Hundreds of members of the College community are making the informed decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Follow along this month as we share stories from RRC employees, students, and alumni about why getting vaccinated is important to them.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted their vaccine story so far – read this week's stories.

Yesterday, the Manitoba Government announced eligibility for second dose COVID-19 vaccine is expanding to include:

• Individuals who received their first dose on or before May 25, 2021.
• Anyone who received a first dose of AstraZeneca/Covishield is now eligible to receive a second dose of any mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna), provided they meet provincial eligibility criteria for their second dose.
• All Indigenous people in Manitoba and individuals with specific health conditions are also eligible to book their second dose, as long as they meet the minimum time interval between doses. If anyone in these groups received a first dose of AstraZeneca/Covishield, the minimum time interval between doses is 28 days.

Click here for more information.

Click here to book your second dose appointment.

Dr. Christine Watson, Vice-President, Academic and Research hosts a regular video series where she shares a behind-the-scenes look at what she’s up to on and off campus. Click here to watch her latest video: Commuter Challenge.

Last week Commuting and Parking Services were made aware that while testing the Parking software an automatic letter was generated and emailed in error to a number of current and previous Student, Staff, and Alumni.

We want to thank the College community for bringing this to our attention, and allowing us an opportunity to investigate further as we actively work to resolve the situation.

To date all recipients have now received a follow up email acknowledging the mistake and will continue to be updated as needed.

Please continue to watch Staff News for more parking-related updates! As always, please contact parking@rrc.ca for more information or with any questions regarding your parking account.

Great news from ICTC WIL Digital!

Effective immediately, the net new placement criteria is waived and post-secondary institutions are eligible for the Student Work Placement Program funding via ICTC WIL Digital for 2021-22! ICTC is now accepting application from all post-secondary institutions for WIL funding to hire internal student placements of up to 75% of student wages per student, per term.

Also, if your department hired students on a term basis already, ICTC is able to accept applications for subsidies retroactive to April 1, 2021.

Eligibility:

• Students: Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and persons to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (International students are not eligible)
• Placements: Full-time or part-time term positions; required or optional, for credit or not for credit

For more information, please contact Student Employment Services at ses@rrc.ca.

RRC’s Student Recruitment team has recently moved from Enrolment Services to Marketing and Web Presence. John Conklin and Clint Thiessen have been working alongside the Marketing and Web Presence team in the past, so this move helps to align the two areas better. We are also excited to have Felipe Matoso, Marketing Officer joining the Recruitment Team.

IT Solutions is planning a network maintenance window to support ongoing network services, upgrades, and enhancements.

–Scheduled Maintenance Window–
Start: June 25th @ 1700hrs
Complete: June 25th @ 2100hrs

–User Experience–
There will be no or intermittent access to various college systems when onsite at the Notre Dame Campus. Affected services will include, but are not limited to, Colleague, email, file shares, Office 365, Virtual Desktop(s), VoIP phones, wired internet, wireless internet.

Offsite access to Colleague, email, file shares and Office 365 will not be impacted. 

Plans for this maintenance window are subject to change. This notice will be updated at https://www.rrc.ca/its/news/.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this maintenance window please submit an ITS Service Desk ticket here.

We continue to work on modernizing our human resource tools to better support you with the development of our new Human Resource Information System (HRIS).

As we make progress on building our new HRIS, we want to share more about a module that’s being developed within the system that will enhance our health, safety, and supportive employment practices.

Read our full update on Staff Forum

In order to better assist you with any maintenance related improvements and repairs, please submit a work order.  Check with your supervisor to determine the person in your department who is authorized to submit work orders to Facility Management.

For repairs that may require immediate attention, please contact:
Notre Dame Campus:  Frida Sibal, Administrative Assistant at 204-390-6745
Exchange District Campus:  Nick Brown, Assistant Maintenance Manager at 204-558-6025
Regional Campus:  Matthew Crockett, Technical Officer at 204-260-9916

If you are unable to reach the person listed above for your site or for repairs required after hours, please contact Security at 204-632-2323.

AIR QUALITY / VENTILATION / ROOM TEMPERATURE CONCERNS FOR NDC:
Please call the NDC Powerhouse at 204-632-2384 (24 hours a day / 7 days a week).

HOUSEKEEPING:
For any Housekeeping concerns, please call 204-632-2138 (Monday-Friday 7:30AM – 4:00PM) or 204-470-8863 (Monday – Friday 4:00 PM – 11:45 PM).  After hours, please contact Security at 204-632-2323.

ALL OTHER INQUIRIES:
Email facilitymanagement@rrc.ca

The Red River College Research Ethics Board (RRC-REB) has been working on a process to ensure the college meets mandated standards for ethical conduct of research in all student course assignment work that requires students to interview or survey a sample of human participants for the purposes of gathering data to describe or solve a problem. Learning about ethical conduct of research, and when ethical approval is required, is an important component of learning about survey/interview research. The RRC-REB must be aware of and track all student assignments that use such approaches. We have developed a modified approval process for these purposes.  

