Mount Royal University Summit Spring/Summer 2018

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Carrying the stories Paul Brandt, country singer, alumnus and Mount Royal’s storyteller-in-residence, lifts the curtain

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CO N T I N U I N G E DU C AT I O N Your journey begins here Transform your career with our online and classroom-based certificate and diploma programs.

GET STARTED Register for courses today.

mru.ca/ContEd

CO N T EN T S

In this issue 2

Letter from the president

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Bleed Blue: campus highlights

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Research snapshot

| 12

Special find

| 56

Checking in with MRU alumni

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Cybercriminals are hitting large institutions hard, relying on base human emotions and frailties for their illicit gains.

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Carrying the stories Paul Brandt, country singer, alumnus and Mount Royal’s storyteller-in-residence, opens up about humanitarian causes, raising kids, his upcoming album and the legacy he hopes to leave.

This three-part series takes a look at how Mount Royal is building educational (and social) partnerships with a seniors residence, getting ready for the burgeoning seniors population and reforming attitudes towards older adults.

It definitely sounds like something worth being involved in. But what exactly is a changemaker?

Meet six alumni who have taken their degrees from Mount Royal into graduate programs in Calgary, across Canada and around the world.

Universities are where societal values come to fruition. When supporting principles compete, things get interesting.

+ Professor Richard Harrison also shares a poem from his Governor General’s Literary Award-winning book, written while his father was living with dementia.

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There is nothing like a story ... to humanize knowledge, experiences and perspectives. As this Summit shows, stories can be told in many ways — through songs for Paul Brandt, or poetry for Richard Harrison and in creative writing projects for people living at the Garrison Green residence.

When I grew up, there wasn’t a lot of money in our family, but books from the public library were free. This access ignited my passion to pursue academia as my chosen profession.

As an instructor of political science, I found stories resonate most with students. So it’s no surprise that my two favourite books are strongly story-driven: Home Style: House Members in Their Districts by Richard Fenno and Truman by David McCullough.

When I heard biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin speak recently, she said former president Barack Obama used to invite presidential biographers to dinner. He would raise a current issue and instead of asking what prior presidents would do, he asked what questions they might have posed.

For me, this is the power of storytellers — to help us get outside of our own lives and into another’s — to humanize.

Mount Royal is a tight community, so I feel truly honoured to know many stories about students, faculty and staff. I love telling these stories to give people a real sense of the welcoming culture here.

And I take great delight as each student, with a new story of their own, crosses the stage at Convocation.

The indigenization of our campus celebrates the power and beauty of oral storytelling. And technology, instead of diminishing stories, now helps us record them so they can survive time and be presented in innovative ways.

When you think about it, stories are the bookends of our lives. At the start, the child can’t wait for a bedtime story. At the end, older people yearn to share theirs so we may know and pass them on to the child.

David Docherty, PhD President, Mount Royal University 2

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CO N T R I B U TO RS

Meet the team VICE–PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Paul Rossmann

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paul Rossmann

ASSOCIATE VICE–PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Melanie Rogers

EDITOR Michelle Bodnar BCMM (Applied) ’05

DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS Andrea Ranson

ART DIRECTOR Michal Waissmann BCMM (Applied) ’07

DIRECTOR, MARKETING Dave McLean Summit is Mount Royal’s university magazine, published in the fall and spring of each year. Our distribution is approximately 63,000 recipients. Each issue features 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 provider of an exceptional undergraduate educational experience.

ISSN 1929-8757 Summit Publications Mail Agreement #40064310 Return undeliverables to: Mount Royal University 4825 Mount Royal Gate SW Calgary, AB, Canada T3E 6K6 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 Mount Royal University is located in the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina, and the Iyarhe Nakoda. The City of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation.

Sustainably yours.

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PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Deb Abramson Journalism Diploma ’77 COPY EDITORS Peter Glenn Ruth Myles Andrea Ranson Public Relations Diploma ’85 Frankie Thornhill Social Work Diploma ’07 DESIGN Leslie Blondahl BCMM ’14 Emily Eom Mike Poon Christina Riches BCMM ’14 Michal Waissmann Chao Zhang ILLUSTRATIONS Emily Eom PHOTOGRAPHY Leonora Pena Arce Mike Poon Christina Riches Chao Zhang CONTRIBUTORS Maggie Agbojo BCMM ’18 Jonathan Anderson BCMM ’13 Valerie Berenyi Michelle Bodnar Brendan Greenslade BCMM (Applied) ‘10 Lisa Kadane Nicole Herback BCMM ‘18 Dave McLean Ruth Myles Rob Petrollini BCMM (Applied) ’07 Melissa Rolfe Kate Woodford

We asked Summit contributors “What was one of your favourite post-secondary courses and why?”

“As an MRU social work student I did a two-month practicum in Southampton, U.K., assessing seniors in their homes and persuading them to accept services that would allow them to “age in place.” Working with these delightful, feisty Brits gave me an entirely new perspective on aging.”

— frankie thornhill

“One of my favourite university courses was media criticism.

My instructor at the University of San Diego, Dr. Dobkin, taught us that it’s important to approach things in the news with a bit of skepticism and always scrutinize the sources — advice that’s more relevant now than ever.”

— lisa kadane

“‘Rocks for Jocks’ or Power Skating, felt right at home.”

— jonathan anderson

“Media and society with David Taras (now Mount Royal’s Ralph Klein Chair in Media Studies). It was a senior-level course that somehow I was able to get into in my second year. Taras would walk in each day and lecture from start to finish but it was never boring at all. Probably the only course where I did all of the assigned readings.”

— dave mclean

“At the University of Calgary I got to take an anthropology course with the great Brian Keating of the Calgary Zoo. He was so captivating. I have never forgotten the difference between apes and monkeys and that lemurs have prehensile tails and two tongues.”

— michelle bodnar

“Writing poetry, fiction and plays was fun, but taking a journalism course in the University of Victoria’s Creative Writing program really rocked my world and put me on my career path.”

— valerie berenyi

“Here at Mount Royal I took an interpersonal communication course with Janet Hamnett and went to One World Drum for a bongo lesson and drum circle that introduced an interesting perspective on the different ways people can communicate.”

— brendan greenslade

“Journalism classes with Dave Margoshes at Mount Royal back in the ‘80s — smoking a cigarette with his cowboy boots on the desk while we hammered out copy on typewriters.”

— andrea ranson

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Bleed Blue Complete listings of events and happenings at MRU can be found at mru.ca/Events.

Mount Royal alumni, we want to hear all about you. Get back in touch, sign up for updates on alumni events and receive exclusive benefits at mru.ca/AllAboutU. Follow us on Twitter at @mruAlumni.

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Join the Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program Inspiring lifelong learning through transformational mentorship experiences The Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program at Mount Royal is available to all students. The program aims to be a transformative experience for all participants — students and mentors alike. Pairs meet from January to June for approximately two hours each month. For more information visit mru.ca/Mentorship.

H E A LT H

PA R T N ERSH I P S

CHEERS to a lifetime of eating well Eating habits developed in early childhood profoundly influence dietary preferences, behaviours and attitudes towards food that span a lifetime.

With that in mind, a professor at Mount Royal has partnered with Alberta Health Services to create a customizable online tool for child-care centres to assess their meal offerings and then design action plans to promote healthy eating and physical activity.

The Creating Healthy Eating and Active Environments Survey (CHEERS) is a joint initiative between Lynne Lafave, PhD, a professor in Mount Royal’s Department of Health and Physical Education and Alberta Health Services (Nutrition Services), with support from the Ministry of Children’s Services — Early Childhood Development Branch. Six MRU student researchers from the Health and Physical Education, Child Studies and Computer Information Systems programs aided in the development of CHEERS. “Over 300 child-care providers across Alberta helped to shape and build the tool. We believe it will help to make an impact because it was made with our partners,” Lafave says.

CO M M EM O R AT I O N

Dieppe Raid anniversary gathering On Aug. 19, the Dieppe Raid was remembered at Calgary’s Military Museums, 75 years to the day after the historic Second World War battle. Among the guests of honour were a number of Dieppe veterans, as well as spouses and other relatives of those who died during the conflict.

Mount Royal University invited alumna Kelly Ann Purdy, the great-niece of another Mount Royal alumnus, Douglas Gordon Purdy of the 14th Army Tank Regiment. Killed in action at the age of 22, Purdy is buried at the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery in Hautot-Sur-Mer, France. Each November, a cross on Memorial Drive bears his name, and he is commemorated on the Memorial Arch, a tribute to fallen soldiers at the Royal Military College in Kingston, ON. Also attending was Raghed Mirza, a Mount Royal student who received the Captain Douglas Purdy Military Memorial Bursary in 2012 while completing his Bachelor of Business Administration — Accounting.

“These bursaries honour the memory of those from Mount Royal who heeded Canada’s call and made sacrifices for their country and what they believed in. The awards also serve another very important purpose. They educate the recipients — the students of today and of the future — about the sacrifices that others made for them.”

Paul Rossmann, vice-president of University Advancement

More about Mount Royal’s Military Memorial Bursaries can be found at mru.ca/MilitaryMemorial.

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C ROW C H I L D

C L A S SI C

Crosstown rivals Cougars, Dinos face off Often referred to as the ultimate crosstown smackdown, the Crowchild Classic pits the Mount Royal Cougars against the University of Calgary Dinos in regular season competition in all sports. Once a year, the men’s and women’s hockey teams bring their “A” game to the Scotiabank Saddledome to compete in a doubleheader. Among the hottest hockey tickets in town, this year’s event saw 10,478 fans witness top-notch U Sports action. The MRU women’s side was beaten 1-0, and the men’s side was edged out in double overtime by a score of 6-5. The annual game is part of a push by both universities to promote the high level of interuniversity sport in Calgary and promote pride in your institution.

SU PP O R T I N G

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Conservatory instrumental in gift of music Andrea Dowd and Obed Ruvogera

AT H L E T I C

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MRU skills help propel Rwandan cyclists forward

In Rwanda, cycling can be very dangerous. The annual Tour du Rwanda has a history of serious injuries, with one even resulting in a leg amputation due to lack of an adequate health-care response.

Obed Ruvogera, massage therapist for the national Rwandan cycling team, landed in Calgary in late November to spend six weeks at Mount Royal being mentored in anatomy, first aid and athletic therapy by Professor Dennis Valdez, PhD, athletic therapy alumna Andrea Dowd, and Bachelor of Health and Physical Education students.

The partnership came about when Dowd, an avid cyclist, visited Rwanda. After a week training with Ruvogera and the cycling team, she saw an opportunity to help with the support of MRU, her alma mater.

“There is huge potential for the Rwandan team to sophisticate their first-aid training,” Dowd says, who is a certified athletic therapist for World Health.

“Being here in Calgary has opened Obed’s eyes to the advances he can make in emergency health care for his cyclists back home.”

The Georges P. Vanier School’s music program is hitting a high note thanks to a donation of 18 refurbished instruments from the Mount Royal University Conservatory and its partners.

“We're looking forward to collaborating with Georges P. Vanier School and the Calgary Board of Education as we work together to extend the reach of performing arts education," says Brad Mahon, director of the MRU Conservatory.

The Rozsa Foundation provided $4,200 in repairs for the 14 violins, two cellos and two violas donated by The Conservatory, while Vickie Hill, president of V.A. Hill Fine Strings, donated more than $2,000 in parts, cases and labour.

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Our city as a playground Albertans sit for an average of nine hours per weekday and 8½ hours per weekend day.

In this day and age when children and adults alike are at risk of health complications due to the alarming increase in sedentary behaviours, new actions are being taken to ensure that youth kick the risk of becoming physically and socially limited by lack of play.

Mount Royal University’s dean of the Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Stephen Price, PhD, joined the City of Calgary last fall in making a commitment to support a child’s “right to play” by signing the Calgary Play Charter.

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M I L E S TO N E S

50 years of SAMRU The Students’ Association of Mount Royal University (SAMRU) celebrated its 50th anniversary of incorporation last fall with a bash that included live music, an alumni reception and an appearance by the man for whom the student centre is named: former Mount Royal instructor Robert Wyckham.

Some of SAMRU’s major milestones are: 1912: There are records of the first students’ council meetings 1965: SAMRU purchases its first physical space — a house near the original Mount Royal College downtown campus

H O N O R A R Y

D EGR EE

Former NHL puck stopper reduces stigmas of mental health Kelly Hrudey is best known for his coast-to-coast television coverage and commentary for the National Hockey League. The former starting netminder-turned-analyst was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology for his outstanding work (along with his daughter Kaitlin) to increase awareness of the adversities faced by those living with a mental health diagnosis. As an accomplished author and Gemini Award winner, Hrudey uses his platform to generate discussions around mental health and has encouraged other prominent broadcasters and athletes to help fight the battle against mental illness.

1967: SAMRU is incorporated under the Alberta Societies Act 1972: Mount Royal College moves to the Lincoln Park Campus 1987: The student-owned Wyckham House opens in its current location 1994: SAMRU becomes a registered charity 2007: A $14-million expansion of Wyckham House adds 45 per cent more space to increase services and accommodate a growing student population 2018: SAMRU now has an annual budget of $8.1 million, about 100 full- and part-time staff, more than 300 volunteers and 12,000 student members

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FACU LT Y ACH I E V EM EN T S

You did what?

Nathan Ackroyd, PhD, teaches organic chemistry and is part of the author team of the first edition of Organic Chemistry: Mechanistic Patterns. The textbook has been adopted by 14 universities across Canada, including Mount Royal. A second edition is being considered.

