I can’t speak for the entire University Affairs team, but I know I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we set out nearly two years ago to completely redesign our website. After hundreds of hours of meetings and much design and debate (and debate on design), it is now complete – and I’m pretty chuffed.
What you see before you is a much better site, with a clean look, clearer navigation, a higher profile for the careers section, and a host of interactive features often referred to collectively as Web 2.0, including this very blog, Margin Notes. Starting two days a week and hopefully more frequently as I get up to speed, I will share with you what I think are some of the interesting trends and happenings in Canada’s university sector. I also hope that this blog becomes a dialogue with you the reader and not just a one-way communication. Please spare a moment to share your thoughts, comments and ideas on what I post as the mood strikes.
A note on the blog’s title: while I’m fairly immersed in the latest news and views about universities, the fact remains that I am not a professor in the academic trenches, but an interested observer on the margin. And, of course, the term “margin notes” also refers to those little scribblings in the white space of the printed page – not a bad metaphor for what I’ll be doing. I hope you find it of interest.
Léo Charbonneau
