2017 President’s Breakfast Address

Posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2016

The following is an edited transcript of Cheryl’s remarks at the 2017 President’s Breakfast:

Thanks, Bill and good morning, everyone!

This is indeed a special day. We are we getting ready to start another academic year. We are also so fortunate to be able to gather here and to be honoured with the presence of such distinguished guests.

As Bill mentioned, we do have a jam-packed agenda this morning. I’ll be back after breakfast is served for my remarks, but right now, we have something very special to share with you.

As I’m sure you’ve all seen, we launched the College’s first official Coat of Arms at Convocation this past spring.

The creation of the Coat of Arms was one of the several legacy projects we have been working on in celebration of our 50th Anniversary. This spring’s graduating class was the first to have it embossed on their degrees, diplomas and certificates.

And we hope you take a moment to look, at the entrance outside, at the beautiful stone carving in Cordova Cream Limestone, of the crest created by stone carver Dany Barber, co-owner of Smith & Barber: Sculpture Atelier Inc. Thank you, Dany.

There are many elements to a Coat of Arms and, although you may have seen them on our screens across campus, I’d like to take just a moment to show this short video explaining the various components of the Arms.

The creation of this Coat of Arms was a two-year process, with many approvals and steps required along the way, and it gives me great pleasure to share the very last official component of the process — the presentation of the Letters Patent, with all of you here today!

We could not have completed this work without the guidance and expertise of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, and we are so honoured today that Dr. Claire Boudreau, Chief Herald of Canada, and Dr. Samy Khalid, Saguenay Herald, are here with us this morning. At this time, I would like to invite Dr. Khalid to the stage to explain and present the Letters Patent. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you, Dr. Samy Khalid, Saguenay Herald, at the Canadian Heraldic Authority.

***

What an exciting day. And I am thrilled that we could share this milestone in the College’s history together.

Samy, as I mentioned earlier, this wonderful moment would not have been possible without you and Claire, and on behalf of the College, I would like to offer our most sincere appreciation for all of your guidance and thank you very much for joining us here today.

Now, you may know that the Canadian Heraldic Authority is headed by his Excellency the Governor General.

It is now my great honour to invite His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, to the podium.

***

Thank you, everyone. Let me say a word of thanks to everyone from our Perth, Pembroke and International campuses for joining us here at the breakfast and in real time, online.

I’d like to offer my personal welcome and thanks to our special guests today: representatives from our Board of Governors, the Students’ Association, the Foundation Board, and the Alumni Advisory Committee.

I’d also like to take a moment to welcome everyone who has joined the College since the last President’s Breakfast. We have 84 new full time employees at Algonquin this year – 17 academic, 50 support and 17 administrative. And we have many more part-time staff who are new to the College. Could I please ask all our new staff — full and part time — to stand and be recognized with a warm Algonquin College welcome!

Now, it’s time to share the stage. Because I share the leadership of the College with my partners. Let’s bring those leaders forward — I welcome Victoria Ventura, our new President of the Algonquin College Students’ Association, and Christine Kelsey, our new President of the Algonquin College Support Staff Union, to join me for a conversation.

***

Well, that’s a tough act to follow. Victoria, Jack, and the entire Student Association Board of Directors — thank you. Your incredible investment in the students we all serve — together — is appreciated. By me, by the employees of Algonquin — those here today and those who will follow us in the years to come — the next fifty years and more. Your investment will allow us to see, touch, feel and experience the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation report. I salute you.

And Christine, thank you for joining us. I look forward to continuing the good work with you that John Hanson, now happily retired, started to improve employee relations at Algonquin.

At last year’s breakfast, we talked about celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We have been doing that, and will continue to do so in this academic year with our first Alumni of Distinction Awards Gala and other great events. Stay tuned for details.

We also launched our five-year strategic plan. This plan is our guide, our compass. It sets out clearly where we want to go, and how we can get there.

And it also acknowledges our strong foundation, our past. That’s the “Fifty” in the title, “Fifty Plus Five.”

But now it’s time to concentrate on the “Plus Five.”

I made some commitments to you last year when we were working together on building the Fifty-Plus-One plan.

That you would be involved in a much more meaningful way in continuous improvement — improving our processes, and solving problems at the shop floor (as I am known to say — sorry — my passion for the trades creeps through on occasion).

So, you will see a commitment to Lean training for all of us. Not Lean to eliminate jobs, which is a common fear — I think you will all agree that there is more than enough work for all of us here at Algonquin.

