President's Office

WELCOME!

Welcome to McMaster and to the Office of the President. The University's website provides a wealth of information about the mission and vision of the University, its innovative educational programs, cutting-edge research, and the students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends, and supporters who make up the McMaster community. I was privileged to become a member of this community in July 2010, when I began my term as President and Vice-Chancellor. More

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Principle 1

We are an institution devoted to the cultivation of human potential, which we believe cannot be realized by individuals in isolation from one another, from their history or their imagined future, from the society which surrounds them, or from the physical universe which sustains them. Our programs and activities will reflect this comprehensive view.

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Principle 2

It follows that in defining our strengths and seeking to build on them, we will adopt a multidisciplinary perspective, recognizing that even the most specialized problem requires an appropriately broad-based approach.

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Principle 3

Our future shall be continuous and consistent with our past, expanding upon and fulfilling the historic character of McMaster as an institution. We will foster the distinct identity of this university, while at the same time continuing to recognize the importance of collaboration and dialogue with sister institutions in Ontario, Canada, and abroad.

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Principle 4

Notwithstanding that commitment to continuity with the past and to coordination with practices elsewhere, we will place the highest value on original thought and on innovation.

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Principle 5

To that end, we will not only reaffirm the importance of radical questioning at the heart of the academic enterprise, but we will ensure the integrity of our work by bringing a critical view to all of our practices-those which bear directly upon education and research as well as those less directly related to it.

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Principle 6

Wherever possible, we will reduce or eliminate obstacles to cooperation.

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Principle 7

We will acknowledge, and seek to integrate in all our work and in ways appropriate to our specific fields, an obligation to serve the greater good of our community-locally, nationally, and globally.

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Community Engagement

Community Engagement at McMaster University: A Snapshot

This snapshot of community engagement activities at McMaster highlights some of the interesting and inspiring ways in which the University and the Greater Hamilton communities interact, overlap and influence one other. The featured stories are by no means exhaustive but provide a flavour of the diverse types of engagement taking place on a daily basis. Our goal is to build on these initiatives in order to integrate community engagement activities more deeply into the work of our University and realize the potential for further collaborations.

Community Engagement Assessment

As community engagement is such an important part of the vision for the University, as articulated by Forward with Integrity, a number of simultaneous initiatives have been undertaken to inform our strategy in this area. In addition to the work of the community engagement task force, a group from the University of Minnesota, led by Dr. Andrew Furco, performed an assessment of the University's work in this field, and produced a report outlining their key findings. As part of the process, Dr. Furco met with the community engagement task force and shared a number of helpful insights on ways to become a more publicly engaged institution. The report is aligned with the recommendations of the task force, and provides helpful information and advice as we work together to advance the University's contributions to and engagement with the community.