Please review the RRC-REB website to view the modified approval form and processes for course-based research you are planning for the 2021-2022 academic year. If you have questions about the process please email the REB at REB@rrc.ca 
https://www.rrc.ca/numbers/ethics-board/

Our College in its research practices follows the Tri-Council Policy Statement for Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans (TCSP-2). The TCPS-2 outlines ethical research conduct for all research conducted at Canadian institutions. In following these guidelines, the new course-based research processes give proxy authority to instructors to monitor the ethical conduct of students in course assignments which involve human data collection. These new procedures are intended to protect the participants that students recruit into their course-based projects. Accordingly, assuring that the student's practices are ethical will also protect the instructors who have created the assignments and The College as a whole.  

Kim Mitchell RN PhD kmmitchell@rrc.ca
Chair, Red River College Research Ethics Board 
https://www.rrc.ca/numbers/ethics-board/

The Student Recruitment Team is excited to announce the addition of a Fall Open House event. This event is in addition to our annual Winter Open House. Please save these important dates to your calendar November 17, 2021 and February 23, 2022.

eTV/CLPE has a variety of services and resources available to support Flexible On-Line Delivery and Blended Learning including studio and mobile video production, desktop recording, video streaming services and media creation. For more information please visit eTV.

These training sessions will be held online via WebEx. Register for the training using the links below and you will be emailed a link to join the webinar.

• WebEx classroom: Getting Started (beginners) – June 23, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Interact and Engage (intermediate – advanced users) – June 24, 2021

Summer 2021 LEARN training sessions offered through the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence. You can sign up for this session and more on the Faculty Development registration page or view a list of upcoming CLPE faculty development sessions.

Do your students love photography? The Students' Association is celebrating the first day of summer by introducing monthly photo contests!

The topic for this months' competition is: What does summer mean to you?

Does summer mean the beach? Friends and family? FOOD? The sky's the limit! Students can submit their best photo to our website for a chance to win a $75 Best Buy gift card!

We'll be looking for eye-catching colors, details, angles, and more!

Contest closes June 25 at 3PM.

On June 8, you received a link in your RRC email to participate in an employee engagement pulse survey.

The purpose of the survey is to take a few moments to hear from you, collect ongoing feedback on your work, and check in on how the pandemic has changed and affected your work so we can support you.

If you haven't already, please click the survey link in your inbox to get started before the survey closes tomorrow on June 22. It will take you about three to five minutes to complete and your responses will be kept confidential.

Thank you for your participation!

Learn more here

If you didn't have a chance to watch the RED Forum Townhall with RRC President and CEO, Fred Meier, the recording of the event and his responses to your questions are now available on Staff Forum.

Click here to watch the recording and read Fred's responses.

IT Solutions is planning a network maintenance window to support ongoing network services, upgrades, and enhancements.

–Scheduled Maintenance Window–
Start: June 25th @ 1700hrs
Complete: June 25th @ 2100hrs

–User Experience–
There will be no or intermittent access to various college systems when onsite at the Notre Dame Campus. Affected services will include, but are not limited to, Colleague, email, file shares, Office 365, Virtual Desktop(s), VoIP phones, wired internet, wireless internet.

Offsite access to Colleague, email, file shares and Office 365 will not be impacted. 

Plans for this maintenance window are subject to change. This notice will be updated at https://www.rrc.ca/its/news/.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this maintenance window please submit an ITS Service Desk ticket here.

Great news from ICTC WIL Digital!

Effective immediately, the net new placement criteria is waived and post-secondary institutions are eligible for the Student Work Placement Program funding via ICTC WIL Digital for 2021-22! ICTC is now accepting application from all post-secondary institutions for WIL funding to hire internal student placements of up to 75% of student wages per student, per term.

Also, if your department hired students on a term basis already, ICTC is able to accept applications for subsidies retroactive to April 1, 2021.

Eligibility:

• Students: Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and persons to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (International students are not eligible)
• Placements: Full-time or part-time term positions; required or optional, for credit or not for credit

For more information, please contact Student Employment Services at ses@rrc.ca.

The BRAVO Awards recognize employees who live out the College’s core values and demonstrate leadership within their roles, teams, and professions. This year, we were pleased to recognize nearly 300 recipients at our virtual awards ceremony.

If you were unable to watch the ceremony live, you can still celebrate your colleagues by watching the video recording here on Staff Forum. Congratulations again to this year’s award recipients!

RRC’s Student Recruitment team has recently moved from Enrolment Services to Marketing and Web Presence. John Conklin and Clint Thiessen have been working alongside the Marketing and Web Presence team in the past, so this move helps to align the two areas better. We are also excited to have Felipe Matoso, Marketing Officer joining the Recruitment Team.

Monday, June 21 | 12 pm 
Streamed Live on the Indigenous Education Facebook Page

Happy Indigenous People's Day and Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year! As our final Indigenous Education and Community Engagement virtual event of the school year, we will share RRC Elder-in-Residence teachings that honour summer plus a mini summer music festival to celebrate local Indigenous artists! 

Grab a summer treat, sit outside, put your sunglasses on and join us to celebrate with some musical performances including one of our own Red River College family, Frank Parkes, and his band The Staggering Haggards, mezzo-soprano Rhonda Head from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and the legendary Billie-Joe Green and his band! Billie-Joe Green is a three-time Juno Award nominated Anishinaabe rock and blues musician. He has been inducted into the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame, among many other awards and accolades. 

You’re invited to join the Prairie Research Kitchen for the second webinar of a three-part series highlighting Indigenous Food Business Stories, Growing Your Indigenous-Owned Food Business: Resources and Stories on the Path to Expansion.
 