Troy Burnett, PhD, is editor of the twovolume text, Natural Resource Conflicts: From Blood Diamonds to Rainforest Destruction, which won a 2017 American Book Fest Best Book Award in the Current Events category. Burnett teaches geography in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

PACEM A K ER

AWA R D

Calgary Journal wins coveted prize

SU M M IT

And the award goes to ...

The Calgary Journal, the flagship publication of Mount Royal University’s Bachelor of Communication — Journalism program, took home the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) Pacemaker Award in the print newspaper category at the 2017 National College Media Convention in October.

“The Pacemaker win helps students recognize they’re on the right track in terms of doing important journalism that matters,” says Sally Haney, professor and managing editor of the Calgary Journal.

The Pacemaker was based on five issues.

Out of 150 submissions, there were 43 finalists and 23 won, with Mount Royal being the only Canadian school to achieve the top honour.

MRU journalism students were also recognized with more distinctions in other ACP categories.

“It was a real growing experience for all of us. I don’t think I’d be here at CBC Calgary without the experience I had with the Journal,” says Josie Lukey, a 2017 graduate of the program.

Randy Connolly is a web development and technology and society studies professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing. His latest textbook, Fundamentals of Web Development, Second Edition, (coauthored by former Mount Royal professor Ricardo Hoar), is being used by thousands of students at more than 100 universities worldwide.

Katja Hoehn, PhD, a medical doctor with a PhD in neuroscience, teaches a variety of biology courses and has co-authored several textbooks specializing in the health sciences.

Her best-selling text, Human Anatomy and Physiology, co-authored with Elaine Marieb, was recently released in its 11th edition.

The 2018 Council for Advancement and Support of Education District VIII Communications Awards competition recognized Summit in the following categories: »» Summit Indigenization (Fall/Winter 2016), Award Level: Bronze, Category: Print General Interest Magazines, circulation 30,000-74,999 »» “State of Disaster” by Bryan Weismiller (Fall/Winter 2016), Award Level: Bronze, Category: Feature Writing »» mtroyal.ca/Summit Award Level: Bronze, Category: Other Sub-site or Section The Fall/Winter 2017 Summit (With Conflict Comes Awareness) was also named as a finalist in the 2018 Alberta Magazines Conference and Awards’ category of Editorial Package. These awards are sponsored by the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association.

Natalie Meisner, PhD, playwright and professor in the Department of English, Languages and Cultures, debuted her new play in March at Sage Theatre. Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story tells the compelling tale of the Calgary bus driver who in 1960 was the last Canadian to be convicted and imprisoned for homosexuality.

Scharie Tavcer, PhD, of the Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies is the co-author of the recently released Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Canadian Perspective (Second Edition). It is the only text that covers female offenders, victims and workers in a single resource.

Christy Tomkins-Lane, PhD, of the Faculty of Health, Community and Education, co-authored the paper “Objective measurement of function following lumbar spinal stenosis decompression reveals improved functional capacity with stagnant real-life physical activity,” receiving the Outstanding Paper Award in Surgical Science from The Spine Journal at the North American Spine Society’s annual meetings.

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PHOTO BY GEORGE WEBBER

R ECO N CI L I AT I O N:

A photographic exhibition George Webber Spanning from 1997 to 2016, Webber’s photos feature what was the St. Mary’s Indian Residential School near Cardston. Closed in the ‘80s to become the Red Crow Community College, the college was subsequently destroyed by arson in 2015. Known for his long-term documentary projects, Webber has been photographing the Blood Nation for nearly 25 years.

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Starting in February and continuing for one year, Mount Royal became home to a specially curated photography exhibit featuring works by George Webber, Soloman Chiniquay, David Youn and Aaron Pelletier. Brought together by Curtis Desiatnyk, manager of Mount Royal’s Risk Management department and a longtime member of the University’s Art Committee, Reconciliation: A Photographic Exhibition is part of Exposure, Alberta’s free photography festival.

“I hope to get people thinking from a different lens than they’re normally used to using. How all this collective history that we have has affected people differently,” says Desiatnyk. “It isn’t that far in the rearview mirror. The last residential school closed in 1996, so it’s still very much part of who we are.”

Webber says that some of the most commonplace things we think we see all the time, we actually don’t see at all. Documentary photography helps preserve those moments that will soon be gone. “Still photographs are one of the great ways to hold on to what we tend to overlook.”

CO N GR AT U L AT I O NS

MRU alumni make Top 40 Under 40 Calgary’s Avenue magazine’s annual celebration of local innovators, educators and entrepreneurs acknowledged three exceptional Mount Royal alumni.

I N D I GEN IZ AT I O N

Apaat tsi kani takiiks “Those who create sparks” Created through the Faculty of Business and Communication Studies, Apaat tsi kani takiiks produces and promotes Indigenous-centred curriculum and works to increase access to education for Indigenous students. To help implement its five major initiatives, in fall 2017 Roy Bear Chief was brought on as elderin-residence.

Bear Chief grew up at the Siksika Nation and coined the project’s name. Apaat tsi kani takiiks means “Those who create sparks” in the Blackfoot language.

“That’s what changemaking and social innovation is — creating sparks,” Bear Chief says. “As long as there’s that little spark that indicates there’s life, it’s the people and the process that keep it alive.”

A Social Work diploma (1996) graduate of Mount Royal, Bear Chief continued his education at the University of Calgary, earning his bachelor’s and master’s in the same discipline.

“And now I’ve come back full circle,” he says.

Faculty champion Katharine McGowan, PhD, says Apaat tsi kani takiiks, is assisting Mount Royal in meeting its indigenization goals. The project is a continuation of the Suncor Aboriginal Business Education Pilot Project.

“We want to shift the entire way education is done. That’s what is going to make a difference,” McGowan says.

“Mount Royal University has played a part in my success and the passion I still feel today for the profession I entered over a decade ago.”

Amanda Hamilton Bachelor of Applied Interior Design Founder of Amanda Hamilton Design A self-proclaimed “student of life,” Amanda Hamilton attributes her success to creativity, tenacity and perseverance, principles she says she learned during her time at MRU. Dedicated to a life of continuous learning, Hamilton seeks to “purposefully explore and creatively elevate space with intelligent, thoughtful and soulful design.”

FI N A N CI A L

“My time at Mount Royal had a tremendous impact on my life ... I was exposed to a number of opportunities that prepared me for the corporate world and my life as an entrepreneur.”

“The courses gave me the confidence I needed to do things on my own rather than getting outside help, which can get expensive, especially in a startup.”

Kevin Read Bachelor of Applied Business and Entrepreneurship CEO of Nomodic Modular Structures Inc. Kevin Read’s inspiration to start his company stemmed from encounters with like-minded influencers through the Bissett School of Business, one of whom became his business partner and best man. Today, Read aims to make the custom construction process more predictable for developers and sustainable for the communities in which they live.

Shawn Cable Business and Sport Management, Supply Chain Founder of Re-Matt Shawn Cable, experienced service manager, supplychain professional and retired lacrosse player, discovered his business inspiration during a University field trip to a local furniture warehouse. Cable’s Re-Matt provides Albertans with a mattress recycling alternative that breaks down old mattresses into their raw materials.

A N A LYS IS

CO N CEN T R AT I O N

Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute recognizes Mount Royal The Bissett School of Business’s concentration in financial analysis has been admitted to the CFA Institute’s University Affiliation Program.

The designation will allow the school to award several CFA program scholarships each year.

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Transforming thinking through revolutionary research COMPILED BY ROB PETROLLINI

At Mount Royal, faculty and students are constantly working together on intellectual investigations that provide meaning and impact. This sets MRU apart from other undergraduate universities, as students get involved in high-level research early in their intellectual careers.

The University’s Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement blends community needs, student learning and faculty expertise, emphasizing projects involving communities and producing positive change. Here’s a sample of current research initiatives.

This is research at Mount Royal. mru.ca/Curious

Environmental protection and change CITIZEN SCIENTISTS, BIRD NEST BOXES AND APPS Each year, dedicated citizen scientists monitor a network of bird nest boxes in southern Alberta. Professors Dorothy Hill, PhD (Department of Biology) and Lynn Moorman, PhD (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences), along with their student research assistants, are working with the Calgary Area Nest Box Monitors and Ellis Bird Farm to customize an app to meet the needs of those volunteers. The geospatially enabled Birdbox App maps nest box locations and can be used for field data collection.

NATURE’S DIVERSITY Natural selection — the process where organisms that adapt better to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce — happens differently for each creature depending on how its genomes are encoded. Biology professor Jonathan Mee, PhD, is investigating the genetic differences among individuals, and, ultimately, how natural

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selection has driven the evolution of the astounding diversity of life on Earth. Previous research performed by Mee on fish behaviour was featured in the New York Times in 2017.

THE CHEMISTRY OF FIRE DEBRIS Wildfire frequency, severity and damages are increasing as climate change causes earlier snowmelts and drier conditions overall.

Forest fires can be caused naturally through lightning strikes, but the majority are initiated by humans. Of the approximately 1,200 wildfires reported in Alberta each year, over half are the result of the actions of people. Professor Gwen O’Sullivan, PhD, of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Adjunct Professor Court Sandau, PhD, are exploring the chemistry behind wildfire investigations. They are developing sampling and analytical techniques to fingerprint ignitable liquid residue in fire debris and provide valuable cuttingedge evidence for fire investigators.

A MODERN COMBINATION

Health and Physical Education professor Christy Tomkins-Lane is an exercise scientist with a PhD in rehabilitation medicine.

She is a founding member of the Stanford Wearable Health Lab, where she conducts award-winning research on physical activity and health outcomes. The vision for her research program is to employ the combined powers of technology and physical activity to improve care of musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. The objective of the first arm of her program is to better understand the role of accelerometry (a technique for quantifying patterns of movement during walking) and mobile technologies in the diagnosis, assessment and management of MSK conditions. The objective of the closely related second arm is to implement e-health interventions designed to improve health and prevent diseases of inactivity through lifestyle change, exercise and nutrition education.

Human weaknesses

PHOTO BY GWEN O’SULLIVAN Fire scene in Fort McMurray

International impact ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Bangladesh is one of the top places in the world where money is sent from those who have emigrated. Economics professor Anupam Das, PhD, is studying how much of these funds are returning to Bangladesh to support the development of the country. His initial findings demonstrate that approximately 15 per cent of funds leave Canada to finance debt repayments, along with unrecorded cash flowing elsewhere. This research is funded by Mount Royal’s internal research grants fund.

ADVENTURE SCIENCE The more complex science gets, the more important it is to tell stories about science and the people who engage in it with uncomplicated and engaging language.

Biology professor Sarah Hewitt, PhD, opts for hands-on experience in her storytelling, and ventures to the field to work with scientists for days or weeks at a time.

She calls it “adventure science,” and uses photography and audio to help bring biology to life.

Hewitt focuses on odd or surprising findings, and people and the environment.

RESILIENCE IN LITERARY WORKS Since 2016, English professor Kit Dobson has been working with a research team based out of the University of Salamanca and funded through Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness on a project titled Narratives of Resilience. The comparative undertaking has been exploring issues of vulnerability and resilience in literary and cultural contexts. An edited collection of works on global narratives of resilience is now in the works, helping in understanding how kindness can flourish.

KIDS COME LAST Many children are subjected to one parent’s campaign of denigration of the other following a separation or divorce.

Impacted children can be brainwashed to hate their targeted parent, once a positive, loving and capable influence in their lives. Affected parents may seek legal intervention as a last resort to mitigate the alienation of their children. Anthropology professor Christine Giancarlo, PhD, is investigating how family law involvement can positively or negatively impact parental estrangement.

MOTIVATION TO REDUCE DEBT Consumer debt in North America has reached staggering levels.

Mohammed El Hazzouri, PhD, a professor in the Bissett School of Business and colleagues are investigating the effect of interventions designed to remind consumers that they have control over their spending behaviours. His research findings indicate that even slight reminders of debt controllability can have lasting impact.

El Hazzouri is also working with local organizations to investigate the effects of changes to Alberta payday loan legislation.

PHOTO BY SARAH HEWITT Climbing into the rainforest canopy, Costa Rica

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Creatures from the Cretaceous Unveiled in January near Mount Royal’s East Gate, Cretaceous Lands consists of life-sized fossil casts of two dinosaurs and a marsupial who roamed what is now western North America 65 million years ago. Cretaceous Lands joins the existing Cretaceous Seas exhibit: both exhibits are open to the public.

Students in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences use the exhibits to study these creatures, which lived when dinosaurs were becoming extinct and mammals were on the rise.

Professor Emeritus Wayne Haglund, PhD, who retired in 2004 after nearly 40 years at Mount Royal, is the driving force behind both Cretaceous Seas and Lands.

Cretaceous Lands includes: Nanotyrannus lancensis Thought by some to be a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, this agile predator possessed dagger-like teeth and a sleek skeleton, and may have hunted in packs.

Triceratops horridus This large four-legged plant eater weighed up to 12 tonnes. The baby displayed in Cretaceous Lands was probably between one and three years old.

Didelphodon vorax An early member of the marsupials, this pouched mammal was related to the opossum, although it was semi-aquatic like an otter.

Read more about Mount Royal’s fossil collection at mru.ca/Cretaceous. Come and visit!

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CYBERSECURITY WARRIORS: FRONTLINE OF DEFENCE

CYBERSECURITY WARRIORS FRONTLINE OF DEFENCE WHAT’S THIS? WORDS BY PETER GLENN

ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY EOM

THE EMAIL CAME ON A FRIDAY. IT SEEMED TO REFER TO A PREVIOUS MESSAGE THE MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEE HAD SENT TO AN OUTSIDE VENDOR, WITH THE SUBJECT LINE “WHAT’S THIS?”

