I am delighted to be back at Queen’s and looking forward to the coming years and the many challenges and achievements that undoubtedly lie ahead of us. To feel the excitement of this moment, one doesn’t have to believe that exponentially accelerating change is moving the world towards some sort of technological singularity. Higher education—not only in Ontario, but more broadly around the world—is in the midst of a very significant transformation.

I write this over the Atlantic, returning to Canada after a brief visit to Queen’s Bader International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England. The purpose of this trip was to extend my conversation about the future of Queen’s to include our community there. While the centre may be geographically remote from Queen’s main campus in Kingston, its mission is of central importance to our university.

When I launched the Principal’s Conversation last fall, my hope was that our university would emerge from the 2019–2020 academic year with a clarified

Queen’s University was merely five years old when, in Brussels after being expelled from France and of an age not much greater than our activist students today, Karl Marx

While oxygen may give us life, it constantly eats away at modern living.

Picture your commute to work or school, to a store or the gym. You may drive a car or take public transit. Your route may take you over a river by bridge or by train. Maybe your phone rings along the way; it’s your friend asking for a pick-up from the airport later.

Dear Queen’s Community,