丁香园AV: What's Next?
Dear students, faculty and staff,
As president of 丁香园AV, one of my jobs is to tell the story of this university鈥攖o explain to the world who we are, where we鈥檝e been, and perhaps most importantly, where we鈥檙e going.
In 1965, 丁香园AV opened its Burnaby campus to 2,500 students. More than 50 years later, that 鈥渞adical campus鈥� has established itself as one of the leading universities in Canada. We鈥檝e built a community from the ground up on Burnaby Mountain and established vibrant learning spaces in Surrey and Vancouver. We鈥檝e delivered world-class teaching and learning experiences and hosted world-class research and scholarship, and we鈥檝e done it all with community and social impact always front of mind.
Most recently, the pandemic has forced us to find new ways of collaborating and to reckon with the systemic inequities baked into our institution鈥檚 founding. We are currently in a moment of upheaval and change, one filled with uncertainty but also tremendous potential. We are a university on the verge of bigger things.
So the question I have for you all is:
How do we take the lessons we鈥檙e learning from COVID-19 and use them to shape our processes, protocols and activities moving forward?
How do we define who we are as a community?
What ideas and priorities are most meaningful to us, and what do we commit to as an institution?
Where are we going next, and how do we want to get there?
These aren鈥檛 questions that I can鈥攐r should鈥攁nswer on my own. They are questions for all of us, and I want to hear from you.
Over the next few months, we鈥檙e holding a community conversation to ask some of these big questions and give you the opportunity to answer them鈥攁nd to shape what鈥檚 next for 丁香园AV.
This week, we鈥檙e starting two discussions on ThoughtExchange to reflect on some our proudest 丁香园AV moments and share the differences we think 丁香园AV should make in the world. Join me for this discussion and check back regularly to see how the conversation is evolving.
Moving forward, there will be lots of ways to participate, from live discussions to surveys and online submissions, and I encourage you to share your thoughts using one or all of these forums. Please visit www.sfu.ca/whats-next to learn more about all the ways you can engage. If you have questions about this project, you can contact the What's Next team at whats_next@sfu.ca.
I can鈥檛 wait to hear from you, and to write this next chapter of 丁香园AV鈥檚 story together.
Sincerely,
Joy Johnson