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“A Word document was attached and I opened it, not being concerned. I honestly thought it was a reply to my earlier email sent to multiple parties,” the employee recalls. “When I saw ‘What’s this?’ I was really curious and wanted to figure it out. The vendor signature looked legitimate and I clicked on the attachment, not thinking much of it.”

After he clicked and downloaded, he was notified that the document was an older version of Word, and he needed to enable macros to continue.

“I enabled macros not really thinking too much about it. I trusted the email.

It still didn’t dawn on me that this was an issue and that I might be infecting my computer. It wasn’t until I spoke with (the vendor) that evening that I realized something was wrong.”

The vendor told the employee that his email server had been hacked and that various businesses were receiving emails (allegedly from the employee) with malware attached. The next morning, a co-worker at MRU advised him that Information Technology Services (ITS) had come and taken his laptop. Having flagged the issue, ITS was able to stop the attack.

“I was impressed with how quickly they reacted, and I was quite embarrassed given the IT security training I had recently taken,” the employee says.

“I should have seen the signs in the email.”

Versions of the same story occur every day in a world where hackers and cybercriminals, many of whom stem from organized crime and some of whom are state-sponsored, are gaining ground and growing more sophisticated.

High-profile attacks have recently targeted Uber, Equifax, Yahoo and Nissan Canada, including ransomware targeted at the National Health Service in the U.K. In December, Russian-speaking hackers called the MoneyTaker group stole as much as

­— MRU EMPLOYEE CYBERATTACK VICTIM

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$10 million from Russian and U.S. bank branches. Even such protectors as the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) were scrambling in 2016 after a group called the Shadow Brokers publicly released the hacking tools the NSA uses to gather foreign intelligence.

IBM’s chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty has called cybercrime the greatest threat to every company in the world, while billionaire businessman Warren Buffett deemed it the world’s number-one problem, bigger than nuclear weapons. Even the energy industry has been identified as at high risk for attack.

Closer to home, an email phishing attack hooked staff at Edmonton’s MacEwan University in August 2017, resulting in the theft of nearly $12 million after criminals impersonated a large construction contractor and persuaded employees to change some banking information. In 2016 the University of Calgary paid $20,000 in ransom to hackers who crippled its systems.

The federal government has promised new rules to protect key infrastructure in the wake of increased attacks and a creeping feeling of cyberinsecurity. It’s a world of digital distrust where even Facebook titan Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his computer’s camera at the same time as his company denies it is listening to members without their permission.

While governments, businesses and large organizations, including universities, battle cybercrime at all levels, it is employees and their email practices who have proven to be the weakest link.

But they’re also the key to combatting this scourge of the Internet age.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING — ­ THE CYBERCRIMINAL’S TOP TOOL > Cybercrime can be high-tech, but the criminals who practise it often rely on base human emotions and frailties for their illicit gains.

When he worked as an agent with Canada Border Services Agency in the 1990s and 2000s, Kelly Sundberg, PhD, and a professor in Mount Royal’s Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, was tasked with tracking down people in the country illegally who posed a threat to national security. To find them, he’d identify “gatekeepers” with access to broader sources of information; maybe a clerk at Blockbuster Video, or a pizza joint

worker; someone he could trick into giving him an address or a phone number of the person he was looking for.

Many of the same methods used by law enforcement to gain information about people they are searching for are also used for nefarious purposes by cybercriminals to persuade victims to divulge personal information that can be used for fraudulent purposes. Gatekeepers hold the keys, Sundberg found.

Social engineering is the means by which criminals manipulate the public.

They do it through the elements of surprise, fear, guilt, complacency, arrogance, curiosity and the desire to please.

THREAT

“People just want to be helpful,” Sundberg says. “It’s easy for cybercriminals to research targeted individuals who are gatekeepers to data and information and who have network access, and then, once the criminals understand the processes in which they work and gain their trust, they develop a means to target them and send them a link. When (the victim) clicks on that link, all of a sudden their whole network is compromised.”

A savvy cybercriminal creates a web of deceit to ensnare their victim, maybe choosing a receptionist or an administrative assistant, and tricks them into revealing data, personal information on other employees, clients, students or patients. This is called spear phishing, and it can also involve theft of funds.

“If they find out a large organization has a large contract with someone else, and convince them to change the account or the coordinates for the money going in, all of a sudden you can have a significant loss of revenue through spear phishing, which is all predicated on social engineering.”

Human beings adapt and change according to situations, making them formidable adversaries. That’s why it’s essential employees and everyday users are armed with enough basic knowledge that they can be agile in their responses.

Looking at cybersecurity as part of a larger system — including both humans and machines — is vital.

Organizations spend vast sums on sophisticated software, firewalls and secured servers, Sundberg says. “But that’s all for nothing if you have one employee or one person in your organization that clicks on an unsuspected link or gives up information.”

­— GINNI ROMETTY, IBM’S CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO

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­— BERNADETTE PASTERIS, MRU ITS TRAINING ANALYST

Educating and empowering employees can result in a far greater defence. Instead of one firewall, you have hundreds or thousands of thinking workers engaged in combatting cybercrime as part of their daily routine.

In the end, Sundberg says, common sense can go a long way towards battling the cybercriminals.

“My rule of thumb is if you can’t talk to them on the phone, if you can’t find their number and call them, then there’s something wrong. We have become so ready to provide important data without actually knowing the person. We now feel we know people in a virtual setting. We say, ‘Oh no I know them. I’ve been chatting with them online for a month.’ Have you ever met them (in person)? No. So why would you give them all this information?”

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EMPLOYEES: THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION > ITS training analyst Bernadette Pasteris is on the front lines of turning MRU management, faculty and staff into cybercrime fighting evangelists.

The institutional cybersecurity education push began with the need for organizations to be compliant with credit card industry security standards, but has grown along with the rate of cybercrime. That effort has included enrolling all employees in an online training program and using the Mount Royal website as a portal to information on creating strong passwords, safely working remotely, identifying phishing emails and providing general security tips.

There are also workshops catering to those who learn in an interactive environment, a regular ITS newsletter that warns of and details the latest cybercrimes and scams, and, more recently, a “phishing program” that seeks to hook

unsuspecting employees so they can learn first-hand about this technique and how to prevent it. The program gives IT good information on how to improve its education offerings, as well as a chance to provide training on the spot.

If an MRU employee clicks on a link in one of these fake phishing missives, they receive a message telling them what they’ve done and red flags what they should look for next time.

Pasteris also focuses on “inbox hygiene” — making sure inboxes are being cleaned out.

“The idea of the program is to give people skills,” Pasteris says. ”It’s to say, ‘Hey, we’ve noticed you’ve been struggling and we want to support you.’ And then these are skills they can take home and share with family and friends and just make part of their everyday life.”

Crossover from work to home is important as the influence of the Internet on our lives increases. The Internet of Things, with its growing list of home devices that include the Nest Learning Thermostat, Ring doorbells, Amazon Echo, Google Home and the Apple HomePod promise to make our lives easier, but come at a cost.

“We’re getting more and more electronics in our homes,” Pasteris says, “and it’s just going to get worse.

So we really have to start thinking differently about how we interact with our technology and we have to be cognizant of the fact that with the Internet we are inviting more and more strangers into our homes.

“What I really want is for people to trust less, be a little more paranoid and a whole lot more aware.”

CYBERSECURITY CHAMPIONS > A squad of “Cybersecurity Champions” has been enlisted to model good online behaviour and advocate for cybersecurity at Mount Royal.

“They take the training, subscribe to the newsletter and then they exhibit the right behaviours: locking their screen, having their phone password protected, all of those behaviours we want people doing,” Pasteris says.

Cybersecurity Champions have focused on a series of themes, starting this academic year with creating passwords that are long, strong and unique.

Now the focus has shifted to enabling two-step verification for Mount Royal University emails for an added layer of security. There is also a push to make people comfortable with ignoring emails that seem troublesome.

The program also helps ITS’ budget, as more Mount Royal staff do things right, the less the University needs to spend on big safety technologies.

When it comes to students, the challenge is greater.

“With students, it’s a bit different,” Pasteris says.

“I engage them on Main Street with my little kiosk and try to get them to register for the newsletter, I’ll also try to engage them in different aspects of cybersecurity. But everyone’s schedules are so packed, it’s hard.”

While Mount Royal’s cybersecurity training is considered a success, as registered by a reduction in the number of calls to the ITS Service Desk for resets, the battle is far from won.

“The evolution you’re seeing now is the twostep attack,” Pasteris says. “They’ll nail you first with something like ransomware and while you’re distracted dealing with the ransomware they’ll come in on another vector where they’ll hit you with a data breach where they actually take your data. They’re not just encrypting it. Our guys do an amazing job, but if you’re hit from seven different sides at once, something’s going to give.”

SECURE MOBILE DEVICES Lock your screens when you’re not using them, password protect any portable drives and treat your mobile like it is cash.

CONSIDER FOUND PORTABLE DATA STORAGE TO BE DANGEROUS Don’t just pop a data stick into your computer to see what’s there. It could have malware loaded on it.

BE SUSPICIOUS OF ANYONE ASKING FOR INFORMATION THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE OR SHOULD ALREADY KNOW This is the first step for cybercriminals using social engineering. Verify a caller or emailer is using contact info you know is legit.

SECURE YOUR LOGIN CREDENTIALS Make your passwords long, strong and unique, don’t share them; instead memorize them or store them in a password management program or in a locked cabinet or drawer. Don’t use your work passwords or username for other sites.

STORE DATA ON A BACKED-UP DRIVE Don’t store valuable data on your desktop.

CONSIDER ANY UNEXPECTED EMAIL SUSPICIOUS Don’t feel compelled to click on every link or attachment if you are not expecting them. Call the sender directly using a number you know is bona fide, or head to their website using a URL you know is OK. GIVE EMAILS WITH LINKS OR ATTACHMENTS UNDIVIDED ATTENTION If you are distracted, you are more likely to miss phishing red flags.

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FLUFFY CLOUDS OR BIG IRON? > One reason we seem so susceptible to social engineering and cybercrime may lie in the way we view computers, devices in general and the growing cloud in particular.

At its simplest, cloud computing refers to on-demand network access to a shared pool of servers. But the term “cloud” is troubling to Randy Connolly, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing at Mount Royal University.

“Do people understand what it is? Probably not,” Connolly says. “The problem with the term ‘cloud computing’ or ‘the cloud’ in general is that from the very beginning it was a marketing metaphor. If there was going to be a Lifetime Academy Award for the most inappropriate and misleading metaphor, cloud computing would definitely be in the running. ”The Internet in general and cloud computing in particular are not composed of magic water vapour, but a whole lot of stuff.”

Physical stuff, including millions of kilometres of wires and millions of devices including servers, routers, switches and hubs, such as it contained in specialized environments using massive amounts of power, Connolly says.

One of the great myths of the Internet age, he argues, is that it is in any way green. “I want to scream every time I see such nonsense,” he says.

A better term, he says, one used to describe the typical enterprise computing environment in the 1970s (think large mainframe computers and “dumb” terminals in offices), is “big iron.”

TYPES OF CYBERATTACKS The spread of cloud computing and communications technology could use as much as 50 per cent of global electricity in 2030. Yet we seem to regard the cloud as a force solely for good, and perhaps that benign image of computing leads to us letting our guard down, Connolly says.

In terms of data safety, Connolly sees the cloud as a mixed bag.

“State-sponsored security threats are now the norm, thus the quantity and quality of threat sophistication has been amplified incredibly,” he says. “This change has coincided with the widespread move to cloud computing. Within the field of computing security, the key question has moved from, ‘How can we keep intruders out?’ to ‘Once they’re in, how do we minimize the damage?’

“Clearly, moving one’s computing from in-house to globally availableto-everyone cloud infrastructure potentially makes your data significantly less safe. On the flipside, outsourcing your security to the large cloud providers, who can presumably hire the best security minds, might actually be the sanest choice in today’s threatrich environment.”

Connolly also says privacy concerns around the cloud need to be looked at in a broader historical

PROVIDED BY PROFESSOR KELLY SUNDBERG PHISHING: When a fraudulent email concealed as a legitimate one is sent to a person with the hope that they will click on a link that installs malware, or otherwise causes them to share personal or confidential information.

SPEAR PHISHING: The same as phishing, but the email recipients are specifically targeted by the offender.

PRETEXTING: When an attacker directly contacts a victim, lies to them about the reason for their call with the aim of establishing trust and then presents them with typical questions before leading them into compromising questions.

SCAREWARE: When a person is tricked into thinking their computer has a virus, then an attacker offers them a “solution” to download or run, which is actually malware.

perspective, and points to a fascinating Jonathan Franzen essay, “Imperial Bedroom,” that argues this generation lives in a world with more physical privacy than ever before.

“This doesn’t mean we should ignore the privacy issues around the cloud; rather we do need to have a broader historical perspective on how privacy has or is changing due to the cloud.”

3,900

Number of computer users employed at Mount Royal University

9 times More cyberattacks suffered per capita in Canada compared with the U.S., according to Cisco, an American Internet technology company

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> The last line of defence remains an organization’s firewall, and the people who run the back end of Mount Royal’s computer networks are especially attuned to cybersecurity, with sophisticated check-in and check-out procedures.

