President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri has issued this fall welcome message and video to the York community:
I am delighted to welcome our returning students, faculty and staff back to the University – and to welcome our newest community members to York.
This is going to be an exciting year for the York community. Let me tell you why.
First, we are in the midst of a tremendous transformation on campus. Significant progress is being made on a number of campus development projects, including construction of the new CIBC Pan Am / Parapan Am Athletics Stadium.
This fully accessible stadium will provide our athletes, students and residents a place to train and compete at home, as well as an opportunity to shine on the world stage during the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. We look forward to welcoming the world to York U this summer!
It has also been exciting to watch progress on the new home for our Lassonde School of Engineering. This innovative, five-storey structure will house the civil, electrical and mechanical engineering disciplines, and will provide a space in which our students are empowered to become entrepreneurial engineers with a social conscience and a sense of global citizenship.
Progress is also being made on the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension project, with two stations on our Keele campus. The subway’s arrival will dramatically alter the York experience, vastly improving how thousands of people commute daily, and better connecting the University to the GTA.
All of these state-of-the-art development projects will provide the 21st century facilities that are helping to make York one of the world’s leading teaching and research universities.
In fact, the York culture has never been so vibrant.
This year, in addition to welcoming outstanding new academic and administrative leadership to the University, we celebrated the installation of our 13th Chancellor, Greg Sorbara, at our Spring Convocation in June.
At Convocation, we cheered on over 6,000 graduates as they crossed the stage, honoured faculty and student award winners, and paid tribute to 12 honorary degree recipients—from Wade Davis, award-winning author and explorer, to Pierre Lassonde, visionary founding donor of our new Lassonde School of Engineering.
Orientation Week was a huge success this fall. From the excitement of move-in day to Making Connections and the Lion’s Pride pep rally and football game, this was an opportunity to welcome our new students to the York family, and to connect them to the services and support available to them across our two campuses.
Today, York University is leading the way. As our campuses expand, so do our horizons. As we pursue new educational opportunities for our students, and conduct leading-edge research in all fields, we are building a culture of student success, academic and research excellence and community engagement that is changing the world.
So, welcome to York. I look forward to working together this year to strengthen, advance, and celebrate our vision for York’s future.