From the President’s Desk — Introducing “The Quad”

I’ve talked extensively in my first messages to you about how so many people have worked to connect me into the community of the University of Alberta. For me, this connection is fundamental to the work I hope to achieve while president. Through meeting with and listening to you and other members of the community, my understanding of the university continually grows, and with it, a much better understanding of the values and goals we share.

I know that many of you feel as I do about the importance of connection and community. When I visited with faculty councils throughout the spring, many of you told me how important you felt it was for me, as your president, to be open and transparent, to communicate often, and to facilitate cross-disciplinary, cross-campus collaboration. I am committed to doing so, but to my mind, a vibrant community depends on all of us paying attention to one another and reaching out, and doing so in many arenas. Around seminar tables, in meetings, and at General Faculties Council. In the coffee line, the hallway between classrooms, or around the proverbial water cooler. And there’s the connection created by a phone call, email, or blog post.

Since February 2011, Colloquy, the U of A’s blog, has been one of the key online vehicles for the leadership team to inform faculty, staff, and students of decisions, initiatives, celebrations, and changes. Today, under the leadership of Vice-President (University Relations) Debra Pozega Osburn, the blog relaunches with a refreshed look and name to more effectively reflect the diversity and breadth of voices and activities that make up the U of A’s internal community.

In addition to being a space where senior leadership talks with the community, the new blog will feature multiple voices from across our campuses. My voice will be one of many — as it should be. There will also be staff and faculty profiles, regular governance reporting, opinion pieces from guest bloggers, photographs and video, work tips, campus notes and congratulatory messages, and when needed, clarifications.

The aims and intent of the blog have been captured in its new name and tagline: “The Quad: Where UAlberta meets online.” We arrived at this name because a “quad” is a meeting place commonly found on academic campuses across the world. The U of A itself has multiple quads on different campuses, each holding significant resonance for our community. Ideally, the refreshed blog will become U of A’s online quad, or gathering place, where faculty, staff, and students from all of our campuses can come together as a community regardless of the various disciplinary or physical distances between us.

As I mentioned last week, I will be reaching out to each of you throughout the year with messages like this one, but you will also often find me on The Quad. I invite you to visit and engage.

David H. Turpin
President and Vice-Chancellor