Engaging with communities

Mike DeGagné, president of Nipissing University:

I think it’s an important part of every university’s role, but certainly in a small university it’s critical.

We’re nestled in this small town of 55,000 people, North Bay, Ontario.

We are regularly listed as maybe the – in the top three of the employers in the community.  We have a broad regional impact.

A lot of our professors are engaged in the issues that are really important to our community, maybe like the stewardship of Lake Nipissing and the environmental issues that surround us.

So it’s really important that we don’t sit on a hill and think deep thoughts that don’t have residence in our – around us, right, that we engage with people in our community and they know that we are for them and they are for us, that sort of thing.