Dr. Alan Shaver speaks to members of the TRU community and to local media via video conference during the announcement of his appointment as TRU

Greetings, Thompson Rivers University Staff, Faculty and Students

I have recently had the honour to accept the position as your new President and Vice-chancellor beginning Dec. 1, 2010.

As Dalhousie University’s Provost and Vice-President Academic since June of 2006, I have been responsible for providing leadership in the planning, management, and evaluation of Dalhousie’s academic activities and the development of institutional strategy and policy. I continue to have responsibilities in this role including Acting President this Summer. I will be joining you at TRU this Fall to learn about the University and assume the President’s role on Dec. 1.

Thompson Rivers University is a unique university. Today’s students want to learn about the big issues of our day and they want their education to prepare them with academic and practical skills to help them attain positions where they can make a difference and help us solve some of the those big questions that we currently face. This naturally leads them to interdisciplinary study and cooperative innovative learning models. Universities must take steps to enlist students, faculty and community as partners in learning. Thompson Rivers is superbly placed to take its next step in this new golden age of knowledge.

There is a pioneering spirit in Kamloops and in the past 40 years it has built an innovative and dynamic institution. Many Canadian Universities were started by visionary pioneers such as fur trader James McGill in Montreal and British colonial administrator Lord Dalhousie in Halifax. They believed that our nation must be built on education and free thought; that legacy continues at TRU. It is time to take that vision and spirit onto the global stage, and continue innovating strategically to contribute to the building of a better world.

TRU’s academic model of laddering, a continuity of education from certificates, to diplomas, to bachelors to masters has propelled your university past most Canadian universities struggling to offer their students the flexibility yours already enjoy. Your model has inspired me to think of “life learning pathways” to describe the idea of stepping on and off learning pathways as one’s life unfolds. Offering on-line learning options within pathways caters to the diverse needs of today’s learners. Many universities tout themselves as “student centred” but TRU epitomizes this concept.

I have noted some negative reactions in the press concerning the emergence of new universities such as TRU and have been shocked. Then I remembered that similar comments were made about “new” universities and their students in the 60s. I was one of those students! I am a graduate of Carleton University and I remember well what it meant to my fellow students and our parents for there to be a university designed to serve them. Carleton was derided as “last chance U”, but for most of us whose parents had never been to University it was first chance U. Around that time Waterloo was derided for its innovative co-op programs. Now these universities are highly respected institutions.

Those once new Universities are now mainstream and their graduates have not squandered their opportunities. Canada is a better country. Now we are seeing the third phase in accessibility of Canadians to post-secondary and TRU is leading the way. I want to be part of it.

The prospect of leading, catalyzing and enabling leadership at Thompson Rivers, a pioneer among Universities in Canada, is very exciting. Our future is bright indeed.