A new campus with a health and wellness focus

UFV is making a very exciting move into the new facilities at the Canada Education Park in Chilliwack. Joining the already established Trades and Technology Centre at the new CEP campus will be most of the programs from the Chilliwack campus on Yale Road. The new campus will have a special focus on health and wellness.

Last fall, UFV created a new Faculty of Health Sciences, bringing the Kinesiology and Physical Education program under the same umbrella as programs in nursing (BSN and Practical Nursing), Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene, and Health Care Assistant.

In order to take advantage of the potential for interdepartmental partnerships and cooperation with the Faculty of Health Sciences, UFV is beginning transition a significant portion of Kinesiology and Physical Education programming and faculty to the new Chilliwack campus at CEP.

As part of this transition, UFV will offer a special grouping of first-year courses in kinesiology and related subjects to 36 students in Chilliwack this fall. Students who are accepted into this group will be guaranteed spots in a full load of classes, giving them a significant advantage over other first-year students. This will not be a traditional ‘lock-step’ cohort but rather an integrated grouping of courses that enables the students to gain access to key first-year courses.

By being part of this group, the students will be able to take the prerequisites for most second-year kinesiology courses.

UFV’s state-of-the-art Human Performance Centre research facility will also move to the Chilliwack campus at CEP.

As the campus develops and other kinesiology labs are outfitted, UFV will begin to offer more kinesiology programming at the second-, third-, and fourth-year levels in Chilliwack, but will also continue to offer kinesiology classes in Abbotsford and online.

“Our kinesiology faculty members are very much in support of being part of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and being in proximity to the other programs in the faculty will lend itself to collaboration and synergies. It will allow us to start conversations about what we could be doing in the allied health care field,” notes Kinesiology program head Chris Bertram.

Bertram is also excited about partnership possibilities with the RCMP, whose regional training centre is also on the CEP site, and about the opportunities the new campus and its location near the Chilliwack River Valley offers for campus recreation and outdoor education.

Other than the Faculty of Heath Sciences, other programs will be moving around with the opening of the new building at CEP.

Teacher Education

In tandem with the transition of a significant part of the Kinesiology and Physical Education program to Chilliwack, the Teacher Education program (TEP) will move to Abbotsford, in a swap of classroom and lab space. UFV’s Teacher Education program is a one-year post-baccalaureate certificate program that prepares students to teach at the elementary and middle school level. A secondary-school cohort is also in the planning stages.

Moving the Teacher Education program to Abbotsford will bring the program closer to the other programs in the Faculty of Professional Studies, thus allowing for better collaboration with programs such as Adult Education, Early Childhood Education, and Library and Information Technology.

Dean of Professional Studies Rosetta Khalideen said that UFV intends to maintain the very strong relationships the university has built with the Chilliwack and Fraser-Cascade School Districts (as with all the other school districts in the Fraser Valley).

Theatre

UFV’s long-range plan is to maintain theatre courses and productions in Chilliwack, as well as expand the program to Abbotsford, if resources can be secured to do so. This will enable students in complementary programs such as English and Visual Arts to more easily take theatre courses.

The new building at the Canada Education Park in Chilliwack houses a 100-seat studio theatre and faculty offices for the Theatre program. UFV’s current performance theatre is on its Yale Road campus. This campus is for sale, but UFV will explore the opportunity to lease-back the performance theatre from the buyer for up to five years.

Agriculture

The Agriculture program is slated to move to a separate renovated building on the new campus. UFV is currently fundraising for new glass greenhouse and barn, and is planning to move the “poly” greenhouse to the CEP campus.

Other courses and programs

UFV also offers first- and second-year courses in many programs at the Chilliwack campus, including two years of general arts and one of sciences, and offerings in social services, business, criminal justice, early childhood education, and upgrading, to name a few. These courses will also make the move across town in the great trek, which will mean that a lively and busy new building on the CEP campus next fall.

Services

Many services offered at the Chilliwack campus will also be making the move, including the library, student services, admissions and records, disability services, aboriginal access, student society, and student life.

This article originally appeared as part of a UFV on the Move supplement in the Chilliwack Progress.