Good morning. I wanted to take an opportunity to say a few words. First of all, let me introduce myself. I’m Alastair. This is probably the first and last time you’ll see me dressed in a suit.
Those of you who know me, I’m normally in shorts and if I have to, I will wear Birkenstocks but I prefer to be without shoes and you’ll see me in the winter like that. If that embarrasses you, because I know that’s not a very Canadian thing to do – though I am Canadian, I’ve been here for more than 30 years – just ignore me and I will go on my own way.
I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you very much for coming to this – what I hope will be the very first of annual – community breakfasts to start the year, because I think it’s very important for people to understand how huge the organization is, and how much it means to the place that we all work together to make Carleton successful.
I want to acknowledge that we are in fact on unceded Algonquin territory, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and future. And I hope that as we share the land, we will learn to live together in peace and harmony.
I also hope that as an outsider, you’ll let me make some comments about my perceptions of this place. First and foremost, I want to thank every one of you for making me feel so welcome. I’ve never, never met such a more engaged passionate group of people, and it’s absolutely clear to me that this is a remarkable place to live and work.
We are indeed a community that cares. Cares about each other, cares about out academic programs, cares about our campus environment and cares about making a difference. A difference in our own community in Ottawa, and in the world around us.
We are as the tagline goes, Here for Good.
From my perspective, it’s the people who work at this institution, and the way that we work together, that makes us different. And the university absolutely couldn’t function without each and every one of you.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a graduate student, assistant, a building mechanic, a staff member in one of the many, many service units, a faculty member, a chair, director, a student, a member of the board or administration. It’s your part in this collective of people that is so important to the way we all work together, and the way we will grow as an institution.
So just in case you wondered, this year we’ll have more than 25,000 undergraduate students on campus, over 4,000 graduate students, close to 900 academic staff and more than 1,000 staff in management and support positions, with about 750 contract instructors. That’s a pretty amazing group of people to be associated with.
So we’re here today to celebrate the start of a new school year. It’s actually the reason that we all come to work every day. As the days take on a more autumnal chill every morning, and the leaves begin to look tired, it’s the departing hoards of school kids in their various summer camp programs, and the packing up of the parade of ground dragoons that herald the start of the real season for us.
It brings a sense of anticipation and a little bit of nervousness that the full onslaught is about to begin.
You can see already that there are booths set up to collect their Carleton cards, and Orientation volunteers will soon appear in their brightly coloured T-shirts as they begin to start the plans for move-in. And of course move-in is going to be this weekend, with all of the nervous energy that brings.
On behalf of everyone here, I want to say thank you to the more than 200 volunteers who will help new students move in and get settled into the university.
And just as an aside, it was very funny in July when I asked Suzanne if a couple of students could help me move into my apartment, and I truly felt like a new boy coming to the university.
I want to also acknowledge that, while someone has given me an Ask Me badge, I’m not actually going to wear it because I’m going to be totally useless at helping people navigate around the place as I get lost between buildings. I have been in the tunnels once, but I’m scared of going there again.
So this year it’s not only going to be the new students who get lost, it’s going to be your new president. And I just hope that if you see me wandering around, that you will actually stop and introduce yourself and help me find my way back to the Tory Building, or wherever I’m supposed to be going.
So the beginning of the new year is a great time to look back and see where we’ve come from, and to look forward to the year ahead. Once again, despite all the challenges that are thrown at an institution like this, and of course we have the usual number of them, Carleton manages to defy all the odds and it has a lot to do with the passionate commitment of the people who are here.
Sometimes, when you live in a place, all you see are the challenges and the changes that are going on. It’s difficult to appreciate how fantastic Carleton is, but I can definitely say that, as the new boy, I’m absolutely convinced that there is something in the water here. There is something really different about the atmosphere. And it’s taken me a while to think about it, because I couldn’t really understand it until I realized that the real reason this place is different, and frankly better, is because of the people who are here.
