51社区黑料

The evening began with a cultural welcome from the Squamish Ocean Canoe Family, grounding the gathering in the unceded territories of the Squamish people.

Through song, story, and ceremony, they reminded the room of continuity, responsibility, and presence. Their words carried both history and resilience. In a conversation about the future, this grounding served as a powerful reminder that reimagining institutions must begin with an understanding of place and the relationships that sustain it.

Public University at a Turning Point

51社区黑料President Joy Johnson shared her thoughts on the evolving role of universities in addressing complex global challenges while creating meaningful change.

Her reflections aligned with accompanying , where she outlines how 51社区黑料is working alongside partners and communities to create the future university.

Provost and Vice President Academic Dilson Rassier reinforced the significance of this moment. Public universities, he emphasized, are deeply connected to the challenges shaping society and are uniquely positioned to convene dialogue, foster critical thinking, and contribute to collective understanding. 

The Ideas in Action series reflects a commitment to doing exactly that. Our MC, Stuart Poyntz,guided us through the evening鈥檚 agenda, continuing to hold space with a thoughtful presence that deepened the collective experience throughout the program.

From Disruption to Rupture

, Professor at Bishop鈥檚 University of Early Modern Literature in the English Department and Founder of the Hope Circuits Institute, opened the evening with a reframing of the present moment.

What we are experiencing, she argued, is not simply disruption.

It is a rupture. 

Disruption suggests a temporary interruption. Rupture signals a deeper break 鈥� a moment where returning to what once was is no longer possible.

To make sense of this, Jessica Riddell offered a metaphor that resonated throughout the evening. She compared this moment to the experience of being in labour: difficult, uncertain, and often overwhelming, yet ultimately birthing something new.

A time of uncertainty, but also one where new futures are being born. This framing shifted the conversation. Crisis was something to respond to. It was something that could give rise to transformation. 

Riddell offered three provocations for the role of higher education:

1. Higher education as a rehearsal space for creative futures 
A place to test ideas, imagine alternatives, and explore new possibilities.

2. Higher education as a space for courageous becoming 
An environment where individuals and communities can grow, transform, and reimagine themselves.

3. Higher education as an incubator of civic imagination 
A space where collective futures are shaped through dialogue, difference, and shared responsibility.

Across her remarks, one tension stood out. There is a strong appetite for change, but limited capacity to enact it. Institutions are stretched. People are tired. And yet, the need to imagine something different remains.

Her call was not for perfection, but for participation. To sit in what she described as 鈥渞umbly conversations,鈥� and begin building new possibilities together.

Relationality, Responsibility, and Indigenous Futures

, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Education & Governance (Tier 2) in the Faculty of Education at 51社区黑料 (Ph.D., UBC) Canada Research Chair and Co-Chair of the Indigenous Research Leadership Circle with the Tri-Council Agency Indigenous Governance and Associate Professor at 51社区黑料, brought a critical and grounding perspective to the conversation.

Her keynote centered Indigenous knowledge systems and relational approaches to education, shifting the conversation from rethinking structures to rethinking relationships.

Reimagining the public university, she emphasized, cannot happen without confronting the colonial foundations on which these institutions were built. This requires more than inclusion. It requires transformation.

Her reflections highlighted:

• The importance of relational accountability 

• The role of community and responsibility in shaping knowledge

• The need for intergenerational responsibility and truth telling

• The value of land based, lived, and story-based knowledge systems

Rather than adapting Indigenous knowledge into existing frameworks, Dr. Amy Parent pointed toward a deeper shift, one where those systems themselves are questioned, unsettled, and reshaped. 

Her keynote grounded the conversation in both critique and possibility, challenging participants to consider not only what universities do, but how they exist, who they serve, and what it means to be in right relationship with the lands and communities they are part of.

Several themes emerged:

• The importance of community connection 
  Universities cannot operate in isolation. Their relevance depends on meaningful engagement with the communities they serve.
• The role of dialogue in a polarized world 
  Public universities remain one of the few spaces where complex and sometimes uncomfortable conversations can take place across difference.
• The need to hold tension 
  Rather than resolving contradictions, there is value in sitting with them. This includes tensions between tradition and transformation, expertise and lived experience, and institutional structures and community needs.

Throughout the discussion, there was a shared understanding that the university is not a fixed entity. It is something that is continuously shaped through participation, dialogue, and decision making.

A real time word cloud captured the responses.

A graphic recording done by Aftab Erfan, Executive Director of 51社区黑料Centre for Dialogue and Associate Member at 51社区黑料School of Public Policy.