The approved priorities that Brock University negotiated in its Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) with the Ontario government are probably the best operating guidelines the University could have hoped for, according to President Jack Lightstone.

The President was speaking to more than 200 faculty and staff in a Town Hall meeting Nov. 18 in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, plus another 200 followers on livestream video.

Lightstone said the priorities of its SMA, which was finalized with the province last year, play to Brock’s strengths of undergraduate teaching excellence; increasing research activity, including transdisciplinary hubs; and the pursuit of area partnerships that will contribute to the social, cultural and economic development of Niagara Region.

The President used the Town Hall meeting to review and discuss key decisions made by Brock’s governing bodies over the past 15 years, as well as to predict what the University’s niche should be a decade from now if it stays on its current path.

He spoke of some of the challenges facing post-secondary institutions, including trying to stabilize or grow funding from a cash-strapped provincial government that is exerting tighter control over the mandates and academic directions of universities.

Ontario universities now face years of fierce competition for enrolment, said Lightstone, as Ontario’s shrinking demographic of high school graduates is compounded by the government’s promise to build more new campuses in or around the GTA, which will only increase pressure on any institutions already struggling to maintain student numbers.

But in summary, Lightstone — whose second and final five-year term ends June 30 — said Brock is on a trajectory that can can help it become “Canada’s mid-sized, student-centred and learning-focused institution.”

Members of the Brock community can view video of the Town Hall by clicking on http://brockvideocentre.brocku.ca/videos/video/213/ and logging in with their Brock ID and password.

Brock University President Jack Lightstone speaks to staff and faculty during a Town Hall Meeting at Sean O’Sullivan Theatre Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015.