{"id":7781,"date":"2017-10-30T13:59:46","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T17:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=7781"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:38:07","slug":"alastair-summerlee","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/alastair-summerlee\/","title":{"rendered":"Alastair Summerlee Joins Carleton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Alastair Summerlee Joins 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

In 2014, when Alastair Summerlee<\/a>, Carleton University\u2019s interim president, stepped down<\/a> after 11 years as president of the University of Guelph, he spent a month walking through the Kalahari Desert, from the Okavango Delta to the cropland of central Botswana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 450-kilometre trek with two other foreign visitors, both in their 30s, was led by a nomadic San guide who carried a spear, a machete, a bow and arrows, a pot for boiling water and not much else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe took no food or water with us,\u201d says Summerlee, \u201cbut found it by hunting and gathering along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the walk, Summerlee learned what types of wood you need to start a fire in the Kalahari, how to catch scorpion for breakfast, and how to tell the time of day from the colour and taste of the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy life had been the University of Guelph 24-7, and I didn\u2019t know how I would get over that,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought if I replaced it with: \u2018Am I going to be alive?\u2019 \u2014 and did that for long enough \u2014 that it would be a sufficient break to stop me from thinking about the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was also completely addicted to my cellphone, and part of the deal was that this would be a month without a cellphone, cold turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since taking on the \u201cintriguing challenge\u201d of his new position at Carleton, Summerlee has once again become immersed in university life, and though his cellphone use has moderated, it remains a necessary tool for dealing with the demands and details of a busy leadership role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sitting in his office on a September morning, more than three years after his time in the Kalahari, it\u2019s clear from the passion and precision with which he speaks that the experience has left a lasting impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an absolute privilege and a revelation to learn how much I don\u2019t know about the world that I live in,\u201d says Summerlee. \u201cA sense of privilege \u2014 in terms of material wealth and confidence in yourself and living in a technologically competent world \u2014 typically comes with the arrogance that you know what is good for people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So, learning that in fact you haven\u2019t the faintest idea what is good for yourself let alone what is good for other people, when you are placed in a situation like I was in the Kalahari, is helpful. Because when you are trying to create any kind of cultural change, you have to learn to respect the people you\u2019re with and the place you are, and think about how you might integrate into that environment rather than solve their problems with your solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is an apt description of his approach to taking the helm at Carleton, and how he\u2019s attempting to help steer the university\u2019s continued evolution by empowering staff, faculty and students to tackle challenges, whether on campus or on the other side of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Curious Facts about Alastair Summerlee<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A couple curious facts out about Summerlee preceded him to Carleton. He has a penchant for walking around barefoot and wearing shorts, even when the weather turns cold. And he only needs a few hours of sleep at night, often waking at 3 a.m. and staying active until 10 or 11 p.m., albeit with a short afternoon nap in the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other habits, such as his love of opera, are more shrouded \u2014 though he\u2019s concerned about being overhead singing aloud in the tunnels, which have amazing (and hard to resist) acoustics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point in his life, Summerlee thought seriously about becoming an opera singer \u2014 \u201ca failed objective in my life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even today, he confesses to being dreadful to sit beside at an opera: \u201cI heave and shake and move about and only my wife can sit anywhere near me because I am completely absorbed. The music speaks to me in ways that I find at the same time completely exhausting and absolutely relaxing. The depth of emotion is something that I don\u2019t find anywhere else in anything that I do, yet there is a tremendous sense of tranquility in hearing and feeling the music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Summerlee was familiar with Carleton before arriving in July, both from his two decades at Guelph and from his stint as chair of the Council of Ontario Universities, several elemental attributes of Carleton\u2019s culture have only now become apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community feeling, evidenced by the number of multigenerational families represented among Carleton faculty, staff and students, give the university a distinctive friendly and supportive atmosphere \u2014 a quality that isn\u2019t known as widely as it should be, suggests Summerlee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nor does Carleton sufficiently broadcast its world-class research accomplishments, or its tangible connections to the national and international institutions headquartered in Ottawa, a distinct advantage of being based in the capital city that brings federal cabinet ministers to campus on a regular basis and creates a pipeline for student work placements on Parliament Hill, among other benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The university\u2019s \u201cHere for Good<\/a>\u201d fundraising ethos \u2014 the core of the $300-million Collaborate campaign \u2014 is another unique aspect of Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery few capital campaigns are based on the idea of making a difference in the world,\u201d says Summerlee. \u201cThey are all focused on \u2018we want to build something\u2019 or \u2018we want to have this kind of facility\u2019 or \u2018we want these chairs\u2019 and things like that. They are not about the good that you do. They are about physical structures or people, which may end up leading to good things, whereas Carleton\u2019s campaign is focused much more on what are we doing to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summerlee, whose background is in biomedical research, embraces this idea of service in his own work with Lucky Iron Fish<\/a> \u2014 a social enterprise that is trying to address iron deficiency in developing countries by spreading the use of a small and simple cooking tool, which was initially developed by one of his graduate students at Guelph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Active in Africa, Lucky Iron Fish is hoping to extend its reach in India \u2014 a country where iron deficiency is a major health concern \u2014 and Summerlee has started talking to Carleton\u2019s Canada-India Centre<\/a> about how to better connect with people in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, \u2018Here for Good\u2019 is a beacon for a university where the way things are done is different,\u201d he says. \u201cBut just saying the words is not enough. How are we putting this idea into practice? How does that make us different in teaching, in research, in community service? How can we use this idea to enhance our reputation more broadly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Separating Fact from Fiction<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In mid-October, Summerlee and Jerry Tomberlin, Carleton\u2019s interim provost and vice-president (Academic), sat at the front of a conference room in Residence Commons, taking questions from the floor. The gathering was the university\u2019s inaugural Rumour Mill<\/a>, an opportunity for anybody in the Carleton community to ask questions and \u201cseparate fact from fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus of their inquiries varied tremendously, from the code of conduct for members of the Board of Governors and the review process for Carleton\u2019s sexual assault policy to traffic concerns, precarious work and the creation of new endowed chairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving any kind of muzzle or restraining order on people is inappropriate,\u201d Summerlee said in response to a question about the code of conduct. \u201cI think it\u2019s very important for a community that values free speech to ensure that there is free speech in everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taken more broadly, that statement reflects Summerlee\u2019s commitment to transparency and openness. And beyond leading by example, he\u2019s attempting to further enshrine these values at Carleton by encouraging others to take on this challenge themselves \u2014 to be the change they want to see in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe value of an institution and its forward trajectory should never rely on one person and certainly not on one person\u2019s ideas,\u201d says Summerlee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, rather than come in and say: \u2018We need to change that\u2019 or \u2018We need to do this,\u2019 I am much more confident about saying to people: \u2018You need to think about how you want to do that\u2019 or \u2018If you want to change this, I can help with the framework, but it needs to be you, it needs to be your ideas, it needs to be what you\u2019re going to put forward.\u2019 I think that\u2019s what I can offer Carleton this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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In 2014, when Alastair Summerlee, Carleton University\u2019s interim president, stepped down after 11 years as president of the University of Guelph, he spent a month walking through the Kalahari Desert, from the Okavango Delta to the cropland of central Botswana. The 450-kilometre trek with two other foreign visitors, both in their 30s, was led by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":7802,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-7781","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98540,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7781\/revisions\/98540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=7781"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=7781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}