Re: “Former employees speak out on Global College” (Feb. 23, page 7)

In response to Former employees speak out on Global College, published February, 22, 2012.

It has come to my attention that recent comments in your journal have cast doubt on the health and effectiveness of the University of Winnipeg’s visionary initiative, the Global College.

I find myself both puzzled and dismayed to have been overlooked for comment or reflection by your correspondent.

I have been connected with the Global College almost from its inception, served as its inaugural dean from 2005-2006 and, since the untimely death of Dr. Tom Faulkner in 2010, have been director of the Global College’s Carl Ridd Institute for Religion and Global Policy.

It has been a privilege and a joy.

I look back on nearly eight years of stellar accomplishment by and among many faculty of diverse disciplines, a host of students, and members of the wider community throughout Manitoba, across Canada and around the world, and am staggered that there may yet be those who harbour reservations about the Global College’s pivotal role in extending the U of W’s reach beyond the frontiers of insight and international boundaries.

Consider but a partial inventory: the Senator Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers’ Initiative; Summer Institutes in Immunology and the study of the Americas; a “model” refugee camp in the Portage Commons; the 2010 World Religions’ Summit - and the thematic major in Human Rights.

Principal Marilou McPhedron’s inspirational leadership has sustained both directors and students alike through difficult years of severe fiscal restraint, keeping the Global College as a beacon in the heart of the prairies for the sake of the world.

Dr. James Christie
Professor of Dialogue Theology
Director, Ridd Institute for Religion and Global Policy, Global College
University of Winnipeg

– Dr. James Christie, Professor of Dialogue Theology, Director, Ridd Institute for Religion and Global Policy, Global College

Published in Volume 66, Number 22 of The Uniter (March 7, 2012)