In this issue Rector Niki Boytchuk-Hale writes eloquently about the John Deutsch University Centre, the JDUC, which recently reopened after several years undergoing renovation. Niki notes that it is 鈥渁 place where the pulse of campus life can be felt in its purest form.鈥 Few would disagree, and that pulse was easy to feel when donors, friends, and current members of the university community gathered on a sunny morning in September to celebrate the return of life to the building.
It was an opportunity to reflect on the historical and continuing richness of student experience at this university, on the peculiar chemistry for leadership which thrives here, and on the close personal bonds which Queen鈥檚 catalyzes within as well as between generations of students. The revitalization of the JDUC was proposed and driven forward by student leaders over multiple years, and it was largely funded by contributions from students past, present, and future. That says it all: our students are both beneficiaries and stewards of a uniquely enriching experience nearly two hundred years in the making.
Consultations on a bicentennial vision for Queen鈥檚 have been underway since January, and not surprisingly, much of the focus has been on the future. But given the pace of technological change as well as, more recently, increasing evidence that social and economic institutions are in flux, future operating conditions for the university are far from easy to predict 鈥 looking only 16 years ahead to our anniversary, let alone beyond 2041 and into our third century. What is certain is that change lies ahead, and there is no doubt that we will find ways to adapt to it.
The key challenge that has emerged in the bicentennial consultations is to identify those defining attributes of Queen鈥檚 that we must be sure to preserve, even as our assumptions regarding post-secondary education in Ontario and Canada continue to shift. And among those 鈥 perhaps the most frequently cited, alongside a commitment to excellence in all that we do 鈥 is that 鈥減ulse鈥 of the student experience that manifests itself every day in the JDUC, in student clubs and societies, on the sports field, and in student government.
We must and will preserve that, even as the university develops and evolves in response to changing circumstances and new directions in the academic mission. There is nothing, for example, about Queen鈥檚 increasing focus on cutting-edge research that implies a devaluation of the student experience. Indeed, the high quality of our students and the vitality of their engagement with the university demands nothing less than that in the classroom or the laboratory they are taught and mentored by leaders in their fields of study. More than that, the opportunity to participate in research and to practise research methods will add to rather than subtract from their overall Queen鈥檚 experience.
That the future will see our university changed goes without saying. That time will see it even stronger I have no doubt, so powerful is the commitment to excellence and innovation in our faculty and staff, and so enduring and vital is that pulse of student life and leadership recently celebrated at the JDUC opening.
