A weekly snapshot that captures important university updates, work across VPFO departments, and relevant resources.
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Operations updates
Building Operations, Custodial Services, Customer Services & Informatics, Energy & Water Services, Infrastructure Development, and Municipal Services
- Generator load bank testing schedule: The regulatory Annual Load Bank Emergency Generator tests will take place in buildings across campus starting on September 12, 2022, until November 1, 2022. Learn more
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Comptroller, Finance & Operational Excellence and Treasury
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Communications & Engagement, Human Resources, and Safety & Risk Services
- Protecting yourself from wildfire smoke: Lower Mainland continues to see poor air quality values as a result of the thick wildfire smoke in BC. Find resources about air quality health and safety awareness and the best ways to protect yourself. Learn more
- Safety & Risk Services' Ready Week 2022 was a success: Last week, 700 students, faculty, and staff experienced the safe yet realistic shaking of an 8.5 earthquake in the simulator and learned about hazards and their responsibility in an emergency. Read about the event
- See photos and videos from Ready Week: VPFO Communications & Engagement captured engaging photos and videos of community members enjoying Ready Week at the Emergency Preparedness booth and inside the earthquake simulator. Visit the VPFO Flickr album
- Don’t miss the 5th Annual Privacy Matters @ UBC Symposium: Safety & Risk Services' Privacy and Information Security Management team invites you to join the information security discussion by attending any of these virtual events throughout October. Learn more
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People of the VPFO
At the VPFO, we love celebrating success! Join us every week in recognizing the great work our VPFO team members are doing to support the university.
Facilities
- Moving crew in Municipals Services: Special thanks for all the work the crew has done to ensure that our learning spaces are ready for the start of term each year — from supporting our renovation and maintenance projects, exam gym setup, to dozens of furniture moves on a daily basis to keep classrooms operational. Your support is much appreciated!
- April Wong, Clerk – Shout out to April for her help in coordinating the project workshops. You have been extremely helpful and always a delight to speak to — thank you!
VPFO Communications & Engagement
- Communications & Engagement – Thank you for all the work that goes into producing an informative and timely newsletter and providing additional helpful resources for the VPFO community. Keep up the great work!
Safety & Risk Services
- Manmohan Mand, Community Zone Manager – Shout out to Man for going over and beyond his duties to assist a concerned student who lost their belongings. Mand stayed an extra hour to comb through security footage for suspicious activity. Thanks for your commitment and customer service!
- Campus Security – On August 30, Campus Security attended a crush injury of the foot after a cart weighing over 400lbs rolled over the worker’s foot. Security attended, treated, and transported the worker to UBC Hospital, and then immediately informed the Safety Advisor of a possible reportable injury. Great teamwork and thank you for ensuring the safety & security of our community!
Well done! Want to give someone a shout out in the next edition? Email communications@vpfo.ubc.ca
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- Tejasdeep Sahdev and Samuel Yumvihoze joined Safety & Risk Services as Research Compliance & Occupational Hygiene Assistants last week.
- Carson Koo joins Building Operations within Facilities as a Carpenter.
- Facilities' Municipal Services is pleased to welcome Fiona Keating as Municipal Engineer and Riley Kuebler as Labourer today.
- Harrison Reid joins Finance & Operational Excellence as Leave of Absence Representative.
- Alejandra Tafich Canales is joining Finance & Operational Excellence as a Procurement Officer on Sept 14. She comes to us from the Prince George School District.
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All positions at UBC are available on the UBC HR Careers website, or through the career application in your Workday account. Please note that applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on the day prior to the posting end date. The following VPFO positions are currently open:
- Truck Driver Medium/Labourer (JR9393) – 9/14/2022
- JR9446) – 9/21/2022
- Fleet & Asset Manager (JR9380) – 9/14/2022
- ISC Functional Support Analyst (JR9345) – 09/15/2022
- Trades 3 - Electrician (JR9532) – 09/15/2022
- Finance Analyst, Financial Planning & Analysis (JR9507) – 9/15/2022
- Utility Worker (JR9545) – 09/17/2022
- Service Centre (ISC) Representative (JR9447) – 9/21/2022
- Service Centre (ISC) Representative (JR9446) – 9/21/2022
- Auxiliary Service Worker (10 Positions) (JR9288) – 09/23/2022
- Digital Payments Manager (JR9481) – 9/25/2022
- Project Manager 1 (JR9483) – 09/27/2022
Don't forget to apply as an internal candidate! Please review the Apply for an Internal Job Posting guide in the Workday Knowledge Base for instructions on how to apply. Reminder to attach a copy of your resume when you apply for a career opportunity in Workday.
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UBC mourns the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The Canada flag at Flagpole Plaza and the BC, Musqueam and UBC flags at the east entrance of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC in Vancouver and the Canada, BC, Okanagan Nation Alliance and UBC flags at UBC Okanagan were raised Saturday, September 10, 2022, in recognition of the accession of His Majesty King Charles III. UBC has hosted His Majesty on the Vancouver campus. See photos from 1980 visit
The flags will be lowered again at sunrise the following day in remembrance of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on September 8, 2022. The flags will remain lowered until sunset on Monday, September 19, 2022, the day of the memorial service.
Read a statement from President and Vice-Chancellor Santa Ono and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal Lesley Cormack.
Apply for the 2022 Partnership Recognition and Exploration Fund
UBC Community Engagement is now accepting applications for the 2022 Partnership Recognition & Exploration (PRE) Fund! Apply for up to $1,500 for community-university collaboration and relationship building.
PRE funding fills small resource gaps and empowers community partners to build reciprocal relationships with UBC students, faculty, and staff. We especially welcome applications for projects that advance:
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Indigenous engagement and reconciliation
- Health innovation and community wellbeing
- Sustainability and climate action
- Teaching, learning, and research excellence
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis from now until December 31, 2022, OR until available funds are exhausted. This year, Community Engagement has a total of $69,000 to fund up to 46 community-university projects.
Learn more
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Some interesting news articles our team members have found informative, helpful, or fun! These are provided for information and entertainment only. Unless noted, UBC doesn’t specifically endorse or supply this content.
- Digital correspondence doesn’t need to be soul-sucking. Think of them as bite-sized opportunities to invite genuine connection with your coworkers and partners. This TED Idea article outlines some easy ways to incorporate humor and humanity into your work emails.
- Today is National Video Games Day! Did you know that an estimated 2.7 billion people played video games in 2020 alone? Read more fun facts about video games.
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HR has collected mental health resources to help you manage your ups and downs. To view workshops, webinars and events visit the HR event listing.
Our VPFO HR staff is always available for a confidential conversation. Refer to this service map to connect with the HR Advisor supporting your area.
Access the Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) confidential services, through LifeWorks, by calling 1-866-424-0770.
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