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Summer is a busy time at our university
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| Dr. Axel Meisen |
When
our 17,000 students finish their courses in the spring, many think that
our university shuts down for the summer months. Nothing could be further
from the truth. For many units, the summer months are amongst the busiest
of the year.
The Office of Student Recruitment and the Registrar's Office are extremely
busy preparing for the arrival of new students in the fall. This
year, applications are running well ahead of last year's and the challenge
is now to accommodate both the new and returning students. The Office
of Student Affairs and Services has responsibility for orientation, a
critical period for new students and their families. First impressions
and a good start help with the transition from high-school, especially
when students come from small communities. For this reason, the Office
of Student Affairs and Services is preparing new events and orientation
materials.
Summer is also the time for major physical repairs. We have obtained funding
to undertake major repairs on the St. John's campus and the protracted
repair of the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College is finally coming to an end.
Facilities Management is busier than ever and has asked for your understanding
if the repairs cause inconvenience.
While we offer increasing numbers of summer courses, for our professors
and graduate students the summer months usually mean greater emphasis
on research and other creative activities. Many of them write papers while
others head into the field (some of them quite literally) to pursue research
projects. Just a few weeks ago, the Globe and Mail carried an excellent
story on Dr. Ian Jones of our Biology department. He is a seabird specialist
studying problems faced by the auklet population in Alaska. Our archeologists
are busy throughout the province and Dr. Tom Gordon, the director of our
School of Music, is heading to Nain, Labrador, for several weeks to document
century-old Moravian music scores.
For many professors, staff and students, the summer is also the time to
go to conferences and participate in special events. For example, our
mathematicians are holding special workshops and members of the Faculty
of Education and the School of Music are mounting the Tuckamore Festival.
The latter follows shortly after Festival 500, a music extravaganza involving
over 2,000 choristers from Canada and as far away as Angola and Estonia.
For me, this summer is also turning out to be filled with interesting
challenges. We were able to secure our first, fully-endowed chair (the
Husky Chair in Oil and Gas Research) and other major awards from donors
and granting agencies are in the works. The Inco Innovation Centre is
in the advanced planning stage and the architectural concepts for the
new Exhibition Centre on the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Campus are taking
shape. After concerted and constructive negotiations, we concluded a new
collective agreement with MUNFA in July.
These are just a few examples of our summer activities. The next time
you or your friends see a quiet campus in the summer, you can be sure
that there is a lot more happening than meets the eye.
I wish you and your family a productive summer. I also encourage you to
take a well-deserved rest with your families.
Axel Meisen
PRESIDENT AND VICE-CHANCELLOR