Seneca College RED 2020 - 3

President's
message

PHOTO: SAKULENSKY/FROST

David Agnew

UP
FRONT
While a pandemic may seem to be an odd
time for renewal, the extraordinary creativity
and ingenuity of faculty and staff who
moved Seneca into virtual mode in a matter
of days has given us an opportunity to
reflect on how we can continue to grow and
thrive in the post-pandemic world.
In fact, I believe the sweeping changes
to our operations - in academics, services
and support areas - give us not just an
opportunity, but also an obligation to ask
ourselves fundamental questions about
how we can take advantage of everything
we have learned during our virtual time to
come back a renewed, stronger Seneca.
Soon after the campuses closed, we put
out the call to Seneca employees to look
into the future, and tell us what we should
keep doing, what we needed to change and
what we should stop altogether once the
pandemic receded. And we were blunt: all
of that had to be cast in the light of tougher
financial circumstances caused by the virus.
We asked our student leaders as well.
Our renewal initiative has been heavily
influenced by the events around us: not just
the COVID-19 pandemic, but as well the
killing of George Floyd and the global call to
end racism and discrimination and the new
realities of remote working and learning.
Called the Au Large project
(senecacollege.ca/aularge) - in honour
of our founding president's constant call
to look to the horizon - the initiative
provoked a terrific response, with many
faculty, support staff, administrators, students and union leaders providing thoughtful suggestions and innovations.
Submissions ranged from large, complicated, multi-area proposals to more modest
suggestions that can be accomplished. Task
groups have been established to bring together all areas involved in the planning and
implementation of the ideas going forward.
Seneca has no plans to remain an online

institution, and in fact over the summer we
were delighted to start welcoming back
students into the labs, studios and airplanes
in programs with significant practical
components.
But it's clear we will become a more
virtual school, offering more flexible delivery
in our programs and courses. We will be
doing more online, and more short programs
(now called microcredentials) focused on
providing focused career-based education.
Many of our services, particularly the
transactional ones, will remain in an online
format, freeing up staff time for value-added
interaction with students.
And very importantly, we have committed
to becoming a more equitable and sustainable institution, continuing to engage the
community in building our unique path
to fulfilling our mission to provide a great
polytechnic postsecondary education.
It's an exciting agenda - big, bold and a
lot of work. It carries with it a sense of
urgency because innovation is how Seneca
will continue to thrive.
We change because our world changes,
but also because it's in our DNA.
To the horizon!

David Agnew
President

RED

2020

http://www.senecacollege.ca/aularge

Seneca College RED 2020

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