But Lean to allow us to engage our staff. For me this is all about improving employee engagement. I think I am doing a video on Lean and the training later this week — so I won’t go on here.

And speaking of employee engagement — I committed to you at our Town Hall last spring that you will see Mandate letters for each one of my executive team members. We reviewed the first drafts yesterday. We will publish them soon to increase transparency on what priorities your executive team will be working on this year.

I committed to a People Plan with a focus on the areas where we need to improve our employee engagement scores. We will take that Plan to the October Board meeting and you will see it soon after (and I know you have been commenting on the drafts during its development).

This document is going to make some bold statements about our commitment to employees, and it’s my hope that you will all see yourselves in its pages and that it will spark even more dialogue about how we can make Algonquin College not just one of the best employers in the region, but the best.

I committed to 360 evaluations on your executive team members. This will happen in this academic year.

We will be developing our Learner Centered plan — our joint academic and student-services plan. You will be asked to help us with its development this academic year.

We will be making a decision on a new Learning Management System, to take the College into the next generation of digital learning. This commitment was a shared one between Egor Evseev, last year’s SA President, and me.

We will be implementing Workday, our new human resources, finance and payroll tool, to improve processes and empower you with information right on your desktop.

And many more activities as you will see in the mandate letters, and in Good Morning Algonquin and other communications in the coming months.

And — I have to say — we will open our new Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre – with a brand new, future-ready library. I can’t wait.

And if you haven’t seen them already, please be sure to also stop by and see our 3D model, near the D entrance, and take our Virtual Reality Tour, in J Lobby. And I want to be sure to thank the many people involved in these efforts. For the VR Tour, our student alumni presenters: Cameron Zylinski , Ali Monette , Alvaro Chavez-Mixco, Juan Raymond and Professor Dushan Horvat and Professor Tilan Gunawardena and of course our industry partner, Invest Ottawa.

And for our 3D model, thanks to student alumni presenter, Mykhailo Brovin, Professor Pablo Medina and Industry Partner, none other than Algonquin College.

Thank you, all.

But I want to stress that, despite all these improvements, from Lean to Workday to the new LMS to the construction going on outside right now —it isn’t what we will accomplish. It is how we will get things done. Through the clearly stated values of Algonquin.

Ron started us off today in a good way with words about the wampum belt. And how it is a central component of our Coat of Arms. With our values carved in stone — literally.

We’re going to keep our values — Caring, Learning, Integrity and Respect — at the centre of everything we do. I know this is important to you. So important that you stated very clearly in all of your feedback when we were developing the strategic plan: Don’t change our values.

You know, I have been asking your executive team — what one question could I ask this great team at Algonquin — all of you — every day? To bring home our Learner-Centered mission and vision?

It came to me two days ago when I was meeting with Christine Kelsey — it’s about the how. Christine said that to me — in a conversation about helping our staff be heard.

So here it is:

What will you do today to demonstrate our values?

I will be asking you that every day.

And then let’s tell the world. Let’s celebrate the actions of our wonderful employees.

So, let’s get to work and focus on achieving our goals.

As we have seen this morning, our beautiful new coat of arms is rich with symbols that reflect our values and goals — not just who we are, but who we aspire to be as we move into the future. At the centre of the coat of arms is a sprig of cedar, which has long been valued by Indigenous cultures. It is seen by many as a tree of strength, but also revitalization.

The fall term is upon us, and there is no better time to look to that symbol as we stay the course with our strengths and look for ways to revitalize for the future.

When I visited our SUMMIT program students this summer, they asked me who inspires me. I answered — without hesitation — “you do.” Our students. And they do — every day.

So be an inspiration to our learners, and let them, their energy and their ideas, inspire you, too.

One more thing. Before I wrap up today, I want to acknowledge the troubling events we’ve been seeing around the world these past weeks. I know that it has been difficult to turn on the news. But it is important to me that we continue to nurture the environment that we have created over the past 50 years — one of diversity and inclusion. I truly believe it is the way forward, the way of our future here at Algonquin, which I know is bright with promise for each student and each employee, no matter who they are.

And this is why I’m so pleased to offer a special welcome to our guest speaker this morning, someone who is here to tell you more about what that future might look like.

Jesse Hirsh is a futurist, an artist, a researcher and someone I have heard speak before. Some of you may know that I am a bit of a CBC junkie — and I always looked forward to Jesse’s conversations on CBC Radio.

I was so impressed that I wanted you to hear him, too

Everyone, please join me in welcoming Jesse Hirsh …


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