When I look around, it’s the teams of people working together. Whether you’re the team of folks who organized that breakfast today, or the team of enthusiasts at the Paul Menton Centre, the caring support provided by the Ojigkwanong Centre, the fantastic folks at FMP who keep this place running, the numerous and inspiring intramural and varsity teams, the graduate assistants and peer helpers, the union executives and, of course, by no means least, the undergraduate and graduate students and their societies and host of clubs. Everywhere there are teams of people, teams that cross departments and units that work inside and outside the university and people who just want to be part of this incredible organism.
Every bit of it counts – every team, every group, every individual. We are different from other universities because we work so well together. And that caring attitude is translated into a number of things that we do for people who are less fortunate.
Whether it’s the United Way campaign, Shinerama, our spectacular success outperforming any other Canadian university for Relay for Life, we are living our motto of being Here for Good. We are the living spirit of this place, and we care.
And I want to encourage you all to take part in something that helps people less fortunate than we are.
Whether it’s in teaching or research or in our volunteer activity, people at Carleton truly strive to do good, and that goes a long way to making a difference.
And talking about the Here for Good campaign, I thought you should know that with a whopping target of trying to raise more than $300 million, we’re more than 80 per cent there.
To date, we have money that is directed toward doing social good, in terms of support for our students with scholarships, or to enable them to travel abroad. In fact we’ve created more than 300 new scholarships to support students.
Or whether it’s doing economic good – for example the leadership gift that we’ve received to expand our capacities in entrepreneurialism and experiential learning to prepare students better for the workplace.
Or whether it’s for common good – fundamental support for our leadership in global issues, like preserving our water resources or learning about perception and deception in a complex world.
It is clear that we have a message that resonates with people outside Carleton. And that message is that we are all about well-being, all about doing good, to help those people around us and to maintain and improve the quality of our environments, the vibrancy of our social, cultural, economic and political communities.
And at a time like this in the world’s history, when there are some very challenging and perplexing problems about sustainability of life, everything from the atom to the ecosystem, from the spoken word to the art form, from the essence of sustainable business practice to elements of corporate and individual responsibility.
All of these are vital challenges, and for every single one, Carleton is making a difference because we are Here for Good.
And I’m asking each one of you to be engaged.
So one of my challenges this year is to help finish the capital campaign. That’s a mere $60 million that I need to raise, or rather $5 million per month, or $1.25 million per week.
So I need your help.
Of course, it would be great if you’d like to just settle it all and write me a cheque now. But joking aside, it is an opportunity for me to say an incredible thank you to the faculty and staff here.
Did you know that in addition to all of the other amazing things you do, more than 25 per cent of you have already made a contribution to the Here for Good campaign, and that’s probably a better percentage than any other university in Canada. And it’s just one more thing for you to be proud of.
So I really hope that together, we can make this a successful campaign to promote the university, and talk about the amazing things that go on here.
So lots of people have asked me, as the Interim President, what am I going to do this year.
Well, finishing the capital campaign is high on my list, but I also want to make sure that Carleton gets the kind of national and international reputation it deserves.
We’ve got a lot to be proud of, but most people, when I talk about Carleton outside of the institution, say: `It’s a really well-kept secret.’ We have to change that.
Together, we need to be able to tell our stories in compelling and convincing ways. I’m going to be spending my time working with the community to help us think about who we are and what it means to be at Carleton, so that we can begin to promote the prowess and the power of our teaching, research and service.
Last year, particularly over the summer, with the building of the new Health Sciences Building and the start of the ARISE facility by the river, and the extensive renovation of other buildings and infrastructure, we invested more than $80 million in new and improved facilities.
Okay, so it’s nice to have new and renovated space, but in addition to the money, that actually causes a lot of disruption and challenges.
So on behalf of the university administration, let me thank you for putting up with all of the inconveniences, the challenges and disruption. The bad news is that I can’t promise that it’s over, because there’s lots more to do. But in the end, when we’re all going to benefit from having improved buildings, roadways and even tunnels.
