Year in review: 22 moments of 2022
In 2022, U of T Mississauga came back to campus for in-person learning, work and socializing, culminating in the university’s biggest back-to-school this fall.
As they returned, UTM community members may have noticed changes on campus, including the recently opened Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation UTM office in Maanjiwe nendamowinan and the tipi erected on the lawn outside Maanjiwe nendamowinan. These are tangible signs of the university’s Strategic Framework goal to centre truth, openness and reciprocity in all that we do.
Other developments that reflect this commitment — in 2022 and beyond — include appointing Assistant Professor Robin Gray as the first-ever special advisor on Indigenous rematriation and creating a new Office of Indigenous Initiatives headed by Director Tee Duke.
While there is much to look forward to in 2023, including UTM’s inaugural All-Nations Powwow on March 25, it’s worth looking back and reflecting on the year that was.
Top 22 moments of 2022 at UTM:
- Tips for battling burnout
- GLUE project shows how urbanization drives plant evolution
- Spring convocation and the return of in-person celebrations
- Displaced students in Ukraine get a chance to study at UTM
- Syd Bolton Collection takes gaming studies to the next level
- Mamava pod opens
- SURF’s up as UTM celebrates undergraduate research
- MCFN office opens
- Strategic plan updated
- Students move into residence
- FastPheno and Flash Forest: assessing and reforesting Canada
- Largest fall back-to-school group ever
- Robotics lab opens
- Remembering community members we’ve lost
- Snider Lecture tackles misinformation
- Alum Lesley Hampton makes a name for herself in the fashion world
- Fall convocation
- Tipi raising on campus
- Indigenous rematriation advisor seeks rightful owners of artifacts
- 2020-2021 graduates celebrate in person
- Mellon funding helps UTM and global partners uncover hidden stories
- Happy holidays!
1. Tips for battling burnout
In early 2022, we launched Season Two of an award-winning series on battling burnout. The second season of “Battling Burnout: Wellbeing in the COVID Winter” featured UTM faculty and staff sharing the ways they deal with pandemic-related stress.
2. GLUE project shows how urbanization drives plant evolution
A ground-breaking study led by evolutionary biologists James Santangelo, Marc Johnson and Rob Ness found that urbanization is driving evolution in cities all over the world – and it all focuses on the humble white clover plant. The findings were published in the journal Science, fittingly enough for a study about clover, on St. Patrick’s Day, and the research was covered by dozens of media outlets around the world.
The Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE) analyzed data collected by 287 scientists in 160 cities in 26 countries, who sampled the white clover plant in their cities and nearby rural areas.
3. Spring convocation and the return of in-person celebrations
Marking "an exceptional accomplishment," #UofTGrad22 students came together this June to celebrate the first in-person convocation since the start of the pandemic.
Here are just a few stories from UTM grads:
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Thereasa Gordon set her sights on a degree – and never looked back
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Andi Darell Alhakim says co-curricular activities helped him chart a career path in sustainability
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Honours grad Yu-Chieh (Lily) Tsai found lessons inside and outside class
4. Displaced students in Ukraine get a chance to study at UTM
Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, UTM offered displaced undergraduate students from Ukrainian universities the opportunity to study at the campus for four months between May and August 2022. The summer program was one of several initiatives across the university to support students in Ukraine.
5. Syd Bolton Collection takes gaming studies to the next level
This summer we shone a spotlight on the Syd Bolton Collection, a game-changing collection of video game paraphernalia acquired by the UTM Library.
With more than 14,000 titles, plus consoles, manuals and around 5,000 gaming magazines, the collection is open to the public for any interested academic or fan.
UTM's new Mamava lactation pod offers a private option for breast and chestfeeding parents on campus.
Opened this past summer and located in the CCT building, the pod is available for the campus community and guests.
7. SURF’s up as UTM celebrates undergraduate research
August brought the Summer Undergraduate Research Fair (SURF) to celebrate undergrad research projects from the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
Featuring two keynote speakers, more than 100 presenters, and nearly 250 attendees, the one-day event was an important professional development opportunity for students, Office of the Vice-Principal Research Payem Zahedi said.
Since the release of Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin in 2017, UTM has been strengthening its commitment to deepen reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities. In June, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation opened an office at UTM.
"It is a wonderful opportunity for higher education to recognize our First Nation and to be able to share in our ongoing story of truth and reconciliation,” MCFN Elder Garry Sault said at the opening ceremony.
Check out a photo album on UTM's Facebook page.
This winter, UTM Vice-President and Principal Alexandra Gillespie announced a revised Strategic Framework based on feedback from community members.
The framework has three main goals:
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To unify our campus and the wider University’s existing plans into a common narrative;
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To generate a shared language to communicate our distinct commitments;
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To guide long-term decisions and investments.
The framework can be viewed here.
