TRANSFORM by chris berube vic 1to
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aul W. Gooch is stepping down as the president of Victoria University, a post he’s held since 2001. And while that assignment is coming to an end, it’s hardly the conclusion of his academic career. He’s going to continue teaching classes, reading voraciously, and will teach a special first-year seminar course at Vic. In short, he will be very active. “I can’t fathom slowing down,” he says, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has encountered him during his presidency. In fact, as of July 1, he will be the chair of the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance—a position he will hold for a three-year term. On paper, Gooch doesn’t seem like a natural fit for administration. He’s a philosopher with a contemplative nature by disposition and training. Nevertheless, he was “bitten by the admin bug early,” and became humanities chair at the University of Toronto Scarborough early in his career. Then, after six years in the Graduate School as various kinds of dean, he became vice-provost of the University of Toronto in 1994. He took on the Vic presidency seven years later, and for many recent graduates, it’s hard to imagine a time before him. “I rather liked the challenge of administration—the job of analyzing problems; philosophy really helps with that. I never saw the two things as a contradiction,” he says. He becomes animated when he’s engaged in conversations about Vic or discussing the intricate clockwork of running a university—the juggling of budgets, staffing, infrastructure, student life, politics. “There’s a popular sense of the word ‘philosophical’ that describes the attitude of a successful administrator,” says Gooch, “one who has a steady eye
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vic report summer 2015