New chair for fisheries centre
Alastair O’Rielly is the new managing director of the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation. The appointment was announced by the centre’s acting chair, Dr. Robert Lucas. Mr. O’Rielly will start with the centre on Nov. 10. Mr. O’Rielly is well known throughout the industry, having most recently served as the president of the Fisheries Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. His extensive experience in the fisheries and in research and development will be put to good use at the centre, where he will take over a multi-million dollar mandate from the Atlantic Innovation Fund to assist the Atlantic Provinces’ fishery and aquaculture industry in their quest to boost productivity and profitability. He will head up a program of industry-sponsored research and development initiatives out of the centre's offices in Halifax and St. John's.

Mr. O'Rielly may be reached at the centre by phone at 709-778-0542, by e-mail at Alastair.Orielly@mi.mun.ca, by fax, 709-778-0516, or through the mail, P.O. Box 4920, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5R3.

The centre is an initiative of Memorial University, supported by the Atlantic Innovation Fund.

Construction notice for Inco Centre
The INCO Innovation Centre, CP-1, Demolition, Foundation and Structural Steel package is now out to tender and will close on Thursday, Oct. 30. A quick tender award is anticipated with contractors on site by the second week of November. For safety and security reasons, a barricade will be erected around the former Thomson Student Centre and immediate area and this will have a direct impact on pedestrian traffic for the duration of the project (14 months). Construction is scheduled to be completed in late December 2004.

To accommodate the INCO Innovation Centre and as a part of this phase of construction, the Psychology Annex (T-10) is scheduled for demolition in early December. All existing tenants in this building will be relocated to alternate locations at the earliest possible convenience. These alternate locations need to be fully prepared/renovated to accommodate the respective tenants and to ensure continuous service with minimum disruption to the University community. The moves are as follows:

Technical Services Computer workshop will be relocated to L1014, Q. E. II Library (part of the former bookstore).
The Department of Psychology will absorb their displaced staff from this building into existing space belonging to them in the Science Building, which will require alterations to accommodate the additional personnel.

English as a Second Language (ESL) and the Computing and Communications' Computer Lab, will be relocated to a new addition to the Computing Services Building (T-12). Tenders for this extension will also close on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003.

If you have any questions, please call 8725. Facilities Management appreciates your cooperation on this matter and apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

Education to co-host online conference
On Nov. 6-8, the Faculty of Education at Memorial University, along with faculties of education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) will co-host the International Conference on Literacy Policies for the Schools We Need. Using video broadcast and other Web-based technologies the conference will bring together researchers, policymakers and senior practitioners, from Newfoundland and around the world, to examine the policy implications of some of the best research that is currently available on the topic of literacy. Session will deal with issues related to: Literacy Instruction, Pre-school Literacy Development, Literacy Assessment, and the Contexts and Curricula for Literacy Learning. Participants will have opportunities reflect on and think about literacy from an international, national and provincial policy perspective.

The central conference location is OISE/UT but a partnership between Centre for E-learning in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University and the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) and the NLTA Virtual Teacher Centre will enable educators from this province to participate. A small number of school districts in Newfoundland will also participate in the conference from their own locations.

For more information, see http://LiteracyConference.oise.utoronto.ca or e-mail ddibbon@mun.ca.

Taking it on the road
There is an opportunity for Memorial University deans, directors, professors and researchers wherever they travel to meet with alumni. Whether you want to promote your latest research, recruit new students, faculty or staff, or even promote your latest book or paper there are alumni who want to hear from you. Laura Edwards, the alumni outreach officer for the university, has heard from Memorial University alumni chapters across the province, Canada and internationally. They are interested in holding alumni events whenever representatives of the university are in their town and would be willing to be a guest speakers or special guest. All they require is a little prior notice.

If this is something you would be interested in participating in please email Laura Edwards at ledwards@mun.ca for more information.