{"id":49353,"date":"2018-08-29T14:12:51","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T18:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=49353"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:18:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:18:48","slug":"welcome-to-the-new-academic-year-at-carleton","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/welcome-to-the-new-academic-year-at-carleton\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the New Academic Year at Carleton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Welcome to the New Academic Year at Carleton\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The future starts now at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a successful 75th<\/sup> anniversary year<\/a> in 2017-2018, students, faculty and staff returning for the fall term will come back to a campus that has changed in several significant ways, most notably a new president, new chair of the Board of Governors, new senior administrators, new buildings and new academic programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a stable base and a solid financial footing, Carleton is well positioned to explore new directions and seize new opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This evolution is part of the university\u2019s continued growth from a small institution with strong local roots into a hub of research and teaching excellence that has ever-expanding community, national and international connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cCarleton is the kind of university that\u2019s really going to thrive from now into the middle of the 21st century,\u201d Benoit-Antoine Bacon<\/a> said shortly after becoming Carleton\u2019s 15th<\/sup> president and vice-chancellor on July 1.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s of considerable size without being overly large, it\u2019s young enough to have flexibility and the courage to try new things, it cares deeply about students, it wants to do research that matters, and it\u2019s connected locally, but has international ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bacon, a former vice-president at Queen\u2019s and Concordia universities, took over from Alastair Summerlee, who served as interim president for a year following the departure of Roseann O\u2019Reilly Runte, now the president of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A New President and Board Chair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Bacon will be working closely with Nik Nanos<\/a>, who began a one-year term as chair of the university\u2019s Board of Governors on July 1, with Dan Fortin<\/a> stepping into the co-chair role previously held by Nanos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI admire Carleton because it\u2019s a dynamic university that delivers a positively transformational academic and personal experience to its students,\u201d said Nanos, a leading corporate business strategist and the founder of Nanos Research<\/a>, one of Canada\u2019s most distinguished research companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Welcome
Nik Nanos, chair of the university\u2019s Board of Governors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am looking forward to supporting and working with the exceptional students, academics, staff and executive team led by our new president. Our school was founded by passionate community leaders and I am proud to follow in the tradition of being a community-at-large member of the board and being called to serve as the volunteer chair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That executive team includes political scientist Pauline Rankin<\/a>, the new dean of Carleton\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and former associate vice-president (Research and International), whose five-year term also started on July 1, and Chuck Macdonald<\/a>, whose five-year term as dean of the Faculty of Science began on August 1.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI am elated and tremendously thrilled to be joining the Faculty of Science at Carleton during this exciting time of growth and renewal,\u201d said Macdonald, who comes to Ottawa from the University of Windsor, where he served as head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and, from 2015 to 2016, acting science dean.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI am looking forward very much to getting to know the faculty, staff and students who make the Faculty of Science what it is and to becoming a member of the Carleton community. I am confident that \u2014 together \u2014 we will do great things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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New Buildings Changing the Campus Landscape<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Some of those great things will happen in Carleton\u2019s new Health Sciences Building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science professors from the Health Sciences<\/a> and Neuroscience<\/a> departments began moving into the new building and setting up their labs in early 2018 and an official grand opening ceremony is expected soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right next door, construction is underway on the six-storey, 100,000-square-foot Nicol Building<\/a>, the future home of Carleton\u2019s Sprott School of Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the things we love about Sprott will be bundled together in one place,\u201d Hanna Di Virgilio, president of the Sprott Business Students\u2019 Society<\/a>, said at a groundbreaking ceremony in late June, where Carleton officials thanked the Nicol family for its transformational $10-million gift that kickstarted fundraising for the new building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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