This article was originally posted on the Academica Group website and has been cross-posted here with permission. -- Challenges to social cohesion and community wellbeing are on the rise across the world, and governments at every level no longer have the resources they once did to address these challenges. As the forces of globalization squeeze public budgets, many postsecondary institutions also face growing pressure to justify their existence to the communities they serve. But within this challenging environment, Canada’s postsecondary leaders see an opportunity for their institutions to use their capacity and resources to address some of society’s most wicked problems. For Simon Fraser University President Andrew Petter, the current challenge to community wellbeing stems from an urgent need for improved “social [...]

In my eighteen years as a university president, I have come to realize that, while policy usually drives institutional change, it is often the little things we do on our campuses that make the biggest difference in our immediate and extended communities.   Following the first Charlottesville debacle in the U.S., community leaders, including no small number of university presidents, took to their keyboards to compose forceful statements on their commitment to diversity, taking public stands against the disturbing incidents that questioned the very nature of our social contract. Before composing my message to the King’s University College community, I stepped out of my office, took a right, and walked down the short hallway to the Vitali Lounge to breathe [...]