And it isn’t over, because the board has actually approved a multi-year plan so that we can continue to upgrade our existing facilities. And this year, with their support, we hope that they will approve a new building for the faculty of business, extensions and upgrades to the University Centre, and perhaps improvements to our entrance to campus and the flow of traffic on campus, because we need to be more open to people outside.
But a university’s work is never done, there’s always more to do, there’s always more to change.
So another part of my mandate is to try to make the activities of the administration and the board more open and transparent. We need people to understand our decision-making processes more clearly. And we need to listen more acutely to the voices of faculty, staff and students here on campus.
That’s not to say that we’ve done a bad job in the past. In fact, I want to publicly recognize Roseann Runte. She was a truly stellar president and her mark on this institution, and on the people here, will be a lasting testament to her and her passion for Carleton.
But I think we need to capitalize on what she was able to achieve. We need to capitalize on the passion of the members of the community, and we need to capitalize on the opportunities to reinvest not only in our infrastructure, but in our people and in our shared vision.
So finally, I think it’s time for Carleton to look back more towards its roots. We sprang from community action, and one of the hallmarks of this university has been a deep connection to communities that we serve: local, Indigenous, national and international.
In our 75th year, it’s actually time to start looking at what the next 75 years will look like for Carleton. We need to ask ourselves some challenging questions.
What, for example, should the professoriate look like in the next 75 years? How do we set up our faculty for continued success? What should our workforce of staff look like and how should they be involved in university life? What should government’s processes be like? What should our undergraduate and graduate educational training look like, so that we can really meet the needs of tomorrow and the years after? How do we make higher education more accessible and more affordable for everyone? How do we bring social justice into our educational processes? How should we integrate into, and listen to the voices of, our communities, internal and external?
And we need to do all of those things when we know that the Ontario economy is struggling with debt. So we, we have to be more entrepreneurial and take more charge of our destiny. We have to show that Carleton really is a university for the 21st century.
It’s not going to be an easy task. It’s not going to be one where we have one voice, but it is something that is essential for our continued success.
In my opinion, the only way that we can do this, is through a very open and transparent process, one where we develop and share information and data with our internal community to understand why and how we make decisions.
In fact, for me this is the most important priority for this year.
But much more about that later. Today is actually about celebration. A celebration of a new academic year, a celebration of our achievements, and a celebration of looking forward.
There is no doubt that adding 5,000 new undergraduate and up to 1,500 graduate students to campus changes the energy levels around here. It’s rejuvenating for all of us who are older to be able to capture just a fraction of the energy and excitement at the start of the school year. And we’re actually very lucky to be able to share and participate in that incredible spirit.
Today is about celebrating our community, our bonds and our connections, and thinking about the ways in which we can try to face all of the things which will be thrown at us and claim together to be successful.
Because we know that there’s nowhere like Carleton, nowhere where the spirit is so strong, nowhere where people work so closely together, and nowhere where you can truly say that everyone is dedicated to the idea of doing good, because we are Here for Good.
I hope it’s inspiring and rewarding to know that an outsider like me sees that. Outsiders see Carleton as a closely knit family, one that champions that spirit of academic freedom, freedom of speech and human rights, and a place that cares about the environment, about health, about people and about our community.
Of course, like any family, there will be arguments. There will be days when things don’t go so well, and of course there must be a modicum of disagreement. We are never going to be immune to that. But I think we need to start seeing ourselves as other people see us.
There’s never been a more important time to take action.
Before I finish, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to come celebrate this morning, to thank you once again for the warm welcome I’ve received, and to thank the people who organized today and made it possible.
Enjoy the semester and the year. There’s one thing that I can guarantee you, and that is that this year, like all others, will be a wild ride.
Have a great day, and thank you for welcoming me to this unbelievably welcoming community.
Alastair J.S. Summerlee
Interim President and Vice-Chancellor