It’s hard to believe that after months of preparation, my last day as President and Vice-Chancellor of York University is almost here. I’ve had the opportunity to say goodbye to many community members over the last few weeks, and I wanted to make sure I had the chance to share some final thoughts with our broader community by way of this blog post.

Let me start by saying what a wonderful ten years it has been for me – both personally and professionally. Though I never set out to be a university president, I have always been drawn to institutions with a high public purpose. My path from engineer to professor to university administrator was shaped by encounters with people of great integrity and empathy, and as I said in my Last Lecture, that’s the power of those qualities: they can change someone’s life.

All the people I met and the experiences I had along the way were all in some way preparation for the role of being President of York University, and I could not have chosen a better university or one with a higher purpose than York.

When I arrived, I made a commitment to make York a more comprehensive and research-intensive postsecondary institution. That has been my direction from the outset, and while there were challenges along the way, I believe we have arrived at that aim.

There have been many memorable moments over the last ten years. Here are a few of my favourites:

• The opening of our Engineering faculty and its new home, the award-winning Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence,
• the establishment of a Global Health Research Institute,
• the expansion of York’s bilingual programs at our Glendon Campus,
• the opening of our world-class athletics stadium and the hosting of the 2015 Pan Am Games
• traveling to Costa Rica to celebrate the opening of our new Eco Campus
• launching the Schulich School of Business campus in Hyderabad, India
• being awarded Canada’s most prestigious research grant for York’s vision science research
• and the Ontario government selecting our proposal for a new Markham Centre Campus, which will open its doors in 2021.

I look forward to staying connected to the University in the years to come and having the opportunity to enjoy these new spaces and facilities – particularly the opening of the subway expansion in December.

York is fortunate to have been led by people who have remained true to its motto — Tentanda via, the way must be tried — and our work over the last decade would not have been possible without the vision, tenacity, support and generosity of many more such leaders during my time as President: from student and faculty leaders, to our dedicated staff members, to community and civic leaders, governance members, and our global family of alumni, donors and friends of the University.

York occupies a unique place among Canadian universities, being both large and well-established and yet still young and growing. We have strong values rooted in a culture that reflects the future of Canada — diversity, social justice, accessibility and fairness.

As I said in my Installation speech back in 2007, these values were an important factor in my decision to come to York. And while we are right to be proud of this legacy, we must remain focused on where we are going as I truly believe that our best years are still ahead of us.

So, let me sign off by saying thank you, to each one of you, for making my time here so enjoyable and enriching, and for helping to make York such a special place.