To All Members of the Carleton Community,
Happy New Year. Welcome back to the start of the winter semester 2018. I hope that you all had a great opportunity to relax over the vacation.
It’s a good time to look back over the things that we achieved in 2017. Of course, the successful celebration of our 75th anniversary was a highlight and thanks to all of you for participating. We’ve also finally begun to move into the new Health Sciences Building and, as many of you will have seen, the ARISE building is well on its way.
The Board agreed to two strategic decisions in the fall. First, that we would build a new Nicol Building – a home for the Sprott School of Business and for additional teaching and learning facilities for the university in general. And then, a decision to move forward with negotiations to purchase the Dominion-Chalmers United Church so that we could have a downtown location.
On the academic side, the government finally signed our strategic mandate agreement and this provides us with both fiscal and enrolment stability for the next three years.
On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone for making my first five months here so amazing. It is absolutely true: Carleton is a fabulous place to live and work. Thank you.
Now then, it’s time to look forward to 2018. Now is the time for us to plan for our next iteration of the Strategic Mandate Agreement – so called SMA 3.
It’s a long way away, but this is the time that we need to think about who are we; how do we want to get there; how do we re-engage with our Indigenous community to find better ways to live and learn from each other; and then, what are the strategic initiatives that we’re going to undertake? We will also need to think, in an ongoing way, about how to make our governance processes more open and transparent.
All of these things will be part of discussions that will happen during the winter and the spring semester and I really hope that you will be fully engaged. Because it’s only by all of us being involved that we will come forward with the best ideas.
Thank you again for all of your participation and a Happy New Year to you.
Sincerely,
Alastair Summerlee
President and Vice-Chancellor