Guest speakers will share the lessons they’ve learned along their entrepreneurial journeys and discuss options to prepare for and secure funding. Each presentation will be followed by a short Q&A period.

Click here to learn more and register for the webinar.

If you know someone who would be interested in attending the event, please feel free to share this invite.

The Student Recruitment Team is excited to announce the addition of a Fall Open House event. This event is in addition to our annual Winter Open House. Please save these important dates to your calendar November 17, 2021 and February 23, 2022.

eTV/CLPE has a variety of services and resources available to support Flexible On-Line Delivery and Blended Learning including studio and mobile video production, desktop recording, video streaming services and media creation. For more information please visit eTV.

These training sessions will be held online via WebEx. Register for the training using the links below and you will be emailed a link to join the webinar.

• WebEx classroom: Getting Started (beginners) – June 23, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Interact and Engage (intermediate – advanced users) – June 24, 2021

Summer 2021 LEARN training sessions offered through the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence. You can sign up for this session and more on the Faculty Development registration page or view a list of upcoming CLPE faculty development sessions.

Plan to include a supportive workshop in your class next term or in the Fall to help students manage stress and anxiety!

Students are telling us that managing stress and anxiety while learning remotely or out in the field, is more challenging than ever before. Faculty can help by requesting a workshop during class time that will offer a range of strategies to cope, increase positive mental health and encourage help seeking.

To request a workshop, contact Laureen Janzen, Manager, Counselling and Accessibility Services.

The next Teaching Essentials Program (TEP) will take place on August 25 – 27, 2021.

Designed for new instructors, this 3 day workshop will equip new instructors to be confident, well prepared and comfortable in their new role. It will be delivered online both synchronously (ie, live with TEP facilitators using Microsoft Teams) and asynchronously (ie, independent learner readings and activities). 

Chairs and Program Managers: Click "Register Today" to register new instructors from your area. 

Deadline to register for this session is July 23, 2021. 

Questions? Contact TEP@rrc.ca for more information. 

Visit our latest CLPE News post:

As staff and faculty plan for summer and fall academic terms, we encourage you to review the mental health and wellbeing strategies offered at Red River College – for yourself and your students. Through the Healthy Minds Healthy College Strategy, Red River College is working to be a supportive and healthy place to learn and work. Good mental health helps you live the life you want!

Wellbeing means different things to different people and covers many aspects of your life – emotional, mental, physical, financial and spiritual or work and personal life harmony. Sometimes it’s a struggle for staff and faculty to maintain good mental health, and when that happens there are supports and resources to assist you.

We hope you enjoy the article and our past articles too. Please share your feedback on the Staff Forum site in the comment section at the end of the article. Subscribe to our CLPE News today! Questions, comments or topic ideas for our CLPE News team? Contact Kristi.

You asked at the campfire … we listened! Join Arnold Boldt, Interim Executive Director, Academic, for a follow-up discussion on the new Instructor Workload Assignment Process. What is it? How does it work? How does it affect you? If you have specific questions, you are welcome to ask them during the session.

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2021
Time: 9:00 – 10:00am

Click here to register.

For more information, please contact Claudius Soodeen.

The Commuter Challenge is over for another year and we're excited to announce that RRC has been awarded GOLD in our Workplace Category! Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make that happen! But, we weren't the only winners! Below is a list of all the RRC winners from the Challenge:

Top Traveler: Cheryl Janz who logged a total of 757 KMs
Prize: $50 Gift Certificate to Jardins St-Léon Gardens

Serious Cyclist: Mike Poitras who logged 336 cycling KMs
Prize: Winners choice! $25 Gift Certificate to Jardins St-Léon Gardens, Le Marché Saint-Norbert Farmers’ Market, or Black Market Provisions

Walking Warrior: Debbie Miller who logged 164.2 walking KMs
Prize: Winner's choice! $25 Gift Certificate to Jardins St-Léon Gardens, Le Marché Saint-Norbert Farmers’ Market, or Black Market Provisions

Lucky Winner: Mike Morawski
Prize: $50 Gift Certificate to Le Marché Saint-Norbert Farmers’ Market

Most Traveled Team: C517 Group A (Laurie-Ann Nichol, Krystal Boyce-Gaudreau, Karen Di Pietro) with an average of 555.6 KMs logged per team member 
Prize: 2 x $25 Gift Certificate to Black Market Provisions, 2 x $25 Gift Certificates to Le Marché Saint-Norbert Farmers’ Market, and 1 x $25 Gift Certificates to Jardins St-Léon Gardens

Most Tireless Team: The Cyclopaths (Guy Dugas, Wayne Ferguson, Mike Poitras, Laura Payne) with an average of 201.9 active KMs logged per team member
Prize: Winner's choice (each team member)! $25 Gift Certificate to Jardins St-Léon Gardens, Le Marché Saint-Norbert Farmers’ Market, or Black Market Provisions

Finally, a very special shout-out to Del Pannu who won the Green Action Centre's Grand Prize – a free bus pass for a year!

Find out more results here. Congratulations to all the winners!

After 52 years of employment at Red River College, Walter “Steve” Krywy is retiring effective July 7, 2021. 

