Welcome!
The Fall term is well underway, and the campus is abuzz with activity. I hope you’ve had a chance to seek out both new and familiar campus spaces and experiences, perhaps even meeting up with some familiar faces along the way.
If this is your first term at U of T Scarborough, Welcome! You will find lots of new spaces to discover and make good use of while you participate in shaping your academic journey. Whether it’s Harmony Commons, the new Student Residence that just opened its doors to students this September, The Bridge, a multi-purpose academic space, or the Science Wing, one of the 3 original campus buildings, you are sure to find many spaces in which to learn and achieve lofty academic goals, while making lifelong friends.
For returning students, in addition to the new residence, Sam Ibrahim Building, and Indigenous House underway, you’ll notice a few familiar spaces have been renamed on campus as part of the Indigenous Place-Making commitment to implementing the calls to action in Wecheehetowin, the University of Toronto’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Also new this fall, the UTSC Experiential & Global Learning SharePoint launched this summer with many services and resources to guide you on your experiential and global learning journey. Fall is also a busy time for our Roof Top Apiary atop the Kina Wiiya Enadong Building (Anishinaabemowin, formerly known as the MW Building) as it goes into its second season of honey production this year. Like the honeybees that call the ten hives home, I trust you will all find your home at U of T Scarborough.
Although the past few years have brought their share of uncertainty and challenges, the path before each of you is to ready for your brand of innovative vision and passion for change on local community and global levels. There will be moments ahead that are challenging, and I encourage you to take advantage of the on-campus services to assist you in meeting those challenges. Much like the honey produced on campus, different seasons produce different depth of flavours and qualities of the harvest. Time and time again, I have been deeply impressed how our students, have risen to the occasion, and performed well beyond reasonable expectation, and I fully expect that you are ready and more than capable of continuing this tradition, bringing your own flavour and quality to your academic harvest.
I remember my first fall here some 30 years ago. I still recall how excited I felt arriving in the Division of Physical Sciences (the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences had not yet come into being). It was the inception of the Environmental Science program, and I was looking forward to meeting my first class of U of T Scarborough Students in the winter of 1994. I didn’t realize then, just how much the experience would affect and drive my academic journey. Know that your university education, and your experience, is an exciting and transformative time in your lives – one that is richly steeped in the inclusive community that we are proudly committed to here at U of T Scarborough, and one that I know you will look back on with pride and feel a deep sense of belonging. I look forward to interacting with many of you and hearing about your experiences as I wrap up my second term as Vice-Principal Academic & Dean in 2024. I welcome your thoughts, ideas, questions, and comments VP Dean’s Comment Box.
Have a great year.
Professor William A. Gough
Vice-Principal Academic & Dean
October 2023