Judy Goldring Vic 8T7 discusses her family’s tradition of giving back
Continuing the Legacy
PLUS: Meet Vic’s new principal | Centre for Creativity launches | 100 years of student government
Rhonda’s Corner
We talk a lot about the big projects and events taking place on campus—the renovations to our iconic buildings, our new Centre for Creativity, the new principal of Victoria College and our record enrolment at Emmanuel College, to name a few.
But sometimes it is the little things we do that have the most impact on students, staff, faculty and librarians.
If you have been on campus recently, you may have seen (or heard) a new basketball hoop and net in Lower Burwash Court. With the glorious weather this fall, students made good use of the court well into what would usually be hockey season.
It is one of several ways we are trying to make better use of both our outdoor and indoor spaces, including the Margaret Addison Field. Wouldn’t that be a great location for outdoor classes or seminars, weather permitting? Maybe move in a few Muskoka chairs to encourage them?
We held two yoga and meditation sessions on the field in October to promote wellness and highlight that it can already be booked for outdoor games, outdoor movie nights and drop-in sports.
We need fuel for all that outdoor activity! Kudos to Ajay Sharma, associate director of hospitality services, for introducing kosher food at Ned’s Café in response to student feedback. The addition of a small selection of
kosher “grab and go” soup, sandwich and entrée options has received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Ajay also helped us celebrate World Vegetarian Day on October 1 by serving only vegetarian entrees at Burwash and Ned’s. The rajmah masala and karahi paneer got five-star reviews!
While not a small thing, I want to celebrate that we now have an accessibility ramp in Burwash Dining Hall, which means that for the first time, everyone can move easily from this space to the High Table to the Common Room.
Our IT team extended its support hours to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Imagine the difference that is making to professors and students who cannot install the latest upgrade that popped up just before an early evening class or the outside group renting one of our beautiful spaces but couldn’t connect to the internet—and might book their next meeting someplace else.
In all these ways, big and small, we are working to make our campus not just a place to study, but a true community where everyone feels supported and included. By listening to student feedback, embracing wellness initiatives and making spaces more accessible, we are supporting a vibrant, inclusive campus life and making a difference in the everyday experiences of our students, faculty, staff and librarians.
It’s a Small World, after all!
President Rhonda N. McEwen
Vic Report Autumn 2024
Volume LII No. 2
Published under the authority of the Board of Regents of Victoria University in the University of Toronto.
Publisher: Victoria University
Editor-in-Chief: Leslie Shepherd
Managing Editor: Joe Howell
Web Editor: Dan Blackwell
Photo Editor: Will Dang
Design: Randall Van Gerwen
Cover and Page 4: Judy Goldring
photos by Will Dang
Vic Report is sent to all alumni, faculty, associates and friends of Victoria University.
Published regularly each year; circulation 24,000; ISSN 0315-5072. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40741521.
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Photo:
Brianna Roye
Q and A with New Vic College Principal
Professor Alex Eric Hernandez will be installed as Victoria University’s twelfth principal on Dec. 4, 2024. We asked him what he has learned since taking up the position on July 1 and to share some of his plans for the future.
Q. What is your vision for Victoria College?
A. I see Victoria College as a global centre for interdisciplinary research and creative practice that’s nevertheless rooted in a local community of scholars and students. We do curiosity, creativity and connection exceptionally well here, so as I see it, my task is to continue to build on that legacy. That means supporting our curiosity-led programs and research centres in support of faculty, fellows and students alike. It means exploring avenues for artists and creatives to innovate among us. And it means providing spaces and opportunities for different groups in our community to draw connections—to each other, but also between ideas.
Q. Why did you want to be the principal?
A. I was attracted to the Principal’s Office for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that Vic is home to several of my brightest students and a good part of my own intellectual community. I’ve had many thought-provoking conversations about my work and academic life around the Burwash High Table over the years! But quite apart from that, I think of this role as an ideal one for someone with my background who likes to solve problems. As a scholar of the literary humanities who is committed to thinking across disciplinary boundaries, Vic offers an especially appealing environment for growing programs that balance broadbased inquiry, exceptional instruction and access to world-class research supports. I tell the students that this really is the best of both worlds: the resources of the contemporary research university in a small liberal arts college setting. To have the opportunity to shape the future of this community, to help it thrive and reach its full potential, is an honour.
