"Thank you for your generous and active support for Royal Roads. I look forward to sharing this exciting year ahead with you ." - RRU President, Allan Cahoon ________

As we begin a new year and a new decade – and as RRU prepares to mark its 15th anniversary as a public university – I am pleased to share with you our goals and objectives for 2010 and beyond.

We've been working hard over the past year to establish strategic directions that will help us continue to fulfill our mandate of offering market-focused programs, a student-based environment, and learning that goes out to the individual, the community and the workplace in ways that complement – rather than compete with – other post-secondary institutions.

It's our objective to continue to:

1. provide high-quality, cost-effective education and applied research that contribute to economic prosperity, social advancement, and environmental sustainability by responding to the needs of working professionals and their employers

2. be the university of choice for working professionals in British Columbia and beyond

3. provide a regenerative work culture

4. be a university supported by and engaged with the public

5. be a recognized leader for sustainable stewardship of our historic lands

6. be a financially-sustainable, high-performance organization

We enter the new year with enthusiasm as we prepare to mark several significant milestones. Our first doctoral program, the Doctor of Social Sciences, begins in 2010. It's Canada’s first interdisciplinary professional doctoral degree in the social sciences. As well, we will introduce a new version of our MBA program – one that will make this successful program even more accessible to the working professionals it was created to serve. We will complete the $19.9 million Learning and Innovation Centre and have it ready to open early in 2011. It is the first new building to be constructed during our tenure as a university and is a reality thanks to the funding support of the Government of B.C. ($15 million) and the Government of Canada‘s Knowledge Infrastructure Program ($3 million).

On May 9, we will welcome the community to the largest-ever Mother’s Day Paint-In. This year, we will share with our 3,000-plus visitors displays, exhibits and events paying tribute to special anniversaries being celebrated not only by RRU, but our home city of Colwood (25 years) and the Canadian Navy (100 years).

We will also celebrate milestones in the Royal Roads University Legacy Campaign, a multi-year campaign launched in 2008 with the goal of raising $100 million from the private and public sector through philanthropic donations, strategic partnerships and funding from aligned provincial and federal government initiatives.

The Legacy Campaign supports academic, heritage and sustainability initiatives – with a particular focus right now on the Robert Bateman Centre at Royal Roads University. This unique, world-class initiative will not only celebrate the highly acclaimed artist and his life’s work, it reaches beyond to a legacy of environmental learning and a call for intelligent stewardship of all that sustains life on our planet.

The Robert Bateman Centre at Royal Roads University will be a catalyst for us to embrace a rich spectrum of environmental studies for the professional learner as well as deliver timely, relevant and practical knowledge online to the population at large. It will be a place where knowledge converts to action community by community, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

Royal Roads University is a place like no other. It is rich in history, in beauty and in people dedicated to fostering a relevant and responsive exchange of knowledge, respect and humanity – with students here on campus and online around the world.

As we approach our 15th anniversary on June 21, we welcome a new decade of thoughtful and innovative instruction that speaks to the needs of our ever-changing world and the professionals and the communities that we serve.

Thank you for your generous and active support for Royal Roads. I look forward to sharing with you this exciting year ahead.

Sincerely,
Allan R. Cahoon, PhD
President and Vice-Chancellor
Royal Roads University
allan.cahoon@royalroads.ca