Annual Report 2010/11

Major AccomplishmentsPresidential search completedUpon the announcement of President PaulByrne’s retirement in February 2010, theuniversity embarked on a presidential search in2010/11. Through consultation with internal andexternal stakeholders, the Presidential SearchCommittee created a Position and CandidateProfile for candidate assessment. The interviewprocess took place in December and January.In February 2011, the university announced thesuccessful candidate for presidency was Dr.David W. Atkinson, who would become MacEwanUniversity’s fourth president in July 2011. Dr.Atkinson’s career in Canada’s post-secondarysystem has included presidencies with BrockUniversity and Carleton University, and mostrecently Kwantlen Polytechnic University in B.C.New Board chairRecently retired from his position as seniorlawyer and partner for law firm Fraser MilnerCasgrain LLP, local commercial real estate lawyerJohn Day assumed the role of chair of MacEwanUniversity’s Board of Governors in July 2010.Mr. Day has been actively involved in manycommunity endeavours, including servingas board member (for the Royal AlexandraHospital Foundation, the Edmonton EconomicDevelopment Authority and Edmonton AirServices), volunteer alumnus (for the University ofAlberta) and chairman of the board (for MarmotBasin and Mountain Park Lodges).New programs start accepting applicationsIn fall 2010, applications opened for three newprograms within the Centre for the Arts andCommunications. The Bachelor of Music in Jazzand Contemporary Popular Music, the Bachelorof Communication Studies, and the Arts andCultural Management diploma established astrong profile for Canada’s arts and culturalcircles, and moves the institution forward in itsplans for a new arts centre to be located on thedowntown City Centre Campus as part of theuniversity’s Single Sustainable Campus Plan.The university also introduced the accountingmajor in the Bachelor of Commerce, as well asthe Cardiac Care Nursing certificate within theCentre for Professional Nursing Education.Degree achievements and enhancementsSpring 2011 marked the graduation of the firstclass of 107 students in the Bachelor of Sciencein Nursing degree program. The universitydeveloped a proposal for a psychiatric nursingdegree using the current Psychiatric Nursingdiploma as a foundation.In 2010/11 MacEwan University signed newMemoranda of Understanding (MOU): withOlds College to offer the first year of the newBachelor of Science degree, and with GrandePrairie Regional College for degree completion inscience, arts and business.The construction of five new science labs wascompleted. The labs include an aquatics facility,tissue culture lab, microscopy suite and nuclearmagnetic resonance facility.These initiatives are described in detail within theprogress report portion of this publication, under“Academic Programming and Delivery”.New agreements open study abroadopportunitiesIn 2010/11, the university also signed exchangeagreements with international institutionsincluding Lille Catholic University (France) andDan Kook University (Korea). During the year,more than 200 students participated in studyabroad programs such as study tours andformal exchanges. Forty-two students studiedat international partner institutions for periodsranging from five weeks to a full term. In addition,Bachelor of Child and Youth Care studentstravelled to Ireland for 10 days in February aspart of a class exchange.Implementation of PeopleSoft EnterpriseResource Planning (ERP) systemMacEwan University launched a new ERP systemwith an initial implementation in Finance andHuman Resources. The third phase—the studentsystem component (Campus Solutions)—wasimplemented in summer 2010. The web-basedAnnual Report 2010/2011 11