News

Message from Acting Dean
Dr. Claude Caldwell

It is a great time to be in agriculture!

Food is sexy again and many people are seeing the key links among agriculture, food, environment, health and the world economy. It is an exciting time to be part of the Faculty of Agriculture at Dalhousie University.  We have a chance to re-invent ourselves.  We need to protect and nurture all those things that made us the “jewel” called NSAC; at the same time, we need to take advantage of the opportunities and support that being part of a larger university avails.

The summer is going quickly and I hope that all of you are taking advantage of this time to re-charge your enthusiasm for teaching, learning and students. Susan Spence-Wach and I are half-way through our brief term as interim Dean and Principal and over the next few weeks, , we want to bring you up-to-date on our activities to prepare us for the arrival of the new president, new dean and the new term.

There is now a Faculty Planning group working throughout the summer. This includes myself, Susan, Richard Donald and Keltie Jones. The role of this group is to lead the campus through the transition to the arrival of Dr Gray; a particular focus is to enhance and streamline the communications and understanding of roles between the Faculty and support units of Dalhousie (e.g., HR, Facilities Management, Communications and Marketing, IT, Finances and others).  Significant progress has already been made.

A second very active group this summer is the Academic Leaders. This includes Department Chairs, Director of Extended Learning (Kathleen Kevany), Assistant Dean International (Nancy Pitts) and Graduate Co-coordinator (Dian Patterson). All groups on campus have been asked to proceed with strategic planning. These unit strategic plans will feed into a Faculty strategic plan which will be a priority activity for our new Dean. As you participate in these planning exercises, please keep in mind a “student-focus”. Build from that base. In addition, look for synergies between your department or group and other departments and Faculties on the Halifax campus.

The Faculty Strategic Plan will feed into the Campus Master Plan and the University Integrated Academic Plan. Both will justify a campus renewal to lead us into the future. Funding that renewal will require a Capital Campaign to the estimated level of $10M. In this regard, we are pleased to welcome Cathrine Yuill to the Faculty of Agriculture as our new Development Officer.  She will lead this initiative when it gets off the ground. Obviously, we have a lot of planning to do but we are now on a fast track to that goal.

Dr. Richard Florizone begins his term as the 11^th President of Dalhousie University on July 2.  He comes to us from the University of Saskatchewan, so he is well aware of the importance of agriculture. He has indicated that enthusiasm for agriculture by planning a visit to our campus on Thursday, July 4^th.  Details of his day with us will be communicated shortly but this is part of his “100 days of listening”. I encourage you to come out to meet him and tell him our story.

Dr. David Gray is extremely excited and anxious to join us, officially on August 1. Details of how we plan to welcome him on that first day will also be communicated soon. Dr. Gray and his family arrive in Canada in mid-July, so I am sure you will see him before that but stay posted for details on his welcome party!

I shall be communicating with you on a regular basis over the summer months but in the meantime, if you have comments or questions, I urge you to contact Susan or myself.  I am especially looking for the best “good news” stories of the summer. Let me know what makes you smile on the DAL AC campus this summer.

Claude.caldwell@dal.ca    Susan.Spence.wach@dal.ca

Cheers
Claude

Acting Dean
Faculty of Agriculture
Dalhousie University

Learn more about our Acting Dean and Campus Principal