Steve has had a varied career working for General Electric, Manitoba Hydro, teaching in Lae, Papua New Guinea and Red River College starting in 1969 in the Electrical Engineering Technology Department.    Steve also taught numerous night school courses over the years. 

After more than half a decade teaching at the College, Steve has probably taught 4,000 to 5,000 students, including many staff working at RRC, the sons and daughters of former students, and a few instructors as well. His son Mike, who began working at RRC in 2007 was born into the RRC family and also worked with, took training, and played hockey with many of Steve’s grads. 

For someone who has committed himself to lifelong learning and professional development, and a genuine love of teaching, Steve has left a lasting impression on the College and a longevity record that will be hard to beat! 

Below is the link to the online card where you can personally send your retirement message: https://padlet.com/twogoldens1971/a9ax9mext8hg5das
If you would like to contribute to a gift, you can e-transfer your contribution to: eetinfo@rrc.ca

Contact Beverly at bawood@rrc.ca if you have questions.  

Do your students love photography? The Students' Association is celebrating the first day of summer by introducing monthly photo contests!

The topic for this months' competition is: What does summer mean to you?

Does summer mean the beach? Friends and family? FOOD? The sky's the limit! Students can submit their best photo to our website for a chance to win a $75 Best Buy gift card!

We'll be looking for eye-catching colors, details, angles, and more!

Contest closes June 25 at 3PM.

Assessment Services is excited to invite all students for a unique opportunity to build their skills and set them up to succeed in their program.

The new Post-secondary Success in Learning (PSL) online supports are designed to help students assess their current skills, attitudes, and behaviours as learners, and develop key areas of competency that research has shown increases success at school and in the workplace.

To learn more about the free supports and how your students can register for them, please visit us at Post-secondary Success in Learning or email us at PSL@rrc.ca.

An exciting announcement from Venture for Canada (VFC)!

The VFC Internship Program is now accepting student and employer applications for Fall 2021 internships! VFC will be funding paid internships across Canada this Fall, and will continue to support work-from-home and remote placements. For more information and eligibility criteria, visit: Venture for Canada Internships

Venture for Canada is a not-for-profit that recruits, trains and supports top recent graduates helping them find placement at Canadian startups.

If you have any questions, please contact Student Employment Services at ses@rrc.ca.

The Student Recruitment Team is excited to announce the addition of a Fall Open House event. This event is in addition to our annual Winter Open House. Please save these important dates to your calendar November 17, 2021 and February 23, 2022.

RRC Student Employment Services has been recognized for Best Contribution to Student Career Development – Schools Category at the 2021 TalentEgg National Campus Recruitment Excellence Awards! The TalentEgg Awards judging panel – comprised of a diverse group of students and recent graduates from across the country – selected the winner based on each institution’s job search and careers supports, methods, initiatives and impact.

In a year that required turning all of our in-person initiatives to virtual everything, we want to give a shoutout to the RRC departments that help us do what we do:

• To IT Services who dealt with all of our meltdowns when online platforms were not working
• To Marketing and Web Presence who created beautiful materials to help us convince students that it’s a good idea to attend yet another online event
• To the College and Public Relations team who educated us that test events are simply non-negotiable
• To faculty and fellow student support staff who partnered with us to ensure students received relevant and tailored supports
• To our administrative staff who keep us organized, never miss a deadline and provide the perfect memes at the perfect times
• And lastly, our Senior Leadership Team who trusted and supported us, even with an initiative called “PREP-Peroni Trivia”

We are so glad to hear feedback from RRC students, alumni, and industry partners that tell us what we’re doing is working!

Student Employment Services
ses@rrc.ca 

RRC’s Student Recruitment team has recently moved from Enrolment Services to Marketing and Web Presence. John Conklin and Clint Thiessen have been working alongside the Marketing and Web Presence team in the past, so this move helps to align the two areas better. We are also excited to have Felipe Matoso, Marketing Officer joining the Recruitment Team.

Visit our latest CLPE News post:

As staff and faculty plan for summer and fall academic terms, we encourage you to review the mental health and wellbeing strategies offered at Red River College – for yourself and your students. Through the Healthy Minds Healthy College Strategy, Red River College is working to be a supportive and healthy place to learn and work. Good mental health helps you live the life you want!

Wellbeing means different things to different people and covers many aspects of your life – emotional, mental, physical, financial and spiritual or work and personal life harmony. Sometimes it’s a struggle for staff and faculty to maintain good mental health, and when that happens there are supports and resources to assist you.

We hope you enjoy the article and our past articles too. Please share your feedback on the Staff Forum site in the comment section at the end of the article. Subscribe to our CLPE News today! Questions, comments or topic ideas for our CLPE News team? Contact Kristi.

You’re invited to join the Prairie Research Kitchen for the second webinar of a three-part series highlighting Indigenous Food Business Stories, Growing Your Indigenous-Owned Food Business: Resources and Stories on the Path to Expansion.
 
Guest speakers will share the lessons they’ve learned along their entrepreneurial journeys and discuss options to prepare for and secure funding. Each presentation will be followed by a short Q&A period.

Click here to learn more and register for the webinar.

If you know someone who would be interested in attending the event, please feel free to share this invite.

