view . spring 2008
3
Dear Reader,
ROSS PAUL
President, University of Windsor
One of the perquisites of moving to a new community through a
job change is to discover new parts of this beautiful country of
ours. My last three positions have afforded me the opportunity to
get to know and love northern Alberta, so-called Northern Ontario
(Sudbury is barely north of Portland, Oregon!)
and, more recently,
Ontario’s extreme southwest.
Alberta brought big skies, brilliant northern lights and subtle, though beautiful, colour changes
over the seasons. The Sudbury region brought me back home to the northern shield lakes I had
so enjoyed canoeing in northern Quebec in earlier days, and introduced me to such Canadian
gems as Manitoulin Island, the French River and Georgian Bay.
One of the great pleasures of living in Windsor has been discovering the wonders of Essex
County, an area flatter than Northern Alberta. It features a burgeoning wine country, the magic
of Pelee Island and the spectacular bird sanctuary at Point Pelee.
The Faculty of Science has recently capitalized on our proximity to this site by securing a
gift of some 22 acres of nearby land from Leamington Town Council to establish an
Environmental Research Centre that will be unique in Canada. This edition of VIEW features
interviews with Dean of Science Rick Caron and professors Dan Mennill and Dan Heath, who
present their plans for this exciting initiative.
The University has also done very well with teaching awards, the most recent being
Leadership in Faculty Teaching (LIFT) awards to Richard Frost in Computer Science and Donna
Eansor in Law, as well as the placement of two of the top 10 finalists in TVO’s Best Lecturer
Competition – Psychology’s Ken Cramer and Education’s Finnian Cherian (whose lectures were
to be televised on TVO on March 22 and March 23). However, it is not only our faculty who
teach well, as will quickly be evident from the article on Education alumnus David Watkins, who
recently received a Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.
This is my last Dear Reader column. I have very much enjoyed introducing each edition of
VIEW to you on this page, and I will continue to savour the magazine so ably edited by Jennifer
Barone in the future, when I will probably be introduced to its contents by my successor,
Dr. Alan Wildeman. Enjoy!
Farewell
