Centre, are working with the internal campus community, as well as external stakeholders, including The City of Calgary.

“The greatest potential was the realization of a fully committed, community-integrated undergraduate university that becomes a campus of choice for national and international students. The MRU CMP really focused on the vision of a local, inclusive and progressive campus that concentrates on individual students,” says John Souleles, associate architect with DIALOG and CMP committee member.

The engagement process included a number of workshops and open houses to gather different perspectives. Participants discussed options such as aligning street networks, creating an inviting facade through new building designs and landscaping, and adding paths and trails within the campus that join with the broader community.

Witnessing expansion happening all around, Anderson and the CMP committee engaged users from around campus, including Canada Lands Corporation, which is overseeing the development of Currie Barracks.

“The greatest potential was the realization of a fully-committed, communityintegrated undergraduate university that becomes a campus of choice.”

John Souleles Associate Architect, DIALOG and Campus Master Plan Committee Member

“We want to build a seamless transition from Currie Barracks to campus. Richardson Way is a critical roadway and a physical barrier,” says Anderson. “We are working very closely with them as we talk to The City about what is going to happen.”

For vocal adversary to urban sprawl and local Ward 11 Coun.

Brian Pincott, the Mount Royal campus must co-develop with the districts around it. He agrees the state of Richardson Way needs to change, saying that the 60 kilometre per hour speed limit and lack of street parking are obstacles, and agrees a revised concept could create more paths of connectivity between residential and commercial developments.

“You have to think of it as one neighbourhood,” Pincott says.

“Look at all of the development happening within a five-minute walk of MRU … it’s the definition of smart growth. The recent completion of the Flanders Avenue overpass, the implementation of bike lanes and new transit upgrades are all in response to current, and planned, growth.”

“Hopefully in 20 years you can walk across Richardson Way and not realize you have walked onto campus,” says Anderson, “and there will be shops and restaurants to access.”

As well, according to Souleles, “The community integration will be felt 360 degrees around MRU through the provision of commerce on campus, leveraging the adjacent market housing and residences for families.

The opportunities are there for employment, and really meaningfully integrating the social fabric around MRU.”

This can be achieved by transforming the University’s “ring road,” says Souleles, including narrowing vehicular corridors, lowering speeds, expanding pedestrian and bicycle circulation routes and incorporating more people-friendly landscaping. There will also be walkable links between structures providing even more possibilities for contacts, he says.

EXPECTED DENSITY AND DEVELOPMENT INCREASES • The Currie Barracks development will bring approximately 11,000 new residents, 5,000 to 5,600 residential units and 93,000 square metres of office and commercial space to the area • The Westmount Campus will be comprised of six architecturally designed, Class A office buildings on 10.5 hectares, with more than 72,460 square metres of development • Located at Crowchild Trail and 50 Avenue S.W., the ATCO Commercial Centre will include two four-storey office buildings to be interconnected

by ATCO Commons. ATCO Commons will be a central multi-purpose facility, home to a brand-new ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen Café and Learning Centre, and the workplace for an initial 600 employees in ATCO Park (with a future capacity of 675 employees)

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

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MODUS OPERANDI

You belong here The CMP is working to give local residents and workers access to amenities and opportunities on campus that will make them want to become regular visitors. The plan is to have community members more frequently use Recreation facilities, take in events at the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts, sign up for Continuing Education courses, rent conference spaces and become regular visitors to the upcoming Riddell Library and Learning Centre.

David Docherty, president of Mount Royal University, would like to see the new CMP also give students more reasons to spend time on campus outside of classtime.

Docherty recalls earlier this year when he and his family came to see Chris Hadfield at the Bella Concert Hall. Before the event, they had dinner at the Spot On Kitchen and Bar, exactly one kilometre away. As it turned out, they were served by a varsity Cougar athlete.

“We need a lot more of that. How do we develop more occasions for our students to stick around?” says Docherty.

South of the border, they call this concept a “sticky campus.” Once students arrive, they want to stay.

“What if we had opportunities that linked to our programs?” suggests Docherty.

“We have one of the best interior design programs in the country, and the only one in Alberta. Wouldn’t it be neat if building designers opened up a business on campus and hired our students?”

Souleles sees the chance to develop distinct corridors

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The Mount Royal campus circa 1972. called “precincts,” which would be laid out to establish niche neighbourhoods within the campus. Anderson believes a South Campus Precinct could be where commercial activity takes place. As funding is a continuous challenge, it would allow the University to look at other ways of generating revenue. Similar to Docherty’s thinking, these developments would leverage MRU’s programs and research, providing work opportunities for students.

For Docherty and Anderson, it’s about how to shape the campus to better serve everyone who uses it, and to make sure no space is underutilized.

“Our primary objective for the next five years is actually repurposing internal parts of the campus,” says Anderson.

With the Riddell Library and Learning Centre set to open, and the Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts already up and running, sections of Lincoln Park are ripe for re-envisioning.

The focus is to enhance the student experience by creating a welcoming, centralized student services centre on Main Street, MRU’s main corridor.

“They (student services) are currently kind of spread out, so being able to bring all those critical services together in a really nice environment off Main Street and to be able to engage students while allowing them to access services efficiently is a priority,” Anderson says.

THE FUTURE CAMPUS — EXCERPT FROM THE CMP VISION Lincoln Park will be vibrant, active and animated — a destination that delivers an exceptional experience to all campus users and is defined by an intimacy of scale, place and community. It will be an inclusive space, supporting Indigenous culture and traditions, and welcoming the broader community to enjoy the campus’s lands, services and amenities.

PRINCIPLES Foster well-being, be inclusive, reflect indigenization, open to the community, animated and walkable, a place for gathering, a campus of choice, resilient, sustainable and intimate.

THE HOW AND THE WHY

MODUS OPERANDI

More to come As outlined in the 2025 University Strategic Plan, Mount Royal’s goal is to increase the number of full-load equivalent (FLE) students to 13,000 from about 9,300 in 2015/16 in the next 10 years. That many more full-time students would almost certainly require another building; however, the type depends on what kind of programs the University will specialize in down the road.

“If we spend heavily in the sciences, then we would likely look to build a joint health and science area,” says Anderson.

“That’s the early thinking, but it’s subject to what we as a University offer academically.”

As buildings are added, it’s inevitable that parking spots are removed. Gerry McHugh, director of Parking and Transportation Services, says that the University realizes space is limited and is working on solutions.

“Recent developments ... have made it clear that infrastructure on, and around, our campus must be a marriage of transportation needs ­— no matter how people want to come and go from the University.”

“The City is committed to accessibility through a comprehensive approach,” says Pincott. “It’s not sustainable to expect people to keep driving to, and from, the area.”

Depending on available space, the University could potentially accommodate close to 20,000 FLE students. This, of course, is all subject to how Calgary continues to grow, but Mount Royal is poised to accommodate.

“We are already a miniature city,” says Anderson. “We have our own roads and our own people taking care of maintenance and security. The long-term plan is to

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better provide what this corner of the city is really looking for.”

The CMP committee has noted the prospects of the existing playing fields as being part of a Health and Wellness Precinct, providing enhanced recreational facilities.

“A field house would suit this need,” says Anderson, which would be a pivotal step towards Mount Royal being able to have a varsity football team.

“This is the vision for what we can do, and athletics is a big piece of it all,” he adds. “The main soccer field is actually the proper dimensions for football. It was built that way because the people of the day thought maybe one day we would have a team.“ The Riddell Library and Learning Centre is already set to serve as a cultural precinct.

“The new facility will have a Speaker’s Corner and many interactive opportunities for the public,” says Anderson.

An East Campus Precinct will also be considered for extra partnering activities.

“A health clinic could be used by the public, and also by our students for work placements.

It’s an exciting time to be a university,” says Anderson.

Mount Royal is in a great position — literally and figuratively — to continue to evolve into a community that is vibrant throughout the day, into the evening and at all times of the year. The campus’s expansion plans will offer the full range of amenities, services, spaces, opportunities and experiences that are expected of a growing post-secondary institution.

AS THE CAMPUS DEVELOPS, WHAT DO YOU SEE? We asked Mount Royal President David Docherty and Vice-President of Administrative Services Duane Anderson for their predictions.

