Alastair Summerlee has officially taken office as Carleton’s interim president and vice-chancellor for the 2017-18 academic year, replacing Roseann Runte.
Summerlee holds a PhD in medical sciences from the University of Bristol in England. He joined the University of Guelph’s (U of G) faculty in 1988 as a professor of biomedical sciences and advanced to different positions, including dean of the Ontario Veterinary College, until he was appointed as the U of G’s seventh president and vice-chancellor in 2003.
The Charlatan spoke with Summerlee, Carleton’s 14th president, about his first experiences on campus and his goals for the year.
The Charlatan (TC): You served two terms as president of the U of G, from 2003 until 2014. What did you learn from this experience that you plan to implement at Carleton?
Alastair Summerlee (AS): I learned that much to my surprise, I seem to have the skills to bring people together—to find a common cause and to work on them. In doing so, it empowers everybody in the institution to think about how they can make a contribution. I’m very passionate about people. I’m very passionate about openness and transparency, and over the eleven years that I was there [UoG] I really feel that we galvanized people into action, and we made the place a much more open and transparent institution where we shared and discussed, and argued, and disagreed, but in the end we found ways to work together as a community . . . It may be a very, very tall order to try and do that in one year at Carleton, but I hope I can at least bring a flavour of that here.
TC: You officially took office on July 15. What has your first time at Carleton been like?
AS: Maybe I should describe it from my family’s point of view: they all say I’m like a dog with a new tail. I’m rejuvenated and excited and passionate about the place. Any institution has all kinds of things that come up, all kinds of issues and problems, and to me they’re just fabulous and exciting and I’ve got a real spring in my step because this is such a cool place. I love being inspired by people who are passionate, and clearly there are a lot of passionate people around here.
Now, I’m scared stiff going into the tunnels. I may be lost forever, and I’m always sostunned about the number of acronyms for programs, committees, buildings, functions, you name it and everybody thinks in terms, when I’m thinking, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And clearly, ‘Carletonites’ have a language all to themselves, which I think is both endearing and sweet, and at times incredibly confusing, but there’s a sort of fun of learning about the place and the priorities that people have here.
TC: You mentioned focusing on transparency. What are some other specific goals that you’d like to accomplish during your time at Carleton?
AS: There’s a lot going on here that people outside Carleton don’t know about, so I think there’s a lot to do in terms of promoting the reputation of the university outside to the community . . . I also think that we need to think really seriously about the governance processes. In particular, I think the functions of the Board [of Governors] are not clearly understood by the community, and I’m not sure the Board completely understands the community either. So I think we need to work on that and work on the openness of the university administration to hear what people have to say—students, faculty, and staff—and be able either to explain issues better, or listen to those and do something about it. So I think thinking about effective governance is really important . . . There’s lots that I think I and the rest of the members of the community can do to get ready to make sure the new president starts off well.
TC: The university has seen its share of contentious issues and controversy over the years. How do you plan on remedying potential conflicts?
AS: I think that a sign of a healthy university is that there will be issues that are difficult and confrontational and full of conflict. My hope is that we can have those discussions in an effective, professional way, because at the end of the day, nobody holds the absolute kernel of truth on any issue because everybody has a different perspective. But what we can do is take the time to understand each other’s perspectives and think about, “how do we manage to come to some agreement, even though some of us will be completely happy with that, and some of us will be discontented with that.”’ Universities have and should be the moral and social conscience of society, and that means we should be open to all kinds of debate.
TC: What is your plan for connecting with the Carleton community?
AS: I’m going to begin before the semester starts by advising everybody that’s on campus—so faculty, staff, student leaders, student organizations—to come to a community breakfast, which will either be on the Wednesday the 30th or Thursday the 31st [of August]. . . I’m excited to meet university student leaders, in the various organizations that there are and I will want to work closely with students . . . I have an open door policy and I know that hasn’t necessarily been the approach in the past, but I’m very used to having students walk in and tell me things . . . People should feel that we can and should do that, because that’s how we begin the dialogue. The last thing is that I have asked the Provost to join me in what I’m going to call a “rumour mill” in the middle of the main semesters. The Provost and I will go and sit in a room, and it will be advertised, and the idea is that anybody can come and ask a question and say things that would create the beginnings of dialogue. My experience doing this before is that people come from all parts of the university. Sometimes they genuinely have heard a rumor, and instead of sitting on it, they actually ask questions.
Photos by Meagan Casalino