The Red River College Research Ethics Board (RRC-REB) has been working on a process to ensure the college meets mandated standards for ethical conduct of research in all student course assignment work that requires students to interview or survey a sample of human participants for the purposes of gathering data to describe or solve a problem. Learning about ethical conduct of research, and when ethical approval is required, is an important component of learning about survey/interview research. The RRC-REB must be aware of and track all student assignments that use such approaches. We have developed a modified approval process for these purposes.  

Please review the RRC-REB website to view the modified approval form and processes for course-based research you are planning for the 2021-2022 academic year. If you have questions about the process please email the REB at REB@rrc.ca 
https://www.rrc.ca/numbers/ethics-board/

Our College in its research practices follows the Tri-Council Policy Statement for Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans (TCSP-2). The TCPS-2 outlines ethical research conduct for all research conducted at Canadian institutions. In following these guidelines, the new course-based research processes give proxy authority to instructors to monitor the ethical conduct of students in course assignments which involve human data collection. These new procedures are intended to protect the participants that students recruit into their course-based projects. Accordingly, assuring that the student's practices are ethical will also protect the instructors who have created the assignments and The College as a whole.  

Kim Mitchell RN PhD kmmitchell@rrc.ca
Chair, Red River College Research Ethics Board 
https://www.rrc.ca/numbers/ethics-board/

These training sessions will be held online via WebEx. Register for the training using the links below and you will be emailed a link to join the webinar.

• WebEx classroom: Getting Started (beginners) – June 23, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Interact and Engage (intermediate – advanced users) – June 24, 2021

Summer 2021 LEARN training sessions offered through the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence. You can sign up for this session and more on the Faculty Development registration page or view a list of upcoming CLPE faculty development sessions.

The next Teaching Essentials Program (TEP) will take place on August 25 – 27, 2021.

Designed for new instructors, this 3 day workshop will equip new instructors to be confident, well prepared and comfortable in their new role. It will be delivered online both synchronously (ie, live with TEP facilitators using Microsoft Teams) and asynchronously (ie, independent learner readings and activities). 

Chairs and Program Managers: Click "Register Today" to register new instructors from your area. 

Deadline to register for this session is July 23, 2021. 

Questions? Contact TEP@rrc.ca for more information. 

eTV/CLPE has a variety of services and resources available to support Flexible On-Line Delivery and Blended Learning including studio and mobile video production, desktop recording, video streaming services and media creation. For more information please visit eTV.

You asked at the campfire … we listened! Join Arnold Boldt, Interim Executive Director, Academic, for a follow-up discussion on the new Instructor Workload Assignment Process. What is it? How does it work? How does it affect you? If you have specific questions, you are welcome to ask them during the session.

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2021
Time: 9:00 – 10:00am

Click here to register.

For more information, please contact Claudius Soodeen.

Monday, June 21 | 12 pm 
Streamed Live on the Indigenous Education Facebook Page 

June 21 is both Indigenous People's Day and the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. As our final Indigenous Education and Community Engagement virtual event of the school year, we will share RRC Elder-in-Residence teachings that honour summer plus a summer music festival to celebrate local Indigenous artists! 

Grab a summer treat, sit outside, put your sunglasses on and join us to celebrate with some musical performances including one of our own Red River College family, Frank Parkes, and his band The Staggering Haggards, mezzo-soprano Rhonda Head from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and the legendary Billie-Joe Green and his band! Billie-Joe Green is a three-time Juno Award nominated Anishinaabe rock and blues musician. He has been inducted into the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame, among many other awards and accolades. 

It is with mixed feelings that we announce the retirement of Barb Cobb. After 20 years of employment at Red River College, Barb Cobb is retiring effective June 18, 2021.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to sum up all of  Barb’s achievements over the 20 years of dedicated service to our institution.

Barb started out as the Associate Registrar of Customer Service and for the past 9 years she has been the Associate Registrar, Admissions. She has been instrumental in supporting prospective students, current students, and staff all over the College, both local and regionally. She has always held the student’s needs first and excellent customer service has always been her top priority.

Barb has always been a hard-working and committed member of the Enrolment Services team. The Enrolment Services Department will miss Barb’s passion to the work and to the student’s success.

On behalf of the Enrolment Services team and the entire college, we wish Barb the most amazing retirement years. We hope that travel, which is something Barb enjoys, will be possible for her and her partner in the near future! 

Assessment Services is excited to invite all students for a unique opportunity to build their skills and set them up to succeed in their program.

The new Post-secondary Success in Learning (PSL) online supports are designed to help students assess their current skills, attitudes, and behaviours as learners, and develop key areas of competency that research has shown increases success at school and in the workplace.

To learn more about the free supports and how your students can register for them, please visit us at Post-secondary Success in Learning or email us at PSL@rrc.ca.

Hundreds of members of the College community are making the informed decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Follow along this month as we share stories from RRC employees, students, and alumni about why getting vaccinated is important to them.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted their vaccine story so far – read this week's stories.

There's still time to share your vaccine story.

Yesterday, the Manitoba Government announced eligibility for second dose COVID-19 vaccine is expanding to include:

• individuals who received their first dose on or before May 14, 2021;
  • today, the eligibility will expand at 11:45 am to include people who received their first dose on or before May 18, 2021.
• anyone who received a first dose of AstraZeneca/Covishield is now eligible to receive a second dose of any mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna), provided they meet provincial eligibility criteria for their second dose.
• All Indigenous people in Manitoba and individuals with specific health conditions are also eligible to book their second dose, as long as they meet the minimum time interval between doses. If anyone in these groups received a first dose of AstraZeneca/Covishield, the minimum time interval between doses is 28 days

Click here for more information.