Q. What big projects are you working on?
A. Things are always busy in the Principal’s Office, but lately I’ve been focusing on two of my key priorities for the year. The first concerns our newly launched Centre for Creativity. We’re cultivating a number of strategic partnerships that will take the centre and its related program in Creativity and Society in new directions. What does the future of creativity look like? What do we learn by talking about the powers of invention with colleagues farther afield than, say, writing or visual arts? Our hope is that we can build programming that invites participants to think deeply and rigorously across the arts, crafts and sciences. At the same time, I’m working to build what I call “critical resilience” in our students, which is to say, the capacity to enter into difficult conversations with civility and curiosity. I think we will have failed students if they leave university without being challenged in this way, and building these skills is so desperately needed in our contemporary political moment. The question then is how do we create opportunities to explore hotbed issues and practice such resilience without effacing our differences or abandoning commitments to diversity and inclusion? Well, we’re starting by hosting several enriching events that tackle the subject head-on and effectively wagering that students are up for the challenge.
Q. Which author influenced you the most?
A. Northrop Frye, of course.
Photo: Minh Truong
One Generation to the Next
I’ve always looked back on Vic as a place where you can really find yourself,” says Judy Goldring Vic 8T7, during a recent visit to Victoria University in the University of Toronto.
“You learn about your independence and about how you like to operate here,” she says, strolling around the beautiful campus many members of her family have called home.
Goldring, who is now president and head of global distribution
Judy Goldring Vic 8T7 on giving back to the school that shaped her
By Joe Howell
at AGF Management Limited, a leading Canadian global asset management firm, does seem to have found her calling as an undergraduate at Victoria College. While studying economics with a minor in French, she was also actively involved in extracurriculars such as the Arts and Science Students’ Union, where she served as treasurer, and AIESEC, where she hosted exchange students.
“I always found myself interested in clubs that would help me
develop leadership skills,” says Goldring. “And then Vic was where I would come to focus and to study. I always enjoyed studying at either the E.J. Pratt Library or the Emmanuel College Library— both are just wonderful spaces for peace and quiet.”
That’s one reason why she is donating $1 million to name the Goldring Reading Room in the stately Birge-Carnegie Building, with her brother Blake Goldring Vic 8T1 contributing another $500,000 toward the refurbishment of this iconic space on the Vic campus.
Birge-Carnegie, the Gothic Revival structure at the southeast corner of Charles Street and Queen’s Park Crescent, is undergoing a major revitalization. It served as Victoria College’s library from 1910 until 1961, when the Pratt library was completed, and has since been underutilized.
That will soon change, thanks in part to the generosity of the Goldring siblings.
“I think Birge-Carnegie is an unsung hero from a building perspective,” says Judy Goldring. “It’s gorgeous; it just needs to get shined up so everybody can enjoy the space. Being able to provide another spot for peace, for that moment of reflection, is something Blake and I are really proud to support.”
The revitalization will transform Birge-Carnegie into a campus hub while retaining many of the original architectural details of the heritagelisted building. A signature part of the overall project will bring the “majestic Reading Room back to life,” says Mayes Rihani, associate director for major capital project management and planning.
“Once restored, the room will feature large pointed-arch windows with highly articulated stone ornamentation and surrounds, timber roof trusses with decorative
Photo: Will Dang
components, and the reading room’s original wooden tables, designed for the space,” notes Rihani.
The Goldring Reading Room promises to be the kind of space Judy Goldring would have enjoyed studying in herself while at Vic— and it will also come at a time when more student space on campus is dearly needed.
That’s a clear theme in the Goldring family’s long history of philanthropy at U of T: addressing identified needs. Blake and Judy Goldring were the lead donors toward the construction of the Goldring Student Centre, which doubled the space of the former Wymilwood building and brought Vic U’s student clubs, student government and other student services together under one roof.
Judy Goldring says she would have benefitted from such a place at Vic as a student living offcampus in the 1980s. “That’s why I wanted to help fund somewhere commuter students could gather— so they’d have that spot I felt was lacking when I was going through university.”
Her family also contributed $11 million toward the construction of the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, a gift initiated by the late Warren Goldring, father to Blake and Judy Goldring and a member of U of T’s Class of 1949.
The family does not have an obvious connection to sports, which makes the gift all the more remarkable. Judy Goldring once told The Varsity she joked with her father about the absence of Olympians on their side of the family.
So what prompted that sizable donation?
“My father was a believer that body, mind and spirit all had to come together for someone to perform at their highest potential,” explains Goldring. “The university
hadn’t built athletic space since 1987, and we desperately needed new facilities. My father recognized that need from a holistic perspective in terms of the well-being and health of students, faculty and staff.”
These gifts also reflect a central Goldring family value: the importance of giving back to one’s community. Goldring, a lawyer by trade, doesn’t just give back financially—she is also uncommonly generous with her time.
