Yukon University greets 1st president since the transition from university

Key takeaways: 

• The incoming president aims at decolonization and reconciliation.
• On Friday, Yukon University President Lesley Brown’s official installment at the Kwänlin Dün Cultural Centre in Whitehorse.

Yukon University celebrated its first presidential installation since it transitioned from being a university two years back.

On Friday morning, the ritual took place at the Kwänlin Dün Cultural Centre in Whitehorse. Lesley Brown officially became the first Yukon University president, vice-chancellor, and eighth president.

Yukon College, now Canada’s best university north of the 60th parallel, officially became a degree-granting college in the spring of 2020. 

Brown has been in the president’s office since the previous August. However, the ceremony formally supplied her with the authorities and duties of the office. It was also a chance for her to share her idea for the college.

During her presidential installation speech, Brown stated she wanted Yukon University to be a place of change.

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“I understand our cooperative and vital responsibility to lead and make a difference,” she said. “True change and good change happen when grounded in truth.”

Brown added part of her responsibility as the new president is to assure all Yukon University students learn to question power, existing structures, history, and past beliefs to “discover what is true.” 

During her address, she also highlighted her commitment to equity and inclusion “so that when students graduate from Yukon University, they will walk together on a shared way to decolonization and reconciliation, to the equity of all people, and persist democracy.”

Commissioner Angelique Bernard officiated the morning’s installation.

Jordan Lincez led the academic procession on bagpipes and drummers Uyenets’echia Sean Smith and Susan Smith, pursued by the proper antler carried by Victoria Castillo, co-chair of the academic senate.

Source – cbc.ca