The bursar’s building plans

The Strand: How would you explain the position of CAO and bursar?

Ken Chan: Historically, the bursar was the university’s senior financial leader. Today, that’s been expanded to include areas such as information technology, facilities management, capital projects, and ancillary services. The modern title added to the role of bursar is that of Chief Administrative Officer. So it’s an exciting role because you get to be part of different projects and operations.

As you settle into this new role, what have been your first steps?

I think I’ll share with you what I said during my interview, and the focus is really on people. In my first few weeks, I spent a lot of time meeting with people. Not only people who are within the bursar’s area but also across the university campus. I met VUSAC members as well as faculty. The second piece is processes. Different places have different ways of doing things, so getting a better handle on the processes in how we operate our facilities and finances. The third piece is our policies as they guide our work. The fourth piece is planning for the future. There are exciting projects coming up. We are now in the early stages of making the best use of the second floor of the Goldring Student Centre. We have the original architects on board, Moriyama Teshima Architects, and we’ve come up with ideas that incorporate feedback from students. We’re turning unused footprints into spaces that academic advisors and counsellors can use when meeting students. We’re putting in comfortable seating for students to socialise and study. Another project is to revitalise the Birge-Carnegie building. We’d like to turn that into a place for students as well, so more places to study and socialise. We’re also looking at a state-of-the-art classroom there. There’ll be open workstations and offices, smaller meeting rooms, and booths for Zoom calls. My vision is for that to be a very active student life building. So those I would say would be the four pieces in terms of the work that I have been doing in the last eight months now since I’ve been here. 

You’ve had significant experience working in the provincial government. There have been rising concerns by post-secondary institutions like Vic and UofT relating to the limited amount of revenue coming from the Ontario government. Based on your experience, how do you view the relationship between the government and the university as it stands now and moving forward?

What universities can do is come together and build a strong business case for the contributions they make to society. In recent years, the provincial government has asked public sector organisations, including universities, hospitals, and school boards, to demonstrate how they make the most efficient use of public funds. As institutions, we have an obligation to demonstrate the value of arts and sciences programs to policymakers. I strongly believe that if you want to be a business leader, or even a senior government official, having leaders with a well-rounded background will be helpful. Whether it’s in the humanities, or in the social sciences, or the arts, having that background will certainly help shape your thinking. So the advice I have for my former colleagues is to include outcomes beyond financial metrics. Ultimately, a more educated society will contribute to a better society, one that also takes into account critical thinking, innovative thinking, and cross-sector collaboration.

At the Winter Caucus, we were introduced to the new head of campus safety and emergency management, and there were some questions regarding Vic’s relationship to policing, especially with concerns students have had based on the use of police in mental health crises. How does your office view the relationship between Victoria University and the Toronto Police Service as well as Campus Safety?

The first thing I will say is that mental health is an important topic, and I encourage students, staff, and faculty to get help if they feel that there’s a need to. We live in challenging times. For example, in September we saw right here in our backyard, anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ2S+ protests. These impact how we think and feel. It’s important to ensure that as a university, we have the right support. The role of police in mental health calls I think is a complex one. I started my career 25 years ago as a police officer, and with the minimal training received, I was not well equipped to deal with a mental distress call. I found it helpful to have people who are trained in mental health to be part of the response. With the chronic and systemic historical underfunding of mental health services over decades, the police have become the last resort. In terms of the new campus safety position at Vic, I arrived here around the time of the tragic attack at the University of Waterloo. I know female and queer students felt at risk. Administration has an obligation to ensure that we have the right resources to keep us safe. We study, work, and live in the heart of downtown, which brings an exciting cultural environment, but also some elevated risk. So how do we ensure we protect our people in a way that is measured, balanced, and proportionate? One of the things that I’d like to put in place this year is our own emergency management plan. What I mean by that is if in the middle of winter, a power outage goes on for days, we have a trained leader on campus who can implement an emergency response protocol. Another example would be if there is an active shooter incident, whether on our campus or a nearby area. How do we deal with that on campus? When I posted the new job vacancy, I was looking for somebody who can relate to students, who is aware of how the police work, and will have credibility with the police to be able to say, “If you come on our campus, do the courtesy of letting us know.” James is somebody who, in addition to his 36 years of policing experience, is a person of colour, has mental health training, is big on de-escalation, and also has credibility when he liaises with the police. I’ve been on both sides, from being on the front line as an openly gay police officer of colour in the late 90s and early 2000s, and also as an advisor to the Mayor of London [UK], providing civilian oversight for the Met Police.

What legacy do you hope to leave behind at this institution?

I want to contribute to the long-term sustainability of Victoria University. You touched earlier on the point about the financial sustainability of institutions with reduced government funding. What I’d like to do is to be able to navigate those rough waters in a way that puts Victoria on a solid financial footing. Most importantly, I want to do my part personally in making Victoria an exciting, safe, healthy, and fun place for students to study. I’ll also be teaching a Vic One Hundred course in September on scientific evidence in public policy, so I’m really looking forward to that. Another way that I can give back is by taking my background in public policy, politics, government, and nonprofits into the classroom and sharing my knowledge and experience with students.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.