University of Guelph Launches BetterPlanet Project Speaker Series

GUELPH, Ontario, October 12, 2011 - University of Guelph Campus Bulletin

A new speaker series at the University of Guelph will highlight the many ways that faculty, staff and students make a difference here and around the world.

The series, which begins Oct. 19, complements the University’s BetterPlanet Project, a capital campaign to help improve the quality of food, environment, health and communities locally and globally.

The U of G community inspired the campaign, said Chuck Cunningham, assistant vice-president (communications and public affairs).

“Our faculty, staff, students and alumni are making it a better planet every day through teaching, research, and community outreach and engagement,” he said.

“For decades, they’ve crossed borders as researchers, teachers and volunteers, worked locally and nationally to make a difference, and sought to change science and society with their ideas. The BetterPlanet Project is our way of showing that to the world.”

The series gives U of G community members a new way to share their efforts, knowledge and experience, Cunningham said.

Lectures will be free and open to the U of G community and general public. Talks will be recorded for podcast. All talks will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the University Centre, Room 103. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

The first speaker will be U of G English professor Dionne Brand, a renowned poet and author. On Oct. 19, she will discuss how poems and novels promise a better world. Brand is Toronto’s poet laureate. She has won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Trillium Prize for Literature, the Pat Lowther Award for Poetry, the Harbourfront Festival Prize and the Toronto Book Award. Her writing has been translated into Italian and French, and is published in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany.

On Nov. 22, faculty and staff will discuss their experiences with Leave for Change.

President Alastair Summerlee will speak Jan. 19, 2012, on his work with African relief projects.



Introduction to the BetterPlanet Project by Alastair Summerlee, President of the University of Guelph http://thebetterplanetproject.ca