“We just assume that every transaction will be compromised, so we make sure everybody goes through certain hurdles

and we build in fail-safes,” says Mount Royal’s chief information officer, Michael Barr. “We have good hygiene and good behaviour, but we have to take it up a notch, because if you own the system and you get compromised, it’s obviously way more serious. So we’re very focused on that.”

Barr is also looking to the future with powerful analytic tools.

“The question becomes, ‘How do we invest in the next generation of tools of predictive analytics to constantly be looking at our environment and detect signals in the noise?’” Is there an anomaly out there that would make us kind of suspicious that something weird has just happened?”

Cybercriminals are getting better and better at blending in, but Barr says now and then a little blip announces their presence. ITS staff try to force would-be hackers to do awkward things to reveal themselves.

“You don’t just break into our system. You do some unnatural things and in doing so raise the probability that we’re going to find you, that you’re going to reveal yourself. This is the latest generation of what’s going on in the world trying to figure out cybersecurity.

It’s fascinating stuff, big-time math, machine learning, big data, artificial intelligence, all to keep us safe.”

3.5 million

123456 ...

1,000

75

Number of cybersecurity jobs predicted by 2021 by csoonline.com

The number of times per second Mount Royal’s firewall is probed by a cyberattacker

Barr says the number of brute-force attacks coming through the firewall is close to zero, but that Mount Royal’s defences get probed upwards of 1,000 times a second.

“There are millions and millions and millions of events a day. There’s no way a human could process all that information. It’s just not possible. It would take you a lifetime to do it.”

Meanwhile, while large businesses are loathe to co-operate, even on security, post-secondary institutions in Canada have banded together to improve their chances by sharing information.

“It’s probably one of the most valuable sources of information in the country outside of CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) or law enforcement,” Barr says. “We may see something happen at the University of Regina and usually within a few minutes the community is notified and you get a heads-up.”

Better education in the end means less time, effort and money spent on more expensive solutions.

“I know a lot of other organizations have just given up on humans, so all the money goes into the most expensive software and hardware that is out there to basically make up for the fact that you’re going to screw up,” Pasteris says. “We don’t have those financial resources available, but we know that we can hit that human element.

It’s the best bang for our buck.”

Worst password in 2017, according to SplashData

Percentage of Canadians concerned about a cyberattack, according to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority

$6 trillion Predicted cost of cybercrime damages by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2016, according to csoonline.com

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C A R R Y I N G T H E S T O R I E S P A U L

B R A N D T

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+ THE JOURNEY The first of Brandt's three-album project, was just released April 6. Check out the single of the same name at paulbrandt.com.

Paul Brandt, country singer/songwriter, alumnus and Mount Royal’s storyteller-in-residence, opens up about humanitarian causes, raising kids, his upcoming album and the legacy he hopes to leave.

INTERVIEW BY LISA KADANE PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA RICHES AND CHAO ZHANG

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A

graduate of Mount Royal's nursing program (1992), Canadian country music star Paul Brandt was looking for a deeper way to connect with his alma mater. At the same time, Mount Royal University was exploring new approaches for engaging with the community and inspiring students to think beyond the classroom.

A serendipitous partnership sparked by Patti Derbyshire, chair and professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Social Innovation with the Bissett School of Business, brought the singer/songwriter back to MRU in 2016 as the campus’s storyteller-in-residence.

“Having a storyteller-in-residence provided an opportunity to tap into Paul’s journey as a storyteller and entrepreneur — someone who’s always been involved in social innovation and humanitarian causes,” says Derbyshire. “We thought his music would be a cool tie-in.”

Indeed, the 45-year-old has made a career out of telling stories through words put to music.

The residency has enabled Brandt to tell stories in a different format and make an impact beyond the stage — his personal campaign, Not In My City, for example, raised $250,000 toward research into supporting survivors of human trafficking in Calgary.

Summit caught up with Brandt to talk about everything from his experience at MRU to his recently released album, The Journey.

S U M M I T : Why did you want to be Mount Royal’s storyteller-in-residence?

P A U L B R A N D T : It sounded like a great opportunity.

I love my University and I love learning, and I’ve spent a lot more time learning than teaching since I took on this role, so it’s really been an incredible privilege.

S U M M I T : What is the importance or value of storytelling in today’s society?

B R A N D T : Before I do anything creative I ask myself, “Is this something that the world needs or not?”

And I think that fact and truth are paramount.

I strongly believe that there are universal truths, and I strongly believe in freedom and choice.

And understanding truth can be complicated.

We see what’s going on everywhere in the world today, whether it’s in news stories or social media.

And I think everyone’s always asking themselves, “Well, what is true?” I really believe that stories can facilitate the discovery of truth.

“I really believe that stories can facilitate the discovery of truth.”

S U M M I T : What were the highlights of the residency for you? Did it help uncover some truths?

B R A N D T : I mean, yeah, we’ve been working with students on projects that are literally saving lives and changing the world for the better. It’s incredibly inspiring. Our most recent initiative, called Not in My City, has been the source of many of the highlights for me so far.

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NOT IN MY CITY For the past two years, eight-time Juno Award-winner Paul Brandt has been working with Mount Royal and its students on social justice projects such as Not in My City, an initiative raising awareness about human trafficking in Calgary and across the country. Brandt shines at providing every campaign with a framing narrative.

Get involved or find out more at #notinmycity.

recently retired. My mom is a registered nurse and she was actually a year ahead of me when I attended Mount Royal, and rubbed it in all the time that she was on the Dean’s Honour Roll and I wasn’t (laughs).

But yeah, it has a lot to do with that upbringing.

S U M M I T : Are you trying to instil those values in your own kids?

B R A N D T : Each time I hear another account of human trafficking or meet another survivor, I hear this question in my mind: “What am I going to tell my kids that I did about this someday?” We all have the same responsibility to fight against human trafficking and I hope to be able to instil that understanding in my kids.

S U M M I T : How old are your children?

B R A N D T : Joseph is nine and Lily just turned seven.

S U M M I T : Not in My City raised $250,000. Were you surprised by its success?

B R A N D T : I wouldn’t say surprised. It was more a feeling of thankfulness and gratitude. It’s really inspiring to know that we still live in a country where a hardworking group of people can stand up for victims of human trafficking in our nation, and that’s what we saw.

S U M M I T : Why are the issues of human trafficking and missing and murdered Indigenous women important to you personally?

B R A N D T : I met a young girl in Southeast Asia who was a trafficking victim. She was five. And when I became aware that the same activity was happening in Alberta, and happening in Canada, I felt compelled to step up my efforts in the fight.

Aboriginal people account for five per cent of Canada’s population, and they also account for 51 per cent of those lured into human trafficking in our country. It’s a crime that affects every culture and socio-economic category in Canada. I believe that with knowledge comes responsibility, and that belief really compels me.

S U M M I T : What has driven your focus on helping others?

B R A N D T : I think it has a lot to do with my upbringing.

There’s a teaching known as the golden rule that says you do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And my parents raised me on that ideal. It was an influence in my decision to become an RN (registered nurse) and it continues to drive my life today. My dad was a paramedic for 43 years. He spent the majority of his career in Calgary and he

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S U M M I T : They’re at an age where they have a broader awareness of what’s happening in the world and their place in the world.

B R A N D T : They’re coming into it a bit. I think you want to start with a good, firm foundation, but you walk this line with kids at this age between protecting them from things that would maybe be too difficult to understand and maintaining some of their innocence, and at the same time preparing them for some of the more challenging things in the world. So it is a bit of a tightrope.

S U M M I T : Sometimes it’s hard to understand the value of making a difference or paying it forward when you’re young. Do you think the students you’ve worked with at MRU “get it?”

Have they been inspired to “think big,” which was one of the goals of the storyteller-inresidence program?

B R A N D T : I would definitely say yes. Every class has shed tears in the work that we’ve done together, and we see students continuing on with the work we’ve started after the courses are complete. Every year I see each class building on what the last one did, and the dreams are getting bigger and bigger. That’s really exciting to see.

S U M M I T : You must feel proud of that.

B R A N D T : It’s thrilling to be a part of. Honestly, for me, after being in the music industry for 23 years I love what I do, but a lot of the joy comes from getting to share the things that I’ve learned, and to let people see behind the curtain a little bit. This is the perfect opportunity to be able to do that.

“I see my job as using my talent to inspire and educate and entertain. Story is the tool that I use.”

IN THAT CASE Brandt’s worn — but stylish — Calton guitar case has been his constant companion for about 18 years. “Cases are like armour," he says. "They protect and carry precious, often fragile objects.

I tell stories using my guitar as an instrument to bring stories to life, but every nick, every scratch on that case also tells a story of a hard-knocks world and a precious cargo.

I love that image.”

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F T S I

O R T N

L L A C O R - R

PAUL BRANDT'S LEGACY COLLECTION Mount Royal students have diligently digitized and organized the entirety of Brandt’s archival collection. This spring, a selection of letters, awards, gold records and more will be on display in the fifthfloor gallery of Calgary’s National Music Centre (NMC). Derbyshire’s students also produced a series of 26 podcasts live from the NMC.

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O W I N G T H E K S O F T H E Y T E L L E R E S I D E N C E splits his time between Calgary and Nashville and the first part of his new three-volume album, The Journey, just debuted. But country HE singer and Mount Royal grad Paul Brandt has still managed to be involved in numerous projects over his two years as MRU’s storyteller-in-residence. »»

Collaborated with geology professor Katherine Boggs, PhD, on the Earthscan research initiative where geoscientists explored the power of story in science

»»

Acted as keynote speaker at A Royal Night, Mount Royal’s 2016 Alumni Achievement Awards

»»

Advocated for Otahpiaaki 2016 and 2017, an MRU-based social innovation project featuring inspiring Indigenous artists and designers

»»

Engaged Treaty 7 leadership to ensure Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are central to the Not in My City project

»»

Stewarded marketing (MKTG 4850) students through three terms of creative and strategic development for Not in My City

»»

Platformed A Tour Like No Other, where students created artifactinspired concerts along the TransCanada Trail

»»

Provided creative opportunities for The Black Hat That Does Good Things campaign for MusiCounts and Calgary’s Smithbilt Hats for rodeo concussion awareness with the Ty Pozzobon Foundation

S U M M I T : You’ve made a career out of telling stories through song. Do you think your career as a singer has informed your work as the storyteller-in-residence?

B R A N D T : I see my job as using my talent to inspire and educate and entertain. Story is the tool that I use — it’s 23 years of trying to fit profound ideas into my art, one three-to-four-minute song at a time. It’s a real fertile training ground, I think, for doing what I’m doing now. I look at it in a lot of ways like it really led me to this place. It’s very natural to be where I’m at right now. It also feels very busy (laughs).

S U M M I T : Has being MRU’s storyteller-inresidence impacted any of the songs or songwriting for The Journey?

B R A N D T : I think about this experience, working at Mount Royal, and I think about my experience working as a registered nurse. You’re not going to hear any lyrics that rhyme with “Bissett School of Business” probably, but the experience has definitely expanded my world view. It makes it into my art and the songs in one way or another. When I worked at the hospital, it was seeing people at their best and seeing them at their worst and that human condition seeps into the way that you see the world as a songwriter. My current single, “The Journey,” is hopeful and optimistic and I would say that my time at Mount Royal has fostered that sentiment.

“To me, a true legacy is about people and how we love them.”

S U M M I T : There’s an almost wistful quality to (the single) “The Journey,” this feeling like we’re all on our way somewhere, and the destination is home — or what’s meant to be, I guess. What were you getting at?

B R A N D T : (laughs) What does it mean?

S U M M I T : Exactly. What I took from it is that our personal journey is our life story, and so where we go, the choices we make, what we do, is going to determine that story.

B R A N D T : Hmmm, yeah. That’s good. I’ve always been really sensitive about ramming messages or ideology down people’s throats. I like to try and stir up questions — that’s always been a part of what

I’m trying to do in my music. Ultimately in this song, one’s destination is something that I think is wise for people to consider. Our concepts of right and wrong and morality and spirituality, they all influence our decisions in some way, and our path. I hope that the song “The Journey” stirs some of these ideas for people and moves them to ask some of these questions themselves. And I also hope that people enjoy driving around in their car and listening to it, because that’s part of it, too.

S U M M I T : Many don’t know you are a nursing grad — what was your experience at MRU like?

B R A N D T : I loved it. It was great. It really prepared me for my chosen career being an RN and I made a ton of friends along the way. I feel really fortunate that I chose nursing for a number of reasons. But one of the main ones is that being an RN, your training teaches you how to learn. Because medicine and patient care is always about doing it better every single time, you have to constantly be in learning mode. Then I literally got the opportunity to work my dream job in the ICU and was offered a record deal in the same week. So I take off to Nashville into an industry that has had the most upheaval of any industry in the digital era. And what did I have as a bedrock? I knew how to learn.

And that’s really served me well.

S U M M I T : You’ve loaned your life’s work to Mount Royal. What is the Legacy Collection?

B R A N D T : Basically, it’s a collection of my archives — literally everything, from letters back and forth to the record company to awards and gold records. The (MRU) students have taken the archives and digitized and organized everything. The plan is to make it available to the public for viewing and education and research. For me, awards are really nothing unless you are able to use them for something.

I appreciate the accolades and pats on the back, but I understand that life is way more than just stuff. To me, a true legacy is about people and how we love them.

And the rest of it’s just paperweight.

S U M M I T : What do you want your legacy to be?

