In this installment of our popular interview feature, we bring to light many of the ground-breaking changes that have helped to revitalize Saint Paul University under the steady hand and guidance of long-time university Rector Chantal Beauvais. For many years, Saint Paul was a little-known enigma in Old Ottawa East, a looming physical presence in the centre of the community but an educational non-entity to most of us who thought of the institution as a religious seminary, if they thought of it at all.
My relatives are still there, but I have spent more than half of my professional life in Ontario. Where to start? If we look at infrastructure, I think a lot has been done because these are older buildings. We still have other projects. The creation of new schools would be the other significant change.
Most of the schools at SPU are interdisciplinary, contrary to many other institutions. Here, a School of Public Ethics will have somebody who is trained in politics and someone else trained in philosophy; the School of Conflict Studies will have sociologists, anthropologists and theologians. The school structure allows us to better present our programs to the community, and also creates a sense of belonging for the students. And those who knew Saint Paul University thought we were like a seminary.
That was an eye opener and we decided to rebrand the university, invest more in marketing and enter into relationships with different partners and school boards. People knew Saint Paul from word of mouth. However, we were able to switch from face-to-face delivery to online delivery in two days.
Some of our partners took much longer to achieve that. The students were very happy in their courses and the way they were laid out. Also, the professors and staff realized we could reach out to many more people, not just international students, but also people who have mobility challenges and those who reside in more remote areas.
