{"id":27593,"date":"2021-05-19T08:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T12:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/?p=27593"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:17:18","slug":"27593","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/2021\/27593\/","title":{"rendered":"End of Year Message from Chair, Dr. Scott Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n End of Year Message from Chair, Dr. Scott Mitchell\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Greetings, DGES family,<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had an end-of-year message partially drafted that started in a more celebratory tone, but last week\u2019s sad news makes that difficult.  So I\u2019m starting again, with an acknowledgement that the <\/span>tragic loss of Professor Doug King to cancer<\/span><\/a> has dominated many of our thoughts since learning about his rapid decline and then passing on May 12.  And of course this is not the only heartbreaking story we are dealing with in this pandemic context.  I worry personally about the fact that even in our privileged society, delayed health care impacts so many while the health system prioritizes battling COVID-19. I know many of you share my angst that on top of uneven access to health care in general, vaccine distribution is specifically highlighting and contributing to global inequities.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there have also been welcome developments in all of this \u2013 \u201csilver linings\u201d is a phrase I find myself using increasingly over the past year.   Our office is collecting a steady stream of heartwarming testimonials, by email and through a <\/span>form set up for this purpose<\/span><\/a>, about the impact that Doug King had on so many lives.  We are going to compile those messages and make them available to the department and his family in the coming weeks.  I just learned that as of tomorrow, all DGES staff will have received their first vaccination, and a large portion of our faculty have told me that they are in the same position.  By the end of this month all of our students living in Ontario will be eligible to book their first vaccinations.  So we know that change and better days are coming, and we are starting to plan for the \u201cnew normal\u201d including a gradual return to campus. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really, getting through this past year has been a collective achievement in itself!  Course instructors went through the panicked pivot to online teaching that I was writing about this time last year, tried to regroup and plan through the summer, and continued online through all of fall and winter.  All of our staff and students have been home all year, too, with the academic year coming to its full end just last week.  Some of those students are now being processed for graduation, and I am especially impressed with all those who managed to wrap up their program requirements while under various stages of public health restrictions and the transition to exclusively online learning.  We look forward to celebrating those graduations online in June, and then hopefully we\u2019ll be able to see a lot of those graduates in person again when convocation ceremonies become possible.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For everyone returning to Carleton in the fall, we will still be largely online but have planned for specific in person activities to be launched, under public health guidelines, as the COVID risks decline.  We will continue to make everyone\u2019s health our first priority, meaning alternatives will be available for anyone not able to return to campus in September for their own health and safety or family care reasons. <\/span> <\/span>Presuming all goes well with this transition, there will be a more complete return to campus in January<\/span>.<\/span> We also anticipate that the lessons we have learned from this forced online experience will lead to a new mix of blended approaches to education in the coming years.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m writing this on a particularly warm and sunny day, and that is probably contributing to my optimistic outlook.  But even without that, if I pause and take stock, I realize that I have a lot to be thankful for, in my personal life and at DGES.  I hope all of you are also seeing reasons to hope for a bright future, and when times are tough, you too are finding some silver linings.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best wishes,<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Mitchell<\/span>
\n<\/span>Chair, Geography and Environmental Studies<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greetings, DGES family,  I had an end-of-year message partially drafted that started in a more celebratory tone, but last week\u2019s sad news makes that difficult.  So I\u2019m starting again, with an acknowledgement that the tragic loss of Professor Doug King to cancer has dominated many of our thoughts since learning about his rapid decline and then passing on May 12.  And of course this is not the only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27597,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27593\/revisions\/27597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}