From the Provost’s Desk (September 2024)

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the fall semester. I always love the energy that comes with the return of our students to campus at this time of year.

I’d like to introduce a new regular email that I will be sending to faculty and librarians, which I hope will allow me to communicate about various initiatives, issues, and developments that affect our academic community. You can expect these messages a few weeks after each Academic Board meeting, so I can include the link to the minutes from that meeting. Since becoming Vice-President and Provost, I have been working with President Gertler to shape the priorities that will guide my division’s focus over the next few years. I’m happy to share these with you today.

1. Thriving Graduate and Undergraduate Students
   We need to continue to support our students holistically – not only academically, but also in terms of mental health and wellness, access to appropriate housing, and student-centric approaches to their educational experiences. I look forward to building on our progress – establishing crucial mental health partnerships with CAMH and SickKids, expanding support for research initiatives that support students to thrive, and growing the availability of safe and accessible housing that meets our students’ needs.
   
2. Empowering Research Trainees
   U of T is recognized the world over for our incredible research. A priority for me is establishing sector-leading practices and supports for research trainees that will enable us to attract the best international graduate students, address and overcome barriers to their success, and increase funding for research-stream graduate students and campus-based postdocs.
   
3. Channeling the Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence
   U of T researchers have long been at the forefront of AI. Our challenge is to leverage the recent developments in generative AI responsibly, with a commitment to ethics and a spirit of innovation. I want to see us develop an institutional strategy to guide the use of AI so that we can incorporate this revolutionary technology in our research and teaching and leverage it in responding to global and societal needs. So many of you are already doing amazing work in this area, and I am excited for U of T to continue its leadership in AI research, development, and deployment.
   
4. Charting the Future of Higher Education
   This priority encompasses my wish to see our academic community play a direction-setting role in higher education. Political and social polarization have made dialogue across difference increasingly challenging. I believe that we can be a model for civil discourse on our campuses and foster the ability of our students to engage in spirited debate that allows for disagreement and even discomfort. We have the capacity to make this happen – as is evident in the many initiatives occurring across our campuses. In the year ahead, I hope to see us work to embrace these values and activities as a community.

I’m also excited to expand our global citizenship and work-integrated learning opportunities for students, as well as our options for lifelong learning. And finally, as we plan for U of T’s bicentennial in 2027, I hope that we can reflect on our accomplishments, learn from past mistakes, and plan for how our great institution will lead in the future.

I hope you will join me in working towards these goals.

Trevor

P.S. The next Academic Board meeting will be held on October 10 in Simcoe Hall Council Chambers. Anyone may attend these meetings as non-participating guests.