DAVID DOCHERTY

DUANE ANDERSON

How do you see the campus developing in the next 10 to 20 years?

Hopefully to a pedestrianfriendly campus, with lots of access points and lots of places to hang out outside.

What’s the best addition in your 20 years here at Mount Royal?

I have the grey hair to prove it! The Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts is an exceptional building.

It's spectacular.

Cost aside, what would you add?

Indigenous student and family residences. That’s a priority of mine, and seeing that come to fruition would be great.

Best hidden gem?

The Wyatt organ room is really cool! Where the sundial is between the T-wings is really neat, too.

Cost aside, what would you add?

I would build commercial main floor opportunities on the east side of campus along Richardson Way so we can get closer to the outside community.

Best hidden gem?

The grounds and pond, we don’t use those enough.

That's part of the work we are doing right now with the new CMP.

THE HOW AND THE WHY

THE LIBRARY REIMAGINED

Carol Shepstone MRU University Librarian

Far from being a staid, static repository of books, the modern library is a sophisticated, high-tech centre of interaction and creativity and a place where users immerse themselves in new forms of information and experience knowledge across disciplines.

WORDS BY MELISSA ROLFE PHOTO BY CHRISTINA RICHES

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THE RIDDELL LIBRARY AND LEARNING CENTRE

BY THE NUMBERS 1,800

Seats for students — almost three times the current space

1,500

Behind the Shhhhh

I

t’s happening on campuses throughout North America.

University libraries are adapting with agility to new pressures and proving they are more important than ever.

At Mount Royal, the ultramodern Riddell Library and Learning Centre will officially open its doors on Sept. 7.

Transforming a library that was built 40 years ago — ­ when students needed vast print collections and quiet spaces to study alone — has been, “a 10-year revolutionary process,” says University Librarian Carol Shepstone.

There have been ongoing efforts to meet the needs of the University despite it having long outgrown the original space.

Change is nothing new though, she says.

“Libraries have been evolving forever. There has been no stasis point.”

Named in recognition of a significant donation from the Riddell Family Charitable Foundation to Mount Royal’s Changing the Face of Education fundraising campaign, the building will be an epicentre for research and a highly integrated service provider. A learning space of the future, it will be the intellectual hub of the campus, a central connection point where people, technology and information converge and interact.

“The Riddell Library and Learning Centre is really about ideas and human interaction,” Shepstone says.

The building will give students and faculty room to collaborate and explore, offering access to different forms of knowledge and new types of library resources, from historical artifacts to digital data. The 4,050 square metres of student and collection space the library has today will more than double with its share of the new four-storey, 16,000

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square-metre building. Students, faculty and community members will be able to engage with the library’s extensive digital and print collections. They can also use technologies including 3-D scanners and printers, industrial sewing machines, design software, and circuitry and robotics kits to bring words, numbers, pictures and sounds to life on a large scale.

Staff and librarians are learning new skills to support faculty and students’ use of sophisticated components, such as hightech classrooms, an immersion studio and interactive visualization walls. Users will be able to situate themselves in a virtual reality, say, London in the nineteenth century, Times Square in 1945 or Montreal in the 1970s, and interface with an heirloom from the time, be it sound or music, poetry, a scientific theory or a spreadsheet. Faculty are exploring how best to incorporate these new tools into teaching and learning and how to develop students’ capacities to engage with new forms of information and to critically assess their relevance and value for academic research.

Currently, the library’s holdings include twice as many eBooks as print, and its collection of eJournals outnumbers print journals by about 80 to one. Balancing the collections is a matter of establishing a longterm strategy, says Shepstone.

“There are reasons for print and reasons for digital and times the format doesn’t matter,” Shepstone explains. “What does matter is having a deep understanding of that information environment.

“An undergraduate library like ours collects in a very focused way to meet the specific needs of our degree programs, our students and our faculty.”

Power outlets for laptops and phone chargers

1 million

Feet (304,800 metres) of communication cable

110

Wireless access hubs

70,000

Approximate number of digital journals

34

Group study rooms ccommodating six to eight students each

100 Computer workstations for students 5 Fully equipped sound-proofed project rooms 16,000

Square metres of space over four storeys

36

Months from ground breaking in 2014 to opening day in 2017

360 Degrees of inspiring views from the building 100.4 million

Project cost ($)

THE HOW AND THE WHY

Bricks, Mortar and Meaning Like Mount Royal, Toronto’s Ryerson University also recently undertook a major expansion of its library, finishing in 2015. Madeleine Lefebvre, the chief librarian at Ryerson and a former director of library services at Mount Royal says, “The original Ryerson library is a classic example of brutalist architecture when libraries were designed as warehouses for books.”

The new library, in contrast, is a place for “productive collisions” of interdisciplinary skills and projects, she explains, believing that libraries satisfy their higher-learning purpose by integrating their services into the academic mission of a university.

“A library’s role is dictated by what the culture of the campus is doing,” she says, adding that successful libraries across Canada are “embedding themselves” in teaching and learning campus-wide. Smaller university libraries, in particular, can be, “nimble (in) moving with the times,” Lefebvre says.

It is the combination of technical skills and academic strategy that librarians possess that allows them to lead the reimagined library, according to Lefebvre.

“A library’s role is dictated by what the culture of the campus is doing.”

Madeleine Lefebvre Ryerson University Librarian

Shepstone agrees. “The modern university library is much more than a building. A library can’t do its job without people who do their jobs well.”

Library staff will lead students and visitors to find and critically evaluate all of the digital material now available to them — a much more complex practice today than in the past.

“The information that is being produced has changed,” says Shepstone. There are more input sources and types of data coming together in a modern library, “and what you can do with it all is completely transformed now.”

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ABOUT THE NEW SPACE From treadmill desks to cubbies for catnaps, everything a student needs to feel learning-ready will be available at the Riddell Library and Learning Centre. In the MakerStudio, students can use 3-D scanners and printers, industrial sewing machines, design software and circuitry and robotics kits for hands-on learning in support of their research and coursework. Soundproofed project rooms allow users to record, edit and manipulate sound and video to create podcasts, music and media-rich presentations. Visitors can take a break from research or end the day in the cafĂŠ or fireplace lounge. Group-use rooms will increase from three to 34. The number of student stations (or seats) will nearly triple from 650 to 1,800.

Renderings by DIALOG

THE HOW AND WHY

Intellectual Hub

Increased Memory Storage The library is also moving its Archives and Special Collections to a safer, climate-controlled area on the fourth floor of the building, which will be more accessible, says Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Peter Houston.

“Eventually, we’ll digitize an array of photos, maps, architectural plans, oral histories and other records for an online database. We want to make it as easy as possible to access the archives’ unique collections, so that they can be an important resource.”

The storage space in the new building is more than 10 times the archives’ current capacity.

“And the new space will also have a large, comfortable reading

room, where students can conduct research and where faculty can bring their classes to learn how to search for, evaluate and use archival sources,” Houston says.

History student David Jackson says the increased access to information will be invaluable.

“The new archives will be a real improvement over what we currently have. It will be purposebuilt and we’ll have much more access to primary research sources than we have now.”

A frequent library user, Jackson looks forward to the move to the new building. “I feel very fortunate that it’s opening while I’m a student here,” he says.

“Libraries have been evolving forever. There has been no stasis point.”

Carol Shepstone MRU University Librarian

The Riddell Library and Learning Centre will be the University’s heart of collaboration and discourse, taking into account how students can learn outside of the classroom, interacting with one another and talking through ideas without the constraints that can come with a fear of being graded. Lefebvre says this was instrumental in informing changes at Ryerson’s library, too.

“We wanted to fill in the margins outside of class,” she says, “and focus on the entire university learning experience.”

The facility will bring together many of the crucial elements of the University system. “Our partners in the building are excited about providing integrated services to students and faculty,” Shepstone says. “This is truly everybody’s building. There will be something for everyone, but particularly for students the change is wonderful.”

COMPONENT PARTS With a goal of integrating all of Mount Royal’s services available to support teaching and learning, the new Riddell Library and Learning Centre will incorporate the: ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT CENTRE (ADC) A state-of-the-art demonstration classroom, interactive teaching and learning spaces, and the Sandbox drop-in computer lab are among the many aids offered to faculty and teaching staff at the ADC.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION The Department of Education will be moving to the Riddell Library and Learning Centre, offering a greater ability for students in the Bachelor of Education ­— Elementary program to participate in experiential, handson learning.

