University of Lethbridge researcher Dr. Yale Belanger will play a key role in a national initiative that will gather information on the state of homelessness in Canada and will disseminate that knowledge to front-line providers.

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness was recently created through a $2.5 million investment from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which promotes and assists research and scholarship in the social sciences and humanities.

The Observatory’s work will be particularly relevant in Alberta, as recent province-wide flooding may increase the number of individuals who could be homeless.

The University of Lethbridge is encouraging those interested in helping evacuees who are temporarily housed in campus residences to make cash donations to organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

In recent days, a few well-meaning residents have dropped off physical donations on campus.

As the University is not set up to receive and process these items, unsolicited donations become an additional challenge for staff members who are working daily to make our High River guests comfortable at the University.

The University of Lethbridge has named Dr. Christopher J. Nicol as its new University Librarian, an appointment that took effect on July 1, 2013.

Nicol, the former Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, had been serving as Acting University Librarian since Sept. 1, 2012. He took that position in the wake of former University Librarian Alison Nussbaumer’s move to the role of Interim Dean, Internationalization.

Due to the flooding in Calgary and the continuing challenges posed by the current closure of Bow Valley College, the University of Lethbridge Calgary Campus has found temporary instructional space in order to proceed with Summer Session II/III classes.

The University of Calgary has agreed to host the U of L Calgary Campus until we are able to return to our home in Bow Valley College. Our estimated return to BVC is unknown at this time, but we are hopeful that we will know more in the coming days. The University of Calgary’s address is: 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4.

The University of Lethbridge’s Play Day initiative recently received a silver award from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) - a national organization that acknowledges excellence in alumni relations, communications, community outreach and development programming at universities and colleges across Canada.

The event also won a bronze award in a similar category from the international Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VIII, which is made up of post-secondary educational institutions from western Canada and the northwestern United States.

Play Day is designed to promote opportunities for play for southern Alberta children and families.

The University of Lethbridge has signed a collaboration agreement with the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo in Mexico that will develop academic areas of mutual interest.

University of Lethbridge President Dr. Mike Mahon and Dr. Francisco Javier Rosado May, Rector and President of the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo, signed the agreement at the Canada-Mexico Round Table on Aboriginal/Indigenous Higher Education held June 21 at the University of Lethbridge.

The round table, which included participation from nine Canadian universities and eight indigenous universities in Mexico, focused on improving Aboriginal educational experiences and research collaboration.

The University of Lethbridge's Inter-Collegiate Programming Contest team will return from the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals in St. Petersburg, Russia with several notable achievements after their first-ever international competition.

A team of Lethbridge high school students has been awarded the coveted Green Brick grand prize at the iGEM High School Jamboree – an international competition for young synthetic biologists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, MA.

The team was judged on its efforts to create a longer lasting form of Oxytocin – a hormone most-commonly known for its use in aiding childbirth. Oxytocin, unfortunately, has a very short half-life meaning the hormone degrades quickly and soon becomes unstable, making it expensive and difficult to store.

After months of training and wins at regional competitions, the University of Lethbridge's Inter-Collegiate Programming Contest team is participating in the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals in St. Petersburg, Russia for the first time.

Seeded sixth in a field of more than 100 competitors, the team's Canada Day long weekend won’t be spent relaxing or camping in the great outdoors. They will instead be camped out in a university lecture hall 10 time zones away from home with hundreds of other students, looking to solve challenging computer coding problems.

On Wednesday, June 26, 2013, the Alberta government formally requested the U of L house a number of evacuees while cleanup efforts to their communities continue.

It is expected that evacuees will start arriving at our campus later this afternoon. As you can imagine, this is a stressful time for individuals and families who have lost many of their possessions and remain unable to assess the damage to their homes.