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Class Notes

Janine Zajac [BPE/2020], BEd/2022, PBDipEd/2026] won the Manitoba Marathon on the women’s side for the second year in a row.

After a career of more than 27 years transforming Canada’s justice and correctional sectors, Genevieve Michael [BA/91] is returning to the University of Manitoba campus as the Manager of Access and Privacy at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Harvey Max Chochinov [MD/83, PhD/98], a pioneer in the field of palliative care and dignity-centred care, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Porto in Portugal. He is only the second Canadian to do so, following the writer Margaret Atwood. 

Memories

A standout UM memory from Evelyn Labun [BN/69], who is retired from the University of North Dakota:

We had a class with Dr. Margaret Hart and Mona McLeod at the very end of semester. We all grumbled that it should have been cancelled so we could get our families and ourselves ready for Christmas. But we had class and so dutifully were present.

Our surprise was that after a few introductory remarks about the class the two professors rolled out china tea cups, silver wear and dainties in a class Christmas celebration. So how could we not join in the fun of this surprise!

They were doing a wonderful thing for this class. As a professor myself in later years I often reflected on this kind action by our professors and did the same for some of my classes.

Frank Cormier [BSc/87, BA/90, MA/96], UM faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Criminology says:

My two stories share a thread that links them over the decades. When I first arrived at University College residence as an 18-year-old undergraduate, I dropped my belongings in my room and then went straight to the Great Hall for lunch and to start meeting my fellow residents. Over the next two years, I ate thousands of meals in that Great Hall, made many lifelong friends, attended numerous socials and other events, and - most importantly - got to know the woman who would become my wife.  

Four decades later, in late January 2026, a water pipe burst in a classroom in the Human Ecology building. My Sociology of Criminal Justice and Corrections course had to be relocated, and I was stunned to find myself assigned to teach the class in the Great Hall of University College for the remainder of the term. Standing up on that stage, looking out at the students who reminded me so much of myself and my fellow students 40 years before, in that room that was so filled with memories for me, was magical. As I approach the end of my career at UM, having the opportunity to teach in the room so intimately related to many of the essential aspects of my life was the kind of "full circle" moment about which one can normally only dream. 

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