Benoit-Antoine Bacon has officially taken office as Carleton’s president and vice-chancellor for a five-year appointment starting this academic year.
Bacon replaced Alastair Summerlee—who served as the interim president last year, after former president Roseann Runte’s resignation at the end of the 2016-17 school year.
Before coming to Carleton, he first served in a leadership role as the dean of arts and sciences at Bishop’s University in 2004, and became the provost and vice-principal (academic) at Concordia University in 2013, and then at Queen’s University in 2016. Bacon holds a PhD in neuropsychology from the Université de Montréal, and a post-doctoral fellowship from the University of Glasgow, in Scotland.
The Charlatan sat down with Bacon as he begins his appointment to become Carleton’s 15th president, speaking about his first experiences on campus and goals for his presidency.
The Charlatan (TC): You have served multiple leadership roles at Bishop’s, Concordia and Queen’s University before. What do you plan to bring from those experiences to Carleton?
Benoit-Antoine Bacon (BB): Bishop’s ran into very serious labour relations issues in the mid-2000s, and the union asked me to be their negotiator. I would say that’s the first really hard thing that I did.
That experience as chief negotiator has followed me everywhere, and it was on the basis of that that the provost of Bishop’s asked me to run for dean of arts and science. But then when you get to be provost . . . you get to see the entire university—all the faculties, all the services, everything around labour relations, and government relations. I was so privileged to get to do them twice, and once you do that, you’re well prepared to handle a presidency.
You can never anticipate everything about a job or a place, but I think that if you combine all of this—the chief negotiator position and dean at the time of rebuilding [at Bishop’s], and then the provost at two large universities—I think I bring a lot to almost every topic that we can think of [at Carleton] . . . I think the difference with the president’s job is you’re tasked with setting the tone for the organization.
TC: You officially took office on July 1. What has it been like for you to get to know Carleton since then?
BB: Anybody who asks me for my advice about starting a new position, I would say start July 1 and not September 1. You can take advantage of those two months to meet people in an informal way . . . to get a lay of the land, just to understand the values and cultures of the place. That’s mostly what I’ve been doing this summer—meeting as many people as I can here on campus, and in the Ottawa community, too. I’ve found people incredibly warm, welcoming, generous with their time, but also understanding of the need for a new person to make up their own mind.
TC: What are some initiatives you are most excited about?
BB: I’d say the thing that I’m most excited about is to have 30,000 students here on campus, next week. I’ve been looking at the quad here—quiet all summer—and next week, everybody will be back, and I think that’s why we’re here. Everything that you do, and everything you think about needs to relate back to these 30,000 students that see Carleton as a meaningful and successful, self-determined life.
To support our students, we’re in various stages of construction of three great facilities—the Health Science building, the ARISE building, and the Nicol Building. These are all super things for the campus.
Some of the things on my mind, I think it’s time for Carleton to revitalize our strategy as to how we relate to Indigenous people on campus and in the community. We’ve also committed to revitalize our sexual violence policy. It’s important work, which we’ll do this year—I’m excited about all of that.
TC: Are there any challenges you premeditate?
BB: Well, my first boss used to say, “Don’t think that there will be a day when there will be no bumps in the road and you can just do your job, because those bumps in the road are your job.”
There are always challenges. For one, I think we need to fill in the gaps in the leadership roles. We’re looking for a provost, and three deans—dean of business, dean of engineering, and dean of graduate studies. That’s challenging. We also have to get to know a new government in Queen’s Park, and it’s not [about] the specifics of the government, but we need to know how they work, what their priorities are, and how to make contact with them—because they’re new, too.
TC: What’s your favourite spot on campus, so far?
BB: You know what? I love the [Dunton] Tower. People don’t always love the tower, but I’m on record as loving the tower—I think it’s got a real landmark feel. You see it from everywhere. And maybe because I’m new and I’m always a bit lost, I look at it and I know where I am; whether it’s on campus or even downtown Ottawa.
TC: And as a last question—you must get this question a lot, but do you eat bacon?
BB: You know, the funny thing is, I don’t—I’ve been vegetarian for a number of years. This morning, I was hosting the [Carleton community] breakfast, and I thought I needed to say something about this because everybody’s thinking of it . . . I guess it’s only natural when your last name can be pronounced “bacon” like the meat.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
