Good morning and welcome to the 37th annual President’s Breakfast.
It’s great to have the Humber family back together as we begin the new academic year. I particularly wish to welcome everyone new to the college and all who are at the breakfast for the first time.
This is my seventh President’s Breakfast, and I continue to be amazed that we can fit all of your energy and enthusiasm into one room.
Let me take a moment to recognize current and former members of our board of governors; as well as our past presidents Squee Gordon and John Davies; my incredible executive team; and of course, my wonderful wife, Vicki.
A special note of congratulations to the 2018 Recognition Award recipients, who will be honoured later this morning for their contributions to Humber.
I also want to acknowledge our many staff who were recognized by Humber and other organizations this past year for their various achievements and contributions.
When I look out into the room and see our community gathered together, I’m mindful of the integral role that we all play in the lives of our students and in our relationships as colleagues and friends. I see a group of people who care about each other, the college and student success.
As teachers and mentors, we work together to continuously improve the student experience and learning environment. As coworkers and teammates, we collaborate to create a positive and supportive workplace. Thank you for all that you do to make Humber a great place to learn and work.
And on that note, I know you’re ready for the 12,000 new students we’ll be welcoming this year. Orangeville led the way with fall orientation last week, and it all begins tomorrow at the Lake and North.
Building on the achievements of our first 50 years, we are beginning the next phase of our history with our new Strategic Plan. This plan will see us lead, transform and differentiate postsecondary education at home and abroad.
One year ago, I stood at this podium and asked you to participate in consultations to develop our new plan - and you answered that call in droves.
In fact, more than 1,300 members of the Humber community provided ideas on what matters most, and how we can shape our collective future.
Thank you to the Strategic Plan Steering Committee co-chaired by Gina Antonacci and Corinne Johnston, and all those who contributed to the plan’s development.
Today, we are formally unveiling our 2018-2023 Strategic Plan, and even though many of you have not seen it, I know you’ll be familiar with the themes and I hope it resonates with all of you. It’s about how we shape the future we want for our students and society through our vision for polytechnic education.
It’s built on three pillars: career-ready citizens, accessible education, and a healthy and inclusive community. This means preparing ourselves and our students for the future of work, continuing to enrich the educational experience, and offering more choice and flexibility for learning. And It’s about the environment we want to create on campus, and making sure we all have the tools we need to be successful. It’s about each and every one of us. It’s our plan. We are Humber, after all.
Our plan is bold and robust. It builds on our existing strengths and positions us proactively for the forces of change that will impact higher education in the coming years. We take great pride in our progress towards our vision of being a global leader in polytechnic education. We’ve worked hard to get to where we are. And we will continue to differentiate ourselves by creating greater awareness and recognition of our unique model of teaching and learning.
As I look to Humber’s future, I see many reasons to be excited. I want to share some of those with you as I talk a little more about our plan’s three strategic pillars.
The first pillar is our commitment to developing career-ready citizens. Our priority is to continue to improve the delivery of programming that provides the vocational, employability, and entrepreneurial skills needed to thrive in an evolving, technology-driven world.
We’ll build on the strengths of our applied model of education to expand work-integrated learning in terms of both the quantity and quality of experiences we’re creating for students. We need to continually deepen learning opportunities through strong long-term partnerships with industry, community and alumni, demonstrating the value and importance of a collaborative educational ecosystem in preparing students for where work is going.
As part of our effort to develop career-ready citizens, we engaged in extensive stakeholder consultations this past year on the competencies required for graduate success. We heard that employers and learners are not only seeking credentials but are increasingly focused on finding the right skill sets or competencies to be adaptable, career ready and future proof.
The result of this work is the development of a draft framework for a Humber-specific set of Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) that, over time, will be embedded in all of our programs. Focused on innovation, digital fluency and strategic problem solving, the ILOs will define the core employability skills that will distinguish our grads and a Humber education.
And as many of you know, our students and alumni do quite well already in terms of distinguishing themselves through competitions and achievements.
This past year, we captured 12 medals at the Skills Ontario competition and three gold medals at Skills Canada, in baking, mechatronics and 3D digital game art. Humber students became the first Canadians ever to medal in mechatronics at the World Skills competition and the only North American medalists this year.
Three students won first place at the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association competition in Vancouver. Six media students won awards from Applied Arts magazine. The comedy troupe, Tallboyz II Men - four performing arts students - won Best Comedy Award at the Toronto Fringe Festival. And Ceejay Nofuente led the women’s varsity basketball team to the national championship, was named the Canadian college women’s basketball player of the year for the third year in a row, played for team Canada at the Commonwealth Games, and has signed a professional contract in Denmark.
