I leave Wednesday evening for Africa. I'm going first to northern Uganda, where I'll visit communities terribly affected by the brutal conflict in that area that has killed and maimed tens of thousands over the last 25 years. The main victims of the mad militia called the Lord's Resistance Army have been children. Over 30,000 of them have been forcibly abducted and used as sex slaves and child soldiers. I chair an NGO called The Uganda Fund that invests in development and recovery projects in communities across the north focused mainly on children and youth. It's an effort to save a “lost generation” of young people whose lives were made a living hell in a brutal conflict that drove almost two million people from their homes and into “camps” for the internally displaced. Here is a piece about the conflict I wrote for Maclean's Magazine a couple of years ago. Video about the Uganda Fund, which has just been awarded a major multi-year grant.

The purpose of my trip to Africa is to check out potential new projects to invest in and visit projects already in place. I will be in Gulu, Pader and maybe also Kitgum and Lira, if time (and road conditions!) permits.

After Uganda, I will travel to Morocco to take part in a conference on education organized by the Moroccan government and featuring many participants from our own Faculty of Education, including Dean Marie Josée Berger. My last stop will be Tunisia, where I will visit universities and meet with government officials. These will be welcome opportunities to draw positive international attention to uOttawa and our fabulous faculty and to work towards recruiting more students from (and promoting more exchanges with) two important partners in la francophonie.

How can Canadian universities play a greater role in forming new national policies on everything from public health to climate change and international development? Why don't our campuses have more influence in shaping Canadian public policy? What can we learn from experiences elsewhere?

These were the topics discussed last Thursday and Friday at the Presidents' National Dialogue, a conference hosted by uOttawa and presented by five university presidents. Apart from me, the presidents included those from the universities of Montreal, Waterloo, Winnipeg and Alberta.

I think that the conference was a real success, that we created momentum for positive change and that the “to do list” of follow-up items is both practical and worthwhile. We'll post it on the website once it's in its final form.

• Should buildings, programs or chairs be named after donors whose financial contribution made them possible?
• If so, under what circumstances?
• What principles or criteria should govern the decision?
• How can the decision-making process be made transparent, so that the outcome is broadly supported?

These and other questions were discussed at length by a panel of speakers last Friday morning in the Agora. I link here to a video of the discussion.

Discussion on issues involved in naming buildings and spaces on campus

On October 9, 2009, the University of Ottawa, the Student Federation and the Graduate Students Association, hosted a joint panel on the issues involved in naming buildings and spaces on campus.

Coupled with a similar panel on a related topic last year, this discussion provides a solid base for the preparation of a draft policy governing donor recognition, as well as the independence of academic research in an age of increasing commercialization and private funding.

Diane Davidson, our Vice-President, Governance, will be preparing a draft policy and sending it out for consultation and reactions in the weeks to come. We will be looking for your opinion and suggestions, so that we can develop and adopt a policy that is in the best interests of the University.

The year 2009 marks 90 years since the Senate approved the Bachelor of Arts program for women students and the University of Ottawa was transformed by co-education. Today, women make up over 60 per cent of our student body. In some faculties, the percentage is considerably higher. Here is a fabulous new website that offers a small glimpse of some of the outstanding women who have contributed to the success of the University of Ottawa, and some who continue to do so today. It's only a small sampling and more remarkable women will be featured in weeks to come.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a first-year class in the Telfer School of Management. When I asked for questions, one of the students made the point that it is too difficult and complicated to get Internet access to web-based information about courses and related material. The student pointed out that she had used a service called Blackboard at another postsecondary institution, and wondered why it was not available here. It’s a program that allows "one-stop shopping" where students log on only once to get access to all of their courses, professors’ notes and other relevant information. Our Web team reviewed this tool, but determined it was not suitable in our bilingual environment.

However, the Web team has been hard at work on a similar application that will be launched in the very near future. The University is about to introduce the first phase of a new student portal called uoZone. This new application will allow students to access a variety of online services already provided by the University. A single login to uoZone will give students direct access to InfoWeb, Rabaska, My Financial Portfolio, uOttawa email and Virtual Campus. The Virtual Campus already provides you with access to online course web sites as well as other e-learning resources, such as course material, discussion groups and exam marks.

The portal will also provide a new personal student calendar containing your schedule as well as a means to receive instant messages that our specific to you, your studies, your Faculty and your professors.

See you on uoZone starting at the end of October. I hope it provides simple and ready access to all the information you need.