To name a few of her commitments: she served on U of T’s Governing Council for nine years, three of them as chair. She has been a lead fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and was the chair of her daughters’ school, TFS—Canada’s International School. She is presently a co-chair of Vic U’s Defy Gravity campaign.
How does she possibly fit it all in?
“We grew up with that around our household,” laughs Goldring. “Service was not something you were just obligated to do; you wanted to do it. I’ve done some form of volunteering or philanthropic work since I was 15 or 16 years old, when I did ‘friendly visiting’ for the Canadian Red Cross.”
Barbara Goldring, her late mother, was the same way.
“She was a nurse and had five kids, but she always made time for
things like the citizenship court, where she would help embrace new immigrants to Canada,” says Judy Goldring. “She was part of as many different charities as you could imagine.”
One of those charities was the University Women’s Club, whose events her mother diligently attended. That’s why Goldring recently established the D. Barbara Goldring Scholarship, awarded annually by the club to a young woman who reflects the values her mother held dear: in particular, an unwavering commitment to higher education and to community.
It’s evident Judy Goldring lives by the same credo.
“I think education allows people to be free in the greatest sense of the word and inspires them to do their utmost,” she says. “Postsecondary education affords you an opportunity to open your mind at such a critical time of your life, and to remain curious throughout your life. That’s what makes us human, and interesting individuals.”
Maintaining and upgrading our century-old buildings is made possible in part by the generous philanthropic support of the Vic alumni community. To support Defy Gravity: The Campaign for Victoria University, please visit www.vicu.utoronto.ca/giving/defygravity-at-vic/
Illustration: Brook McIlroy Architects
Architects’ rendering of the restored Goldring Reading Room in Birge-Carnegie.
Vic U Launches Centre for Creativity
By Leslie Shepherd
The need for creativity and creative thinking has never been greater, as rapidly evolving technology, artificial intelligence, volatile financial markets and climate change disrupt and transform the labour market, the future of work and our social interactions.
Creativity is the new “it” skill, according to an RBC report on how human ingenuity will power
the post-pandemic 2020s.
Creative thinking was also identified as the second-most important core skill for workers in the 2023 Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, outranked only by analytical thinking, but ahead of technological literacy, dependability and attention to detail, or leadership and social influence.
Many talented people at Victoria University, the University of Toronto
and elsewhere are engaged in creative or innovative enterprises in their specific areas of expertise. But there are surprisingly few places where people across these siloed disciplines can get together to compare ideas, share best practices and collaborate.
That’s why Victoria University has launched a new Centre for Creativity to bring together students, faculty, artists, thinkers
Photo: Minh Truong, Graphic by Will Dang
and others from the arts, sciences, and technology to find creative solutions to the problems facing our society and creative ways to foster equitable, diverse and inclusive communities.
“The idea of the centre is to create programming, events and spaces where creative people from different disciplines can encounter each other and learn from one another,” said Professor Adam Sol, the centre’s launch director and coordinator of the Vic One program.
“Creative people are stimulated by one another even if they are not in the same discipline. Every important intellectual movement from the European Renaissance to the Harlem Renaissance included conversations across interests. We will ask questions like whether creativity is a talent that some have more of than others, or is it an attribute that can be developed in everyone? Does it work more effectively in teams or individually? Gradually or with sudden disruptions? Does it function differently across cultures, communities, disciplines, languages?”
The centre will also provide an academic home and vibrant meeting place for the next generation of creators and cultural entrepreneurs, where they can get hands-on experience to develop their talents and launch their careers.
Victoria University is ideally located to host the centre, being located in central Toronto, amid the city’s arts and culture scene, and the main centres of scientific research.
The first step is to get people from different fields in the same room or virtual space, Sol said. While the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music is just across Queen’s Park Circle from Victoria University, the science departments are a half-mile away and the John H. Daniels Faculty
“Creative people are stimulated by one another even if they are not in the same discipline.”
Professor Adam Sol
of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is on the exact opposite end of the St. George campus.
Vic U President Dr. Rhonda McEwen said one focus of the new centre will be how to use creativity to solve big problems.
“All wicked problems in the world, those for which we cannot rely solely on past practices, require a creative mind to fix,” said McEwen, who brings a STEM background to a university known for the humanities.
“We find solutions through interdisciplinary ways, taking ideas from one discipline and applying them to others. I am excited to move my own research lab—Emerging Technologies and the Arts—under the Center for Creativity at Vic U.”
McEwen noted that in his book Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, American journalist David Epstein looked at the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists and discovered that in most fields— especially those that are complex and unpredictable—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel.
Generalists often find their path
later, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one, Epstein wrote. They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.