INSTITUTE FOR SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (ISOTL) ISOTL connects faculty and students from across campus with an international scholarly community to understand and improve teaching and learning in higher education.

STUDENT LEARNING SERVICES (SLS) The SLS connects students with peer tutors and mentors working in their field of study, and offers many services and workshops to support student success.

STUDENT TECHNOLOGY AND RESOURCE TUTORS (START) The START lab is a place for students wanting dedicated, one-on-one peer help with learning technology.

ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS An expanded, environmentally controlled archives and special collections area offers students, faculty and the wider community access to carefully preserved items of historical value.

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BREAKING down barriers Everyone's path to Mount Royal is unique, with each student reaching or surpassing benchmarks and overcoming obstacles to eventually land on campus.

WORDS BY BRENDAN GREENSLADE

F

or recent MRU grad Joseph Waring, navigating barricades is the norm.

Due to mobility challenges, the Bachelor of Health and Physical Education — Sport and Recreation Management alumnus makes his way around campus in a quick and efficient power chair, giving him an up-close perspective on Mount Royal’s overall accessibility.

A familiar face on campus over the past eight years, Waring graduated in the fall of 2016 and now works with MRU Recreation.

Waring has been getting to campus from southwest Calgary using transit options that he says work well for his purposes.

“I catch the train from Shawnessy to the Heritage (LRT) Station, and then it’s only a 20-minute bus ride straight here,” says Waring. “The University does a great job of snow removal in the winter, which is something many might not think about. But that is one of the many things I have to plan for when going anywhere.”

For Waring, the organization that goes into getting places is considerable. Bathrooms are always the first concern, and he’s learned where the good and not-so-good ones are for his circumstances. Elevators, automatic doors and ramps are also logged and considered when planning his pathways.

Quick to note the evolution of accessibilityinformed design throughout the expansion

of the campus, Waring sees progress in the newer buildings. In September 2016, Mount Royal’s Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts was the recipient of the 2015 Calgary Award for Accessibility.

According to The City of Calgary website, “The Award for Accessibility recognizes buildings or facilities in Calgary that significantly exceeded the minimum requirements of Section 3.8, ‘Barrier-Free Design’ of the Alberta Building Code for accessibility by persons with disabilities.”

In addition, says Waring, “EB (the Bissett School of Business) is head over heels above the main building in terms of accessible design.

“For example, the elevator to get upstairs on Main Street is between two bathrooms, so I have to hit the button and get out of the way so I don’t get hit by doors while waiting for it.”

CAMPUS ACCESSIBILITY In 2015/16, 1,007 students accessed Accessibility Services, which is available to those registered who have documented conditions that may create difficulties in the post-secondary environment. These include: • attention-deficit/hyperactivity • head injuries • physical disabilities disorder • learning disabilities • partial sight or blindness • chronic health issues • mental health issues • temporary impairments due to • deafness or hard of hearing • mobility impairments accident, illness or injury 36

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THE HOW AND THE WHY

Waring looks forward to the day when he can attend campus events and not have to sit in the back alone if he’s the only one in a wheelchair.

He is optimistic that Canada will soon adopt federal legislation comparable to the U.S.’s Americans with Disabilities Act — which he witnessed to have positive impacts during his recent trip to Disneyland in California.

inclusive approaches For Pat Pardo, PhD, who heads up Mount Royal’s Accessibility Services, the emergence of an accessibility-informed approach that keeps the principle of universal design at its core is instrumental for bridging gaps for students and employees of the University.

Pardo is legally blind and hopes that as accessibility evolves, structures, policies and communities are each built in a way that is inclusive for all.

At work, Pardo uses a suite of different instruments to help overcome her limited eyesight.

Magnification tools, dictation software, screen readers — the list goes on. But in recent years she has become increasingly reliant on now-common features of electronic devices that are replacing traditional aids.

“Change often happens serendipitously,” says Pardo.

“What one person sees as a hands-free driving option, another sees as a bridge to a previous accessibility gap.”

Software such as Apple’s Siri now allows Pardo to better control her smartphone and use applications that were once not practical.

It was the proclamation in December 1982 of the United Nations’ Decade of Disabled

Persons (1983-1992) that marked a new era for accessibility and inclusion.

During this time, emphasis was placed on developing new financial resources, improving education and employment opportunities and increasing participation in communities and countries. After evaluating barriers to inclusivity, the first was found to be people’s attitudes.

“This continues to be the most difficult barrier to overcome,” says Pardo.

As time goes on, attitudes are slowly beginning to change. Designing for access is no longer seen as a burden, but as an obligation.

“Accessibility is about flexibility, and how to make whatever you are creating meaningful for a broad cross-section of stakeholders,” says Pardo. This universal “designing for learning” is also a theme of Mount Royal’s Campus Master Plan, which looks to create an equitable and allembracing campus.

Sometimes it’s simply finding the best tool to get the job done.

For adaptive technologist Sarah Callaghan, discovering the right mix is when the secrets to students’ success are revealed.

After being diagnosed with five learning disabilities while attending the University of Prince Edward Island, Callaghan was able to excel after finding the accessibility service department. Now Callaghan spends her days helping MRU students match the right technology to their specific challenges so they can also achieve their goals.

“The design of accessibility technology has evolved from adaptive, to assistive, to now … just technology,” says Callaghan.

“Before it used to be software or tools designed specifically for certain disabilities, now it’s more about applications. In most cases, it’s really just finding the right tool to bridge the gap.”

TAPPING THE TERABYTE

In September 2016 Mount Royal's Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts recieved the 2015 Calgary Award for Accessibility

As Mount Royal further integrates into its surrounds, the ease with which information moves around becomes ever more important. A vast repository of knowledge and experience has been amassed by students and faculty over more than a century, and it’s stored within both the physical and digital realms of the University.

Access to this information is key to unlocking the influences that will continue to drive the post-secondary search engine.

There are over 1,900 student computers in eight open access labs, 51 teaching labs and 29 public kiosks on campus. Around 9,000 devices per day access the University’s private network.

With the opening of the Riddell Library and Learning Centre, another 100 computer workstations and 110 wireless access hubs will be added.

Altogether, the average daily data use is about one terabyte.

The introduction of the new MRvisitor wireless network service in late 2016 provides free connectivity for basic Internet service to all Mount Royal visitors.

Since its launch, this network has been used by approximately 200 people daily: significant growth is anticipated as awareness of its availability increases.

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A LEANER, CLEANER, GREENER CAMPUS A combination of high-tech building mechanization and traditional people power keeps 15,000 daily residents comfortably housed within 16 hectares of interior space at Mount Royal.

WORDS BY ROB PETROLLINI

S

upervision of the inner-workings of campus falls under the mandate of the University’s Facilities Management department, which is in charge of a total parcel of land occupying 48 hectares. In 2016, nearly 6,000 requests for service were sent their way, ranging from repairing equipment, to unclogging blocked toilets, to changing burnt-out light bulbs, to adjusting room temperatures. While several needs still require a human touch, Mount Royal is shifting to automating parts of its operations, allowing for the digital modification of some established tools and the installation of new and advanced hardware.

One of the pillars of the University Strategic Plan is to reduce its carbon footprint and overall waste by implementing cutting-edge, energy-saving technology and pioneering recycling initiatives.

Additionally, Alberta’s carbon levy has been estimated (at a high level) to add about $86,000 of cost in 2016/17, $139,000 in 2017/18 and $256,000 in 2018/19, which is providing even more impetus to get the job done well and right.

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The driving force behind reaching these goals is Grant Sommerfeld, associate vice-president of Facilities Management. Sommerfeld’s department is tactically moving MRU to be a leader in sustainability amongst postsecondary institutions.

“Not only is it the right thing to do in terms of caring for the environment,” says Sommerfeld, “it also provides the chance to evaluate and streamline our processes, to keep improving on the delivery of our services and to realize the benefits of a triple bottom line.”

Steps have been taken to “green” the campus for several years, but the failure of one of the three exchangers in the University’s heating system in December 2015 presented a unique opportunity.

