In the News: Universities struggle to attract professors amid soaring housing prices
Universities in Vancouver and Toronto are struggling to find ways to entice professors to move to cities known for eye-popping house prices and out-of-control bidding wars. In Ontario, schools are looking for changes to provincial laws that would allow them to build affordable long-term housing for faculty. This month, planners and senior administrators from Toronto universities, McMaster in Hamilton, the University of Ottawa and others, met to discuss the challenges of recruiting new faculty in their housing markets. Young professors want to live close to their work, but many are worried their starting salaries make a downtown home unaffordable. “For [...]
St. George Secondary Plan Open House
The University of Toronto, in consultation with the City of Toronto, is working to update the City's planning and urban design framework as it applies to the St. George Campus Area. Read more here.
UofT 3rd Annual App Challenge Winner
Melody Neumann, Associate Professor at University of Toronto has won the IMS Global 3rd Annual App Challenge in the Institutional App category for the online tool Team Up!. Working with Laurie Harrison, Director of Online Learning, a two-person design and programming team, and members from the Academic & Collaborative Technologies unit at UofT’s Information Technology Services, including spokesperson Ahalya Rajkumar, the online tool has garnered interest among instructors who facilitate group work. “The Team Up! tool was one of our first projects to successfully integrate an external tool within the institutional Portal (Blackboard) using the IMS LTI standard”, says Rajkumar, a [...]
Metro News: “UofT decides not to renew food contract with Aramark”
Metro reports "University's downtown campus won't renew contact with food giant, opting to offer the services directly" Read more here.
Graduate House Announcement
I am pleased to announce that Kevin Dancy will be joining the team at Graduate House as our new Dean, effective Monday, May 16. Kevin is an experienced university administrator and student life professional, with many years of service at St. Michael’s college in progressively responsible roles in the office of the Dean of Students, including a term as Acting Dean. Most recently, he has completed a term position supporting the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering as Director of the Engineering Science Division. Kevin also has a strong background in governance, having served on college and faculty councils, and [...]
Changes to food services coming to downtown Toronto campus this summer
More food services on the St. George campus will soon be operated directly by the University of Toronto using its own staff. Read more here.
JLABS gives U of T startups a place to call home
“They’ll give us the right exposure to the business side and they’ll help us carve out a clear path to market” Read more here.
Todd Baril joins Ancillary Services in the new role of Director of Business Operations for Food Services
I am pleased to announce that Todd Baril will be joining Ancillary Services in the new role of Director of Business Operations for Food Services. Todd is an accomplished hospitality professional with international experience in hotel, restaurant, bar and cruise ship operations. He has been part of several opening teams in the hotel industry, and worked as a key member of the food service leadership team at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. One of Todd’s very first jobs was working in a University residence as an RA, and he is looking forward to returning to a role where he can work [...]
University Operations Staff Achievement Awards 2016: Nomination Period is Now Open (Deadline for nominations: June 10th)
The annual University Operations Staff Achievement Awards Program was introduced in 2015 to recognize exceptional staff contributions to the success of the unit, the portfolio and the University. The program provides us with another opportunity to thank staff for the valuable work performed throughout the year. Any University Operations employee in good standing is eligible to receive these awards. Temporary employees, students, and faculty are not eligible for consideration. Selection of the recipients will be based on the information provided as part of the nomination process. Three types of achievement-based awards will be presented at the 2nd Annual Than-Q BBQ on [...]
University of Toronto Recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers (2016)
By Richard Yerema and Kristina Leung, Mediacorp Canada Inc. staff editors (Apr 21, 2016) Here are some of the reasons why University of Toronto was selected as one of Canada's Greenest Employers (2016): U of T's many initiatives to reduce, reuse and recycle has helped it achieve an impressive waste diversion rate of over 72 percent, which includes the capture of everything from batteries to organics to asphalt and concrete -- additionally, the university continues to build on its past accomplishments, recently launching the "Green Ideas" program to encourage employees and students to share ideas on how to further reduce [...]