McEwen said the new centre has the potential to be a differentiator for Victoria University, which has a long history of interdisciplinary creativity. Famous alumni include not just authors Margaret Atwood and Northrop Frye, filmmaker Norman Jewison, and actor Donald Sutherland (who graduated with a dual degree in engineering and drama), but people like Graeme Ferguson, who studied political science and economics at Vic before becoming one of the coinventors of the IMAX widescreen cinematography technique. And Dr. Arthur Schawlow, who came to Victoria College to study English literature and earned a PhD in physics from U of T; he developed the theoretical basis for laser science and shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The new Centre for Creativity hopes to build on this foundation and deepen the integration of scientific and humanistic thinking.
WORDS FROM THE WIS
When Andrea Davidson applied to the Victoria Alumni Mentorship Program, she had just finished her PhD and didn’t know her next step. Fellow Vic alumna Arpita Ghosal was there to help.
By Joe Howell
When Andrea Davidson
Vic 1T6 applied to be a mentee in the Victoria Alumni Mentorship Program, she had just defended her PhD in children’s literature at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
“I felt so lucky that my PhD supervisor gave me one year to work at the same university teaching,” she says. “But I didn’t know what I would do after that one year, especially living abroad. I wasn’t sure when I would move back to Canada or how to plan a career around that.”
Davidson read about the mentorship program in a Vic alumni newsletter and thought a mentor might help her face these “turning-point decisions.”
Now in its fourth year, the program is designed to help recent graduates of Victoria College do just that. Young alumni wondering
about their next steps often benefit from the guidance of someone with relevant experience and interests, says Meghan Junke, mentorship co-ordinator and alumni liaison in the Office of Alumni Affairs & Advancement.
“They may be finishing their undergraduate degree and are trying to figure out whether to pursue graduate studies,” says Junke. “Maybe they’ve been in the workplace for a few years and are wondering if it’s time to look to move up or to move on. They could just be in a new phase of their career where they’re in more of a leadership role and are looking for guidance on managing people and bigger projects.”
Junke paired Davidson with mentor and fellow Vic alumna Arpita Ghosal, who has a PhD in English from the University of
Toronto, teaches with the Toronto District School Board and is the founding editor of Sesaya Arts Magazine. Though the two lived an ocean apart and had never met in person, they formed a close friendship over video chats.
“I was really hoping to meet someone just like Arpita who had done a PhD and could reflect with me on the kinds of decisions they had to make afterwards,” says Davidson. “It was such a bonus that our interests aligned as well.”
Participating in the program “has been an amazing experience,” says Ghosal, crediting Junke’s matchmaking skills. “I don’t know what intuition Meghan had when she paired us up on paper, but she knocked it out of the park.”
Davidson was particularly interested in discussing job options outside of academia. “There are
Photo: Will Dang
so many other ways that you can use your PhD,” she says. “I didn’t learn that from my PhD program—I really learned it from this mentorship program.”
Davidson now is the communications and engagement lead at SPARC Europe, an advocacy organization that strives to make science and education more accessible in the European Union. She still teaches English literature at the University of Antwerp while making time for creative writing, and recently published Eggenwise & Other Poems (The Emma Press, 2023).
She credits Ghosal with opening her eyes to new career paths: “There are a lot of opportunities that you just don’t know about until you get a bit of life experience,” says Davidson. “But with a mentor, you at least can have the benefit of someone else’s life experience.”
“There are a lot of opportunities that you just don’t know about until you get a bit of life experience. But with a mentor, you at least can have the benefit of someone else’s life experience.”
Ghosal is also profiling Davidson and her book in a forthcoming article for Sesaya Arts Magazine. So what do busy mentors get out of sharing their time? Ghosal says she was motivated by both her love of teaching and a desire to give back to Victoria College.
She vividly remembers “the magical moment” during her undergraduate years when she received a letter saying she had won an award she hadn’t applied for.
“It turned out I’d won a scholarship in Spanish literature granted by Victoria College, and it was awarded to me by Northrop Frye!”
Ghosal says she credits Vic with starting her journey. “But we didn’t have a mentorship program and there was much I had to learn on my own. I wanted to help somebody figure things out for themselves.”
There were moments when Ghosal wasn’t sure who was mentoring whom. “Andrea is an active scholar, and I’ve gone back to literary research very recently,“ she says. ”Andrea generously weighed in on the paper on LM Montgomery that I co-wrote and co-presented with my husband at a conference at the University of Prince Edward Island.”
Ghosal encourages other alumni to consider mentoring a more recent Vic grad. “I can’t imagine an experience topping what Andrea and I had this year,” she says. “I would not have had that if I hadn’t offered to become a mentor.”