“When we dug into the root cause, we learned there were wornout components and no automation, not to mention the equipment was from 1984,” says Owen Zarazun, manager of Building Operations.

Already functioning with reduced capacity to warm water and air, after another exchanger failed in June 2016 it became time to discuss the options. Three new units were installed through October to November, a major project that involved strategic planning, procurement, special ordering (manufacturing), staging, the use of cranes and many person-hours. All this was done without any reduction in service to the campus population.

MRU upgraded to an intelligent boiler management and control system, which is regulated from a touch-screen dashboard that displays all operating parameters, configurations and faults. This front line technology was essentially

hard-wired to the existing boiler.

With this retrofit, a machine from the 1980s is now performing better than a new install.

MRU is also watching its garbage closely. An extensive waste audit was conducted in 2016 to determine what types of materials were being disposed of on campus.

“This involved sorting and weighing a representative sample of MRU waste,” explains Sommerfeld.

“Tearing it apart, spreading it out on a floor, sorting it into its constituent parts and weighing it.

“It was a smelly job that took a lot of expertise.”

It was discovered that roughly 90 per cent of MRU discards do not belong in Calgary’s landfills, says Gerry Young, manager of Environmental Services.

“Education is becoming a bigger part of our waste reduction strategy,” says Young. MRU has implemented awareness campaigns on how to correctly sort waste and placed bins around campus so people can separate their trash into four categories (mixed recycling, refundable, landfill and organic).

“We’re also looking at getting more paper towels from our washrooms into organics,” says Young, as the largest category of discards is paper, representing 40 per cent of the landfill waste stream.

And during the warmer months of the year, organic waste from the kitchens on campus is dehydrated, mulched and used as fertilizer in flower beds, says Sommerfeld.

Facilities Management also provides a yearly sustainability report to the community, and the Sustainable MRU committee keeps the conversation open about how to best manage campus resources.

THE HOW AND THE WHY

Institute for Environmental Sustainability

MRU LEEDS Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a third-party certification program and internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance buildings.

Every addition to Mount Royal in the last 10 years is LEED Gold accredited, with one small exception being the Science and Technology wing, which is LEED Silver, says Grant Sommerfeld, associate vice-president of Facilities Management.

A recent expansion, the Roderick Mah Centre for Continuous Learning, saves 60 per cent in energy use versus traditional buildings of similar size. It’s situated to maximize natural light and uses infrared radiant panels to heat the interior. A 750,000-litre reservoir

in the foundation collects rainwater, which is then treated for contaminants and used for irrigation and sanitation.

The Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts, the next major construction project after the Roderick Mah Centre, features low-flow fixtures that reduce water use by more than 50 per cent, and rainwater collected from the roof is used for washrooms and the cooling tower. For both projects, as much construction waste as possible was removed and recycled.

The Riddell Library and Learning Centre is the next major expansion that will be LEED Gold certified.

“LEED is becoming a lot harder and more expensive to achieve,” says Sommerfeld, “but no buildings will be built at MRU that are not LEED Gold.”

Networking directly with MRU’s Facilities Management team, the Institute for Environmental Sustainability (IES) was founded in 2013 and aims to improve environmental health through scholarship, integrating a broad range of academic disciplines, student learning and community engagement.

The IES works closely with MRU’s Facilities Management team, who are striving to become a STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) ranked University through their membership in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

“We are able to conduct multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and education around sustainability,” explains Connie Van der Byl, PhD and director of the IES. “We can often look at what are very complex issues from different perspectives rather than from a siloed approach.”

Operating holistically allows for increased collaboration with external entities, preparing future MRU graduates to enter the workforce with a broad base of knowledge to aid in maintaining a cleaner and greener environment in the years to come.

“We’re doing a scan of all the courses taught at Mount Royal connected to environmental sustainability, and we’re looking at creating a citation wherein students who have a certain number of credits in those courses can then have that noted on their diploma.”

As schools and businesses begin to focus more on reducing their carbon footprint and being good global citizens, careers with an emphasis in this field will become more prevalent.

“One of the immediate career paths in business related to sustainability would be environmental health and safety,” says Van der Byl. “That typically attracts our science students, where they go out and collect samples and evaluate or monitor the environmental performance of companies. Another area is a sustainability group, which looks at strategic elements of sustainability and policy review, and that draws from business students, science and communications.

“An institution that improves its own footprint, its own sustainability performance, is something that (prospective and current) students are looking for,” says Van der Byl. “It’s important to this generation.”

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Behind the walls, under the floors and overhead

1

6

Most of Mount Royal’s environmental efforts happen out of sight, out of mind, but they are managed by a complicated system incorporating machines, manpower, intellect and enterprise.

1980 s aren’t cutting it

1

MRU recently upgraded to an intelligent boiler management and control system that continually searches for opportunities to better balance the oxygen feeding the boiler fire. This keeps the air-to-fuel ratio optimized for a highly efficient, low-fuel waste burn. The update will save MRU 2,469,515 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 37,530 gigajoules of natural gas over five years.

Greenhouse gases will also be reduced to 3,400 tonnes.

Drone support

2

To ensure that building roofs are in good condition, drones have been deployed to scan difficult-to-access areas for wet spots and damage. Repairing them quickly prevents heat loss.

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Internet of things

3

Building automation technology currently controls aspects of MRU’s ventilation, air conditioning, heat and lighting, which reduces energy consumption and operating costs and prolongs the life of equipment. Occupancy sensors, consumption and control dashboards, load shedding (the intentional shutdown of power to prevent total loss) and some heating through solar panels are being considered for implementation.

The future may include scenarios where a meter “talks” to the building automation system, which then looks for anomalies and considers the correct response. The meter will then communicate with an integrated workplace management system to generate a work order.

3

Please turn off the lights

4

Each year, Facilities Management staff spend countless hours manually scheduling when the lights come on and go off. Paper reports listing when classrooms, meeting rooms and event spaces will be occupied are generated weekly and then emailed to scheduling representatives, who review the calendar and then program the

campus lighting schedules. The not-so-distant future will see this process become automated.

The vision is that MRU’s lights will also transmit information about their condition. Lighting fixtures will be able to relay when there is a bulb out, which then will dynamically generate a work order and dispatch an electrician.

THE HOW AND THE WHY

4

2 5

8

7

Just breathe Thermographic imaging

5

Scanning using thermographic imaging identifies areas of buildings where heat loss is most significant. Once a review is done, Facilities Management replaces or recaulks windows if needed. These corrections help further reduce MRU’s emissions.

Self-learning smart pumps

6

The pumps that move hot water at MRU are programmed to sense pressure and only operate at maximum output when necessary. The original pumps would work at full on or full off, using 100 per cent of energy whether they needed to or not. New, self-learning smart pumps sense the pressure drop or increase throughout the University and make decisions on how hard to run, thus saving energy.

Recycling, organics and waste diversion

7

MRU generated 342 tonnes of waste and recyclables over one year, with a 35 per cent diversion from landfill rate.

This data steered Facilities Management to install 90 multicompartment waste bins that allow for more recycling and composting choices, and mobile units are being used at outdoor events on campus.

The University hopes to reach a 70 per cent diversion from landfill rate by the end of 2017.

8

State-of-the-art air filters were piloted in the U Wing of campus in 2016. The filters have a longer service life, and since being put into use electricity costs have decreased by 49 per cent. The longer life also means an 84 per cent reduction in landfill waste and a 183 tonne drop in carbon dioxide emissions, plus a dramatic decline in cost and an improvement in air quality.

The success of the upgrade earned MRU an Energy Cost Index Award from Camfil. Facilities Management is looking to go the same route campus-wide.

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Futureproofing the next generation How to inspire brains bombarded by tech-enabled stimulation.

WORDS BY MARLENA CROSS AND BRENDAN GREENSLADE

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oosely defined as those born after 1995, Generation Z is the newest and most digitally linked generation to come of age. They are a group born from Generation X and Y parents who can’t remember life without cellphones or computers. They have no idea what a dot matrix printer is and completely missed the agony of installing Microsoft Office 97 using a stack of 45 floppy disks. The dreadful days of dial-up have been replaced by the near-instantaneous gratification of 4G networks, and information once scrolled on to paper, bound and housed within massive dusty collections is now, literally, at everyone’s fingertips.