10. Students move into residence
With smiles, tears and plenty of helping hands, students moved into UTM’s residences on the Labour Day long weekend. The sun was shining as families and workers unloaded boxes and bins, all ready to move into residence buildings ahead of the new school year.
11. FastPheno and Flash Forest: assessing and reforesting Canada
Two developed-at-UTM drone technologies received funding in 2022 to help assess and reforest Canadian wilderness.
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Innovative FastPheno drone-based technology from associate professor of biology Ingo Ensminger’s lab received Genome Canada funding to remotely assess the health of trees impacted by climate change
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Flash Forest, a startup supported by UTM’s ICUBE, received Natural Resources Canada funding to use drone technology to plant more than a million trees in wildfire-ravaged locations across Canada.
12. Largest fall back-to-school group ever
More than 90,000 students from across Canada and around the world started arriving on the university’s three campuses this August ahead of the start of the 2022-2023 academic year.
Many returning students who began their studies remotely due to the pandemic were also getting acquainted with campus life, as were staff and faculty hired on during the time of remote work. It all added up to the biggest back-to-school cohort in U of T’s history.
Students found plenty of support as they adjusted to campus life, from orientation programs to campus clubs. Staff and upper-year students wore “Ask Me!” buttons at back-to-school events.
UTM's Undergraduate Robotics Teaching Laboratory officially opened in September, giving students hands-on experience working with robotics.
While it will be primarily used for upper-year computer science students taking robotics courses, the lab is also open to the whole U of T community – including graduate students in computer science, mechanical engineering and aerospace studies.
14. Remembering community members we’ve lost
The UTM community mourns those we’ve lost in the past year, including biology Professor Emeritus Josef Svoboda and Professor Barbara Murck of Geography, Geographics and Envirtonment..
In 2022, the community came together to honour the life of alumnus Michael Oppong Berchie, who died in 2021, with the Michael Berchie Tribute Lecture.
An ongoing exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, billed as the first major retrospective of the work of alumna Denyse Thomasos, pays tribute to the late artist. The exhibition includes two paintings dating back to when Thomasos, who died in 2012, was an Art and Art History student.
15. Snider Lecture tackles misinformation
The annual Snider Lecture brings the community together to discuss the most important issues of our time. In 2022, the issue was the “infodemic” of misinformation and the guest speaker was author, researcher and mythbuster Timothy Caulfield.
The free lecture was streamed online and viewed by thousands of alumni, students and members of the public around the world.
16. Alum Lesley Hampton makes a name for herself in the fashion world
An Anishanaabe artist, designer and model, alumna Lesley Hampton is a passionate advocate for inclusivity, mental wellness and authentic representation.
She’s had a banner year building on the success of her size-inclusive fashion line, which she launched after graduation. Her November Fashion Art Toronto show garnered accolades for a runway that included models from the BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ community.
Students convocating in fall 2022 gathered in November for in-person ceremonies.
Among the UTM grads: UTM Women in Law founder Neha Sharma, who has set her sights on starting a non-profit after graduation.
There was no shortage of photo opportunities on campus and at Convocation Hall as grads celebrated with family and friends – see a selection of images on our Facebook page.
The new tipi erected in the green space outside of Maanjiwe nendamowinan (MN) is part of UTM’s commitment to placemaking and raising the profile of the Indigenous community on campus.
Indigenous Student Support Specialist Jessica Tabak explained the significance of the tipi's presence at UTM in the video below.
19. Indigenous rematriation advisor seeks rightful owners of 40,000-artifact collection
This fall, Assistant Professor Robin Gray was appointed UTM's first-ever advisor on Indigenous rematriation.
Her work will focus on a massive collection of 40,000 Indigenous artifacts excavated at the Antrex site in Mississauga that are currently housed at UTM's Department of Anthropology.
20. 2020-2021 graduates celebrate in person
“This is your time,” Vice-Dean Faculty Kathi Wilson told recent UTM grads during in-person celebrations for the class of 2020 and class of 2021. Four UTM-specific celebrations took place over two days in December, allowing those who had convocated in virtual ceremonies to have their chance to cross the stage.
In total, alumni and their 24,000 guests attended 28 special in-person graduation celebrations over 13 days.
21. Mellon funding helps UTM and global partners uncover hidden stories
U of T announced in December that it’s launching a collaborative and interdisciplinary project entitled Hidden Stories: New Approaches to the Local and Global History of the Book, funded by the Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Foundation has given a $2.69 million grant for the next four years to support the project, which involves a collaboration with 130 researchers —humanists, scientists, librarians, curators, conservators and others — at U of T and from 60 institutions across the world.
It’s the latest in a series of projects in global book history co-ordinated by the research team at UTM’s Old Books New Science Lab.
With the holiday season approaching, UTM Vice-President and Principal Alexandra Gillespie expressed her hope that UTM students, faculty, staff, librarians and alumni find time to rest, relax and enjoy the company of friends and loved ones. Happy holidays from #UTM!