Toronto, ON-- A distinguished scholar and accomplished academic administrator at the University of California at Berkeley has been named vice-president and principal of the University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC).
Professor Kwong-loi Shun, dean of the undergraduate division of the College of Letters and Science at UC Berkeley, was appointed today by Governing Council – U of T’s highest decision-making body – to a 6 ½ year term, effective Jan. 1, 2004. The College of Letters and Science at UC Berkeley is home to more than 75 per cent of campus undergraduates and more than half of the graduate students.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to help set the academic direction of the University of Toronto at Scarborough over the next few years,? says Shun.
“The campus will be undergoing significant growth in terms of student enrolment, academic programs and physical space and we will be building graduate and research programs. I am looking forward very much to working with the president, the provost and other senior administrators at the university and the faculty at Scarborough on ways that best enhance the research and teaching enterprise at U of T.?
Shun is a professor of Chinese (Confucian) philosophy at UC Berkeley who
completed his bachelors and masters degrees at the University of Hong Kong, the University of London and Oxford University and his PhD at Stanford University. He has published numerous articles and reviews and the first of a three-volume work on Confucian thought, Mencius and Early Chinese Thought. Shun has held appointments as the assistant dean of the College of Letters and Science at UC Berkeley and as dean of the college’s undergraduate services. At U of T, he will hold an appointment in the Department of Humanities at UTSC and in the graduate Departments of Philosophy and of East Asian Studies.
U of T president Robert Birgeneau said Shun is ideally suited to lead UTSC. “The challenge of the double cohort and overall enrolment growth has brought us a superb academic who is deeply committed to undergraduate education,? he says. “Professor Shun was attracted by the prospect of building something new and recent SuperBuild and quality enhancement funding by the provincial government will help make that transformation possible. This is brain gain at its best and it would not have happened without enrolment growth support from the province.?
Shun will succeed Professor Paul Thompson, whose term ends at the end of June ,2003. Professor Thompson has accepted the position of director for the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at U of T’s Victoria College. Professor John Youson, current chair of Life Sciences, has been appointed interim Vice-President and Principal of UTSC until Professor Shun’s term begins.
For more information:
info@utsc.utoronto.ca