The world today needs more of what Waterloo's Environment Faculty has to offer. I say this not to boast or encourage any mutual back-patting, but rather as a sincere call to action to the students, alumni, researchers, professors and staff who are part of this community.
We are living at a historic moment, when major, existential issues involving the environment have reached an all-time high on political agendas not
just in Canada but around the world. Climate change, environmental degradation, a global population that just topped eight billion people, accelerating urbanization, mass migration, economic sustainability and the role, both positive and negative, of new technologies are just some of these challenges. As humankind searches for solutions, Waterloo's Environment Faculty — the largest in Canada — is exceptionally well-positioned to meet these challenges. And as its new dean, I couldn't be more excited about the role I hope to play in making this happen.
Before looking closer at the various strands of the goals I've set, let me express a simple yet profound belief that can tie them all together. We should have an ethos of caring in all that we do. We should make decisions and plans to spend money that are filtered through this lens of caring. That's the message I would like to see out there.
One way to build this ethos of caring is to become even more student-centric in what we do. More than two years of COVID-19 with all of its disruptions have truncated the relationship between faculty and students. Now the students are back in person and it’s time to recognize as never before that students and the student experience are at the heart of what it means for us to be a university faculty. We have to prioritize students. And we have to rebuild a community in which they can feel included and supported.
As part of this recognition, our faculty needs to be especially proactive in response to the rapidly changing population of the university and Canada itself. That must also be engrained in our ethos of caring. With that in mind we have appointed Prateep Nayak to the newly created position of Associate Dean in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Justice.
In addition, our faculty is committed to increasing diversity in our staff and faculty complement.
Of course, the ethos of caring must be reflected in how we teach, research and connect with the local and global communities of which we are a part. We must continually challenge ourselves in how we see the world and what a better vision for it could be. Not only is our faculty launching new diploma and graduate Future Cities programs to re-imagine the future of urban life, it’s pioneering new ideas on how to make the 21st century society and economy truly sustainable. Sustainability must be part of that futures framework because it cuts across everything.
And acting like a beacon to guide the Faculty of Environment on it’s journey is Waterloo at 100, the university-wide initiative to chart a course for how this institution, by its 2057 centennial year, can meet humanity’s most urgent challenges. Waterloo at 100 expands our horizons. We start by asking: What do we want to be in 2057? And then we can work back from there. The word ‘crisis’ is often used — and overused — today. It's true that the world is beset by a host of real, complex problems. But as I look at the work being done in this faculty and the broader Waterloo university community, I remain optimistic and confident that we can respond to these challenges effectively, guided by our collective ethos of caring. Let’s dream about what we can become. And then let’s bring that dream to life.
Bruce Frayne
Dean, Faculty of Environment
