With the completion of our new Strategic Plan, Renison stands on the cusp of a new chapter. We have defined our core commitments, our strategic goals and our institutional objectives and priorities. Facing the future boldly, we commit ourselves to rising to the occasion of this new chapter no longer constrained by COVID, but now limited by the systemic and financial challenges posed by the recent actions of both our provincial and federal governments and the economic strains currently affecting not only our university partner, but all publicly funded post-secondary institutions.
In the face of our many challenges, we may be tempted to bemoan this present but let us not tarry there too long. Instead let us embrace our rapidly evolving context, in all its complexity, with kind hearts and critical minds. There is always a Way. It will not be the same as former ways but there will be a Way. My three and half decades working in the university sector have taught me this. No matter what rises or falls, there is always a Way. What belongs to us is the work of reinvention and grit determination, as over and over again, we hold the course and in so doing birth tomorrow’s Way: from the wisdom of our past and our hope for the future driven forward by our imagination and goodwill. Today’s challenges are the crises which frame our Kairos: our propitious moment for action and change.
As we let go of the post COVID era, begin a new Strategic Plan and welcome a new President, we frame a new and different future for Renison, I am reminded of the moving words written by poet Amanda Gorman for President Obama’s Inauguration:
“Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and still beautiful.
When the day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms, as we free it.
For there was always light.
If only we're brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it.”
Wendy L. Fletcher
President and Vice-Chancellor
Renison University College
This is part of the 2024 Renison Reports publication. Return to the Renison Reports page for other articles.