A recent Tech 21 Century article suggested that in our current day and age, the human brain is inundated with around 35 gigabytes of digital data each day. To put things in perspective

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— based on the standard Internet connection of 56 kilobytes per second in the mid ‘90s, it would have taken 62 days, 3 hours and 29 minutes (if nobody needed the phone) to download the amount of material now being digested during waking hours.

For university professors, the constant stimulation has resulted in a new challenge in getting through to students despite the barrage of information streaming through their digital devices and available on LED screens everywhere. Yet, surprisingly enough, despite the new reality of the digital world, the breadcrumbs that lead to the most effective approaches to teaching remain remarkably, well — traditional.

Deep down, we all have the same kind of childlike intrigue, explains Todd Nickle, PhD and professor in the Faculty of Science who’s taught biology at Mount Royal for over 15 years.

“Everyone has the same core curiosity,” he says. “Just look at any kid with an ant colony and a stick.”

Nickle uses a bowl of Jell-O to represent giant human cells in his Introductory Biology and Principles of Genetics classes, which suddenly becomes more interesting to students than BuzzFeed’s latest top 10. And, when dish soap and salt become the tools to extract the snot-like DNA from a strawberry, students tend to block out the pop-ups and tune in.

It’s finding that ant hill and giving the students a stick to poke it with that inspires an insatiable appetite for discovery, and it’s this hunger that drives Nickle to explore new and creative ways to reach his students despite the binary-borne noise. It’s tactile, hands-on experience that just can’t be gotten from a YouTube video tutorial.

“I like to play,” says Nickle. “And having fun with curricula gives me a

THE HOW AND THE WHY

chance to capture the students’ imagination and demonstrate the wonders of what it takes to make life work.”

As the conversation continuously circles around technology and its influence on how we learn, Jim Zimmer, PhD and associate vice-president of Teaching and Learning at Mount Royal, says being able to effectively reach this new generation of learners relies on the versatility, enthusiasm and ingenuity of professors.

“Creative and innovative professors like Nickle have managed to adapt and evolve their teaching practices to both challenge and excite the minds of our students,” says Zimmer.

Digital connectivity is redefining the classroom, says Professor Tim Taylor, who teaches students in Keyano College’s collaborative Bachelor of Science — Environmental Science program 750 km to the north via Mount Royal’s on-campus telepresence suite.

“It’s been a learning experience,” says Taylor, who grappled with a new set of teaching complications posed by digital delivery.

“It really got me thinking about how to get people to learn,” he says. “I practised things as simple as facial animation to keep the attention of students at the rear of the televised room. Beyond the little things like that, we really had to look at enhancing the course design and content to complement the delivery model for the benefit of student learners in both cities.”

On campus, Mount Royal’s Academic Development Centre (ADC) acts as an incubator for developing and integrating new teaching models into the classroom. And, although they encourage the exploration and implementation of new high-tech teaching tools, they aren’t necessarily suggesting that they are always the best suited for curricula.

“We are careful not to put technology ahead of learning,” says Amanda Veinotte, manager of learning technologies at the ADC. “Our task is to assist and support faculty to identify technological solutions that can complement and augment the teaching and learning experience in Mount

“I practised things as simple as facial animation to keep the attention of students at the rear of the televised room.”

Tim Taylor Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Royal classrooms, not distract or detract from the experience.”

It’s metaphorically akin to the reemergence of vinyl records offering true analogue sound in the era of digital downloads — despite being unportable and a comparatively userintensive means of playing music.

Even with the apparent ease of digital interfaces, the time-tested and true human connection and collaboration approach remains the best way to advance student learning strategies and techniques, says Veinotte.

When professors are able to associate and create links between programs, interdisciplinary opportunities become more available to students, creating prospects for bonding with peers and gaining new perspectives.

“Most students arrive with the technical skills needed to survive in our digital world, but it’s at the University that they learn to dig deeper, discern all of this information and then question some of the ideas,” says Zimmer.

While technology has forced the evolution of the educational approach in both the physical and academic realms, it is the faceto-face interactions that continue to inspire new, tailored learning outcomes for the next generations.

With the inevitable progression of the technological world, teachers are learning and learners are teaching in a perpetual cycle that drives the balanced approach Mount Royal takes to ready students to be leaders in the workforce and in the community.

DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARDS

Each year Mount Royal recognizes outstanding performances by faculty members in all aspects of their roles. Discover those who have received this honour at mru.ca/FacultyAwards.

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PSYCHED UP AND (WAY) OUT Psychological research is being carried out at MRU to crack the mysteries of the mental condition. The Centre for Psychological Innovation, which officially opened April 5, is providing a multi-use platform for professors and students to delve their way into the brain’s deepest chasms.

WORDS BY VALERIE BERENYI PHOTO BY CHAO ZHANG

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ntriguing investigations currently underway at the Psych Lab include looking at how virtual reality (VR) can reduce anxiety, what the potential effects of antidepressants and other medications being flushed into our water supply may be and how to predict sociopathy and psychopathy by measuring how people read faces.

“The amount of ideas, energy and enthusiasm from students and faculty members make the Psych Lab an amazing place to be,” says Ian Wellspring, a fourth-year honours psychology student. “We essentially live here some days.”

Wellspring was a research assistant to Tony Chaston —

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PhD and assistant chair in the Department of Psychology — for two years. Now he’s running his own research project under Chaston’s supervision, studying personality traits such as empathy and callousness using high-tech, $15,000 eye-tracking software.

(See “Tracking the Gaze,” page 46.)

“I wouldn’t be able to do my research without this lab and this equipment,” says Wellspring, who plans to pursue a career in forensic or clinical psychology.

Opportunities to undertake the level of research happening at the centre are rare at the undergraduate level at other postsecondary institutions, Chaston says, adding that his department is training the next generation of

professionals. Psych grads find themselves working in myriad different fields, but their common interest in helping people leads most into areas such as human resources, government assistance and social services such as nonprofit organizations.

“Our students know how to collect data from people and report it effectively,” says Chaston, which means everything from creating questionnaires to evaluating what people think of a certain subject to inferring states of mind based on behaviour.

“The brain is like a circuit board,” says Chaston.

“But we can’t completely measure the output, per se.”

THE HOW AND THE WHY

Josh Stewart Bachelor of Arts — Psychology (Honours) student

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THE CENTRE’S EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS One of Mount Royal’s largest and most successful programs, the Department of Psychology is comprised of 19 full-time tenured professors, 14 part-time faculty, 60 to 70 research assistants, 10 honours students (set to double next year) and more than 600 psychology majors, says department chair Evelyn Field, PhD. It also offers between 4,500 and 6,000 hours of handson experiential learning in its introductory psychology classes to non-major students.

“The department is expanding and we needed a dedicated facility to get research done,” Field says. “And there’s a broad range of interests among everyone in the department.”

In order to address the variety of requirements, long before construction began on the new centre the department teamed up with about 20 MRU interior design students who did a month-long needs assessment as part of their program.

The findings went to the architects and the 437 square-metre centre, located on the second floor of the Faculty of Arts building, was built in two phases over two years for $1.4 million. That cost included much of the equipment, Field says.

The cutting-edge space features many advanced accoutrements, including a VR lab, one-way glass observation rooms (including one specially designed for viewing child and family interactions), video and audio editing and eye-tracker suites and a biological psychology “wet” lab, which is currently home to two tanks of local freshwater snails. (See “Snails and SSRIs,” page 48.)

As adaptable as our psyches, the centre was designed to be multi-functional. A meeting room with an adjoining kitchenette can switch to a site for focus groups, and a computer lab can just as easily be an online survey centre. Faculty share research spaces with honours students and research assistants, which Chaston says is more efficient than permanently divvying up and dividing the quarters. It’s where experienced scholars and burgeoning intellectuals’ minds meld to become a synergistic research and innovation machine.

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“The brain is like a circuit board.

But we can’t completely measure the output, per se.”

Tony Chaston, PhD Professor and Assistant Chair, Department of Psychology

TRACKING THE GAZE How well you interpret other people’s facial expressions might depend on your degree of empathetic response.