To find out more about the Victoria University Mentorship Program, visit uoft.me/mentorship-program or email Meghan Junke, mentorship co-ordinator and alumni liaison, at meghan.junke@utoronto.ca.
Mentee Andrea Davidson Vic 1T6
Photo: Will Dang
BUILDING A
GREENER
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
By Dan Blackwell and Leslie Shepherd
Vikas Mehta can talk about sustainability for hours— and he just might, given the chance. As interim chief operating officer at Victoria University, he’s on a mission to make the campus greener, one eco-friendly project at a time.
From cutting single-use plastics to harnessing geothermal energy, Mehta’s team has big plans.
The big project heading into 2025 is to develop a Victoria University-specific plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, by either emitting no greenhouse gas emissions or offsetting them.
Environmental consultants will be hired to go through each building on campus, looking at what kind of energy they use and how much, and develop a 20- to 30year physical and financial plan to achieve net-zero. This could include harnessing the geothermal energy field under Margaret Addison Hall or other renewable resources such as solar panels.
“We all need to address climate change,” said Mehta. “We are seeing evidence of this everywhere,” including the fact the university didn’t switch from air-conditioning to heating buildings until just before Thanksgiving this year—
about a month later than it used to.
“We want to make sure our iconic heritage buildings are operating as efficiently as possible.”
Mehta’s team completed several sustainability projects this year including adding more energyefficient LED lighting in Old Vic and Emmanuel College, a more efficiently insulated roof to the E. J. Pratt Library, and more efficient windows at Lower Burwash residence.
But some of the most visible changes are unfolding in Hospitality Services, where sustainability has become part of the everyday experience.
“There’s been a strong push to bring sustainable practices to Vic,” says Ajay Sharma, the university’s associate director of Hospitality Services, who is leading the charge to make both the Burwash Dining Hall and Ned’s Café greener. “People are more determined than ever to shrink their carbon footprint.”
One of the priorities for Sharma’s team has been to eliminate single-use plastics. Plastic water bottles are no longer sold on campus, plastic cutlery and plates have been swapped for biodegradable alternatives and
there is a new reusable container system for takeaway meals.
“U of T has a notoriously large campus, and when students are rushing between classes they don’t often have time to sit and enjoy a meal,” says Sharma, who estimates that around 40 per cent of the food served at Burwash Dining Hall is taken out.
Burwash now provides students with durable, eco-friendly reusable containers for a $10 deposit. After each use, students can exchange their used container for a clean, sanitized one. At the end of the year, students return their containers to receive their deposit back.
Substantial efforts also go into reducing food waste, says Evan May, Vic U’s lead hand, Food Services, who emphasizes that students and staff can work together to help reduce food waste.
“We encourage students not to scrape their plates into garbage cans before placing them on the conveyor belt,” he says. “The conveyor belt in our cafeteria leads directly to the dish room, where we have a team of two to four staff members who are trained to sort the waste.”
Every year the university receives an independent audit of this process of sorting compost, recycling and garbage, offering valuable insights to help further reduce food waste.
Photo: Will Dang
Evan May
May also stresses the importance of everyone selecting only the food they intend to eat. “We all have eyes that are bigger than our stomach, but we see firsthand all the food that goes to waste,” he says. “The biggest difference students can make is taking only what they can eat.”
Sharma emphasizes that his team also focuses on reusing as much food as possible through creative meal planning. Instead of discarding uneaten food from the buffet, rice can be transformed into rice pudding or fried rice and spaghetti sauce can be refreshed as chili.
Sharma notes that his team’s decision to prioritize local produce not only supports the university’s goal of reducing its carbon footprint but also delivers fresher, higherquality food to customers.
“It’s a win for both the environment and the people we serve,” Sharma says. “The food is fresher because it has less distance to travel and we’re supporting local businesses. The costs are also generally lower and it’s a savings we aim to pass on to our customers.”
Sharma’s team has also joined forces with local organizations dedicated to food sustainability.
“This year, we’re working with The Better Food Co., Greener by Default and the Canadian Humane Society to enhance our menu with more vegetarian and vegan options,” Sharma says, including on World Vegetarian Day, Oct. 1.
“We’re all on the same side here,” says Sharma. “We need to convey to students the importance of being mindful of what we eat and how we dispose of it. Together, students and staff can make Vic’s food service as sustainable as possible.”
Click here for the full-length version of the story.
Cultivating Change
Student-run garden blossomed at Victoria University
By Dan Blackwell
Victoria University undergrads turned seeds into success through a new student-run community garden on campus that yielded its first harvest this fall.