B R A N D T : It may be a bit morbid, but I tend to look at my life from the tombstone back. There’s a song that I wrote years ago called “The Little Space Between.” You know, all the stuff that happens from 1972-dash-whenever-the-last-date-is. What happens in “the little space between” is the stuff that really matters. And I hope that people, when they think about it, (think that I’m) someone who has certainly meant what he said, told the truth, loves people more than things and lived up to his convictions and faith. For me, that’s really what it’s all about.

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JOY, EMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL INCLUSION AND THE ARTS CONTRIBUTE TO AGING WELL WORDS BY MELISSA ROLFE PHOTOS BY CHAO ZHANG AND MIKE POON

think people have this idea that older people have cardboard cut-out personalities. But it’s not like that at all,” says English honours student Breanna Massey. She came to this realization not long after moving into a nearby home for seniors. After a year of living among older adults, Massey concedes that her misconceptions of this age group were quickly dispelled after getting to know the people of Garrison Green. “It’s just a very positive place to be.

Everyone is full of life and kindness and very willing to engage with me and with the community programs.”

Since 2015, MRU students taking English or classes at the Conservatory have been working closely with United Active Living’s Garrison Green residence to offer a variety of programs in music and creative writing.

Massey’s residency at the Garrison Green home is part of the Life-Writing Project, in which third- and fourth-year English students are paired with elder partners for a semester to produce a work of creative non-fiction that tells a story about the resident’s life. The collaborations so far have produced stories, poems, music and visual art. Four small anthologies of the written projects have been published under the supervision of English professor Richard Harrison.

In the final year of her degree, Massey is the third student to live at Garrison Green and the first to do so year-round. As the writer-in-residence, she works

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“THIS PROJECT MADE ME LOOK BACK AT THAT AND SEE I DIDN’T HAVE A DULL LIFE. I HAD A FUN LIFE. I MET ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE, AND I DID ALL SORTS OF THINGS ALONG THE WAY.” WENDY MARTIN Resident at United Active Living’s Garrison Green home with residents on short-story writing. She helps lead other programs such as game nights, conversation circles and book discussions, and joins the group on community outings.

“We know that as people age, social isolation becomes a problem,” explains David Hyttenrauch, chair of the Department of English, Languages and Cultures and one of the architects of the Life-Writing Project. “They detach and start to ‘check out.’ But they start to check back in because of this project.

The ice is broken and they start participating in other group activities there.”

Massey’s partner in the Life-Writing Project was a woman with dementia. “That was a new experience for me. I was kind of nervous, but my partner was incredible. She has a wonderful capacity for feeling and for understanding.”

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The challenge of coping with memory loss has presented some of the most poignant experiences in the Life-Writing Project, according to Hyttenrauch.

“We’ve lost some of the residents since we started, and others have gone through cognitive decline, some quite quickly. We have invested in them deeply and it’s difficult to see — for students and all of us.”

In Massey’s case, her partner’s memory loss proved not to be a barrier to completing her story.

“We always had wonderful conversations, but I would come in a week later and she wouldn’t remember me. I spent four months working with her and what got to me was that even though I was getting to know her very well, she didn’t know me and yet she continued to trust me and open up to me.”

“Most of the residents at Garrison Green are not experiencing dementia, and overall, they have an active social life,” Massey says. Far from being isolated, her neighbours are always eager to engage in conversation. “Everyone wants to chat when they see me. I give myself half an hour to get out of the building so I won’t be late for class anymore,” she adds with a smile.

It was all of this attention and acceptance that made her see that it was she, not they, who had been living with some isolation and loneliness. “I’m not in my own ‘student world’ anymore,” she says.

Massey appreciates the friendships she’s made and how the “very joyful experience” has enriched her own life and infused it with greater empathy. “I’m a lot more willing now to stop and take the time to listen out of interest, because I know it’s beneficial to the other person. I take more time now.”

Massey’s term as writer-in-residence will finish in June. “This is a wonderful way to end my degree.

It’s been a really incredible experience to get to learn about people’s lives and to get to know them as individuals,” she says.

Unearthing memories and rediscovering talents Wendy Martin, 87, participated in the Life-Writing Project for two semesters, and only has praise for it.

“This was a wonderful idea that made me write again,” says Martin, who now pens poetry almost daily.

“I’ve continued writing and I’ve realized how important it is to let my family know about my life — about all that happened before they were born.”

Many of the residents’ stories uncovered and shared along the way include dark moments from

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“I’M A LOT MORE WILLING NOW TO STOP AND TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN OUT OF INTEREST, BECAUSE I KNOW IT’S BENEFICIAL TO THE OTHER PERSON. I TAKE MORE TIME NOW.” BREANNA MASSEY Writer-in-residence at United Active Living’s Garrison Green residence

BRIDGING GAPS THROUGH MUSIC The diverse talents and interests among the residents of United Active Living’s Garrison Green residence is evident to Brad Mahon, director of the Mount Royal University Conservatory, who helps lead music programs for residents. “Music plays such an important part in many peoples’ lives that it’s often associated with memories,” Mahon says. “It’s wonderful to see the residents enjoying the music, connecting and singing along.”

Wendy Martin is a Life-Writing Project participant who is now writing poetry again.

“I CAN REMEMBER COMING IN THAT FRONT DOOR AND THERE WAS A ROAR OF LAUGHTER AND I THOUGHT, ‘OH, THAT’S THE PLACE TO BE.’” WENDY MARTIN the past, such as growing up during the Depression, surviving the Second World War — and, for one resident, time spent in a Japanese-Canadian internment camp.

But there have been light moments, too.

Talking about the past has helped residents recall memories they’d lost, happy stories and moments from childhoods with parents who died long ago.

“One of the things that made me say ‘yes’ was the laughter I heard,” says Martin about when she decided to participate. “I can remember coming in that front door and there was a roar of laughter and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s the place to be.’ We have laughed our heads off at some of the stories from the past.”

Hyttenrauch believes everyone involved has benefited from the Life-Writing Project. “Every person who has touched it has made it what

it is. It’s constantly moving. It’s stimulating, emotional, rewarding and difficult. It has been amazing to watch,” he says.

Martin says that through the project, she came to reflect on her own life differently.

“I looked back at the little things that we did together, the closeness we had as a family and later in my life with my husband,” she recalls thoughtfully. “This project made me look back at that and see I didn’t have a dull life. I had a fun life. I met all sorts of people, and I did all sorts of things along the way.”

Hyttenrauch says that’s really the point of the Life-Writing Project. “For the students, this is a one-on-one relationship with a person, capturing their life experience in a meaningful way,” he says. “It has connected the energy and skill sets of our students to a community that needed them. That’s the core of it for me.”

Martin Boutet, Garrison Green resident.

“Some have even started taking private lessons from the Conservatory.

Mary Fenwick, for example, began taking piano lessons with us a few years ago at age 89. She made her Bella Concert Hall debut in last year’s Sounds of the Season concert, accompanied by the Calgary Youth Orchestra,” says Mahon.

Each year, The Conservatory offers 26 performances and interactive workshops at two United Active Living locations as part of its Arts and Culture Series. Residents enjoy performances from faculty such as Rolf Bertsch (classical piano) and Mark DeJong (jazz saxophone), as well as emerging Academy students and ensembles, including the Mount Royal Arioso, a choir for students grades 6 to 12.

The level of interest and participation in the music programs show the potential for the arts to engage seniors in learning and self-expression, which also helps to connect them socially.

Learn more about Mary Fenwick at mru.ca/ForEveryStage.

Sign up for classes at mru.ca/Conservatory.

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REFORMING A DEMENTIA DIAGNOSIS READING BETWEEN THE LINES

WORDS BY MICHELLE BODNAR AND BRENDAN GREENSLADE

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T

hink of the memory of someone with dementia as a long piece of yarn that’s been cut into random pieces. Instead of a life laid out in a single, unbroken string that follows a linear narrative, their memories are a jumble of segments and scraps.

“Each one of those pieces is like a point in time.

Then take all of those pieces and squeeze them together to make a ball. Each point in time can then exist next to any other point in time.” Mount Royal alumna Susan Macaulay (Public Relations diploma, 1987) developed this analogy after a decade as the primary care partner for her mom, who lived with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Nothing is in sequence. So an event that happened when you were six years old can be right next to an event that happened just yesterday at the age of 78.”

An unwavering advocate for those with dementia and their families, Macaulay began her website, “My Alzheimer’s Story,” in 2014. Her unusually optimistic writings on Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of dementia (including two articles published by the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association) are helping positively alter the way these diseases are viewed.

“I think we need to change the way we perceive Alzheimer’s disease and the people who live with it.

We have this negative narrative that’s all about loss and tragedy and despair, which causes us to treat the people who live with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in ways that are not conducive to them living as fully and productively as they could,” Macaulay says.

What upsets many family members and friends is that they see their loved one’s reality as a devastating loss, and the resulting stress can be overwhelming.

“I feel if people were able to reframe it, if they were able to see and look at the person as having a brain that is changing rather than a brain that is ravaged, then they would have more capacity for hope, and compassion, and love.”

As Canada’s population ages, it’s time to stop thinking of those with dementia as having a brain that is fragmented, unravelled and ruined, she stresses.

Macaulay sees it simply as a new type of “normal,” a state of being in which those diagnosed may still lead joyful and productive lives. This, however, depends on the support of society and the understanding that everyone experiences and remembers life differently.

“I THINK WE NEED TO CHANGE THE WAY WE PERCEIVE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITH IT.” SUSAN MACAULAY Alumna and founder of the dementia advocacy website, “My Alzheimer’s Story.”

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CARE FOR THE CAREGIVER

Breanna Massey and Jim Dolph work in United Active Living’s Garrison Green art studio.

The scope and cost of dementia Contrary to popular belief, dementia, or “senility,” as it was once more commonly called, is not a normal sign of aging. It is a progressive disturbance of synaptic activities, and as of right now, there is no cure.

Twenty-five thousand new cases of dementia are diagnosed in this country every year, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. By 2031 (when all baby boomers will be age 65 or older), the number of Canadians living with the disease is expected to reach 937,000 — a staggering increase of 66 per cent from 2017. Last year, the combined cost of dementia to the health-care system and caregivers was $10.4 billion. By 2031, that cost will skyrocket to $16.6 billion, according to a StatsCan estimate.

Dementia is an umbrella term describing 50-plus different diseases resulting in a decline in mental ability. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common, followed by vascular dementia (which occurs after a stroke), mixed dementia, Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia. Causes are mainly undetermined, but can include Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, normal pressure hydrocephalus (the build-up of cerebrospinal fluid), alcohol abuse, substance abuse, depression, delirium and head injuries.

The person behind the disease People living with dementia are often described as “difficult.” But Macaulay points out that how they’re acting might be attributed to how they’re being treated. Resisting when someone tries to take your clothes off is not strange behaviour, she points out. Nor is becoming restless after being forced to sit for a long period, or refusing food you don’t like.

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The Alzheimer Society of Calgary manages two adult day-support programs for those with dementia, which give caregivers much-needed breaks. They also provide communication strategies for exploring what behaviours are being expressed and what those diagnosed are trying to communicate, as well as emotional support and help finding resources. The society also has education programs geared towards family caregivers called: Caregiver Strategies and Considering Care Options.

“As a caregiver, you are often tasked with not only your own daily living, but the daily living of (the person you are caring for) as well. The last thing you need is a list of 10 phone numbers to call if you need help. We can help people navigate the systems they come in contact with,” says Samantha Reay, registered social worker and support services co-ordinator with the Alzheimer Society of Calgary.

Other local resources include: • Catholic Family Service • Jewish Family Service • Calgary Counselling Centre

“The first thing for caregivers is to step into the person’s reality, and don’t expect them to step into yours. And don’t ask them questions about what they remember or put pressure on them to recognize you. And when they don’t recognize you, ask yourself, ‘Does it really matter?’”

Although those with dementia are different, they’re still people, says Gaye Warthe, PhD, registered social worker and professor in the Department of Child Studies and Social Work, “They are contributing. Just be willing to recognize it’s a new kind of relationship and embrace it.”

Accepting that evolving connection is as important as deriving new ways to house and care for those with dementia.

Research is leaning towards creating innovative communities where people with dementia can thrive in a secure environment. Hogewey in the Netherlands is a carefully designed “dementia village.” The 5.3-acre care facility has a town square, a theatre, a garden and a post office.

There’s even a bar. Caretakers wear regular clothes and are unobtrusively integrated into the society.

“Patients” have been observed to eat better, take fewer medications, live longer and seem happier.

Members of the surrounding communities also use the facilities.

Research is also looking into lifestyle factors that may help slow or stave off dementias, such as exercise, a healthy diet and not smoking.

Inspired by Hogeway, Canada’s first community specifically for those living with dementia will open in Langely, B.C., in 2019. The Village will be comprised of six bungalows housing 78 residents, with care provided by 72 expert staff.

Roughly 56,000 Canadians with dementia currently live in hospitals, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, a less-than-ideal situation.

Hospitals aren’t set up for long-term care, and

function best as short-term stops on the way to community-based continuing care.

“With Alberta Health Services, and as a nurse, our goal is to try to keep people as independent as possible,” says Jocelyn Rempel, a registered nurse and professor in Mount Royal’s School of Nursing and Midwifery. If possible, the patient’s home is the best place for them to be. But if there are health and safety issues — forgetting to clean out the fridge or go shopping, neglecting medications, wandering — an independent living facility might be the next option.

“Some people actually show an improvement in those environments because they have that structure and the supports they need,” Rempel says.