That’s the theory behind Ian Wellspring’s thesis for the psychology honours program. He’s using one of two eye-tracker computers at the Centre for Psychological Innovation to see exactly where study participants’ gazes land on pictures of expressive faces.

Some areas of the face — the eyes, mouth, nose and cheeks — provide more information than others, Wellspring says. For example, the eyes convey anger, while sadness is found in the eyes and mouth.

“If people are higher in empathy, they can read expressions better. They’re more actively looking for those clues,” says Wellspring. “Those lower in empathy tend to look almost anywhere else on the face.”

It’s thought that people with an “abnormal” gaze — psychopaths or the truly callous — can’t be bothered to look for facial clues. Wellspring will involve 60 to 80 participants in his study, all introductory psych students.

THE HOW AND THE WHY

The power of another place Chaston’s own research is using VR to investigate how alternate realities can help people deal with anxietyinducing situations such as extended hospital stays and the rigours of academia. In the VR lab, an Oculus Rift headset provides a doorway to other universes, experiences provided by Avatar Media, an Edmonton company that produces 3-D and VR media content. Chaston’s project uses Avatar’s 360-degree footage of various environments: a mountain lake in Jasper, an aquarium in San Diego, a Japanese meditation garden and sunny Zuma Beach in California.

“Natural environments really lower anxiety levels,” he explains.

“We have people come into the lab and we test their anxiety level using a standard psychology test.

Then we drop them into the VR experience and then test their anxiety right after.” So far, the results have consistently shown a reduction in nervousness, worry and concern, regardless of how present or distracted the subject was.

VR works by sending video to a headset with two internal lenses,

one for each eye, which tricks the brain into seeing one hyper-real 3-D image. The illusion in front of the viewer shifts as he or she looks up, down and around, as the lenses constantly and imperceptibly focus and reshape the view for each eye.

Essentially, viewers watch 360-degree stereoscopic videos that are recorded by a collection of cameras or a special camera with multiple lenses shooting in every direction at the same time. The footage is then edited to make an uninterrupted movie of sorts.

With the goal of using VR to help people in hospital, Jaro Malanowski, founder and CEO of Avatar Media, began collaborating with Chaston last summer. The idea occurred to the producer, director and writer when his mother was in intensive care and longed to escape her sterile surroundings.

“She was scared and helpless.

I wanted to help her out,” says Malanowski, who’s been working with VR for more than two years.

“She told me it would help to somehow be on a beach, and a light came on.”

“(Studying psychology) has allowed me to basically mix science with creativity and free thinking.”

Josh Stewart Bachelor of Arts — Psychology (Honours) student

At this early stage of the project, one of Chaston’s goals is to learn how to reliably measure the result of a VR experience. He hopes one of the outcomes is a valid, standardized test for gaming companies and academics.

Honours psychology student Josh Stewart is doing his thesis research with Chaston on the Avatar Media Collaboration project, conducting testing and helping to develop the methodologies, questionnaires and techniques.

He says although it wasn’t his original intention to be a psychology student (he was leaning towards engineering), it was what he was most drawn to studying.

“I realized that doing something I enjoyed was hugely important to me,” Stewart says.

“So, my decision to take psychology is a combination of that enjoyment, as well as a huge interest in a field without strict rules and a ‘perfect’ or ‘correct’ answer. It has allowed me to basically mix science with creativity and free thinking.”

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Expanding and augmenting the virtual world … for good Malanowski says his ultimate goal is to develop a network of VR creators around the world, all designing experiences for people in hospitals or nursing homes, those in pain or those suffering from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety or agoraphobia.

“Much like a curated playlist, you’d create a selection of custom VR experiences for people to use as media therapy,” says Malanowski, who himself has felt the effects of seasonal affective disorder. When it gets dark and cold in the depths of an Edmonton winter, “I use the headset for 15 minutes and go to a beach.”

None of this is science fiction anymore. A Swedish pharmacy chain recently launched a free VR app called Happy Place that it says can help with pain relief by placing users in a virtual lakeside campground. VR exposure therapy is also emerging as a way to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers.

Malanowski says Avatar is continually working to improve the overall experience. He’d like to take that Zuma Beach footage from California and create an augmented reality (AR) layer on top of the VR footage.

Virtual and augmented reality both aim to completely immerse the user; however, VR puts the viewer into a simulated 3-D setting that has been expressly recorded for that purpose. One detractor is that unless it’s a game environment, it can be difficult to move around.

Augmented reality is a live view of the real world in real time, one you can fully explore that is amplified with objects and the ability to capture experiences and share them with others. At some point, sooner rather than later, the two will be meshed to create a whole new version of existence.

“Yes, it’s cool to look around the beach, and adults enjoy it, but a 10-year-old stuck in hospital won’t be as engaged,” Malanowski says.

“The one thing kids in the hospital want is to interact on social media. We want to give them an opportunity to take photos in VR spaces, create a photo album and then share their ‘holiday.’”

SNAILS AND SSRIS In the biological psychology “wet” lab, honours student Misha Kopciuk is exposing developing freshwater snail embryos to diluted amounts of fluoxetine, an antidepressant better known by its trade name, Prozac.

The research project is to see how Prozac, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), impacts the snails’ growth and development.

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The advantage of the freshwater snails, commonly found in ponds across North America, is that they’re invertebrates (no backbone) that lay a lot of transparent eggs in a blob called a “clutch,” and take only 12 days to hatch, says Karen AtkinsonLeadbeater, PhD, professor in the Department of Psychology and Kopciuk’s supervisor.

“Early evidence shows

there might be a delay in development through to hatching,” she adds. “And because we can also look at the beat of these transparent little hearts, pilot data shows a slowed heartbeat.”

This student-driven research is important for two reasons, says AtkinsonLeadbeater. There’s some evidence that SSRIs might affect cardiovascular

system development in human embryos. And there is the emerging issue of pharmaceutical contaminants in wastewater downstream of major urban centres, which happens when people take medications that are not fully absorbed and then excreted by their bodies.

THE HOW AND THE WHY

SELFIES AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH Honours student Jessica Joseph looked into the correlation between Facebook and depression for her thesis.

Joseph’s final results were that the more time a person spends passively browsing on Facebook, the lower their sense of well-being. This is because of increased negative social comparison with others on the platform.

Nicola Ford, another New realms ahead honours student, used eyetracking to investigate where As costs come down, VR viewers look when they see technology is going mainstream, Instagram page profiles and fast. Released last spring, the how they judge the people in Oculus Rift headset — a crowdthose profiles. Ford generated funded project bought by Mark six profile pictures for a Zuckerberg, who sees VR as fake person: photos of pets, the future of Facebook — is food, poems and selfies. The well under $1,000. HTC, Sony, takeaway? Viewers who looked Google and Microsoft are piling longer at the selfies judged on with their versions. the person to be a narcissist.

Interestingly, current Supervising the work of research at the centre is also several honours students’ looking into the use of media research projects, psychology platforms such as Facebook professor Malinda Desjarlais, and Instagram, and the PhD, has some interesting negative emotional outcomes work of her own underway. of an online social presence.

She is examining the “In the next five to 10 relationship between social years, VR and AR are going media use and quality of to be huge,” Field says. “You friendships. Her theory is that increased and more intimate online Psychology students presented their sharing can actually findings at Research 17, held April 5 improve face-to-face during the centre’s official opening at interaction.

Student Research and Scholarship Days.

can already get $20 goggles that you connect to your smartphone. It’s not the same immersive experience you get with the high-end goggles we have here at the centre, but that will change.”

The researchers at the Centre for Psychological Innovation say there’s a brave new virtual world coming soon, one in which we will meet and play wherever we choose. That could be a brainstorming session at, say, the Roman Colosseum, a meet-up with friends at an Irish pub, or a family reunion in Iceland. Chaston and Field are working together to help people successfully navigate the wide array of “wired” experiences that will soon be available to all.

They’re also intrigued to see how humans will

interface with the technology and interact with one another.

Field, who studies gender differences, wants to investigate how men and women behave in VR and AR spaces. If the often misogynistic and violent world of gaming is any indication, new approaches to protecting users in virtual and augmented experiences might be needed. A social VR site called AltSpaceVR is currently experimenting with allowing users to “freeze” or delete unpleasant or unwanted people from their virtual spaces, Chaston says.

