In a recent interview for the University of Toronto at Scarborough’s (UTSC) oral history project I discuss my two terms as Chair of the Department of Management (1991 to 2003). The interview has now been posted online. In 1991 UTSC was officially Scarborough College and its faculty perceived it as a mall liberal arts college. However, it had a large Management program. But the program lacked vision, leadership, and full-time faculty members. My mandate – and opportunity – was to provide the first two and hire the third. I found that there were both sources of support for and opposition to what I wanted to do. This is my story.

 Topic by Topic

The interview runs for 1 hour and 13 minutes. For readers interested in specific parts of the story and to provide an overview, here is a list of topics and when in the interview I discuss them:

5 – 11 minutes: designing a new program, planning to hire new faculty members

11 – 15: my UTSC colleagues and the hiring process

16 – 18: building our Co-op Program

18-20: support from other UTSC departments and from University President Rob Prichard

22 – 29: a growing program gets a new building (pictured on my home page)

32 – 36: bringing Economics faculty on board with our vision

40 – 45: business community outreach and fund-raising

49 – 50: the Borins family’s Inuit Art donation

52 – 1:06: “every creation story has a devil”: competing with the Rotman School

1:06 – 1:10 – my academic life after serving as Chair

1:11 – 1:13 – my successors’ accomplishments: new programs and a new, even bigger, building