And the list of our students’ impressive accomplishments goes on and on.
This was also an exceptional year for partnerships and collaboration.
As part of our internationalization strategy, we now offer study and work abroad opportunities for students and faculty through 39 partners in 24 countries. Overall, a record 600-plus students participated in study abroad around the world this past year.
I’m incredibly proud of our students’ desire to engage globally, building their skills and knowledge and making a difference through international projects.
Back at home, Applied Research & Innovation engaged close to 2,000 students and more than 200 industry and community partners, providing solutions to real-world problems and valuable experiential learning opportunities.
Through our Centres of Innovation, we’re building capacity for even more ways of connecting students with future employers and the rapidly changing workplace.
The Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation at North Campus will be a hub for collaboration of this kind. The CTI will house new teaching and learning spaces, provide a home to our skills varsity teams and to equipment not found in any other Canadian college or university. These leading-edge technologies in Industry 4.0 and The Internet of Things will provide new opportunities for students and workers to train and re-train for the dynamic world of advanced manufacturing and beyond.
Many global technology leaders have signed on to partner with us, donating more than 12 million dollars in equipment, software and student scholarships in the process. They are also providing work placements for students and graduates, and training and development programs for faculty and staff.
And I am pleased to share that The Barrett Family Foundation has decided to give an additional $5 million to the CTI and to student scholarships and supports. This brings their commitment to the college to $10 million! The largest contribution ever made to Humber.
We are planning a grand opening of the Barrett CTI in January and I hope to see many of you there.
We also have a new building at the corner of Carrier Drive and Highway 27. Starting summer 2019, it will be the new home of corporate training, credential testing and real estate education. As the exclusive provider of all professional real estate education in Ontario, we are set to begin programming next year for 55,000 people annually.
Creating the spaces we need to prepare learners to navigate an evolving economy and labour market is a priority at each of our campuses. At Lakeshore, we’re moving forward with our plans to redevelop the A/B Building. We are going to build the new Humber Cultural Hub as well as a new student residence.
The Hub will feature a 600-seat venue for music, performing arts and special events. It will house multimedia facilities for tv and film production, 3D animation and a usability lab.
The Centre for Creative Business Innovation, one of our Centres of Innovation, will also be located there. Toronto’s cultural and creative industries will benefit from these new facilities dedicated to talent development, entrepreneurial supports and applied research.
Along with growth in our partnerships, our students and programs are benefiting from significant donor contributions. Led by our Advancement and Alumni Relations department, this past year we raised more than $4.3 million for the college through Humber Gives, the Humber Golf Classic and other corporate and individual donations. We will be formally launching Humber’s first public fundraising campaign later this year.
The second pillar of our plan is making education more accessible. We know students need more choice, more pathways and more ways to learn. Our academic and enrolment management plans have us on the right course with much achieved and in process.
And as we think about how we take our polytechnic model to the next level, it makes sense that we build on our areas of strength and differentiation - the things we do that are unique within the college system.
While sharing many characteristics with other colleges, Humber, as one of the five designated ITALs, has become the most comprehensive provider of non-traditional college credentials, namely four-year bachelor’s degrees and graduate certificates, while respecting and continuing to invest in our traditional credentials.
By leveraging this area of distinction, we can work with other colleges to build our capacity and reputation as a receiving institution, providing more learners access to degree completion and post-graduate opportunities. Although we operate in a highly competitive environment, Ontario colleges have always been collaborative, and there is much to be gained for our students and institutions by developing better system solutions to meet the needs of learners.
Our recent partnership with Seneca is an example of this thinking in action. In this context, we will be working to improve credit recognition and transfer, program articulation and develop joint programming with more options and flexibility for degree attainment.
We’re also continuing to add innovative, in-demand programs, and looking ahead to anticipate changes in the labour market.
Most recently, we’ve begun offering a Bachelor of Design degree and Ontario graduate certificates in Content Strategy, Professional Accounting Practice, Systems Navigator and Advanced Chocolate and Confectionary Artistry.
We are planning our first engineering degree as well as other credentials in support of technology innovation and the built environment.
Accessible education is about greater choice and flexibility, and also about supporting our students both in and outside the classroom for a positive overall college experience.
Through Student Success and Engagement, we’ve formally implemented a hub and spoke model of academic advising for students to receive seamless, cohesive support that starts from within their academic school and extends to our many other campus services. We relaunched the “We Got You” brand to make sure our students know we’re here to help.
