Kim McLean, a UTSC alum who later served as the university’s Chief Administrative Officer (1999-2012), discusses the feelings of uncertainty expressed by some members of the university community surrounding plans for campus growth during her time in administration.
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0:02
I remember meetings where I would sit in them at first and people would be, I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t grow. Maybe we should. And there was just this,
0:10
I think it’s the humbleness of the campus, right? Never quite certain about itself and how it could grow. And despite all that,
0:22
I think the leaders of the day, we sat there for a while and then I think it was quite clear we had to grow. It really wasn’t an option.
0:30
To not grow would mean we wouldn’t get capital, infrastructure, and you know the government would not look favourably
0:36
upon places that weren’t growing or at least not flowing money to them. And so a decision was made to grow
0:44
and I think it actually has made a transformative change for the campus. I still see it as a very young, vibrant place. I think one of the beautiful things
0:55
about the Scarborough campus is that it’s small enough to be nimble, right? And things get done faster.
1:04
And I think that there’s a closer connection between students, faculty, and staff than there is in the bigger downtown campus.
1:14
Like it’s just harder to do that down here because it’s so big. So it’s part of its charm and its beauty and it always will be I think.
