/making a difference / Simon Fraser University 2010/11 Report to the Community
SFU Contemporary Arts dance students take class in the new Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in downtown Vancouver
Half a century ago, British Columbia changed the educational landscape with a new university on Burnaby Mountain that would ensure the Lower Mainland’s rapidly expanding population could access higher learning.
Today, two generations, three campuses and more than 110,000 alumni later, Simon Fraser University has become Canada’s leading comprehensive university with thriving campuses in BC’s largest municipalities— Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey—and deep roots in partner communities throughout the province and around the world.
Along the way, SFU grew up without growing old, never losing the remarkable spirit of innovation and inclusion that animated its early years. It is this rare institutional ability to balance possibility with practicality that first drew me to SFU.
Certainly SFU is not alone among Canadian universities in its desire to deliver a post-secondary education that is student-centred, research-driven and community-engaged.
But when it comes to the overlap and integration of these goals—to freeing them from their respective silos to stimulate a more exciting and meaningful post-secondary educational experience—I believe SFU is without equal.
This report highlights the many ways in which the unique interplay between learning, discovery and community outreach makes a difference to how our students engage, adapt and achieve; how our research is advanced and applied; and how our myriad communities are served and strengthened.
As SFU’s newest President, I am grateful to the many students, faculty, staff and community members who have participated so enthusiastically in the envision>SFU strategic visioning project launched earlier this year. Thanks to your passion, commitment and candour, SFU will continue to make a difference at home and around the world.
Sincerely,
Andrew Petter, President and Vice-Chancellor