A message from President Goel
I hope each of you had an opportunity to enjoy the summer months. At an educational institution, September always feels like the start of something new and I look forward to welcoming you (back) to campus to start or continue journeys that will help us advance the future of humanity.
While I hope we can look forward to the academic year ahead with optimism, I want to acknowledge that we continue to face challenges as a University community. Political polarization, economic instability, conflicts overseas and more continue to affect our students and employees in many ways.Additionally, this past spring term was a difficult time for our community as we marked the one-year anniversary of the hate-motivated attack at Hagey Hall, and navigated the encampment protests on our main campus.
I know that some members of the community disagree with some of the actions taken by the University during this time. Healing from the divisions will take time and effort. Throughout the tensions, I also witnessed things that make our community so strong. Despite often highly charged rhetoric, I also heard a lot of thoughtful and respectful discussion. I saw dedication to and a genuine desire for bettering our institution—even if we didn’t all agree on the path to get there.
The diversity of lived experiences, expertise and ways of thinking across our University is one of our strengths. Our vibrant community is resilient and passionate. While this passion can lead to challenging situations, I hope we can move forward with civility and respect—and a renewed sense of community.
This term will give us an opportunity to start our work together to bring healing and peace to our community. You can expect to hear more on this in the coming weeks.
Last year, we collectively identified the values that make our institution such a special place to work and learn: we think differently, act with purpose and perhaps most importantly, work together.
These values will help guide us as we work together to make progress on the financial challenges the University faces. You can expect to hear updates throughout this term as we continue our focus on financial sustainability.
And while we have lots of hard work ahead of us, there is lots to celebrate and look forward to.
Over the summer we shared the exciting news that our North Campus has been selected as the site for Waterloo Region’s new hospital. To start this term, we recently opened the new International Experience Centre in Needles Hall to help us improve services to students who are a long way from home and encourage all students to explore the world in various ways.
This fall we are excited to open the new Indigenous outdoor space. We also continue work to support the five Global Futures, including some exciting developments such as the launch of the Global Futures Networks. In November, we’ll see the opening of the Innovation Arena to help us drive forward solutions in tech and health, as well as giving a new home to Velocity.
As we move ahead, let’s keep our shared vision for the University of Waterloo foremost in our minds: We are a community of curious, collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial problem-solvers and leaders who seek to understand and identify equitable and sustainable solutions for the future of humanity and our planet.
Achieving this vision requires us to look out and care for one another, as a community. I look forward to continuing to work together towards this vision.
