Annual award ceremony recognizes exceptional community builders
On March 20, the University of Guelph’s most promising student leaders arrived at the Royal City Ballroom at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre for the annual Student Life Recognition Banquet.
Students mingled with faculty and staff, speeches were read, dinner was served, and awards were bestowed. The mood was at times self-congratulatory, but the occasion called for it.
“I want you to know that what you do as student leaders is unbelievably inspirational,” said President Alastair Summerlee in the opening address. “It’s the reason why old people like me hang around universities, because vicariously what we get to do is have a sense that tomorrow is going to be better because of the absolutely astonishing people that are coming after us.”
Summerlee recalled a story of going to an award ceremony as a young faculty member and asking himself, “How does anybody in their lifetime manage to do all of the things that these people are talking about?”
That was certainly a question many of the guests were asking themselves throughout the night, though perhaps no more so than when Anita Acai, who is this year’s winner of the R. P. Gilmor Student Life Award, was singled out for having simultaneously worked on seven extracurricular organizations, worked two part-time jobs, and maintained a full course load.
Eleven awards were given out that night, but the winners (often more than one per award) were so many and their nomination packages so heavy that it would scarcely be possible to recount each winner here.
Brian D. Sullivan, for whom the Brian D. Sullivan Student Leadership Award is named, and who is also a former head of Student Affairs, was in attendance and provided the keynote speech at the banquet. He spoke highly of the extraordinary role students play in building community at the university.
“To a degree you cannot appreciate,” Sullivan said, “Canadian universities… are uniquely provisioned by the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of their current students taking up leadership.”
“What matters most of all, for Guelph, is that folks like you – student leaders and colleagues – are inside it,” the former vice president added.
Another highlight was the touching tribute to the late Paul Gilmor, who was provost from 1967 to 1987 and the person effectively responsible for creating Student Affairs at the University of Guelph. Brenda Whiteside, the current Vice President of Student Affairs, led the tribute and fondly recalled how Gilmor stayed committed to the office long after he had retired.
“Paul would phone me and say, ‘You did a good job, Brenda – but you could just change this one thing.’ I love that about Paul,” Whiteside said. “He remained connected to this university.”
All in all, the winners were a diverse crowd, reflective of the wide variety of awards on offer. Combined, the recipients really do present the makings of a strong community –having been leaders in accessibility, diversity, governance, academics and much more.