Brought to life by a team of student volunteers and VUSAC members, the 60-square-foot garden outside Annesley Hall boasted a diverse selection of vegetables, including kale, lettuce and tomatoes. One of the garden’s founders, fourth-year student and former VUSAC sustainability commissioner Amy Mann, says students have been seeking more sustainable food solutions for some time.
“I feel hopeful that it will encourage students to think about where their food comes from,” she says. “It gives students a chance to think about locally sourced food and approaching food in an environmentally conscientious way. Thinking about the food that we eat, who produces it and how it impacts the land is a great learning opportunity.”
Mann says the community garden was a pilot project, and, like the student-run Eat After Eight initiative, which recycles food at Burwash Dining Hall, aims to address food insecurity through cooperation and collaboration with Victoria University staff and faculty. Mann says that while the garden came to fruition thanks to dedicated student volunteers, it wouldn’t have been possible without funding from UTERN and Hart House, along with the support of Professor Eva-Lynn Jagoe and staff at Victoria University, which provided the space, water and some equipment.
Vikas Mehta, interim chief operations officer, Infrastructure and Sustainability, says that supporting a community garden, big or small, can have a cascading effect throughout campus.
“I think every time students undertake these sorts of pilot projects, it gives others a chance to reflect on and realize the importance of sustainability,” says Mehta. “It keeps Vic U’s ongoing sustainability initiatives at the forefront and shows our commitment to supporting students who come back with new sustainability ideas.”
Click here for the full-length version of the story.
Photo: Amy Mann
One Hundred Reasons to
CELEBRATE
By Joe Howell and Leslie Shepherd
Emmanuel College started the party early.
As it prepares for the United Church of Canada’s 100th anniversary in 2025, Victoria University’s theological school is already celebrating record enrolment, construction of an Indigenous Healing Garden and the largest single gift in its history.
“These developments reflect Emmanuel’s dedication to fostering sustainability and interfaith dialogue and its growing role as a hub for theological and spiritual education across diverse traditions,” said Principal HyeRan Kim-Cragg.
Ninety-four students were admitted to the basic degree program at Emmanuel for the 2024–25 academic year—roughly three-quarters more than last year— for a total of 234 students enrolled across all programs.
That increase is reflected across Emmanuel’s programs, particularly the Master of Divinity, Master of Theological Studies and Master of Psychospiritual Studies. Meanwhile, students enrolled in the Christian, Muslim and Buddhist foci of the MPS and MTS programs have grown to roughly equal numbers for the first time. This year, Interfaith will be added as a fourth focus to the MTS program for the growing number of students interested in studying multiple faith traditions.
Applications for Emmanuel’s graduate programs have also been strong, with the college securing topnotch PhD students and continually receiving more applications than it can admit.
Several factors contributed to this achievement, said Kim-Cragg, including:
• curricular innovation and diversification, such as a hybrid MDiv program, which allows students to take the majority of courses online;
• word-of-mouth recommendation through students, alumni and leaders from faith communities
• improved outreach and communication;
• the foresight of past administrative leaders;
• the college’s generous scholarship packages; and
• the dedication of Emmanuel’s faculty and staff, including the continuity provided by Andrew Aitchison, admissions counsellor and recruitment co-ordinator, over eight years.
Meanwhile, fencing has been erected around parts of Emmanuel College, in preparation for building the Indigenous Healing Garden and accessibility walkway. Work began this fall, with the expectation of an official opening during the spring of 2025 to coincide with celebrations for the United Church of Canada’s centennial.
The garden, created in consultation with Indigenous advisers, will be a space for reflection, truth and reconciliation, and learning about Indigenous traditions and stewardship of the land. It will be fully accessible and ecologically sustainable, growing Indigenous sacred medicinal plants and wildflowers.
The Indigenous Healing Garden received a Seeds of Hope grant from the United Church of Canada to literally seed this project. Vic’s Office of Alumni Affairs & Advancement is also working to raise $500,000 through naming opportunities for benches, walkways, flower beds and paver stones. If you would like to donate, please email vic.alumni@utoronto.ca or call 416-585-4500.
On Oct. 9, an event was held at Emmanuel to announce and celebrate a $3 million commitment from the Buddhist Association of Canada to endow the Wutai Shan Venerable Dayi Professorship in Buddhist Spiritual Care. This is the first professorship for Buddhist spiritual care in Canada and the largest single gift Emmanuel has received. The Venerable Dayi is abbot of the Cham Shan Temple in Thornhill, Ont., and president of The Buddhist Association of Canada.
Photo: Minh Truong;
One Hundred Years of Student Government at Vic U
The
by student leaders toward collaborative self-governance.
