Queen's initiative campaign

Queen’s launched the Initiative Campaign in 2006, at a critical juncture in our history, with a vision of the future of the university.

This vision called on all of us to look to our illustrious past for inspiration and build on Queen’s 175-year legacy.

As alumni, donors, volunteers, and members of the Queen’s family, you answered this call and took the initiative to invest in a future committed to our students and graduates, to enhance the ways in which they can make the greatest positive impact on our changing world.

Ten years ago, we committed to strengthening those aspects essential to the Queen’s of the past and present – our reputation for quality, our history of producing outstanding graduates at all levels, and our enduring student and alumni spirit of initiative.

The Initiative Campaign focused on four priority goals:

• to become the destination for exceptional people
• to enhance our students’ learning experiences
• to secure our global reputation in discovery and inquiry, and
• to nurture a supportive community.

The commitment from the alumni and Queen’s community has proved a powerful one. Indeed, your dedication and commitment brought us together and took us well beyond our initial ambitious goal of $500 million, to a historic $640-million total.

The impact of your contributions can be seen across the university, across Canada, and throughout the world.

Here at home, the creation of new scholarships and bursaries has reduced barriers and increased the accessibility of a Queen’s education to a wider pool of talented students.

Of course, it is not enough just to welcome new students to our campuses. We also have to provide the learning experiences to unlock their potential and unleash their passions. Thanks to your generosity, the Queen’s experience will now include new learning spaces and enhancements to our existing classrooms, libraries, and labs, to create an unprecedented opportunity for dynamic learning, collaboration, innovation, and discovery.

As our campus has grown over the last decade, so too have the possibilities within it, including the creation of 67 new research chairs and professorships, helping to ensure that Queen’s will continue to be a home to ground-breaking research and scholarship, and new achievements in the performing arts, for many years to come.

The future of our students and faculty has also been brightened, enhancing our ability to support the people who live, work, and study at Queen’s.

From our state-of-the-art Athletics and Recreation Centre, to our new “embedded” counsellors, to our innovative programs designed to help our students cope with the stresses that can make the transition to university especially challenging— together we have elevated our support to the university community.

As I reflect on all that has been achieved and look ahead to an exciting future for Queen’s, I am filled with an enormous sense of pride in my alma mater and profound gratitude for your commitment and generosity. Together we have set in motion a new chapter for Queen’s by building on the wisdom of the past, compelled by the urgency of the present and inspired the possibilities of the future – thank you for your enduring spirit of initiative.

Cha Gheill!

Daniel Woolf, Artsci’80
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
Queen’s University