“As VR becomes more mainstream, we’ll need to be answering questions such as, ‘What’s acceptable? What kind of laws should be put in place?’” he ponders.

“We need evidence-based research to help make decisions about these kinds of things.”

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: It’s here.

NOW WHAT? WORDS BY MICHELLE BODNAR PHOTO BY CHRISTINA RICHES

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THE HOW AND THE WHY

Developed by Alan Turing in 1950, the Turing Test is a well-known attempt to measure whether machines can display intelligent behaviour.

T

Jordan Kidney Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computing

uring envisioned a scenario in which a human and a machine converse (in text only) with a thirdparty evaluator, who would then attempt to discern which was which. The thought was that a machine could be called intelligent if it could fool a human into thinking that it, too, was human. The Turing test, which is also known as “the imitation game,” was passed for the very first time in 2014 by a program called Eugene, which successfully simulated a 13-year-old boy (within a time limit).

Based on the results, it seems possible to feign intelligence, and so the ensuing question is if it’s possible to actually create intelligence. And, if humans would be able to recognize it when seen.

The umbrella term for these technological developments is artificial intelligence (AI), which usually conjures up thoughts of Data from Star Trek, the Terminator and the lifelike robots in HBO’s Westworld. As defined

by A.J. Juliani in The Beginner’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence for Educators, “In computer science, an ideal ‘intelligent’ machine is a flexible, rational agent that perceives its environment and

takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal.”

AI is more common than may be thought, says Ray DePaul, director of Mount Royal’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

With an educational background in math, computer science and business, DePaul spent five years with Research In Motion (now BlackBerry).

“The grammar checker in Microsoft Word was once considered AI. Facial recognition in your phone, Google Now, Siri, those little speakers that sit in your home and you can call out any question and they will answer, that’s all AI. “AI is everywhere, but we tend to only consider the term in futuristic things rather than what has already become commonplace,” he says.

Programmers ­— or coders — and mathematicians are the minds behind it all. The application of humanity, or human actions, to software is continually lessening the gap between the realm of people (the clever manipulator) and that of the machine (the obedient worker). Developments in the field are happening at a rapid pace, and as the globe continues to automate, humans are being faced with some of the most important philosophical and legal questions of this time.

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variants of ai AI is currently being used for high-tech security options such as facial, handwriting and speech recognition; in the health care industry to help doctors better understand pain and offer diagnoses faster; to create highly realistic video games; to predict what will happen in real life situations such as a natural disaster; and, in a wide assortment of GPS devices (nobody can really say they’re lost anymore). In June of last year, Google introduced a lifelike “robot dog” that can clean houses.

Robot mail and package deliveries are about to hit U.S. streets. The European Union recently voted to propose granting robots legal status and to categorize them as “electronic persons” so they could be held “responsible for acts or omissions.”

“The biggest tech companies in the world are all investing heavily in artificial intelligence,” says Alan Fedoruk, PhD and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computing at Mount Royal. “And it’s all being made possible by the intense amount of computing power now available.”

According to Professor Charles Hepler, MRU’s computer science coordinator, “Processing abilities have been doubling every couple of years for the past 60 years or so, and have increased more than a billion-fold in total.

“Single processors now run pretty much at their peak speed, but we are still improving on computing power (for the time being) by running several processors at the same time,” says Hepler. “Most desktop computers now have at least four processors, and the average car dozens.”

As processors are able to manage extremely complicated algorithms and plow through millions of lines of code faster and faster, more and more intricate problems are being solved by machines. Jordan Kidney, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing, studies multi-agent systems and emergent computing and is an expert in AI. “An agent is a program that knows a little bit more than usual and is able to react,” says Kidney. “A multi-agent system is the idea of multiples of these agents working together so you have co-operation, not competition. They coordinate and deal with unsure information to solve a problem better.”

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“Processing abilities have been doubling every couple of years for the past 60 years or so, and have increased more than a billion-fold in total.”

Charles Hepler, PhD Computer Science Coordinator, Department of Mathematics and Computing

Multi-agent systems have been designed where agents go in after a disaster, such as an earthquake where there is massive structural damage, and calculate where there are most likely to be trapped victims needing to be rescued.

In these cases, the programmer or user is not performing the task, the agents are. But while the program may seem to be acting independently, “Is it really intelligent, or does it just seem that way? And does it matter?” asks Fedoruk.

Kidney says that emergent computing is akin to ants in a colony. “When you look at just one, you can’t really see what’s going on. It’s following its ‘own rules’ without global communication with all other ants. But when looking at a colony of ants as a whole, each is following their own rules but unexpected global results come out of this, such as ‘fast gathering’ of food sources and finding the shortest path to move.

Researchers recognized this emergent pattern and have created computer algorithms to duplicate the behaviour and apply it to solve different problems.”

THE HOW AND THE WHY

how do you measure intelligence?

An early computer scientist named Joseph Weizenbaum came up with a program in the ‘60s called Eliza, which was the “original chatbot.”

Designed like a therapist, Eliza appeared to interact with the user.

“You would say, ‘Hello, I’m feeling depressed,’ and it would say, ‘Why? Or, tell me more,’” Fedoruk says. Once the user replied, the chatbot would add a few words and respond with another question. As long as you, “coloured within the lines,” it seemed as if there was really someone there who cared about your answers, says Fedoruk.

“It’s a program that any of our first-year computing students could write,” he says. “There’s nothing to it. There’s no intelligence whatsoever, and yet it seemed, in a sense, like there was.”

Because there is no testable hypothesis for what intelligence actually is, AI is even called a pseudo-science by some.

“To build something when we don’t really know what it is, is hard,” says Fedoruk. “For a long time, what would happen in AI, is people would come up with these programs and say, ‘Look, it’s doing something intelligent,’ like planning. And then someone would look under the hood and say, ‘No, that’s not intelligence, that’s just a bit of code.’ But what, really, is the difference?”

The sort of human intellect, where there is perception and consciousness, has not been programmed yet, says Fedoruk, and some even argue that it can’t be done. Fedoruk, however, thinks it is possible.

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what goes into an autonomous car One of the most prevalent discussions involving AI these days centres around the introduction of the autonomous car to the market, with self-driving cars being tested on public roads since 2013. Already, technology called telematics, or “black boxes,” is being used by fleet owners and companies such as car2go to record how people are driving. They then transmit that information to insurance companies or owners. Advanced vehicle safety technology ranges from back-up cameras and anti-lock brakes to accident prediction and avoidance.

Autonomous vehicles use what is called “deep” or “machine learning,” which has seen huge advances recently, says Fedoruk.

An example is Siri for the iPhone. “When you first start with Siri, you have to talk to it for a little while before it starts to understand your voice and learn your accent. The machine uses the data it gathers to train itself. It needs positive and negative examples so that it can figure out what the answers are. It’s actually similar to student learning. A student performs a task, and you need to tell them whether they did it right or wrong,” says Hepler.

When driving, people know to stop when they see a red light and go when the light is green. But there are hundreds of other things going on at the same time. Drivers also learn to discern between humans and objects, to anticipate unexpected pedestrian behaviour and to operate their vehicles in inclement weather. By using deep learning, autonomous cars have been able to reach this level of cognition.

“Instead of a bunch of programmers sitting down and trying to come up with endless lines of code to say, ‘if that, then this,’ they take the car out and let it learn. Which is the way we (humans) do it. So what you have is a car that essentially has millions of miles and millions of hours of experience before you turn it loose. Unlike your typical 18-year-old,” says Fedoruk.

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“Neural nets are from the ‘60s.

It’s just taken until now to learn how to use them properly and to have the necessary hardware.”

Alan Fedoruk, PhD Chair, Department of Mathematics and Computing

“They (autonomous cars) can start kind of teaching themselves how to operate, essentially building their own code.”

Most of it is done within a neural net. The human brain has millions of neurons that are interconnected in certain ways, which then develop memories and abilities. It’s the same thing with a computer, but with simulated neurons.

“It’s actually an old technique,” says Fedoruk. “Neural nets are from the ‘60s. It’s just taken until now to learn how to use them properly and to have the necessary hardware.”