By Joe Howell
Shane Joy, a fifth-year student studying history and international relations, became interested in the history of Victoria University’s student government while serving as the 2023–24 VUSAC president.
“I was reading about Egerton Ryerson’s shifting attitudes toward Indigenous peoples for my undergraduate thesis, and the history of Vic inevitably comes up,” says Joy. (Ryerson was a founder of Victoria College and both its first principal and first president.) “I stumbled upon these tidbits about student government and my interests just converged.”
Joy discovered that the first student organization here appears to have been the Victoria College Philalethic Society, created in 1839 for the “promotion of Truth.” But it was learning about the creation of the Victoria College Students’ Parliament in 1924 that really piqued his inner historian.
Though the Students’ Parliament lasted for only six years—it became the Victoria College Union Council in 1930 and then the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council, or VUSAC, in 1970—Joy says it represents the beginning of the modern era of student government at Vic U 100 years ago.
The Students’ Parliament marked the culmination of decades of work by student leaders toward self-governance as they went from “quasi-collective bargaining with administrators to a much more collaborative philosophy in recent years,” says Joy.
The impetus for student self-governance can be traced at least as far back as 1906, when the Annesley Student Government Association was formed “in response to a general demand among students for self-government,” writes C.B. Sissons in A History of Victoria University.
Annesley Hall had been built in 1903 as Canada’s first university residence for women. Students living in Annesley were under particularly severe rules, including a prohibition on them leaving the residence after dinner without the written permission of the dean. The ASGA emerged to bargain with the administration on the women’s code of conduct.
The years between 1906 and 1923 saw various student proto-governments or councils put increasing pressure on the administration for more direct control over student affairs.
An unsigned editorial in a 1909 edition of Acta Victoriana titled “STUDENT CONTROL FOR VICTORIA” claims there is “a movement on foot which has at least the sympathy of the faculty,” arguing a student government “cannot fail if we take it seriously.”
The demands got louder. On the eve of the First World War, Vic U had nearly twice as many students as a decade prior, and in 1913 the administration granted them a limited measure of self-management.
After the war, the administration began granting greater autonomy to the student body, culminating in the Students’ Parliament of 1924.
The mission of the Students’ Parliament was “largely consistent with how VUSAC sees its role in student life today,” says Joy.
“The role of VUSAC remains to represent the oftentimes diverse needs and interests of the student body and carry their concerns forth to administrators, working in conjunction with them to find solutions to some of the most pressing issues on campus.”
On Oct. 4, student leaders from across Vic U were celebrated with a gala dinner at Burwash Dining Hall. The event, spearheaded by Juhyung Yun, the current VUSAC president, was partly to mark the centennial of the creation of the Students’ Parliament.
Thanks to Jessica Todd, records manager and archivist at Vic U, for her assistance.
Click here for the full-length version of the story.
The Victoria College Union Council talks business in 1970, the year it became the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council, or VUSAC.
1924 Victoria College Students’ Parliament marked the culmination of years of work
Photo: Victoria University Archives (Toronto), Fonds 2001 –Bursar’s Office, 1987.207 P23
Milestones
As a member of our vibrant alumni community, your milestones deserve to be celebrated! Click here for a link to our submission form or email your news to vic.alumni@utoronto.ca
Hamish Guthrie Vic 7T5 published the poetry collection Love Hurries This (At Bay Press, 2022), which includes works that have appeared in more than 30 publications across Canada, the United States and Britain. Two major themes of the poems are nature’s variety and the richness of human relationships.
Lisa Hepner Vic 9T3 has become an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is teaching graduate students about documentary production, as well as tools to help navigate the ever-changing film and television industry.
Ernie Jardine Vic 6T8 was selected by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists as the 2024 winner of the Doris Huestis Speirs Award, a lifetime achievement award recognizing outstanding contributions to Canadian ornithology. Jardine has written two books on bird song identification and has recorded bird songs throughout eastern North America, which are available on his website at www.birdsongidentification.com
Nicole Katsuras Vic 0T5 showcased her oil paintings in a solo exhibition at Vancouver’s Bau-Xi Gallery titled The Gentle Ground. The series used “freeflowing extruded paint application to create spaces of lightness and grounding in which to contemplate the present moment.”
Grace Ji-Sun Kim Vic 9T2 has published two new books, Surviving God (Broadleaf Books, 2024), co-written with Susan Shaw, and When God Became White (IVP, 2024). These are her 23rd and 24th books.
David Macleod Vic 6T5 published Inflation Decade, 1910–1920: Americans Confront the High Cost of Living (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). The book tells how the first sustained period of rapidly rising consumer prices after the United States industrialized brought trouble, confusion and discord.
