UTM will welcome a new VP and principal starting July 1. Hargurdeep Saini, the dean of the environment faculty at the University of Waterloo, will take over the job from Ian Orchard.
As VP, Saini will be a part of U of T’s senior planning team. As principal, he will be responsible for running all aspects of the 240-acre campus containing around 11,400 students.
In Orchard’s eight years as principal, UTM’s student population has nearly doubled. “The world is unlikely to remain the same, and so too, universities are unlikely to remain the same. The challenge is to respond to these changes in an innovative way,” Orchard told The Varsity. He spoke of economic restructuring, demographic changes, and globalization.
Other challenges of leading UTM include tackling economic constraints, competition from other schools, and catering to diverse educational needs, Saini said.
Saini’s solution is to establish strong connections with the community. “The scale of the required effort and the economics of university funding—at least in Ontario—are such that no institution will be able to offer significant solutions on its own,” he wrote in an email. Saini sees the university as an ideal place for the “honest brokers” who will be needed to mediate conflicting ideas and plans.
Saini said that grad programs are also a priority, and that specific measures would be decided through discussions and market analysis.
