Rector’s Report to Board of Trustees Nicholas Francis September 29th, 2012 rector@queensu.ca
After a very warm summer on the mostly quiet Queen’s campus, our school’s spirit and life has restarted with a few thousand new faces joining us. During move-in day, I visited many new students in their residence rooms to welcome and inform them of resources on campus. Over the course of Orientation Week, I visited several faculty events and had the opportunity to experience the week on the side of a participant and an organizer. One of the greatest privileges of this position is attending these and related events as ceremonial duties of the Rector provide the most joy. It is no surprise that Orientation Week is a staple of the Queen’s experience, an incredible amount of passion and work is threaded into every moment of the week. It is a true testament to the leadership of Queen’s students and their commitment to enhancing the Queen’s experience of other students. In our last board meeting of the 2011-2012 academic year, I had mentioned that it was a priority to work with campus stakeholders in resolving contentious issues from the past year. Relations between students and administration have improved since the last board meeting and some of the contentious issues are well on their way to resolution. Over the summer, it was one of my goals to finish building the new Office of the Rector website from scratch. The new website launched at the start of Orientation Week and has provided students with information and resources about the Office of the Rector. You can visit it here: http://queensu.ca/rector The Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award Dinner was also something that received attention over the summer. It looks as though Alumni Relations, Advancement, and my Office will be working toward a collaboration to make this happen in some form this year. I was delighted by the enthusiastic and strong support for this initiative and in particular would like to recognize Tom Harris, Vice-Principal of Advancement and Judith Brown, Associate Vice-Principal (Advancement). In the year ahead, my hope is to continue working on the Fall Reunion Working Group for a restoration and revitalization of this critically important fall event that - if properly designed - can serve to genuinely help build and sustain the Queen’s community. The group recently split into smaller groups with the objective of becoming more efficient and focused on our goals. More updates will be forthcoming as we move steadily along with research and planning. The academic environment is ever-changing and it is a priority of mine to delve deeper into how Queen’s can not only survive, but also leap out of its third juncture and maintain a strong academy within Canada and internationally. I am planning on hosting some academic-focused town halls or debates on campus this year, with the support from student governments and faculty societies. If you have interest in becoming a part of these discussions, please let me know.
Finally, I hope you each had a chance to read the annual appeal for this year, it is an honour to share my story with the entire Queen’s alumni community. More importantly, my hope is that mental health initiatives on campus and across the country continue to gain support. We must seek to learn more about stigma, treatment, and identification practices with regards to mental health. It is inspiring to see our community rallying around the issue and maintaining it as a priority.
Princeps Servusque Es, Nicholas Francis