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Welcoming in a New Year

A message from dean Lisa Barnoff
January 11, 2021
woman walking past Lake Devo in the winter

To students, faculty and staff in the Faculty of Community Services (FCS),

Happy New Year! To all of you, I want to extend my warmest wishes for good health and more joy in 2021.

As we begin the winter semester at Ryerson University, it is my hope that faculty, staff, and students can continue to work together in a good way in order to ensure we all have the best experience possible as we continue to engage in teaching, learning, administration and research within the context of the global pandemic. I want to thank everyone for your dedicated efforts to carry out your work and study through what was a difficult fall semester. It looks like it will be a number of months still before we can all get back to campus, but I know that we have the strength and capacity in our community to continue moving forward in spite of the many challenges we continue to face.  

I would like to especially thank all those faculty members who are involved in academic leadership roles in FCS -- associate deans, school directors, associate directors, and graduate program directors. While academic leadership is never easy, I can certainly appreciate that doing so within the context of a global pandemic, while most of us continue to work remotely, is a significant challenge. Thank you for your continued efforts to ensure your schools and this faculty are running smoothly and effectively and that all of our faculty, staff and students are able to continue to succeed.

I encourage students to take advantage of campus supports and services as needed. The FCS Academic Support Centre is operating remotely and is here to support your learning needs. The Centre for Student Development and Counselling offers a variety of virtual support services. I also encourage students to apply to some of our many faculty-wide awards and scholarships. Applications for awards are open now and will be accepted through to February 15. If you need help with navigating the awards system, make sure to check out one of our support sessions.

For faculty members and instructors, I encourage you to continue to take advantage of the many supports available to you via the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Check out their Remote Teaching resources  and their Remote Teaching Workshop Series, for example.

For staff -- I encourage you to take part in the many educational events, trainings, and workshops that are available for you at Ryerson. This semester, Ryerson Works is hosting a series of workshops and events related to technology, financial systems and management, teaching and more.

There are a number of exciting initiatives coming up at FCS this term. We are thrilled that the first-ever PhD program in FCS is now officially underway. The inaugural class of students enrolled in our PhD in Urban Health program start their studies this semester. I look forward to watching this new program come to life, and I welcome the first cohort of PhD students to FCS! I know your efforts to advance the health and well-being of diverse urban populations is very much needed and will lead to important policy and practice outcomes in the future.

We have accomplished many things together in the first half of this academic year, and this work will continue through the winter term as well. We remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting Indigenous Resurgence at FCS. I encourage you to visit our new Indigenous Resurgence website and take advantage of the resources posted there for students, faculty and staff.  

We are committed to taking active and meaningful steps to address anti-Black racism. In the coming weeks, we will announce the successful grant recipients of the FCS Equity and Inclusion Project Fund, who are working to address anti-Black racism in innovative ways. We have also recently launched the FCS Anti-Black Racism Curriculum Development Fund. I invite faculty and contract lecturers to apply for funding by February 1. Finally, we are excited to launch a new set of awards specifically for Black students: The Faculty of Community Services Graduate Black Student Awards and Faculty of Community Services Undergraduate Black Student Awards. Stay tuned for more details in the weeks to come.  

I wish you all the best for this upcoming semester.

As always, I encourage you to refer to the Ryerson COVID-19 Information and Updates page to stay on top of the latest information related to COVID-19.

Sincerely,

Lisa Barnoff
Dean, Faculty of Community Services