Cover of Imagining the Future

Principal Daniel Woolf will host two town hall meetings next week to give the Queen’s community an opportunity to talk about the report of the Academic Writing Team, Imagining the Future: Towards an Academic Plan for Queen’s University.

“The report is excellent, and again, I want to thank Professors Michael Adams, Tim Bryant, Yolande Chan, Kim Nossal, Jill Scott and John Smol for their incredible work and commitment to this process,” says Principal Woolf. “Imagining the Future very thoughtfully proposes answers to questions I raised in Where Next? The team has given us a framework to answer the question ‘What Next’.

“I encourage students, staff and faculty to come to the town halls where we can discuss the report’s goals and recommendations - what stands out, what our priorities should be - and to help set the stage for a Senate-led process over the fall and winter that engages the community as our academic plan is developed.”

The meetings will be held on Wednesday September 15 in A237 Duncan McArthur Hall on West Campus between noon and 1:00 pm and on Friday September 17 in Wallace Hall on main campus from noon to 1:30 pm. Members of the Academic Writing Team will be there.

“I’m excited by the initial reaction to the report that I’ve heard from colleagues across the university,” says team member Tim Bryant (Mechanical and Materials Engineering). “It’ll be great to watch as the discussion unfolds and the process moves ahead.”

The University has set up an on-line forum where community members are encouraged to comment on the goals and recommendations in the report.

Members of university administration and the Academic Writing Team met last week to talk about Imagining the Future.

"The team has given us some directions we can follow,” says Provost Bob Silverman. “In particular, that we need a culture of planning, which is not always easy at a university; still, we are on our way and we will keep moving ahead to implement more long-term planning processes, as well as greater transparency in financial and operational decision-making.”

The report and the next steps in the planning process will be discussed at Senate on September 23.