News and Events

RRU will hold an open house on Wednesday, March 18 to showcase plans for two new buildings on campus: the Learning and Innovation Centre and the Bateman Centre. All learners, staff, faculty and the public are welcome to attend the event, which will be held in the Quarterdeck from 4:30 - 7:30 pm. Architects Russ Chernoff (Learning and Innovation Centre) and Richard Iredale (Bateman Centre) will be available to answer questions, as will senior RRU staff members. President Allan Cahoon will give a welcome and general overview of the development projects at 5:15 p.m. and lead a question and answer session at 6:30 p.m. Information about RRU's academic and continuing studies programs as well as the university's new sustainability plan will also be available. 

Each year, Royal Roads honours outstanding people by presenting honorary degrees and Chancellor’s Community Recognition Awards. This is an important and happy task of the university and we invite you to nominate someone deserving so we can continue to build a pool of candidates.

Judith Blanchette, director of the School of Information and Society, will be presenting at two conferences this spring with Melody Andersson, program associate, staffing a booth at both. The LearnNow BC conference in Vancouver is scheduled for April 21 – 23 and the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education International Conference  - hosted by the Canadian Healthcare Association, will take place in Ottawa, May 10-13, 2009. 

Jason Sych, a graduate of the BA in Professional Communication program, has just launched a magazine devoted to enjoying the culture that grows naturally around wine. “Pages will be filled with stories on everything from the personalities, to the gadgets, to the far-flung places that grow grapes in vineyards accessible only by donkey and willpower,” says the new editor. 

RRU delivers the most active and collaborative learning environment in Canada according to results from a national student evaluation survey published in a recent edition of Maclean’s Magazine. “A learner-focused collaborative approach to education is a core value for Royal Roads” says RRU president Allan Cahoon, “That philosophy creates a strong collaborative and supportive environment between learners and faculty. So we are very proud to have achieved national prominence on such an important element of our unique educational model.”

Lesley Braby, a learner in the MA in Tourism Management program, was presented with the Pat Corbett award - which includes a $3,000 scholarship – at the tenth annual British Columbia Tourism Industry Awards night held last month. Braby, who is in the first graduating class of this new program, works for the Canadian Tourism Commission. Greg McCallum, a learner in the MA in International Hotel Management program, received an honorable mention in the same category. 

RBC Financial has awarded a $1,000 prize to a team of RRU business students who raised more than $5,000 for the Mustard Seed Food Bank in this year’s Venture Challenge. Nearly two dozen teams spent five weeks trying to earn as much profit as they could for charity with only individual start-up investments of one dollar each. Team profits totaling more than $27,000 were donated to local charities.

Royal Roads University was presented with a Partners for Life certificate of recognition on Feb. 16 at an annual luncheon held to say "thank you" to those who donate blood to Canadian Blood Services. Most moving at the event was a short video featuring first-hand accounts from people whose lives have been affected by transfusions made possible because of caring Canadians. A mother held so many multi-coloured beads in her hands that they overflowed and with tears in her eyes told us that each bead represented a medical procedure faced by her toddler. The red ones were transfusions and there were many amongst the blue and the yellow and green. Johane Drapeau (pictured, centre, with Britt Anderson, regional manager, donor services and Catherine Sloot, community development coordinator) was the honoured guest speaker and she too brought tears - to her eyes and to those of everyone else in the room when she recounted her life-saving operation which lasted 11 hours and required dozens and dozens of pints of plasma. A challenge! InRoads editor Lynda Chambers is a donor newbie and invites you to join her in injecting some new blood into Partners for Life. You can register online at www.blood.ca/partnersforlife. Just click Partners for Life; click Member and then click Sign Me Up To Donate With My Team. Fill out the form using Partner ID# ROYA002686, click submit and then call 1-888-236-6283 to book an appointment. Friends and family members may also register as an RRU partner. 

RRU's wooded trails and spectacular views take on an entirely different perspective when you’re running uphill. So says alumni relations manager Christine Gross, back row, fourth from left, shown here with some of RRU’s 10k training team. Back row: Patti Walsh (instructor), Lyndon King, Cindy Goodman, Christine Gross, Michelle Tai, Shirley Russell, Cindy Mason, Sylvia Jones, Connie Rock, Steve Cook (instructor), Debbie Dennis, Annette Siewertsen and Darryl Karleen. In the middle row are Candice Perkins, Melody Andersson and Cathy Salmons with Gwen Campden, Anne Munier, Jeannie Drew and Lyn McCluskey crouched in front. Missing: Ruth MacKenzie, Patty Shaw, Roberta Mason.

Phillip Vannini, a professor in the School of Communication and Culture has three new books to his credit. The prestigious academic publishing house Routledge has published Understanding Society Through Popular Music which Vannini co-wrote with Joe Kotarba. Peter Lang Publishing has released Material Culture and Technology in Everyday Life: Ethnographic Approaches, a book Vannini edited that is a collection of writing about the theory, methodology, and practice of studying the materiality of culture. A third collection of writing entitled Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society, which Vannini co-edited with J. Patrick Williams, investigates the social construction of authenticity as a value, ideal, practice, and experience. 

Stephen Legault (pictured here as his fictional murder victim Mike Barnes) is a senior development officer for RRU’s Legacy Campaign but that’s not all! He’s the author of The Cardinal Divide. It's a green murder-mystery about Cole Blackwater, a former political superstar within Ottawa’s environmental movement who now runs a nearly defunct conservation strategy consulting firm which distinctly lacks a paying client. When Peggy McSorlie, head of the Eastern Slopes Conservation Group, seeks his help to stop a mining project planned for Alberta's magnificent Cardinal Divide, Blackwater jumps at the opportunity to earn enough money to pay the rent and buy a few pints at his favorite pub. But when Mike Barnes, head of the mining project, is brutally murdered and a radical member of Eastern Slopes Conservation Group is accused of killing him, Blackwater must first prove the man's innocence in order to save his own business, and the future of the Cardinal Divide.

The Vancouver Island Ex-Cadet Club hosted a group of RMC rugby players to a tour of Royal Roads and luncheon at the Mews in February. The team travelled to B.C. to play against UBC and UVIC but enjoyed the chance to learn about the role Royal Roads played in training many of their military leaders. Included in the walkabout was a trip past the mast, through the gardens, around castle and on to the Quarterdeck in the Grant Building. A highlight was when Captain (N) (Ret’d) Christopher G. Pratt (RCNC 16, 1942-43) of Metchosin showed his name and photo to grandson Christopher Pratt, a first year cadet at RMC. Capt(N) Pratt was a member of the first graduating class of the Royal Canadian Naval College at Royal Roads.