Click here to book your second dose appointment.

On June 8, you received a link in your RRC email to participate in a pulse survey.

The purpose of the survey is to take a few moments to hear from you, collect ongoing feedback on your work, and check in on how the pandemic has changed and affected your work so we can support you.

If you haven’t already, please click the survey link in your inbox to get started before the survey closes on June 22. It will take you about three to five minutes to complete and your responses will be kept confidential.

Thank you for your participation!

Learn more here

Beginning this fall, Dana Hospitality, a Canadian culinary company, will be providing affordable daily food services for employees, students, and guests at the Notre Dame Campus. 

Read our full update on Staff Forum

Visit our latest CLPE News post:

As staff and faculty plan for summer and fall academic terms, we encourage you to review the mental health and wellbeing strategies offered at Red River College – for yourself and your students. Through the Healthy Minds Healthy College Strategy, Red River College is working to be a supportive and healthy place to learn and work. Good mental health helps you live the life you want!

Wellbeing means different things to different people and covers many aspects of your life – emotional, mental, physical, financial and spiritual or work and personal life harmony. Sometimes it’s a struggle for staff and faculty to maintain good mental health, and when that happens there are supports and resources to assist you.

We hope you enjoy the article and our past articles too. Please share your feedback on the Staff Forum site in the comment section at the end of the article. Subscribe to our CLPE News today! Questions, comments or topic ideas for our CLPE News team? Contact Kristi.

Who: ALL STUDENTS…through all classes, all programs, all campuses
What: Getting the word out about campus life and SA services
Where: The SA will attend a virtual or in-person meeting and do a 10-20 minute orientation

The Students’ Association (SA) would like to attend your orientation session to do a 10- or 20-minute SA presentation to communicate our services. This presentation will give Red River College students a chance to ask questions about the SA and why they pay their SA membership fee as well as an opportunity to meet their elected student representatives. 

As well, we can set up a virtual or in-person orientation with our Health and Dental Benefits Student Service Coordinator. During this short presentation we will summarize and promote the use of their Health and Dental benefits plan or advise them how they can opt-out.

Please fill out the “Online Orientation Request Form” (https://rrcsa.ca/orientation/). Please include link if you are requesting virtual, or room number for in-person orientation. If you have any further questions, email us directly sareception@rrc.ca.

Thank you in advance and we look forward to working together to improve the student experience, program retention and campus life at Red River College.

These training sessions will be held online via WebEx. Register for the training using the links below and you will be emailed a link to join the webinar.

• LEARN Training – Accessible documents: best practices and resources – June 17, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Getting Started (beginners) – June 23, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Interact and Engage (intermediate – advanced users) – June 24, 2021

Summer 2021 LEARN training sessions offered through the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence. You can sign up for this session and more on the Faculty Development registration page or view a list of upcoming CLPE faculty development sessions.

Plan to include a supportive workshop in your class next term or in the Fall to help students manage stress and anxiety!

Students are telling us that managing stress and anxiety while learning remotely or out in the field, is more challenging than ever before. Faculty can help by requesting a workshop during class time that will offer a range of strategies to cope, increase positive mental health and encourage help seeking.

To request a workshop, contact Laureen Janzen, Manager, Counselling and Accessibility Services.

You asked at the campfire … we listened! Join Arnold Boldt, Interim Executive Director, Academic, for a follow-up discussion on the new Instructor Workload Assignment Process. What is it? How does it work? How does it affect you? If you have specific questions, you are welcome to ask them during the session.

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2021
Time: 9:00 – 10:00am

Click here to register.

For more information, please contact Claudius Soodeen.

Join us for this 90 minute workshop on how you can support student mental health and refer students in distress to appropriate resources, while teaching remotely.

You will learn:

• how stress affects learning;
• your role in identifying students in distress, including limitations and boundaries;
• evidence based and proactive strategies to promote student wellbeing;
• an effective referral process, including for emergency situations;
• how this process intersects with the new Instructor/Student Communication Protocol; and
• how Counselling Services is currently operating.

A reading package will be provided prior to the session so that much of the meeting time can be spent on practical application. Please bring a current course that you would like to workshop; at various points in the session you will be prompted to integrate suggestions into your course so you may want to have it handy.

Date: June 22, 2021
Time: 1:00-2:30pm

Click Here To Register

More info: Claudius Soodeen, Faculty Development Consultant – csoodeen@rrc.ca

Monday, June 21 | 12 pm 
Streamed Live on the Indigenous Education Facebook Page 

June 21 is both Indigenous People's Day and the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. As our final Indigenous Education and Community Engagement virtual event of the school year, we will share RRC Elder-in-Residence teachings that honour summer plus a summer music festival to celebrate local Indigenous artists! 

Grab a summer treat, sit outside, put your sunglasses on and join us to celebrate with some musical performances including one of our own Red River College family, Frank Parkes, and his band The Staggering Haggards, mezzo-soprano Rhonda Head from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and the legendary Billie-Joe Green and his band! Billie-Joe Green is a three-time Juno Award nominated Anishinaabe rock and blues musician. He has been inducted into the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame, among many other awards and accolades. 