“THE FIRST THING FOR CAREGIVERS IS TO STEP INTO THE PERSON’S REALITY, AND DON’T EXPECT THEM TO STEP INTO YOURS.” GAYE WARTHE, PhD Professor, Department of Child Studies and Social Work

In Canada, a National Strategy for DementiaFriendly Communities was published in November 2016, and provincial dementia care strategies are being developed. A federal bill (C-233) passed in 2017 details an outline for the future and provides $100 million towards a dementia strategy, along with extra funds for respite care. The Alberta Dementia Strategy was unveiled in December 2017, with Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman stating that nearly $7 million had already been spent on initiatives. The First Link program, which connects caregivers to support systems after a diagnosis, has received about $2 million.

Staggering statistics

1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men are at risk of developing dementia.

564,000 Canadians are currently living with a dementia diagnosis.

Dementia Network Calgary

Alzheimer Society of Canada

For every person diagnosed, another 10 to 12 lives are directly impacted.

Dementia Network Calgary

From 1971 to 2010 the proportion of Canadian seniors in the population grew from eight to 14 per cent.

In 2015, the number of people in Canada over the age of 65 surpassed those under the age of 15 for the first time ever.

Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada

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Suspect abuse?

When exploitation and mistreatment of a senior by their caregiver is suspected, people can turn to the Alberta government’s Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, as well as their local police service. The City of Calgary’s 311 line can also assist.

The ripple effect of a chronic disease The trauma that comes with watching a loved one decline can cause a situation rife with potential for family upheaval. Family members often disagree about finances, care choices, living arrangements, planning and more. The stories are myriad. Major fallings-out have occurred because of misspent money, unfair division of duties, denial, disrespect and resentfulness.

But, Warthe reminds that, “Conflict is a pretty normal part of life. Families need to be able to take time, sit down and talk about it, or even invite somebody else in to help process what needs to be discussed.”

“TO BE PRUDENT, FAMILIES NEED TO START HAVING THESE CONVERSATIONS EARLY ON.” GAYE WARTHE, PhD Disagreements often arise because of other feelings such as senses of loss and anger, the common emotion of, “I don’t want to have to deal with this,” and the inability to fix the problem.

“Right now, what we should all be doing is talking to each other about what is important to us and what we would like to happen if we become ill or unable to make decisions for ourselves,” she says. Rather than waiting for others to make the choices for you related to finance, care and even end-of-life planning, Warthe says everyone should be taking note of what they have witnessed that they liked and what they didn’t, documenting everything and sharing their thoughts with family members and friends.

“Not everyone is comfortable anticipating loss of function or the ability to make your own decisions.

For those who are able, it is not uncommon to see them making choices about long-term care facilities

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and planning their own funerals or even drafting an obituary. This kind of planning is not much different than designating a power of attorney or executor in the case of death.”

Family members should meet to assign specific roles ahead of time. One person could be in charge of health, another in charge of care, another in charge of finances and another in charge of the funeral. Everything should be agreed upon and carefully documented, recognizing that circumstances may change. This “baseline” greatly reduces the chance of confusion and allows for potential problems to be properly addressed.

Warthe recommends picking up directive packages (available in doctors’ offices) and having them signed off by the patient and the caregivers. The discharge planning offered by social workers at hospitals can be helpful as well.

“To be prudent, families need to start having these conversations early on.”

Although they are hard discussions to have, they can actually bring families together, revealing details about loved ones that could have remained hidden forever. They are opportunities to create a “new sort of closeness,” Warthe says. Find out what song your family member wants played at their funeral, and why. Who would they like to speak about them? What would they like others to reminisce upon? What are they most proud of?

“You don’t want to be remembered as a disease or an illness,” she says. “You want to be remembered as a valued friend and family member and have your life celebrated.”

Picking up the pieces With patience and knowledge, those fragments of yarn that make up a dementia patient’s story can be knitted into something new. A dementia diagnosis doesn’t have to equal the end of a life. Rather, it can be the beginning of a new level of understanding and the start of a new purpose.

HEALTHY AGING TOP OF MIND EXPERTS ARE TACKLING GETTING OLDER THROUGH EDUCATION AND LOCAL INITIATIVES WORDS BY NICOLE HERBACK AND BRENDAN GREENSLADE

T

he burgeoning population of seniors in Canada presents an unprecedented and inevitable inundation on our health-care system, housing and social supports — otherwise referred to as the “grey tsunami” by those in the field. At Mount Royal, efforts are underway across the University as faculty members approach the issue of aging through the lens of their own expertise.

The collective impact of aging

Trudy Martin, resident at United Active Living’s Garrison Green home.

The steady increase in dementia diagnoses remains a mystery, but Mount Royal’s Sandra Gordon, a professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery who teaches health for seniors and has experience in geriatric care, points to possible changes in stress levels, a rise in diabetes and overall shifts in lifestyle as possible causes.

There is a single correlation with all dementias, however — aging.

Gordon played a key role as part of the Mount Royal team that supported the 2017 launch of Dementia Network Calgary — an organization of experts driven by a collective impact model — addressing social problems with people across different sectors who are committed to a common agenda.

“There is a prevailing stigma around dementia. It’s not treated like heart disease or cancer is,” Gordon says. “We first need to transform the thinking around it.”

And changing perspectives is what the group set out to do, as they unveiled their new publication Dementia Connections at their fall launch.

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Interested in taking part in the Brain in Motion II study?

Participants between 50 and 80 years old are being recruited until mid-2018.

Email bimstudy@ucalgary.ca to learn more.

Aging, exercise and mental health Brain in Motion II is a study being led

by Marc Poulin, PhD, a member of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health at the University of Calgary. It is a followup to Brain in Motion I, which was completed in April 2016. Julie Booke, PhD and a professor in the Department of Health and Physical Education, has become the liaison to the study for Mount Royal, allowing the two institutions to work together and best utilize available resources.

The studies are looking at the effect of a six-month aerobic exercise intervention on cerebral blood flow and cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

“It’s great that Mount Royal has the opportunity to be a part of such a large study,” Booke says. “It provides research opportunities for students, material for classroom assignments, practicum opportunities and also creates learning experiences for Recreation staff as participants use the facilities.”

Social inclusion and nature As the question of how to improve senior care and well-being becomes more prevalent in and around Calgary, it may be that one answer is simply to return to our roots.

Interacting with nature is an emerging theme, with various organizations and key players across the city and province discussing and acting on the opportunity.

“Spending time in nature leads to increased confidence, socialization skills and optimization of performance,” says Genevieve Currie, a professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and sponsor of the We. Are. Nature. workshop and connections fair that took place in the fall of 2017. “When 40

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Breanna Massey plays cribbage with Trudy Martin.

you bring people together in nature, they become more comfortable with themselves and in interacting with others.”

The MRU Inclusive Community Garden, also a project of Currie’s, has been putting into practice the notion of taking advantage of the nurturing aspects of nature for three years. The project entails a wideranging collaboration between the students’ association, nursing students and faculty members.

Every Friday morning, buses bring local seniors to MRU to spend a few hours in the garden planting and growing seeds.

The garden is for day-care children, too. Bringing together children and adults to do a task together removes physical and mental barriers that are often encountered between these two groups.

“In the Planting Seeds Project, we’re no longer researchers or participants,” Currie says. “We’re all gardeners.”

MRU’s Sonya Jakubec, PhD, professor in the School of Nursing,

co-presented this fall with Alberta Parks on research that also points to the important role nature can play in end-of-life care. In a provincewide survey conducted in 2015, Jakubec found that more than 90 per cent of people working as caregivers or nearing the end of their lives feel physical, emotional and spiritual comfort when outdoors.

“Sensory experiences can evoke calmness, relieve stress and help people find peace, whether it’s the feeling of dirt under their fingers or the grass under their feet. Through these memories we can support them by exposing them to just being outdoors,” she says. “Nature gives us perspective about life and death.”

Jakubec’s work on identifying nature as a conduit for grieving has been well received and was published by the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta. Jakubec continues to work with Alberta Parks and Alberta Health Services on integrating nature and park access into community health.

CONTINUING CARE SKILLS Mount Royal’s Faculty of Continuing Education has a program for family caregivers and non-healthcare professionals who want to gain skills and grow their knowledge of dementia.

The three courses in the Dementia Care Certificate of Completion introduce the disease as a progressive process that is experienced uniquely by individuals and families.

Carlo Romano in the Garrison Green art studio.

Online courses:

Preparing the professionals of the future

“THROUGH THESE MEMORIES WE CAN SUPPORT THEM BY EXPOSING THEM TO JUST BEING OUTDOORS ... NATURE GIVES US PERSPECTIVE ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH.” SONYA JAKUBEC, PhD Professor, School of Nursing

For Jocelyn Rempel, professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, it’s about being prepared. For the past decade, Rempel has taught students who will soon be on the forefront of seniors’ health.

“It’s not uncommon for students to come into the Bachelor of Nursing with a little bit of an ageist view, not necessarily being keen to work with older people,” Rempel says. “I teach the third-year Seniors’ Health course that focuses on gerontological nursing.

Students get experience with seniors during their three-week on-sites, where some of the people they are working with are experiencing Alzheimer’s or related dementias.”

As the age demographic shifts, the need for geriatric specializations in nursing will grow.

Community care initiatives are expected to continue as a burgeoning trend.

“We’re really trying to get students passionate about working with seniors, because as it stands, we are not ready for the boomers.

There is a serious opportunity for students to specialize and fill the predicted gap in our healthcare system.”

• Understanding Dementia CRN 30929 • Caring for Older Adults CRN 30315 • Caring for Families CRN 30928

In addition, MRU offers an Advanced Topics in Dementia Care Extension Certificate for health-care professionals encountering the disease across the care continuum.

The certificate provides up-to-date knowledge for health-care professionals working with older adults living with dementia and their families — from early identification to end-of-life care — and best-practices education for dementia care applications.

Find out more at mru.ca/Dementia.

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RICHARD HARRISON WINS GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARD

ON NOT LOSING MY FATHER’S ASHES IN THE FLOOD — A BEAUTIFUL, HONEST LOOK AT LOSING A PARENT TO DEMENTIA WORDS BY MICHELLE BODNAR PHOTO BY CHRISTINA RICHES AND CHAO ZHANG

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M

ount Royal English professor Richard Harrison was the recipient of the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award in the English language poetry category for his collection, On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood.

The win places Harrison firmly in Canada’s highest echelon of writers. Presented since 1937, it is one of the most prestigious writing awards in the country, with previous poetry winners including Margaret Atwood, Robert Kroetsch, Leonard Cohen and Michael Ondaatje.

On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood also received the 2017 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry from the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and reached number one on the Calgary Herald’s bestseller list for non-fiction. In early 2018 Harrison was named one of the Calgary Herald’s “Compelling Calgarians.”

Harrison was dealing with his father’s vascular dementia at the same time he was putting his collection together.

“The dementia ate away at him slowly, but he knew who he was and he remembered his poetry. He died with still a lot of himself intact,” Harrison says. His father had stashed an impressive repertoire of poems in his mind, which he recited to his sons while they were growing up.

“My dad has always been both emotionally rich for me and provided a language to describe that richness that I wanted to write a lot about.”

The poem “With the Dying of the Light” is a moving recollection of the last conversation Harrison had with his father before he died, and takes in the final teachings Harrison’s father had to pass on to him about poetry.

“That poetry — or all art — is the answer to death, and the great disorder of all life. The flood, death, the violence we do to each other. This is it. This is the best I’ve got to answer that.”

SUPERMAN POEM BY RICHARD HARRISON FROM ON NOT LOSING MY FATHER’S ASHES IN THE FLOOD WOLSAK & WYNN, 2016

WHEN A HERO LOSES HIS POWERS

The adjacent poem, “Superman,” is an observance of how illness affected Harrison’s father, who had always been a hero to him.

There came a time when my father did not know when his stomach was full,

and finishing a meal

was the same to his brain

as closing his eyes on the table.

What an image this is:

my commanding father, whose finger once imitated the thump of a bullet striking my chest so I might be educated in the way power makes a hammer from a nail,

Raiding the fridge in the middle of the day like he was a teen, or toddler, and growing all over again the body of his youth – and ahead of him, again in olive green, the soldier waits to dress the limbs and untamed temper of his father’s laboring days, the soldier who’ll perfect the man’s betrayal by his industrial king.

I’m drawing Superman over and over, trying to get that beautiful linear face just right, like it is in the comics –

a few lines that bless with an uncle’s wink to a nephew in the know,

and then go grim to reap what a villain sows with his indulgences.

I want it all back.

Here is a picture of my father

at twenty-eight at his brother’s wedding. Look at that face –

see the anatomical plane of his cheek, clean

and without a sign of anything but future

in the wingspan of his smile.

I am not yet born.

The war is over.

The home planet is dust.

I cannot get it right.

They say what needs to be done is clear out the fridge

so Dad can’t overeat, feeding a need that nothing will.

What an image it is –

my Dad opening and reopening the Arctic door of his insatiable want: it befits an agony from myth.

I cannot explain it to him; his body has wrested the mind’s knowledge of the body from the mind – and it has taken even his power to understand that.

He rages at an empty box –

an unfillable thought consuming him.

This is my father in his solitude.

This is my Superman.

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FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL WORDS BY JONATHAN ANDERSON ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY EOM

There is a term heard often throughout Mount Royal University that definitely sounds like something worth being involved in. But it’s hard to define. What, exactly, is a changemaker? And how will they make a difference in the world?

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any Mount Royal students, faculty, staff, administration and alumni from diverse backgrounds and disciplines are addressing local and global challenges head-on. They teach, inspire and empower to create meaningful change in the community.