We’ve also launched the Black Academic Success and Engagement program, as well as a unique Youth Transition program. The transition program, for people aged 19 to 29 who haven’t finished high school, focuses on developing individualized learning plans, mentoring, advising, career exploration and skill building.
We are working to indigenize both our spaces and educational approaches. Our plan incorporates key recommendations from our fourth annual Indigenous Knowledge Gathering. These include supporting and empowering indigenous youth and providing culturally relevant and responsive programs and services. We are also embedding indigenous knowledge, perspective and teachings across our campuses.
At Lakeshore, we have a new set of Indigenous Cultural Markers that are designed to place the college in the context of the long history of Indigenous peoples in what we now call the Greater Toronto Area.
We’ll be holding an event on November 8th to recognize their installation and honour the land where we are able to work and study. It is a significant milestone for us and I hope to see you there.
The third and final pillar speaks to the importance of having a Healthy and Inclusive Community.
Now I told you this is a bold plan. How is this for bold?
We’ve set a goal for ourselves – to have the healthiest campus in Canada.
That means we’ll be focusing on new health and wellness initiatives and taking a holistic approach, embedding health and well-being into all aspects of campus life and culture. This includes focused strategies to support student and employee wellness.
We will adopt the Okanagan Charter, an international charter to advance health promotion in colleges and universities. We are the first Ontario college to sign on, to help us achieve our healthy campus goal.
We will continue to build an equitable, diverse and inclusive community of students, faculty and staff where everyone feels included and supported.
Our cultural diversity is an important resource for learning and personal growth. We will work to prepare students for success in a diverse workforce while also enhancing both creativity and social acceptance. Recognizing the need for diversity of our faculty and staff will ensure students are supported by strong role models and mentors who reflect their backgrounds and experiences.
We’ll build on our position as a provincial leader in student mental health training. In a community of care, led and surrounded by people who have the skills to help, our students are better positioned to succeed. And we will put passion for preserving our collective future front and centre through our sustainability plan and approach to campus development.
We are working towards Passive House certification for the NX building at North Campus. Passive House is the world’s leading standard for energy-efficient construction. Upon completion, NX will be the first college building to achieve that designation and become one of the most energy-efficient buildings in Canada. We’re also moving forward with projects to help reduce our water and energy use by at least 50 per cent and reach a net zero carbon footprint by 2034.
And speaking of net zero, we’re also improving sustainability across campus from seemingly unlikely sources. For example, many of you may soon be parking in our new thousand-stall garage here at North. The parking deck will contribute significantly to energy conservation, and it also meets our obvious need for more parking.
The structure includes 16 spaces for electric vehicle charging stations and dedicated carpool and accessibility spaces. It is also the largest single building solar photovoltaic installation in the college sector.
The solar energy generated will offset electricity use in the parking deck, as well as the Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation, which will be a “net-zero energy” facility.
Further, we are developing our digital campus plan, preparing to launch our new HRMS, and continuing to refine our various registration and student information systems.
So, that’s just a taste of what’s in our plan and where we are headed. I encourage you to go to humber.ca/strategic-plan to read the full plan.
Thank you for your attention this morning. I know it’s a lot of information and I hope that you will take time in the coming weeks to read through the full Strategic Plan. We built this vision for the future together. Now, let’s make it a reality.
Before I conclude, I have some specific thank yous.
First, to IGNITE. You play a significant role in supporting our students and building a dynamic and engaging campus culture. Thank you for all you do.
Thank you to the Board of Governors for your guidance, enthusiasm and commitment to making Humber a vibrant place to learn and work.
To the executive team – Alister, Jason, Laurie, Lori and Rani – thank you for your exceptional leadership, energy and dedication. We’re a high-performance team that also knows how to have some fun.
Thank you again to Deborah Green, for overseeing the President’s office, doing her best to make me look good - an uphill battle on a good day, supporting the Board of Governors, and planning today’s breakfast with the rest of the committee.
Thanks to Wanda Buote for emceeing today’s event, and to Derek Stockley for introducing our Recognition award winners.
Finally, to our amazing faculty and staff. I am so proud of all that you do and your ongoing commitment to our students and to each other. Thank you.
Our reputation for excellence and innovation in teaching and learning continues to serve us well. Humber’s success is a result of generations of talented people who have all made a difference in the lives of our students.
I am confident that together we will continue to achieve great things.
Thanks for having breakfast with me today, and I wish you every success in the exciting year ahead!