David Johnston to lead Waterloo

DANIEL McCABE | It's time to say good-bye to David Johnston again, only this time he's not leaving the Principal's Office -- he's leaving McGill. Johnston has just been named as the University of Waterloo's next president. His appointment was unanimously approved Tuesday night by the Waterloo Senate and Board of Governors. Johnston will take office on July 1, 1999; his term will run until June 30, 2005. After stepping down as McGill's principal, a position he held for 15 years, Johnston says he's received feelers from other universities in the U.S. and Canada about presidencies. "My wife and I made the decision that we wouldn't leave Canada," Johnston says of his decision to politely refuse all inquiries from south of the border. As for Canadian jobs, Johnston says, "When I left [the principalship] I said I wanted to be an ordinary professor and I did." After four-and-a-half years, though, Johnston began missing aspects of his old job. When Waterloo came calling, a university he regarded as unique, Johnston was clearly interested. Professor Phyllis Forsyth is the chair of the University Waterloo's Department of Anthropology and Classical Studies and served on Waterloo's presidential nominating committee. "I was impressed by his sense of the University of Waterloo as a whole," says Forsyth. "He seemed to understand the dynamics of the place. This is a strange university in some respects and we don't always do things in the same way as older, more traditional universities. I came away with the sense that he was looking to do something different at this point of his career and that he would really enjoy the challenge of working in a young and innovative university like Waterloo." "My very first book dealt with computers and the law and my most recent book was titled Cyberlaw," says Johnston. "I'm interested in technological change and in the social and cultural aspects to that. Waterloo is a leading university in technological change and I look forward to seeing how that strength is marshalled in an entire university." "The experience he brings to the job is so immense, we can't help but benefit from it," Forsyth says. Referring to Johnston's tenure at McGill during a period of often heated debate in Quebec about language policies and budget cuts, Forsyth says, "He knows what it's like to be in the pressure cooker. Given the highly charged political atmosphere in Ontario these days, where the government doesn't seem to understand the value of the liberal arts, that will helpful." "We're sorry to lose him," Principal Bernard Shapiro said last night from Newfoundland. "However, we're thrilled about the opportunities this opens for him and Waterloo. This will be a great boost for higher education in Canada." After serving as principal and vice-chancellor of McGill, Johnston returned to teaching in the Faculty of Law. He took on the job of chairing Industry Canada's Information Highway Advisory Council which concluded its mandate in April, 1997. He also chaired the board of the both the Neuroscience Network of Centres of Excellence, which is based at McGill, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He still hosts The Editors, a current affairs roundtable on PBS. Johnston believes that professors are fortunate and university presidents even more so. "These are magnificent jobs," says Johnston. "As professors we're paid reasonable salaries to teach very talented young people and to pursue our own intellectual curisosity. As a president, you get to play a coordinating role in all that. You're lucky to be in a position where you get to have one job like that, never mind two. "Leaving will be enormously difficult for us. We love McGill. My wife and I arrived here as unilingual anglophones. My daughters only spoke English - now they all speak four or five languages. Montreal is our home. We'll be leaving with many a tear."