Habemus presidentam! After an extensive international search by the Governing Council, the University of Toronto wandered into its own backyard to appoint U of T Dean of Medicine since 1999, Dr. David Naylor, as its 15th president.

Who did Dr. Naylor beat out for his new office? We’ll never know. While not quite matching the mysterious rites of the papal conclave, the opaque nature of the presidential selection process has been discouraging. Especially for those who feel that after 150 years of Old Boys, it might be time for a woman to try her hand at the job.

Arguably this discretion keeps the process from becoming overtly political, but realistically some exposure to the candidates (a list of frontrunners, for example) could shake up the lethargic school community, get more people out to selection committee meetings, and inject life into the debate over what the president’s role should be.

If the president is primarily the university’s ambassador to the rest of the world (and that seems to be the current job description), then Naylor is quite qualified.

He has been a Vice-Provost in charge of relating to health care institutions, and has a wealth of experience in dialoguing with government and the private sector. Dr. Naylor’s connections can only help ensure that the various levels of government keep U of T in mind when allocating funds, starting with the recently announced post-secondary education package in the provincial budget.

With his background in community outreach, Naylor should recommit the university to engaging the city and nation even more actively, not only through official corporate and academic partnerships, but also by encouraging and providing opportunities for a sense of outreach and social involvement amongst individual students and staff.

But besides acting as a corporate face for the university, here’s hoping Naylor will actively tackle some of the everyday problems affecting students. The president by nature of the job has no significant influence on the day-to-day running of the institution, but hopefully his past experience as liaison may result in vocal leadership in areas such as student club space allocation, crumbling infrastructure repair, sessional instructor and associate professor packages, and commuter disengagement.

Ideally, Naylor could have real impact in strengthening this institution’s most important resource – the student body.