Their dedication was rewarded when Ashoka U — part of Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs and changemakers — recognized Mount Royal for its global leadership in social innovation and changemaking in higher education.

In the summer of 2017, the University joined 44 others from around the world when it was officially designated as a Changemaker Campus after a rigorous multi-stage application and review process.

Other notable institutions to receive the classification include Brown, Cornell and Duke.

“We are honoured to be awarded with this designation because it recognizes our history, which is built upon a strong liberal education foundation and connection to community,” says Mount Royal president David Docherty, PhD. “It also reflects our continued commitment to shape our society, which we all know is increasingly interconnected.”

Mount Royal’s dedication to Indigenous reconciliation, exceptional undergraduate experiences, socially and environmentally conscious operations and its growing leadership in advancing a new role for post-secondary institutions were strong factors in Ashoka U’s decision.

Mike Quinn, PhD and Mount Royal’s associate vice-president of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement, says, “For me, the Ashoka U Changemaker Campus designation installs MRU in a highly influential and respected group of universities committed to transforming post-secondary education for the betterment of society.” He describes a changemaker as “anyone from our community dedicated to applying learning and knowledge creation towards making the world a better place.”

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STEPS TOWARDS SHAPING A SOCIETY The soon-to-open Trico Changemakers Studio at Mount Royal is the result of the vision and efforts of the Institute for Community Prosperity, the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Bissett School of Business, Trico Homes and the Trico Charitable Foundation.

Social innovators from various sectors will share space in the studio with students from all faculties who are working on social and environmental change initiatives.

The three core values of the studio are community, learning and innovation.

External organizations are being asked to join as partners in driving its mission.

Jill Andres, director of the Trico Changemakers Studio, says the plan is to appeal to social entrepreneurs, artists and community leaders.

The studio will officially launch — on a grand scale — in September 2018. Students will research challenges, create, test and incubate new ideas, and be mentored by social innovators and community leaders. It will be the home of new ventures and collaborative work in a supportive but critical learning environment, testing and prototyping new ways to address social and environmental challenges.

CHANGEMAKING THROUGH CURRICULUM AND RESEARCH Throughout the fall semester, seniorlevel information design students were asked to use a human-centred design process to examine one of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals. This framework addresses the world’s most important issues, such as access to clean water and healthy food, safety and security, sustainability and climate change, gender equality and many others. Students presented their results at the HUMANLY — Systems Thinking and Changemaking event at the end of 2017.

EXAMPLES OF CHANGEMAKING ON CAMPUS: • Vivacity, an experiential social innovation course led by MRU and offered collaboratively with other Calgary post-secondary institutions. Last year students created options and ideas for the use of vacant downtown office space.

• MRU and MacEwan University’s joint offering of the Social Innovation Extension Certificate.

• Mount Royal’s minor in Social Innovation and Nonprofit Studies, which is open to all students.

• The University’s extensive Community Service Learning initiatives linking classroom learning to communityengaged project work.

• Student involvement in the Campus Transformation Challenge to improve campus culture, space and waste reduction.

• The Centre for Community Disaster Research’s partnerships with several community members in developing more effective responses and resilience to natural disasters, such as the Calgary flood and the Fort McMurray fires.

• The Treaty 7 Field School, which provides learning through profound experiential opportunities.

CHANGEMAKER-IN-RESIDENCE TEAM GROWS Early in 2018 the Institute for Community Prosperity welcomed Cathy Glover to the campus’s changemaker-in-residence team. Glover comes to Mount Royal from a long career in the energy industry and volunteering with charitable and nonprofit organizations in Calgary. Because of Glover’s ability to maintain a system-wide view, Elder Casey Eaglespeaker gifted her with the name Aahpii Pitahgii, which means White Eagle Woman. Glover is based out of

HOW CAN YOU BECOME A CHANGEMAKER? According to the Mount Royal research website, “Changemakers have a deep sense of empathy, are self-aware, approach their work with humility, are committed to the common good, engage in deep listening and act boldly to create inclusive, resilient communities.”

With a well-established, committed changemaking community on campus, Andres believes there are no boundaries.

“All of our students have the opportunity to become changemakers, as do staff, faculty and the executive team,” says Andres. With that, the University as a whole is looking at ways to maximize its impact as a post-secondary. Whether through physical spaces, teaching and learning techniques or engaging individuals who wouldn’t normally come onto campus, changemaking can happen on a number of levels.

INDIVIDUAL

SOCIETAL

According to Andres, being able to perceive the interconnections between systems is important. She points out that how we act in one area often has an impact on another. Understanding this helps bring positive change.

“At the organizational level, it’s about our students having the 21st-century skills needed to be successful in society, such as digital literacy, the ability to work collaboratively and the ability to innovate and act on creative ideas.

“When artificial intelligence becomes significant, these are the things that can’t be replaced.”

Changemaking encompasses learning to work across different disciplines and cultural boundaries, and effecting change in a way that creates something better for the world we live in.

Complex societal issues such as poverty, climate change and food security all require the kinds of people who can solve problems, deal with complexities and be comfortable with non-linearity. “I feel personally invested in this as a mom and as someone who knows that future generations are going to live in this world,” says Andres.

Changemaking at Mount Royal University has been a part of its DNA since the outset. “What is shifting,” she says, “is not the existence of changemaking, it’s about creating connections between those elements in service of a bigger common purpose that is now embraced and celebrated University-wide.”

the Trico Changemakers Studio.

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THE ROAD TO CHANGEMAKING AT MOUNT ROYAL

1 1 AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT MRU becomes actively engaged as a member of the changemaking community on and off campus and is increasingly aware of what peers are doing to create meaningful change.

2 MENTORSHIP Mount Royal develops wider and deeper connections to the changemaking community. Students build relationships with individuals across a wide range of backgrounds and fields to help them become effective agents for change.

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3 RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP The University promotes and celebrates community-engaged scholarship and action research among faculty and students, mobilizing knowledge.

4 BRIDGE TO COMMUNITY MRU fosters collaborative relationships on and off campus to increase mutual learning and stimulate social change.

5 STUDENTS AS CHANGEMAKERS Students see themselves as agents of change and gain confidence in their ability to make a difference in the world.

They develop changemaker skills and mindsets such as systems thinking, courage, empathy and respect.

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6 SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT MRU cultivates respectful and welcoming environments for all students and empowers the community to generate and act on ideas that transform the world.

COURAGE The University raises and addresses big questions.

8 TEACHING AND LEARNING Mount Royal gathers and understands information from other scholars to deliver effective changemaking education.

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Alumni gone grad WORDS BY VALERIE BERENYI

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eet six graduates who’ve taken their degrees from Mount Royal University into graduate programs in Calgary, across Canada and around the globe.

They honed their curiosity, their skills and their confidence at MRU. And then they set off, hungry for new challenges.

PAULA LARSSON Bachelor of Arts — Anthropology (Honours) and History (Honours) (2013) Graduating with a dual major might leave some content, but when Paula Larsson left Mount Royal University her appetite for higher education had only been whetted.

“I love learning and I knew that there was so much more I could do with my research,” says Larsson, who studies the history of medicine as it relates to the treatment of minorities in Canada.

She enrolled in the Master of Arts — History program at the University of Calgary, where she investigated health and health care in Alberta’s residential schools. “The narrative of progress is only one version of this history and I made it my goal to uncover the other perspectives — told by patients in psychiatric institutions, students in residential schools and victims of Canada’s eugenics sterilization programs,” Larsson says.

“These stories need to be told and I’ve continued my schooling so that I am equipped to help tell them.”

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Her second master’s was in medical anthropology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

She is now pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy — History at the same institution. Her focus is on the history of vaccination policy in Canada and investigating the origins of why many minorities still fear getting vaccinated — a wariness that can compromise their health.

“Canada’s public health policies have historically been highly influenced by the eugenics movement, and certain assumptions pertaining to racial differences have been a dominating factor in the ideology behind policy,” she explains.

She hopes her research will give patients and doctors new, more productive ways to discuss vaccination.

MRU laid the groundwork for her studies, Larsson says. Beyond learning how to research and write at her alma mater, “I learned to take myself seriously and to have respect for my personal beliefs and goals.”

“In a small classroom, the professors were approachable and supportive. They treated you with respect and equality in a way I have yet to see at any other university,” she says. This gave her a sense of control, confidence and determination when she started her graduate studies, an advantage over her colleagues.

“Paula is a great scholar and remarkable person,” says Joe Anderson, PhD and a professor of history at MRU. “She not only has excellent academic skills — among the best I’ve encountered in all my years of teaching — but she also shows great humanity.”

A full-time student who admits to being obsessive about books and croquet, Larsson works during the summer as a tour guide in the ancient city of Oxford.

Inspiring visitors by telling stories of the past is “incredibly rewarding,” she says.

“I know that when I finish (my studies), I will want to continue to be an engaged historian so that I can keep using history to inspire others.”

PHOTO BY SARAJERVING/DEVEX

CORRIE BUTLER Bachelor of Communication — Information Design (2014) Corrie Butler’s post-secondary experience has taken her from Calgary to Kenya, with some key stops along the way.

Now a communications delegate with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for Africa (based in Kenya), Butler’s specialty is in humanitarian and international development communications, which involves reporting during crises and emergencies.

Her journey began when she was finishing her last year of studies at MRU. At the time, she was taking her final few classes while working full time for the Canadian Red Cross in Calgary, where she had volunteered throughout her degree. While working in a broad strategic communications and public relations position, she realized what her life’s work might become.

To build her expertise and knowledge, and combine those with her passion for humanitarian work, Butler completed a “very practical” one-year Master of Arts — International Public Relations and Global Communications Management at Cardiff University in Wales in 2015.

Her MRU experience prepared her well for grad school and work.

“Mount Royal has a fantastic marriage of theory and practice.

Having been in both the business and communications schools, the experience particularly strengthened skills found in any work environment,” Butler says.

After graduation, she landed a job in Johannesburg with UNESCO as a regional communications consultant on an HIV and health-education team in eastern and southern Africa. On its heels came an assignment as a communications consultant with the United Nations Population Fund, first in South Africa and then remotely for the Pakistan office.

Now based in Nairobi, Butler spends little time in the bustling city because her work takes her to places such as Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan, supporting the Red Cross response to emergency food insecurity.

In her downtime, she likes to explore the unique landscapes of her international postings. She also enjoys new and interesting foods. “My husband and I even keep track of the weird food we’ve tried, especially the meat, including water beetles, snakes and mopane worms.”

BRANDON SHOKOPLES Bachelor of Science — Health Science (2017) Months after graduating from MRU, Brandon Shokoples was already immersed in a Master of Science — Experimental Medicine at McGill University.

Shokoples says his time at MRU helped to prepare him for grad school because he had opportunities to do highlevel research directly with professors. He explains that Mount Royal gave him the chance “to peek behind the curtain, to see what the next step in academia would be like.” So he kept going.

JULIA WENZEL Bachelor of Child Studies — Child and Youth Care Counsellor (2016) Julia Wenzel was accepted into the Master of Counselling Psychology program at the University of Calgary in September 2017. The full-time program is tough, admits Wenzel, who juggles grad school with a full-time job at McMan Youth Family and Community Services Association, providing families with intensive, in-home parenting skills and counselling. Nevertheless, her focus is razor-sharp.

DONNA ATKINSON SMITH Social Work Diploma (2014) Donna Atkinson Smith completed a diploma, a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in an astonishing 4½ years.

This intense education began when she took an Addiction Certification program at Mount Royal in the fall of 2011. While completing that program, she was accepted into MRU’s Social Work diploma program, finishing in 2014.

Then, it was on to the U of C to complete a marathon’s worth of education in the time of a sprint.

GEOFF SCHOENBERG Bachelor of Applied Business and Entrepreneurship — Sport and Recreation (2007) Geoff Schoenberg is the first MRU graduate to complete a doctorate in sport management.

After finishing his undergrad in 2007, Schoenberg worked for a few years in the sport industry, but quickly realized that while his degree was a “great foundation,” he needed either a background as an elite athlete or a graduate degree to become a senior leader in the industry.

Next stop? Australia!

For the complete Alumni Gone Grad stories, visit mru.ca/AlumniGoneGrad

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AC A DEMIC R EST R ICT ION FR EEDOM versus FR EEDOM OF EX PR ESSION WORDS BY RUTH MYLES

From an Ontario professor’s controversial refusal to use gender-neutral pronouns to tense contract negotiations between instructors and post-secondary institutions, academic freedom and freedom of expression are a regular part regular part of today’s news cycle.

It’s a discussion that’s been going on since the time of Socrates and one in which all university faculty members have an interest. The ability to pursue different ideas and approaches unfettered is fundamental to unfettered is fundamental to higher education, but what happens when an argument is deemed offensive? And who gets to decide what’s offensive? What’s often framed as a black or white argument is often composed of a multitude of shades of grey.

As the scientist Erwin Schrödinger once said, “In an honest search for knowledge, you quite often have to abide by ignorance for an indefinite period.”

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What is academic freedom?

The foundation of academic freedom dictates that intellectual exploration must be carried out without regard for prevailing political winds, popular opinion or personal considerations.

At Mount Royal, academic freedom is considered a fundamental right of faculty. The University’s policy on academic freedom — approved in 1993 and up for review in April — reads, in part: “Academic members of the community are entitled, regardless of prescribed doctrine, to freedom in carrying out research and in publishing the results thereof, freedom of teaching and of discussion, freedom to criticize the University and the faculty association, and freedom from institutional censorship.”

