Durham Chronicle 18-19 Issue 01

10 The Chronicle October 30 - December 3, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus
Spaces and Places
This is one in a series looking at special
locations on the DC, UOIT campus
Photograph by Cecelia Feor
UOIT president Dr. Steven Murphy sitting in his office on the second floor of the UOIT Energy Systems and Nuclear Science Research Centre.
Murphy: Putting more 'tech' in UOIT
Cecelia Feor
Janis Williams
The Chronicle
The University of Ontario Institute
of Technology's (UOIT) new president
wants to use his skills to push
the Ridgebacks ahead of the pack.
Dr. Steven Murphy has been
UOIT president for a relatively
short time, but he's taking a long
term view about his new role.
On the job since March 1, he's
already thinking 15 years into the
future of what the university can
become - and he'd like it to be the
MIT of the north, referring to the
world-renowned Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Murphy was previously the
dean of the Ted Rogers School of
Management at Toronto's Ryerson
University.
He sees similarities between
UOIT and where Ryerson was 10
years ago. As a result, he believes
It's (technology) not just in our
name (UOIT) it's also in how we
want to live.
UOIT is on an exponential path
for the future.
He hopes to build on the use of
technology to teach its 10,000 students
better, in part by developing
improved hybrid courses.
"It's (technology) not just in our
name, it's also in how we want to
live and in our values and our dayto-day
actions," Murphy says.
It is important to integrate
technology systems to better serve
students, by having everything in
one place, he believes.
"We're really reaching the
point where you need to be able to
come to one spot that has everything
to do with your university
experience," Murphy says, noting
all aspects of the student experience,
including assignments and
study groups, should be accessible
through a central app or system.
He's also interested in using
technology to deliver education
in an improved way. He says hybrid
courses should become more
the norm, where there is an online
component and then an in-person
portion for discussion.
In addition, Murphy would
like to see courses become modular,
based on the length of student
learning absorption levels.
This would focus less on the
traditional course model of a 13-
week semester with four-week
exam period.
Murphy is also pleased students
can experience different
course and pathway options on
the joint campus of Durham College
(DC) and UOIT.
Cathy Pitcher, assistant to the
president, previously worked in
the DC president's office, including
for Gary Polonsky, the Durham
leader who helped found
UOIT.
Pitcher says pathways are
beneficial to students.
"I think this campus brings
tremendous opportunities to our
students, the fact that you have a
university and a college sharing,"
she says.
Murphy meets with DC
president Don Lovisa monthly
to discuss how to enhance diploma-to-degree
pathways but also
to create other opportunities for
students.
Specifically, Murphy proposed
a business training module for
those who have graduated from
skilled trades and apprenticeships
looking to start their own business.
"It's about doing a flexible delivery,
thinking about really creative
models of working together,
and trying to figure out where our
visions intersect," he says.
As for his legacy, Murphy is
more concerned with UOIT’s
goals.
“For me it’s far more satisfying
to see our students walking across
the stage (graduating) knowing
that the value of their degree has
increased because we’ve worked
really hard as a team over 10 years
than it is for me to say that my legacy
after 10 years is that I pushed
on 'x' or 'y',” says Murphy.