Welcoming the new year together
President Mohamed Lachemi shares his message of support and unity for 2025, including more opportunities to learn, teach and conduct research together at TMU.
Welcome back! I hope everyone was able to rest and reflect during the mid-year break and I hope that you, like myself, have returned with renewed energy and excitement for 2025. In the year ahead, I know our community will continue to build upon our strengths and convictions, while welcoming the opportunities and challenges that a new year brings.
At TMU, we are a proudly diverse community, welcoming students, faculty and staff from around the world to learn, teach, conduct research and work together. Through the exchange and sharing of ideas, perspectives, cultures and beliefs, we make each other better - expanding our worldviews and fostering a greater appreciation for both our differences and similarities. Unfortunately, our differences can occasionally challenge our ability to create space and understanding for another. As we look ahead to this new year, I would ask each of you to strongly consider the role you play in ensuring that TMU remains a place that is committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom, in ways that are free from discrimination, racism or hate.
Fostering a safe campus
In this spirit, we must be committed to creating a safe physical space for each other, making our campus a place where we can learn, teach, work, conduct research, gather and celebrate without fear. The safety of our community is a top priority, our Community Safety and Security team (CSS) provides round-the-clock coverage of campus, employing comprehensive, multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches to safety that take into consideration the diverse, complex and evolving needs of our community. When necessary, we may also rely on the support from our partners at the Toronto Police Service. CSS is always available to our community members, should you have any concerns about personal or collective safety.
Community building working group
An important part of creating and maintaining a welcoming and tolerant campus community for all of us is providing opportunities for learning, conversation and healing. The Community Building Working Group is dedicated to developing initiatives that enhance trust, promote connections, and provide learning opportunities for TMU students, faculty, and staff. Through a varied offering of workshops, support groups, presentations, trainings and other social events, the group aims to offer broad support with respect to the many crises and conflicts that impact our students, faculty and staff. I encourage all of our community members to explore the opportunities available, to support your own understanding and healing.
An exciting year ahead
We have much to look forward to in 2025 - we will be welcoming our first cohort of learners at the School of Medicine, breaking ground on the Student Wellbeing Centre and beginning renovations on 277 Victoria, to create a new home for our law school. I look forward to celebrating these milestones together, while remaining committed to our values and respecting one another in all that we do. I hope you are as proud to be a part of this supportive, thriving and diverse community as I am to lead it.
Mohamed Lachemi
President & Vice-Chancellor, Toronto Metropolitan University