Your comments invited for First Peoples House
UVic is seeking feedback from members of the community on the preliminary design and suggested site for the university's First Peoples House. Two consultation sessions are scheduled for Monday, Nov. 8 from 2 to 4 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Michele Pujol room in the SUB. The house is one of UVic's strategic plan commitments to increase the number of aboriginal students graduating from all faculties at UVic. The structure, based on pre-contact longhouses in Coast Salish territory, is intended as a welcoming home for aboriginal students and an inclusive and healing place for the local and global indigenous community and non-indigenous people alike. The design for the 12,160 sq. ft., $5.5 million building is 70 per cent complete and has been approved subject to consultation. Fundraising for the structure has begun. For further information about the house and to provide feedback online, visit www.uvic.ca/fphouse.

Spend the morning with Pamela Wallin
Be part of a national audience, via a live satellite broadcast in the Farquhar Auditorium on Nov. 8 from 8–11 a.m. and learn about the relationship between Canada and the U.S. from Pamela Wallin, Canada's consul-general in New York. The winner of the Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills (OPAS) 2004 Visionary Award, Wallin will deliver the address, "Canada-U.S. Relations—the View from New York" during OPAS's eighth annual visionary seminar. Her speech will be followed by a real-time question-and-answer period. Originating from the University of Toronto, the seminar will be broadcast live to university campuses across the nation. Admission is free but space is limited. Call the UVic ticket centre at 721-8480 to reserve your seat. For more information, visit www.opas-partnerships.com.

Tired of the wet weather? Blame the Pacific
Living on the Pacific coast is scenic and spectacular, but apart from serving as the backdrop for shoreline strolling and jogging, the ocean has a major influence on our climate. Prof. Lynne Talley of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, will discuss that oceanic influence in an upcoming Women Scholars lecture "How the North Pacific Ocean Affects Our Climate" on Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Human and Social Development Building, room A240. An award-winning oceanographer, Talley has led expeditions, assembled global data sets, and made outstanding contributions to our knowledge and understanding of ocean circulation, its variability, and its effect on climate. In this lecture she'll explain why B.C. is warm and wet and will discuss the influence of El Niño, and even the Antarctic region, on year-to-year
variations in our climate. She'll also show how lessons learned from the North Pacific help us understand global climate change.

The Iraq crisis: a scholar's view
The current turmoil in Iraq will be the focus of a public lecture at UVic on Monday, Nov. 15, 2:30-4:30 p.m. in Clearihue A307. In "Iraq: Self-Determination and Democracy Under Occupation" sessional instructor John Measor will discuss what he sees as "the denial of self-determination through examples of occupational policy and its impetus in the growth of the Iraqi insurgency against occupation forces." He'll also outline what mechanisms are envisioned for the hoped-for January elections in Iraq. Measor teaches Middle East politics at UVic and is completing a PhD at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in the U.K. He researches the politics of modern Iraq and its integration within the regional and international political system. Measor visited Iraq last spring during the period of American occupation following the invasion, and during the first major wave of the insurgency.

Annual ceremony remembers victims of violence
Members of the campus community and the general public are invited to attend a ceremony to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on Dec. 3 at 11:30 a.m. Details for the ceremony had not been finalized at press time, but in past years the ceremony has been held by the ziggurat in front of the MacLaurin Building. Classes are cancelled between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 3 to enable students and faculty to attend the ceremony. Check the UVic online events calendar and watch the UVic home page for details as the date draws nearer.

Young UVic scholars do well in SSHRC awards competition
UVic has been awarded more than $2.1 million in 2004 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral and doctoral fellowships and graduate scholarships. The awards will be used by 54 UVic students researching everything from infant communication development and the perspectives and needs of older workers to the role of sibling relationships in children's adjustment to divorce and euthanasia in Canada. The scholarships and fellowships range from one to three years.

The puck stops here
With hockey part of the Canadian psyche, it's understandable why so many Canadians are experiencing withdrawal symptoms during the NHL lockout, says UVic English senior instructor Doug Beardsley. The author of two books examining the significance of hockey to Canadians, Beardsley says "hockey is intrinsic to the nature of being Canadian. It has a great deal to do with repressing the dark side of ourselves. Canadians are known as peacekeepers, a nation of bankers; but we have this game where we allow mayhem to take place. The game is an external way of expressing a darker stream of our collective consciousness."Beardsley is offering a second-year English course "Hockey Literature and the Canadian Psyche" in January. Drawing on three novels, collections of short-stories and non-fiction and a play—all by well-known Canadian writers—students will "attempt to articulate the deep hold that the game has on Canadians." Just like hockey, each class will feature three ‘periods' and students will be expected to write three essays to earn their grade.