Monday - Dec. 23, 2024 - UFV taskforce makes AI guidelines

🌧 High 10C

Good morning!

In my early journalism years, my favourite day to work was Jan. 1. Yes, it was a drag to get out of bed for an early start after a night of celebration. And no, I did not get paid extra to work a stat. But the New Year’s Day stories are among my favourite things to cover.

What better people can you meet than wide-eyed folks plunging into frigid water for a polar bear swim? Or newborn babies celebrated for being the very first of the year? (One of my favourite photos I have ever taken was of BC’s 2018 New Year’s baby. The new mom and little girl were in the hospital bed, surrounded by video cameras and journalists.)

This year won’t have that, as Tyler mentioned on Friday. (Tyler also has strong feelings about New Year’s babies.) We will be taking the holidays off, and not returning to your inboxes until Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. But I can’t give up the New Year’s babies entirely. If you were the first baby of the year, in any year, send us a message. I’d love to check in on how you’re doing today.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a happy, healthy holiday season, and a hangover-free transition to the New Year. We appreciate everything you do to keep us going, whether that’s paying for a subscription or just reading our newsletter.

See you next year!

– Grace

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Nine ways to celebrate NYE

The year is ending. A new one is beginning. All we must do now is decide how we wish to transition between the two.

For anyone who is wanting to head out on the town, the Fraser Valley has a number of options for party-goers at a number of price points. From elegant masked balls to rocking cover bands, there are tons of different ways to ring in 2025.

BC Transit will be offering free transportation after 6pm on Dec. 31 in Abbotsford and Mission, with extended hours in the wee hours of 2025. The Fraser Valley Express will also be free after 6pm, although it won’t be running late. The full schedule is available online. The Westcoast Express will be operating on a weekday schedule, and the 5:30pm and 6:20pm trains leaving waterfront will be free. Transit in Langley will also be free from 5pm onwards, with some extended service.

• Today, we share nine ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the Fraser Valley, from expensive galas to all-but-free DJ nights.

Related

Need to Know

🏥 A doctor at Abbotsford Regional Hospital says conditions are not what one ‘would expect to see in a developed country’ [CBC] / The Current has reported on overcrowding, emergency wait times, and death rates at Abbotsford’s hospital [FVC]

🔎 Langley Mounties have asked for the public’s help to find a missing teen [RCMP]

🚓 A woman was arrested after allegedly biting a stranger on the head and spitting on a cop at a fast-food restaurant in Mission [Mission Record]

🚒 A Chilliwack apartment building was filled with pepper spray after police executed a search warrant Friday [Chilliwack Progress]

👉 A man who is already facing murder charges in Maple Ridge has also been charged in connection with an Abbotsford shooting [Abbotsford News]

🚔 A Mission houseboat resident was injured in a shooting Saturday morning [Mission Record]

🚧 Abbotsford has finished construction on the Montrose Avenue bus exchange [City of Abbotsford]

✅ Langley Township will allow on-street parking of semis in Gloucester Estates—at least for a year [Langley Advance Times]

🩹 An inmate was injured during an assault at Pacific Institution in Abbotsford earlier this month [Abbotsford News]

💉 What the BCCDC says you need to worry about when it comes to bird flu, Lyme disease, and rabies [The Tyee]

🌲 BC’s political parties all promised to change the use of glyphosate, a chemical herbicide, to remove plants and trees province-wide; the story includes a detailed map of where the herbicide has been used in the past [The Narwhal]

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Give the gift of local journalism. You can now gift a Fraser Valley Current membership to your favourite newsie this year. It will get them our weekly members-only newsletter—and the good feeling that comes from supporting local journalism. Supporting us costs just $99 for a year, or $10.99 for one month. Click here for details. (You can click the “gift” button above the pricing options.)

The Agenda

UFV taskforce develops ‘AI Principles’

In our Thursday story on the use of artificial intelligence at the University of the Fraser Valley, we wrote that the university had convened a task force to address the issue of AI. Following the story, an FVC reader emailed to direct us to a new set of resources provided to UFV instructors about the use of AI. The task force has developed a series of "AI Principles" that broadly outline the institution's approach to the technology, along with a set of guidelines for instructors.

The principles document says that "UFV should ensure that AI in education is used with integrity, amplifies innovative practices, upholds academic freedom, and is responsible to changing needs." The document also says the university must promote the ethical use of AI, and that the university "promotes a positive and hopeful mindset toward AI." You can read the document here.

The guidelines for instructors are based upon the principles. They say "can decide if and how extensively they wish to incorporate AI as a tool in their teaching, learning, and assessment within their courses." The guidelines say instructors should clearly communicate AI expectations with students, and that both they and students must disclose the use of AI when it is use. The guidelines document also says it is up to instructors to define the acceptability of the use of AI and suggests statements that can be used to allow AI's unrestricted use or to prohibit it, as the instructor sees fit. You can read the guidelines here.

Your New Year’s perspectives

As we move into 2025, we want to know what your municipality should be doing different in the New Year. If towns had New Year’s resolutions, what should your community be focusing on? (If you think your mayor should have a resolution of their own, we’d love to hear that too.) We may use your comments in an upcoming FVC Perspectives story.

We also want to hear about your last year. Are you better off than you were at the start of 2024?

Feel free to take your time to answer the questions—we’ve got until next year after all. You can fill out your answers here.

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As part of a membership, you get our special weekend roundup of all the things you might’ve missed each week!

🤝 Now hiring

• Protection and control communication technologist at BC Hydro in Abbotsford

• Manager of planning at the District of Kent

• Registered psychiatric nurse at Heritage Village in Chilliwack

• Customer services assistant at the Fraser Valley Regional Library in Fort Langley

• Taxi driver at Hope Taxi

Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!

🗓 Things to do

Zoo holiday: The Greater Vancouver Zoo hosts Arctic Nights, a holiday train experience, until the end of the month. Details and tickets online.

Hockey night: The Chilliwack Chiefs take on the Victoria Grizzlies at the Chilliwack Coliseum on Friday, Dec. 27 at 7pm. Details and tickets online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up on some hefty reading

The Current is not always known for its snappy stories. We published quite a few long reads this year, some so big they had to be divided into multiple parts. If you have some downtime over the holidays, why not tackle a big story you may have missed?

The benefits, opportunities, costs and challenges of restoring Sumas Lake: This story was so big we had to split it into two parts. Tyler walks through the benefits and difficulties of bringing Sumas Lake back. There are links to each chapter in the story, in case you can’t finish it all in one sitting. (8,850 words.)

The Powerhouse Murders: Our first FVC History Edition story was a long read about a 1915 murder mystery on the BCER. Tyler looked at the death of substation engineer Jesse Magoon, and the circumstances that ultimately led to his killer’s death. (5,940 words.)

Fraser Valley Train Q&A: Sparked by one reader’s many questions about trains in the Fraser Valley, our train mailbag was eventually divided into three different stories. Grace answered questions about freight movement in the valley (3,300 words), current and future passenger rail (4,910 words), and the history of trains in the Fraser Valley (6,490 words).

How an Ohio newspaper sank a BC publishing empire: Tyler’s award-winning coverage of Black Press’ demise follows the rise and fall of the community newspaper company as its assets went up for sale in Canada and the United States. It won a Jack Webster Award for business reporting. (5,525 words.)

That’s it!

Thanks for reading Fraser Valley Current today ♥️ 

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