Wpg Free Press: President makes the list

The Winnipeg Free Press published a list of the 30 most influential Manitobans and University of Manitoba President and Vice-Chancellor David Barnard made the list.

As they write:

Two things jumped out at University of Manitoba president David Barnard’s state of the university address: that U of M has more self-identified indigenous students than any other Canadian university, and that the neighbouring former Southwoods golf course represents an amazing opportunity for the university to transform itself.

That enormous green space, with its access to the Red River, really can be, in one of the favourite jargon terms of the day, transformative. And U of M can truly make itself the university of choice for aboriginal students, teachers, and researchers.

We know that a nine-figure capital campaign is under way — typically announced three years after the dollars start rolling in — can develop Southwoods and the add several spiffy new buildings to the medical campus downtown.

The new faculty of health sciences is the first big step in Barnard’s plan to reduce 20 faculties to 13 or so by 2017.