Robert J. Potts Vic 6T9 received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from York University Oct. 18. He was recognized for his longstanding efforts as a legal advocate on behalf of Indigenous peoples in Canada—and through those efforts, furthering the cause of reconciliation.
Suzanne Scott Vic 9T3’s debut novel, Until Even the Angels, will be published by Penguin Random House in December 2024. Scott is the wife and daughter of Vic grads, and her daughter started in the Vic One program in September.
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga Vic 5T8, the first woman to serve as president of Latvia, was named an honorary Officer of the Order of Canada. She was recognized for her work enriching CanadaLatvia relations and for reflecting Canadian values abroad.
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Donor Leaves Unrestricted Gift to Emmanuel College
By Leslie Shepherd
Emmanuel College Principal HyeRan Kim-Cragg has never bought a lottery ticket or been to Las Vegas. But she felt like she had won a grand prize when she heard that a donor with no known ties to the theological school had left a generous bequest in her will.
“I felt so blessed,” she said. “I didn’t know this woman, but she was obviously a long-term visionary.”
Jane Elizabeth Lawson left $80,000 in her will to Emmanuel College when she died in 2024 in London, Ont., at age 88, despite not having attended the theological school nor having made any previous donation.
Significantly, she made it an unrestricted gift, meaning Emmanuel can decide how best to use it. Many donations, while equally appreciated, are designated for specific programs, scholarships or other purposes.
“When you leave an unrestricted bequest, you are putting your faith in the institution to decide how best to use the money,” said Louise Yearwood, executive director for Alumni Affairs & Advancement at Victoria University. “Giving such a legacy gift freely and fully is particularly thoughtful.”
Yearwood said the money will be used to help create three scholarships:
The Very Rev. Dr. Sang Chul Lee Memorial Scholarship, named in memory of the former chancellor of Victoria University (1992–98). It will be awarded to Emmanuel students whose course work or research includes Korean theologies, cultures and/or Indigenous wisdom, or demonstrates activity, leadership or advocacy in Korean peace.
The Jane Elizabeth Lawson Award, named for the donor. It will be awarded to any Emmanuel student whose work or project focuses on sexuality and gender diversity studies or who demonstrates activity, leadership or advocacy on or off campus in the LGBTQ community. Money raised at a recent Drag & Spirituality conference held at Emmanuel will also contribute toward this scholarship.
The Emmanuel College Music Scholarship. It will be awarded to students pursuing a Master of Sacred Music degree. Emmanuel is the only college in Canada that offers this degree and one of only three in North America.
Victoria University will contribute the additional monies necessary to ensure that each endowed scholarship receives $30,000.
According to her family, who live in the United States, Lawson was a graduate of McGill University. Her bequest came to Emmanuel via the United Church of Canada Foundation where she had some years ago arranged a charitable gift annuity. She had designated the residue to Emmanuel College. She also gave to several other churches and universities who were also beneficiaries of her other annuities, exemplifying her generous, philanthropic spirit.
Our Donors
Victoria University is grateful to its many generous donors who made gifts to the university in the 2023–24 fiscal year. Please find a complete list on our website at vicu.utoronto.ca/giving/ defy-gravity-at-vic/
Errors or omissions? Please contact the Office of Alumni Affairs & Advancement at 416-585-4500 or email vic.alumni@utoronto.ca
Gift and Estate Planning
For information on gift and estate planning and the five steps you can take to plan your legacy, please email sharon.gregory@utoronto.ca or call 416-813-4050.
If you are considering a bequest in your Will to Victoria or Emmanuel, here is suggested wording:
I give and bequeath to the Board of Regents of Victoria University, Toronto, Ontario, the sum of $ or % or shares of my estate.
Photos: Victoria University Archives, Will Dang
AI, Alumni and Adventures
Vic U president visits Hong Kong
Victoria University President Dr. Rhonda McEwen was in Hong Kong in November after having been chosen by its government to take part in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Sponsored Visitors Program. Dr. McEwen was nominated by Sophia Chan-Combrink Vic 9T6, who was executive director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Dr. McEwen gave a keynote address
to the Chamber of Commerce on “AI: Opportunities, Ethics and Public Sentiments on Safety.”
While she was in Hong Kong, Dr. McEwen attended an alumni event at JK on the 5th in the Central District. And she had the opportunity to take a boat cruise in Victoria Harbour to watch the Symphony of Lights sound and lights show set against the dazzling Hong Kong skyline.
Photos:
Agnes Mark Vic 8T6,
Prudence Ng
