Dear King’s community,
Today, I am delighted to officially join the King’s community as its 26th President. It’s a privilege to be part of this community, and I thank you for the welcome I, my wife Crystal, our young son, and our two dogs (Mackie and Poppy) have received.
In the lead-up to officially taking up my duties, I’ve met with faculty, board members, and members of the administration. President Emeritus William Lahey has been instrumental in helping ground me in all things King’s during the transition. I am grateful to him for this, as well as the good work I intend to continue in moving King’s toward sustainability.
It is clear that King’s is about holistic, formative education that helps develop broad-minded citizens and leaders, be they writers, journalists, researchers, educators, or members of government. It’s this type of informed and engaged community leadership that we need now, maybe more than ever, as the social, economic, and political pillars of democracy are being questioned and undermined.
Post-secondary education in general, and King’s in particular, has a unique opportunity to provide a bulwark against this undermining. And more than simply helping to preserve an open society, such as it is, we can extend equity and inclusion to address injustice and increase opportunity.
Like so many institutions, King’s is facing some significant headwinds. To continue to do our good work in academic programs, student experience, equity, and the public formative role of the university, we need to bolster our foundation for the sake of our current and future students.
My first and highest priority is the sustainability of the university—which I take to be financial only in instrumental terms, to support our core mission and mandate: form whole, thinking, feeling people who want to make positive contributions to our shared life.
I felt called back to academia, and King’s in particular, in this urgent moment to be part of the work I feel our society needs most. The role of President and Vice-Chancellor at this storied and forward-looking college is a great responsibility, and essential and enriching work that I am eager to begin.
Community is such a critically important aspect of King’s, and I’m honoured to be a part of such a thoughtful and civic-minded group. It’s hard to imagine a better place than this beautiful campus to work, live, and learn each day.
I look forward to meeting many more of you in the coming weeks and months—please stop by my office, say hello in the halls or as I’m out walking the dogs in the Quad. For those farther afield, I hope to meet you on my travels as my King’s orientation progresses. I very much look forward to hearing your perspectives as we continue to shape this community.
Warm regards,
Dr. Timothy Vine
President and Vice-Chancellor