This June our friends at Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) are hosting a “choose-your-own-adventure” version of their classic Ride Don’t Hide event. In previous years, RRC has sponsored a team of bike riders to help bring mental health into the open. 

There is no cost to join this year's RRC team and there are plenty of options for how to participate.

Read more on the Wellness Blog.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me mark my retirement from RRC. So many of you wrote on my Kudoboard, participated in my celebration event yesterday, contributed to the gift (of a very generous gift card to Artist Emporium — I won’t soon run out of art supplies for my collage-making!) or have sent me a message. I have appreciated every word and gesture of recognition. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I have loved my journey of learning to become an effective educator at RRC. No one succeeds alone, and I owe much of my success here to the many, many colleagues with whom I have worked right across the College — teaching students, working on initiatives or contributing to learning-events such as RED Forum or the recent Instructor PD Day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I am at my desk here through June 30, thereafter my next chapter begins. I’d love it if you stayed in touch: alerougete@gmail.com. 

It is with mixed feelings that we announce the retirement of Barb Cobb. After 20 years of employment at Red River College, Barb Cobb is retiring effective June 18, 2021.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to sum up all of  Barb’s achievements over the 20 years of dedicated service to our institution.

Barb started out as the Associate Registrar of Customer Service and for the past 9 years she has been the Associate Registrar, Admissions. She has been instrumental in supporting prospective students, current students, and staff all over the College, both local and regionally. She has always held the student’s needs first and excellent customer service has always been her top priority.

Barb has always been a hard-working and committed member of the Enrolment Services team. The Enrolment Services Department will miss Barb’s passion to the work and to the student’s success.

On behalf of the Enrolment Services team and the entire college, we wish Barb the most amazing retirement years. We hope that travel, which is something Barb enjoys, will be possible for her and her partner in the near future! 

Assessment Services is excited to invite all students for a unique opportunity to build their skills and set them up to succeed in their program.

The new Post-secondary Success in Learning (PSL) online supports are designed to help students assess their current skills, attitudes, and behaviours as learners, and develop key areas of competency that research has shown increases success at school and in the workplace.

To learn more about the free supports and how your students can register for them, please visit us at Post-secondary Success in Learning or email us at PSL@rrc.ca.

Red River College is committed to providing persons with documented disabilities fair and equal access to education programs, services, and facilities. If you would like information about Accessibility Services and how to best support your students with a documented disability, please contact:

• Lori Walkow, Manager, Exam Accommodations and Assistive Technology, lwalkow@rrc.ca
• Jill Patterson, Manager, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, jpatterson@rrc.ca
• Pam Rosen, Acting Manager for Accessibility Services at prosen@rrc.ca

RRC understands that personal well-being is critical to academic success and offers free counselling services for students. We also encourage students to subscribe to RRC’s Wellness Blog for helpful information on managing stress and anxiety and improved mental health during our current situation. If you would like information about Counselling Services and how to best support your students with personal or emotional concerns, please contact Mark Unruh, Acting Manager for Counselling Services at munruh191@rrc.ca

Did you miss a session at RED Forum or IPD Day?

Don’t forget that recordings of most sessions are available on the Whova site until June 18th.
Just click on the session in the agenda to see the video. Any additional materials provided can be accessed there as well.

Sign in to Whova here.

If you experience technical difficulties please email events@rrc.ca.

Recently in Staff News, Safety and Health Services invited College staff to provide feedback on a set of draft Codes of Practice which support a safe and healthy campus.

Similar to our colleagues in Safety and Health Service, the Legal and Compliance Department will be initiating a community review of College policies over the summer. College policies touch on everything from academics to administration, human resources and IT. In the months ahead, we will be asking for your input as we update a number of College policies. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure College policies are clear, consistent and reflective of institutional needs and processes.

All current College policies are posted online at https://www.rrc.ca/legal/. Keep an eye on Staff News for more details about the RRC Policy Renewal Project in the weeks ahead. We look forward to engaging with you!

An exciting announcement from Venture for Canada (VFC)!

The VFC Internship Program is now accepting student and employer applications for Fall 2021 internships! VFC will be funding paid internships across Canada this Fall, and will continue to support work-from-home and remote placements. For more information and eligibility criteria, visit: Venture for Canada Internships

Venture for Canada is a not-for-profit that recruits, trains and supports top recent graduates helping them find placement at Canadian startups.

If you have any questions, please contact Student Employment Services at ses@rrc.ca. 

The Red River College Research Ethics Board (RRC-REB) has been working on a process to ensure the college meets mandated standards for ethical conduct of research in all student course assignment work that requires students to interview or survey a sample of human participants for the purposes of gathering data to describe or solve a problem. Learning about ethical conduct of research, and when ethical approval is required, is an important component of learning about survey/interview research. The RRC-REB must be aware of and track all student assignments that use such approaches. We have developed a modified approval process for these purposes.  

