Do I care about university rankings? Hmm. As I wrote the first draft of the Faculty of Arts Strategic Plan, (“A Place and Promise for Arts” – more about this soon), I included a page on our various rankings and how to understand them. I encountered some understandable criticism: rankings are imperfect, based on […]
Given my job at this university, you might be forgiven for thinking that I have had an intentional and a planned life and career, although in reality, it was far from this. In thinking about the paths that our students will take into their unknown futures, I considered my own path from undergraduate student to […]
This was a banner week for Arts – on Monday we welcomed over 2000 new students from over 100 countries, with the largest number of international students in our history. We also admitted nearly 900 transfer students. We are now using broad-based admissions (a holistic approach to looking at the qualifications of our applicants) on […]
Perhaps the best part of being Dean is standing on the stage to congratulate our graduates as they wrap up their most recent educational journey. Someone who doesn’t understand the meaning of these events might imagine that shaking two thousand hands in eight different congregations (what some schools call “commencements”, “convocations” or simply “graduations”) might […]
Today, we got to celebrate the arrival of our newly designed Buchanan Courtyards, which will have a transformative effect on our use of the complex that’s at the centre of the Faculty of Arts. Below is a loose version of my speaking points on this occasion. It was great to see students, faculty, emeriti faculty, […]
Although I have poked fun at the Entertainment Industry’s obsessively self-congratulatory award shows for years, I have to say that it was a thrill (even if a hypocritical one) to attend the Grammys! First, we were able to bring together nearly the complete team that worked on my project (Alan Lomax in Haiti, 1936-37, a […]
Sometimes my day job (being dean) and my commitment to Haiti come together nicely and unexpectedly. I heard the other day that the UBC alumni group in Toronto is gathering at the Drake Hotel on Friday November 26 from 6-9 for a Reception to Rebuild Haiti and a silent auction to build a school in […]
Imagine that it’s your first day at the University. You know almost no one. You’re lost, and you have to ask directions everywhere you go. You’ve just moved into an apartment, and you’re surrounded by cardboard boxes and unpacked Scandinavian furniture. You’re deathly afraid of making a mistake, and of course you’re anxious about the […]
[Note: My first few blog entries will be a little post facto, as they’re being added late.] I have to hand it to UBC – it’s an institution that surely knows how to make an impression. Within an hour of arriving for work, I was looking at the first of two groups comprising over 1,500 […]