Today@Dal

On June 19, Tom Traves, president emeritus of Dalhousie, received an honorary doctorage from York University. Dr. Traves earned both his MA and PhD degrees from York, and served as the university's dean of arts.

The following is excerpted from yFile, York University's Daily News:

It was a homecoming for York alumnus Tom Traves (MA ’71, PhD ’76).

Traves, who served as president of Dalhousie University from 1995 to 2013, is a former dean of arts at York University.  

On June 19, he returned to the Keele campus to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree during spring convocation ceremonies for graduates of the Faculty of Education. He was honoured by the University for his contributions to teaching and the academy.

A prolific author, Traves has written extensively on Canadian economic development and currently works as a consultant to the Nova Scotia government on regional economic development issues. He was appointed to the Order of Canada last year. Currently, he is a professor in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University.

Convocation offered Traves an opportunity to reflect on great teaching and its impact on students. He began his convocation address with an anecdote and recalled a CBC story about the impact that great teachers can have on their students.

“Twenty years ago, a grade nine teacher in Saskatchewan assigned his class the task of writing a letter to their future self in 2014,” began Traves. “His intention, he explained, was to encourage his students to imagine what and who they wanted to be in the future and to open their minds to what they would have to do to achieve their goals. I thought this was a very imaginative assignment.

“Now, 20 years later, the teacher mailed those letters to his former students. The CBC interviewed one of the recipients to see how he reacted and he said that he was surprised to get the letter since he had quite forgotten writing it. He did clearly recall his teacher as someone who cared about his students and always challenged them to better themselves. After he read the letter, he said that he was most struck by the picture it painted of his younger self,” said Traves.

Read the rest of this article at the York University website.