'Historic event': Santa Ono installed as UBC's 15th president

NOVEMBER 22, 2016 4:08 PM

In a ceremony heavily tinged with messages of reconciliation and healing, Santa Ono was installed Tuesday as the 15th president of the University of B.C.

The unwritten theme of the installation, which included addresses from writer and Japanese internment survivor Joy Kogawa, was an effort to put behind UBC years of friction and division between the board of governors, faculty and students.

Ono, who took over as president in September, replaces Martha Piper, who took on an interim role when Arvind Gupta resigned suddenly in August 2015 after less than a year on the job. Gupta’s surprise resignation came amidst disagreements between governors, with the faculty association holding a vote of non-confidence in the board of governors.

But none of that was on display as Ono was inducted during a packed ceremony at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. In the audience was his father, retired UBC math professor Takashi Ono, and his mother, Sachiko Ono, and his wife Wendy Yip and two daughters, Juliana and Sarah.

Representatives of nearly three dozen universities and the deans of UBC’s 14 faculties witnessed Ono’s installation by B.C. Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon.

Ono inherits a university with a $2-billion annual budget, fractured by allegations of secret meetings, a power struggle and interference in academic freedom

Ono, who was born in Vancouver, went on to be a professor of medicine and biology, working at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and Emory universities before becoming president of the University of Cincinnati.

Ono’s ascendancy as the first person of Japanese descent to become UBC president was eloquently captured by Kogawa, who reflected on how far Canadian society and the university have come since the country’s internment policies of the Second World War.

“What a sweet, sweet thing a homecoming is, especially for those of us whose home was lost,” Kogawa said. “And what a sweet thing it is to move in one’s lifetime from the category of enemy to the category of friend, from the despised, to the honoured. How deeply honoured I feel today to be present and witness this historic event.”

The truth is that we all hold the keys — in trust — to preserve, strengthen and ultimately to leave the institution to the next generation a better place”

Ono inherits a university with a $2-billion annual budget, fractured by allegations of secret meetings, a power struggle and interference in academic freedom. He has already made efforts to repair relations with governors, faculty and students. In two of his first acts after taking office at the start of the academic year, he met with staff to hear their concerns, and he also met with the Musqueam Nation, on whose traditional lands the university sits.

In his acceptance speech, Ono gently referred to the divisions, saying he was wise enough to know the path forward lay in co-operation.
“In a large, decentralized organization such as a modern research university, no one person holds the keys to the organization,” he said.

“The truth is that we all hold the keys — in trust — to preserve, strengthen and ultimately to leave the institution to the next generation a better place than it was left to us.”

He said he had already spoken to over 1,000 alumni and has met with many staff.

Ono, whose five-year term comes with an annual salary of $470,000, said he wants to lift the university, already recognized as one of the best in North America, “from excellence to eminence.”

He plans to push forward with an aggressive new strategic plan that aims to recruit more international talent and boost the university’s standing as a research institution.

But he also said the university “cannot be an ivory tower” unto itself and has to be relevant to the community around it.

“In the years ahead, you will see an even more engaged UBC, with broader and deeper connections with our local community,” he said.

Ono pledged the university won’t ignore the role First Nations play in society, and acknowledged that “past practices of university-led research have at some points worked to the detriment of First Nations and other Indigenous communities.”

“We will also work to ensure that the curricula we offer in all of our many programs is responsive to the concerns of Indigenous people, offers depth and full consideration of issues of importance, and that an understanding of Indigenous history — and a full and accurate understanding of Canadian history — is part of the education of all students, whatever their field of study.”

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