Obituary policy

If there is no obvious department, faculty or VP-portfolio communicator available, a member of the Communications and Marketing team may be appointed (at the discretion of the executive director or one of the senior directors) to write the obituary.

Obituaries will be sent via an all faculty and staff email if the deceased is a current high-ranking university executive, including president, chancellor, chair of the board of governors, vice-president, associate vice-president, dean or associate dean. A version of the obituary will be posted concurrently on the Staff and Faculty section of SFU News.

Obituaries can run on the What’s On newsletter, if the deceased was:

• A current faculty member or lecturer, administrator, board member or staff member;
• A recently retired (<1 a year) long-time faculty, lecturer, administrator or staff member;
• A former president, vice-president or chancellor;
• A major donor to the university;
• A professor emeritus.

All other SFU obituaries will be run on the affiliated department, faculty or VP-portfolio website, and amplified on the Faculty and Staff Dashboard at the discretion of the unit.

Once an obituary is posted, a link may be shared by the affiliated department, faculty or VP-portfolio on their social media channels.