Season's greetings from the Senior Management Team

Happy Holidays from our team in the Office of the Provost. We wish you all the best for the year to come! It was great to see so many of you at the President’s Annual Holiday Breakfast.

With a full year behind me as your Provost, I continue to be amazed by the outstanding performance of you, the VIU community, in athletics, teaching & learning, research & scholarship, community engagement and all it takes to operate the institution. This is truly a remarkable place and I feel honoured to be serving you through our campuses on the traditional lands of the Snuneymuxw, Quw’utsun, Tla’amin, Snaw-naw-as and Qualicum First Nations. The past year has not been without challenges, but I am heartened by the commitment to embrace changes. We have a strong history, and I am highly optimistic about our future. On behalf of all of us, I wish each and every one of you a restful holiday and hope you share this season doing what brings you joy with the ones you love. If you are on campus from now until December 22, please stop by our office for tea and a treat!

Happy Holidays and all the best to you and your families!

This is my first “green” holiday season on the West Coast (although to be fair a white Christmas in Nova Scotia is a rarity and usually much colder than BC!). I want to express how deeply touched I am by the warm reception I have received by the entire VIU community since arriving in May of this year. Even with the very challenging landscape that the university finds itself in and the difficult changes we are experiencing, I am truly blessed to have been given this opportunity to be part of building a better VIU. Leadership, staff, and faculty across our institution have shown me that “Brave leaders are never silent around hard things” and I am so grateful to be part of this supportive community on our journey forward.

I wish each one of you a restful holiday break with your friends and family.

To all my colleagues across VIU,

As we bid farewell to another year, I extend my personal well wishes to you and your loved ones. Take a break, recharge like a campus rabbit on a carrot binge, and enjoy every moment. Wishing you a holiday season filled with laughter, relaxation, and maybe even a few moments of hare-raising festive chaos! One of my favourite ways to spend the holidays is tucked inside on a rainy day playing board games. Here is a photo from last Christmas with my wife Karen, daughters Isabelle and Eva, playing one of my absolute favs - Terraforming Mars. See you all in 2024, Dan

Season’s Greetings Everyone.

As we get towards the end of the year, I can’t help but feel lucky that my role provides me to the opportunity to engage with so many of you.  You make the VIU a vibrant, caring, and close community that it is. Even when (and perhaps especially when!)  times are challenging.

Whatever your traditions are, I hope that the coming weeks provide you with some time to rest, reflect and recharge.  I’ll be doing this by spending time outdoors and on the water with my family – but also quietly hunkered down with a book by my woodstove.

I wish you all laughter, joy, and peace for the season – and I look forward to sharing the promise and possibility of a new year with you all come January.

Happy Holidays from my family to yours!

Season’s greetings VIU community! 

As I reflect on the past year, I am impressed by the exceptional spirit of the VIU community.  Your resilience, commitment, and fellowship make VIU the special community it is.  Thank you all for making my VIU experience so great!  Let’s recharge our spirit batteries and achieve more successes together in 2024. 

A world of good wishes to all,

Carolyn 

Wishing everyone a restorative break doing things you enjoy, with those you love.

I am fortunate to work with wonderful people at VIU, and for that I would like to express my gratitude this holiday season. I wish for each of you a restful and restorative break and a season filled with joy – and peace. 

As we approach the end of the semester and the calendar year, I reflect on all the rewarding experiences I have had at VIU. I am grateful to get to know students and colleagues who make me happy to come to work every day. In my role, I often get to know students who experience difficulties and I am grateful for the trust they place in me when they share their stories and work to resolve challenges they face. 

I am grateful for all students and my colleagues who work to make VIU a more equitable and inclusive place to study and work. 

All the best, 

Monique McKay