The policy also states that academic freedom “carries with it the duty to use that in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base research and teaching on an honest search for knowledge” (in an obvious nod to Schrödinger), and that academic staff have an “obligation to use academic freedom in a responsible manner. This implies a recognition of the rights of other members of the academic community, and a tolerance of differing points of view.”

Academic freedom should be a core value of all universities, says Sinclair MacRae, PhD and a philosophy professor in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal. This and other foundational elements of post-secondary institutions work to generate principles that are normative guides offering direction to society. Those guides say, “Tell the truth, promote excellence, respect diversity,” MacRae says. The role of the university is to promote justice, generally, and serve This implies a recognition of the rights of other members of the academic community, and a tolerance of differing points of view.”

Academic freedom should be a core value of all universities, says Sinclair MacRae, PhD and a philosophy professor in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal. This and other foundational elements of post-secondary institutions work to generate principles that are normative guides offering direction to society. Those guides say, “Tell the truth, promote excellence, respect diversity,” MacRae says. The role of the university is to promote justice, generally, and serve functions that include executing research, the creation of knowledge and performing inquiries into issues about values.

“Academic freedom is needed in order to carry out those socially useful purposes and therefore is ultimately justified by the promotion of justice.

Values generate principles and the principles generate rights, obligations, duties, powers,” MacRae says.

He acknowledges it is a fairly complex story, but the basic idea is academic freedom is necessary for the common good of society.

Lesley Brown, PhD, provost and vice-president, academic, says she views academic freedom with “a sense of pride and a sense of protection.”

“The advantage of academic freedom is it allows us to talk and explore subjects that are on the edge of comfort. And that is what we want to be able to do for our students,” Brown says. “We want to be able to share and discuss controversial subjects because, I believe, it really pushes boundaries of thinking and strengthens the capacity to view and exist in the world.”

And, as Brown points out, it’s not about supporting this perspective or that one; it’s about supporting faculty’s right to hold those perspectives.

“The advantage of academic freedom is it allows us to talk and explore subjects that are on the edge of comfort.”

Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Lesley Brown, PhD

What is freedom of expression?

Lesley Brown, PhD, provost and vicepresident, academic, oversees all facets of educational programming and research at the University and is highly committed to ensuring academic freedom thrives.

Under section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadians have the right to “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Freedom of expression isn’t absolute, however. Section 1 states the rights and freedoms set out in the charter are “subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” The courts have ruled those limits can be imposed on hate speech, libel laws and pornography. llibel lawsibel laws and pornography.

The two concepts are closely related, often intersecting. Frances Widdowson, PhD, a professor in the Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, says that a “robust conception” of freedom of expression is required in order to allow for exploration of controversial areas.

“I, personally, argue for a very, very broad understanding of academic freedom, to the point where I almost can’t make a distinction between academic freedom and freedom of expression,” Widdowson says. “Limiting the freedom of expression of professors in areas not considered to be their area of expertise inhibits their ability to make connections between ideas.”

She adds that she has the most difficulty when it comes to the collision of academic freedom and pseudoscience. As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, pseudoscience is “a spurious or pretended science; a branch of knowledge or a system of beliefs mistakenly regarded as based on scientific method or having the status of scientific truth.”

Widdowson posits, in science and investigation, “all questions are “all questions are open.

Nothing is closed.” No stranger to controversy, Widdowson’s views on the theory of cultural evolution and Indigenous policies make headlines.

“A certain number of scholars think that my understanding of aboriginal-non-aboriginal relations has merit. It should be debated. A lot of other scholars don’t think it has (merit),” she says. “This is a very unsettled area that needs to be investigated and examined.”

Widdowson credits Mount Royal for how it’s handled the polemic surrounding her work. “The one thing I really appreciate about Mount Royal is that it’s done everything right in terms of my case.

I just want to have the argument.”

Marc Schroeder, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing and president of the Mount Royal Faculty Association, stresses that academic freedom exists within a peer-reviewed profession, which provides checks and balances.

“It’s actually your peers who will help to ensure that the work you’re doing meets the standards of the discipline. At the heart of it, whatever you’re studying, whatever you’re teaching, it comes with a responsibility to apply logical thinking and reason, to engage in critical thinking, to support your positions with evidence.”

On the other hand, he points out, “Free expression gives any citizen the right to hold right to hold opinions and to express them, even if they’re intellectually lazy, or even if they’re wrong-headed, or even if they’re outright wrong, or have been debunked in the past.”

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Freedom of Expression and Making the Campus a Safe Space: Where Should the Line Be Drawn?

What people say has a direct result on what people experience, especially when those words foster an environment of inequality and violence.

That was the point put forward by Professor Rinaldo Walcott, PhD, during a panel discussion at Mount Royal University in February. Walcott, the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, was speaking at Freedom of Expression and Making the Campus a Safe Space: Where Should the Line Be Drawn?

“Contrary to popular belief, words do harm words do harm. Ideas do enact violences of all kinds, including ideas that led people to being put into holds of slave ships all the way to now, to incarcerated and caged experiences,” Walcott said. “We have to get beyond the liberal notion that there is something called words that just float out there that don’t do anything, that they are detached from ideas, that ideas are detached from practices.”

The call for “safe spaces” is a way of recognizing that today’s university is not in full support of marginalized and minoritized populations, he said. The “co-opted” term isn’t about asking for special accommodations.

Rather, safe spaces are an attempt to provide a platform to discover how to “come into ourselves” in imperfect institutions.

Presented by the Faculty of Arts and Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, the event featured a six-person panel that gave opening remarks, engaged in discussion and took questions from the approximately 80 people in attendance.

Shifrah Gadamsetti, president of the Students’ Association of Mount Royal University, who was in the audience, called for academia to recognize the validity of lived experiences in research. Universal truths need to incorporate “every sort of marginalized or intersectional experience,” otherwise it’s individual because it disregards certain experiences disregards certain experiences.

“We are asking for people to jump through and jump to places of privilege that they might not be afforded in order to have their experiences validated,” Gadamsetti said. “I view research, whether it’s qualitative or quantitative, as a summary and dissemination of lived experience.”

She also questioned the lack of recognition of “the dominant discourse of resistance” when talking about freedom of expression. “I personally think that respect is tepid,” Gadamsetti said. “It’s, frankly, useless in our society right now. Someone had talked of respect as being tolerant and I think that is what it is. It’s an ideology that’s allowed for continued lip service, inaction and the perpetuation of violence.”

Find a recording of the Freedom of Expression and Making the Campus a Safe Space: Where Should the Line Be Drawn? event on the Calgary Journal’s Facebook page (facebook.com/CalgaryJournal).

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Tension points in academic freedom Academic freedom should come with an asterisk or two ... or three, says Professor Kimberly Williams, PhD, and coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Mount Royal.

“There’s this conflation that academic freedom is neutral and unbiased, which it never can be,” Williams says. Williams says.

Those academic freedom asterisks need to cover everything from who wields the power (those who have risen to the top of a biased system) to who earns tenure (through a system where students hold the power to torpedo a career if they don’t like what a professor is saying), she says. Those asterisks include self-censorship to conform to gender, racial and societal constructs. Another reason for self-censorship is to avoid becoming the target of harassment and violence for sharing views. And don’t forget the asterisk when it comes to trotting out discredited research under the umbrella under the umbrella of academic freedom.

“I have to use these tools (of my scholarship) wisely and with restraint and with responsibility,” Williams says. “I am very conscious of it, partly because of what I teach. ‘Oh, those crazy feminists.

Here they go again.’”

That means she has to exercise academic rigour in her inquiries and while sharing knowledge with others, a key component of academic freedom.

That specialized knowledge that is tied to academic freedom is highly valued, not only in the halls of academe, but in the private sector as well.

As post-secondary institutions look for alternative sources of funding, the question of corporate interests — and influence — comes into play.

In 2012, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) adopted Guiding Principles for University Collaborations, partly in response to an American study, response to an American study, Big Oil Goes to College. It found troubling information about 10 collaborations between leading universities and major energy corporations when it came to who was calling the shots. For example, it discovered “None of the 10 agreements required faculty research proposals to be evaluated and awarded funding based on independent expert peer review,” according to CAUT.

Sinclair MacRae, PhD, and a philosophy professor at Mount Royal, says “if you have the free exchange of ideas and the opportunity for people to pursue ideas as they wish, great things can come out of that.”

Corporations should actually be promoting academic freedom, MacRae says, if only to boost their bottom lines. “There are lots of examples in the history of science of people having narrowminded views about what constitutes a good line of research, and just overlooking the possibilities ...

Whereas if you have the free exchange of ideas and the opportunity for people to pursue ideas as they wish, great things can come out of that.”

Schroeder says academic freedom is also about the ability for academic staff to participate “intramurally” (on campus), including within the including within the academic governance of the University as well as in curriculum development and review, and “extramurally” (off campus) as a public intellectual free from institutional censorship. academic governance of the University

Tension points in academic freedom of expression Here’s the thing about freedom of expression: what’s celebrated in theory can be challenging in practice. Take the anti-abortion demonstrators who regularly appear on campuses across the country, often accompanied by posters plastered with graphic imagery. When they show up at Mount Royal, security places warning signs to alert passersby. But that doesn’t level the protest playing field, Williams says.

“Who has the power and the privilege of free speech on our campus? The counter-protestors don’t know that the anti-choice folks are going to be there and there’s not time to (gather in opposition),” she says.

“Who has the power and the privilege of free speech on our campus? The counter-protestors don’t know t hat the anti-choice folks are going to be there and there’s n ot time to (gather in opposition),” she Often, students come to her and question why the protestors are allowed on campus in the first place. “I try to tell my students that MRU is a

publicly funded university. This is how democracy is supposed to work. W e ca n’t cherry -pic gh gwe can’t cherry pick let’s be cleark, We can’t cherrypick, let’s be clear,” Williams says. “They have to be here because that means I can say whatever I want, not forgetting the number of privileges that I have that enable me to use that right, which a lot of people aren’t able to do.”

Keeping the debate civil and inclusive is always the goal, but Provost Brown concedes that the art of civil debate might not be as practised as it once was. That’s why it’s all the more crucial to lead the way. “It’s the essence of a university, that it is a safe place to have informed debate and discussions. To really pursue truth,” she says. “I think it’s incumbent upon us as leaders, it’s incumbent upon us as faculty members, and as individuals, to demonstrate models of civility for our students. And how to engage in appropriate academic debate. And to create safe spaces for that to happen.”

Facilitating the push the push and pull A working group at the University of British Columbia went back to the drawing board earlier this year after its draft statement on free expression was roundly criticized. One sentence in particular caused consternation: “One person’s freedom of expression cannot be allowed to trample the freedom and wellbeing of others.”

It’s an issue society as a whole is struggling with.

Many “everyday scholars” at universities across the country occupy the middle ground. Nurturing an environment that facilitates the free exchange of ideas is part of the bedrock of universities, and a component in the role of promoting justice. MacRae is confident it will continue to be so. “I’m optimistic about the future. about the future. As an educator, I have faith As an educator, I have faith in the capacity of people to handle dissent and handle controversy in a way that is respectful of the safety of people and respectful of their ideas as well.”

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Alumni Q+A

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Travis Juska knew at a young age that policing and servant leadership were his calling.

Right after graduating from Mount Royal’s Applied Justice Studies program in 2007 he landed a position with the Calgary Police Service (CPS). Now a detective, Juska works with the Centralized General Investigations Section.

In recognition of his dedication, professionalism and qualities of citizenship, in early 2017 Juska was honoured as a Member of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces by Gov. Gen. David Johnston.

INTERVIEW BY KATE WOODFORD

What do you love about your job?

This career affords me the opportunity to have a positive impact on people in my community on a daily basis. In policing, you have the chance to give people your best when you are encountering them at their worst. This, coupled with the fact that every day is different and presents a new challenge, makes this the ideal career for me.

Beyond my normally assigned roles, the service has rewarded my passion for growth with additional designations and training opportunities. In addition to my service as a detective, and acting as an instructor for fellow officers, I am also a member of the honour guard and a composite sketch artist.

What was the most important course you took at Mount Royal and why?

It is difficult to narrow this question down to a single course. So many of the lessons I attended had a tremendous impact on who I have become as a person and a police officer. Now, more than a decade later, 56

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I cannot recall the course numbers, or the rooms they were in; however I can, with great precision, remember the debates, lectures and experiences I shared with instructors and fellow students. Restorative justice, political science, lifetime leisure activities and many others have a special place in my memory.

What three words describe your student experience at Mount Royal?

Engaged, beneficial, community.

How have you invested in your community after Mount Royal?

I have coached high-school basketball in the city for the last 11 years, am involved with the Special Olympics and was formerly part of a foundation called The Big Give that assisted underprivileged kids in the city. Through Mount Royal, I currently sit on my alumni advisory council working group and am part of the Harry G. Schaefer Mentorship Program. Parallel with my work at CPS, I have volunteered with the It’s a Crime Not to Read program, designed a

colouring book for diverse communities that we released in 2017 and am a member of the board planning the IAWP (International Association of Women Police) Conference, coming to Calgary in 2018. In 2012 I ran from Vancouver to Toronto to raise funds and awareness for victims of crime.

Staying active is a necessity, but it is also a way to give back.

What drives you to be a changemaker, dedicating yourself to a positive social impact?

Throughout my childhood and adolescence I had coaches, mentors and friends who were ardent volunteers. When I arrived at Mount Royal, I found myself surrounded by people like myself who also wanted to impact positive change. And as I transitioned into policing, I aligned myself with members of the organization who wish to be changemakers. Couple that with a wife and members of my family who are also engaged in the community, and it is easy to want to do my part.

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