PRESIDENT’S 2015 CONVOCATION SPEECH

THUNDER BAY CAMPUS — CEREMONY #2

Saturday Morning  (May 30, 2015)

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Mr. Chancellor. 

Graduands. 

Family. 

Friends. 

Faculty and staff. 

Distinguished guests.

 

I have a marvellous story to tell you, today.

It’s about how people — like today’s graduands; and places — like your University; grow, and change, and influence others.

This story starts with the little Technical Institute that could, and how it grew and changed to become the comprehensive, two-campus, TOP 10 Canadian University that did.

Decades ago, long before Fort William and Port Arthur would come together as the Great City of Thunder Bay, the Lakehead Technical Institute was bustling with students training for promising professional careers. 

The little Institute would eventually grow and change into a College of Arts and Science.

As the graduates of that college went out into the world and fulfilled their dreams, so, too, did the people of Northwestern Ontario dream of a university of their very own.

Fifty years ago, on Canada Day 1965, their exceptional dream came true.

What I am going to show you, now, is a look back at our 1965 Convocation, including the installation of Lakehead’s very first Chancellor, Senator Norman M. Paterson, and present is our very first President, Dr. William Tamblyn.

{1965 Convocation video plays}

Many of the young faces you just saw are not unlike the faces of our graduands on stage, today.

Our University, however, has certainly grown and changed.

During our earliest years, Prettie Hall was our only residence for students; the Chancellor Paterson Library was only two floors high; and classes were either in the Braun Building or the University Centre – which at that point was only a lecture theatre with a couple of classrooms.

Since 1965, Lakehead University has, in many ways, grown, changed, and influenced the world.

Just before our university was born, this institution had fewer than 500 students, with 42 professors teaching in just two faculties.

In 1966, our student population almost doubled, and we experienced an unprecedented construction boom.

As this University was growing and changing, so, too, was our world.

In 1965, the space race saw humanity grow beyond the limits of the Earth and rocket to the heavens to take our first steps among the stars.

On the ground, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the world when he led thousands of civil rights advocates in a 54 mile march — from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery — to decry racial inequality.

And here, at home, our country chose its own flag:  the iconic and influential red maple leaf — one of the most recognized national symbols in the world.

Since 1965, women and men of all ages have come from around the world to Lakehead University to grow and to change themselves.

On campus, and off campus, our students and graduates remind us of their potential to grow, to change, and to influence the world:

  • You see it in the creativity of our business graduates, who help grow the economies of communities around the world; 
  • You see it in the smiles of big city, rural town, and aboriginal community children, whose lives have been changed and influenced by one of our education graduates in a classroom.

 

Each of our graduands embodies our motto:  Ad Augusta per Angusta — Achievement through Effort. 

From the graduates of yesterday to the graduates of today, we have grown Lakehead into a comprehensive university with two campuses, ten faculties, and a proud reputation for exceptional teaching and research.

Together, we have changed this University’s vision, mission, and belief.

Together, this University has influenced communities and people across Canada and around the world.

Over the next 50 years, your University will continue to grow, continue to change, and continue to influence the world: 

  • By bridging academic excellence with accessibility to education;
  • By continuing to embrace and foster diversity, by expanding our role as a leader in providing post-secondary education opportunities for Aboriginal Peoples: and
  • By reaching out — with the help of our over 55,000 alumni around the world — to students of all ages, everywhere, to come to Northwestern Ontario, to live in Thunder Bay, and to learn at Lakehead.

 

The Little Institute that could has grown and changed to influence the course of our world with each graduating class across many generations.

Graduands, when we celebrate our Centennial Anniversary 50 years from now, know that we succeeded as an institution because you made us your University!

Today, we see you off on the start of your life’s journey.

It is your turn to grow.

It is your turn to change.

It is your turn to influence our world.

Be exceptional. Be unconventional.

Then, come back here, to our 100th Anniversary Convocation; and show us what you have become.

I know that we will be very proud of you.

 

Congratulations Class of 2015!