t is customary for the the Provost & Vice-President, Academic to provide a report to each meeting of Senate outlining plans, priorities, issues and other news. As these reports are already public through the University Secretariat Office, they will also be shared regularly through this memorandum page.
Note that appendices to the report can be found on the University Secretariat Office website.
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Report to Senate of the Provost & Interim President – May 25, 2022
Dear colleagues,
With this 701st meeting of Senate, we come to the end of another academic governance year. While the last nine months have come with their challenges, they have also seen Brock make significant progress towards its strategic goals.
I am proud to say that Brock weathered the last academic year largely unscathed by the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. With some trepidation after almost 18 months away, the Brock community returned to campus in September, with most courses taking place online. Our classrooms, our halls, and our residences filled up again, following strict guidance from both the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and Niagara Region Public Health. With the exception of a brief hiatus in January, when Ontario universities agreed to minimize on-campus instruction on the recommendation of Dr. Kieran Moore in order to help stem the rising Omicron tide, the academic year took place on campus as planned.
Of course, COVID isn’t over. COVID will probably never be completely ‘over’. The virus will likely be with us for years – perhaps decades – to come. But we are learning to live with COVID, to go about our activities while minimizing risk. And I expect that we will get better at living with it as time goes on.
Brock is also beginning to make strides in an area that, while a strategic priority, has not traditionally been one of our strengths – diversity, equity and inclusion. We are making efforts to hire new Indigenous faculty members and staff – sometimes successful, sometimes not, but we are learning in the process. In the next year, and thanks to the collaboration of the Faculty Association, we will look to hire more Black faculty members as well. Through the work of Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement Professor Robyn Bourgeois, the Aboriginal Education Council, and the Two Row Council, we are making gains on priorities related to our responsibilities in reconciliation and decolonization. We are building Indigenous spaces on campus. We are beginning the lengthy and complex process of Indigenizing our curriculum. And, most importantly, we are strengthening relationships.
In doing this work, we humble ourselves and seek to learn both from our peers and from those communities we wish to serve better. Almost two weeks ago, I attended the first annual Inter-Institutional Forum for signatories of the Scarborough Charter, which Brock joined last Fall following consultation with members of Senate. The Charter lays out a number of institutional objectives that participating institutions will pursue, and the Forum provided a place for partners to touch base and share best practices. I come back having learned a lot, having had some good conversations, and with some ideas on how to move Brock towards in strategic objectives.
In whatever work we might do in the next years – be it related to COVID, DEI, or Brock’s other strategic and academic priorities – I take solace and strength in the knowledge that we will do this work together. It is no secret to this group that I have been filling two roles in the last year. I agreed to take on this challenge knowing that I am supported by a seasoned and knowledgeable administrative team that can provide wise counsel and help shoulder the load, and by a Brock community of students, staff, faculty members and librarians that is resilient, dedicated and hard-working.
So as I reflect on the last year, I can only say thank you. To all members of the Brock community. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your trust, especially in these uncertain times. Thank you for your feedback, your thoughts, your advice and your engagement. And, most importantly, thank you for your hard work and your relentless pursuit of all its means to be ‘Brock’.
It has been an honour to serve as your interim President during this last year, and I look forward to the challenges ahead.
Sincerely,
Lynn Wells
Interim President and Vice-Chancellor
Provost and Vice-President, Academic