Administration

Our Support Staff

The year 2019–2020 was truly unlike any other. The name of the game was change, flexibility and adaptability. Support staff rose to the challenge and demonstrated yet again their commitment to the Faculty and its students despite all the challenges. The year began as the FSS community gathered to welcome the arrival of a new dean and ended with dispersal of  staff due to the COVID pandemic.

Let’s recap some of the highlights. Recognizing the importance of investing in the growth of our support staff, our HR focus  was on professional development. We were proud to organize our very first professional development day, and the featured speaker, Isabelle Fontaine, did an amazing job inspiring and energizing us all. We also put in place a professional development policy and increased our training budget threefold.

The IT team was also busy in 2019–2020. After some lengthy and involved negotiations, it successfully implemented a new pedagogical tool for the Centre for Psychological Services and Research. The new software is in line with best practices in the administrative aspects of clinical psychology practice. It  offers a full gamut of administrative as well as clinical care functions, thereby better preparing our students to use the technology already in hospitals and clinics.

We are also proud to have implemented the first application to manage student wait lines at the undergraduate office, thereby eliminating the need for long line-ups during enrolment.

Facilities were also at the forefront this past year, as we converted our recovered space on the 15^th floor into a high profile research hub, adding to the one on the fifth floor.

Sadly, the year ended with the dispersal of all our staff, as the pandemic required physical distancing to keep everyone safe. Again, with the support of our HR and IT teams, over 100 employees were redeployed to work from home within a week. The effort was gargantuan, but with the co-operation of all concerned, we were successful in ensuring the safety of our staff while enabling them to continue to provide all essential services. I must also acknowledge the efforts of our Communications team, who worked diligently to ensure that our FSS community stayed informed about all the latest news and updates during this difficult transition period. We hope that next year we will see our campus community return.

According to Bill Gates, “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.”  At the Faculty of Social Sciences, our staff members are living this out every day as they constantly adapt to a changing environment, to the benefit of our students and researchers alike. Hats off to you all!

Nada Nagy
Chief Administrative Officer