Where autonomous vehicles get tricky, though, is when they are presented with a philosophical problem. For example, choosing between driving straight and hitting a group of children or avoiding the kids and going off a cliff, potentially killing all the passengers.

So what philosophical framework should an automobile manufacturer program into an autonomous car — utilitarianism (Jeremy Benthan or John Stuart Mill) or social contract (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau)? With utilitarianism, actions should benefit the majority, while with the social contract theory value is determined by moral duty to the greater society.

“What happens afterwards when we sort it all out? Who is to blame?” asks Fedoruk.

And it leads to another question of what happens when technology is developed faster than laws can keep up?

Fedoruk says, “It happens all the time, so we need to start thinking about the ethics behind what is being built. We can’t stop these kinds of artifacts being made, so we need to think about if there’s a potential there for misuse. And frankly, there always is.”

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THE HOW AND THE WHY

ethical coding All humans have their own perspective, so anything we create comes with a certain amount of bias … algorithms included. The closely guarded secret of the Facebook feed algorithm (which many have tried — and failed — to deconstruct) is based on what you like, what your friends like, how popular your posts are and numerous other factors. Users assume it’s a “pure” algorithm that simply reflects actions and behaviour, but it’s entirely possible it could be subjective and presenting false results.

“Who knows if Facebook is doing that? We don’t know, but maybe they are,” says Fedoruk.

A way to work around this possibility would be to legislate ethical code, checked by an outside source, and if companies were subverting the system, so to speak, there would be severe penalties.

“There’s probably going to be a lot more rigour needed in the future,” says Fedoruk.

big data Most of the ethical problems talked about with regards to computers are around privacy, where information technology (IT) employees have control over huge amounts of data.

“So you need to make sure only the right people access it,” says Fedoruk.

While algorithms run programs, they are also collecting reams of facts, figures and statistics everything from social data to scientific data to biological data.

“We’ve always produced information about ourselves as we move through our lives,” says Fedoruk, “but now it’s like somebody coming behind you and vacuuming that all up, putting it in a database, analyzing it and connecting it to other people.”

Just posting to Facebook every day leaves a long trail detailing who you are and what you’ve been up to, which is now neatly encapsulated into your Facebook Year in Review and the People You May Know options. These are made through big data analysis, and experts are more and more in demand, with computer science now involving incredibly dense mathematical problems.

Hepler says, “With big data, you need to make sure you’re not coming up with spurious statistical connections. If you look for correlations between 20,000 different things, you’re bound to find some. Is there some mechanism, some common cause, or were the correlations just luck?

“We need computer science people, who, in a way, are really data scientists,” Hepler says, adding that strong oversight is necessary to make sure information gleaned isn’t farmed out or sold inappropriately.

the future of the programmer Those heading into the IT fields not only need to have expertise in coding, mathematics, algorithms and ethics, but they also need to be talented communicators, ensuring programs are generating the results clients are looking for.

Fedoruk, Hepler, Kidney and DePaul all see the benefit of further integrating computer science with other areas of academia, such as business, science and the arts in an interdisciplinary manner.

“Computer scientists need to be able to talk, develop, listen, plan, implement and analyze results,” says Hepler.

“What will make According to Fedoruk, it’s a people valuable mistake to think that computers will “out-think” us, because humans are in the future is the ones that program their thinking.

If they do seem to be acting in a how you and I way that wasn’t anticipated, it’s can synthesize because they’re being perceptive in ways not predicted or understood. knowledge and The opportunity then is in studying the unexpected response, and put disparate how it can be potentially explained. pieces together Humans must be true custodians of the technology they create. to come up with And while it’s true that jobs such as truck driving may soon be lost (or something new.” dramatically altered) and that people may also be able to ask a machine for the answer to any question, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t entirely new prospects on the horizon.

“We are shifting from being just a knowledge-based society,” says DePaul. “What makes people valuable now is not the knowledge they possess, because knowledge is now pretty much free and instantly accessible from our smartphone in our pocket.

Ray DePaul “What will make people valuable Director, Institute in the future is how you and I can for Innovation and synthesize knowledge and put Entrepreneurship disparate pieces together to come up with something new.”

MRU.CA/SUMMIT

55

CHECKING IN WITH MOUNT ROYAL ALUMNI

Q+A

J O R DA N P I N K S T E R B AC H E L O R O F A R T S — P O L I C Y S T U D I E S ( 2 011 )

INTERVIEW BY EMILY PRATT

Describe your career path.

I interned at the U.S. Consulate General and, after working a few jobs in the sporting goods industry, became the media and public affairs officer at the British Consulate General in Calgary. I was at that job for two years before moving on to become the chief of staff for City Coun. Shane Keating, a role that opened up for me largely due to my political involvement at the provincial and municipal levels.

What three words describe your student experience at MRU? Growth, understanding and relationships.

Why did you choose MRU? In addition to the small class sizes and accessible professors, I was attracted to Mount Royal’s great reputation. I’ve talked to many employers who have said that when they see someone from an MRU program, they make sure they interview them. It’s a credit to the faculty and the strength of the programs.

What was the most important thing you learned at MRU? What I appreciated most, especially given what I do for work, is understanding that there is often a key difference between academic theory and practical application — especially in the world of politics. What works best from a theoretical standpoint can have significant political barriers. I found my program did an exceptional job of explaining the nuance between theory and implementation.

What is your claim to fame?

My economics professor, Ben Atkinson, was a fan of the band Rush, so for a group project we developed something called “The Rush Curve.” I can’t remember exactly what “The Rush Curve” explained.

I believe it was some kind of relationship between employment levels and government revenues.

What do you love about your job?

My job allows me to be involved in shaping a city that I love and that I grew up in. I have a unique opportunity to advise a member of council on some really important decisions that are going to shape Calgary for decades to come.

Have your hobbies had any influence on your career?

My interest in fly fishing has really highlighted the impact that government has on so many aspects of our lives. Everything is so interconnected. What’s good for fish is good for fishermen, and what’s good for fish is conservation and habitat protection,

56

SUMMIT – SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Jordan Pinkster Chief of Staff to City of Calgary Coun. Shane Keating – Ward 12

and that falls right under policy. There are decisions being made on a regular basis that have a big impact on the future of threatened habitat in Alberta.

What do you think are Calgary’s main issues in 2017?

We have areas of Calgary that grew very rapidly during boom times — and continue to grow today, despite the lagging economy.

Public infrastructure hasn’t exactly been able to keep up. With funding received from other orders of government, the city has the opportunity to prepare for future growth and at the same time stimulate the economy. The Green Line LRT expansion, for example, has the potential to create as many as 25,000 jobs. By improving transportation, we’ll also be in a better position to attract privatesector investment in those communities.

What are your future plans and aspirations?

The life of a political staffer can often be quite fluid. My job is essentially tied to the electoral success (or failure) of my boss. I’ve often thought about what my next step is going to be and I think I have some really great options. I could add a lot of value by running for elected office at some point, but that is a decision I would need to make with my family. In my current role, I do a lot of stakeholder relations work. I would love to explore opportunities to continue that work from an industry or non-profit angle.

What advice would you give to a policy studies graduate entering the workforce today?

Don’t box yourself in. Keep an open mind and apply that to as many things as you can. Make the case that your skills do translate. Take advantage of volunteer opportunities to hone your skills, but also to contribute to your community. I initially started volunteering as more of a resume filler, but now it’s a living, breathing part of my life and I can’t imagine not doing it at this point.

9

excellent reasons to come to 1 campus

Mount Royal University is a place to learn, connect, live and grow.

Not pursuing an undergraduate education? No problem.

Here are nine excellent reasons for you to come to our campus.

Take a music and speech arts class at The Conservatory

Stay in our high-quality, affordable accommodations at Residence

Choose from more than 1,000 Continuing Education courses

Access a range of Retail Services

Enjoy high-calibre sporting events with Cougar Athletics

Visit the soon-to-open Riddell Library and Learning Centre

Host your next event or conference through Event and Theatre Services Check out our injury rehabilitation and wellness clinic, Optimal Therapies Keep active with our Recreation facilities, classes and personal trainers

Learn more at mtroyal.ca

MOD OPE Spring/Summer 2017