Please review the RRC-REB website to view the modified approval form and processes for course-based research you are planning for the 2021-2022 academic year. If you have questions about the process please email the REB at REB@rrc.ca 
https://www.rrc.ca/numbers/ethics-board/

Our College in its research practices follows the Tri-Council Policy Statement for Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans (TCSP-2). The TCPS-2 outlines ethical research conduct for all research conducted at Canadian institutions. In following these guidelines, the new course-based research processes give proxy authority to instructors to monitor the ethical conduct of students in course assignments which involve human data collection. These new procedures are intended to protect the participants that students recruit into their course-based projects. Accordingly, assuring that the student's practices are ethical will also protect the instructors who have created the assignments and The College as a whole.  

Kim Mitchell RN PhD kmmitchell@rrc.ca
Chair, Red River College Research Ethics Board 
https://www.rrc.ca/numbers/ethics-board/

The sun is shining, and summer is upon us!!!

RRC Early Childhood Centre Inc. is excited to announce that we will once again be running our School Age Summer Program for the months of July & August.

We will be running the program with reduced enrollment this year due to COVID-19. The school age program is open to children between the ages of 6-12 years of age. The program will run from July 5th until August 27th, 2021 from 8am until 5pm – Monday to Friday. The cost is $25.00 per day (plus a $5 weekly incidental fee). All fees must be pre-paid via E-transfer. Drop off screening procedures will be completed for parents and children daily. If you are interested in registering your school-age child, or have any questions – please reach out to Centre Supervisor, Sam Henry atshenry37@rrc.ca shenry37@rrc.ca by Friday, June 18, 2021.

The next Teaching Essentials Program (TEP) will take place on August 25 – 27, 2021.

Designed for new instructors, this 3 day workshop will equip new instructors to be confident, well prepared and comfortable in their new role. It will be delivered online both synchronously (ie, live with TEP facilitators using Microsoft Teams) and asynchronously (ie, independent learner readings and activities). 

Chairs and Program Managers: Click "Register Today" to register new instructors from your area. 

Deadline to register for this session is July 23, 2021. 

Questions? Contact TEP@rrc.ca for more information. 

This is the eleventh in a series of posts covering the eleven communication strategies in the C-Skills Framework courses.

What does advocating look like in a communication course? This is a complex topic and can be difficult to boil down to just a few easy-to-follow points. But we’re going to try!

MSC invites you to read how this important human skill also improves communication in our latest Staff Forum post: Communication Strategies: Advocating.

These training sessions will be held online via WebEx. Register for the training using the links below and you will be emailed a link to join the webinar.

• LEARN Training – Accessible documents: best practices and resources – June 17, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Getting Started (beginners) – June 23, 2021
• WebEx classroom: Interact and Engage (intermediate – advanced users) – June 24, 2021

Summer 2021 LEARN training sessions offered through the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence. You can sign up for this session and more on the Faculty Development registration page or view a list of upcoming CLPE faculty development sessions.

Thank you to everyone who submitted suggestions for additions, deletions or updates to the course outline template! All submissions were reviewed and validated. Marketing and Web Presence updated the course outline template to enhance accessibility and to align with the College’s brand and visual identity. Library Services was added to the list of College Supports.

Course Outlines are official documents that provide students with accurate and up-to-date course information including learning outcomes and assessment methods. The Course Outline Template is an appendix of Policy A5 – Course Outlines.  

Please view the Course Outline Template – Instruction Sheet before entering information into the Course Outline Template approved by SAC on April 16, 2021. All Course Outlines must be approved by the department Chair or Program Manager.

Please find the Course Outline Template in the Course Outline Repository via the HUB and reference to Policy A5 on the Academic Quality Staff Forum site.

For questions, concerns or support, please contact:
Lauren Waples, Manager, Academic Quality and RPL
AQ-RPL@rrc.ca

eTV/CLPE has a variety of services and resources available to support Flexible On-Line Delivery and Blended Learning including studio and mobile video production, desktop recording, video streaming services and media creation. For more information please visit eTV.

You asked at the campfire … we listened! Join Arnold Boldt, Interim Executive Director, Academic, for a follow-up discussion on the new Instructor Workload Assignment Process. What is it? How does it work? How does it affect you? If you have specific questions, you are welcome to ask them during the session.

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2021
Time: 9:00 – 10:00am

Click here to register.

For more information, please contact Claudius Soodeen.

It is with mixed feelings that we announce the retirement of Barb Cobb. After 20 years of employment at Red River College, Barb Cobb is retiring effective June 18, 2021.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to sum up all of  Barb’s achievements over the 20 years of dedicated service to our institution.

Barb started out as the Associate Registrar of Customer Service and for the past 9 years she has been the Associate Registrar, Admissions. She has been instrumental in supporting prospective students, current students, and staff all over the College, both local and regionally. She has always held the student’s needs first and excellent customer service has always been her top priority.

Barb has always been a hard-working and committed member of the Enrolment Services team. The Enrolment Services Department will miss Barb’s passion to the work and to the student’s success.

On behalf of the Enrolment Services team and the entire college, we wish Barb the most amazing retirement years. We hope that travel, which is something Barb enjoys, will be possible for her and her partner in the near future! 

Assessment Services is excited to invite all students for a unique opportunity to build their skills and set them up to succeed in their program.

The new Post-secondary Success in Learning (PSL) online supports are designed to help students assess their current skills, attitudes, and behaviours as learners, and develop key areas of competency that research has shown increases success at school and in the workplace.

To learn more about the free supports and how your students can register for them, please visit us at Post-secondary Success in Learning or email us at PSL@rrc.ca.