The University’s fundraising efforts will be recast around the theme “Place of Promise,” UWindsor president Alan Wildeman announced during his annual campus address Friday. The change was one of five priorities he identified for his remaining term in office, which will draw to a close in June 2018.

“We want the University of Windsor to be the spot where we can imagine the potential within ourselves to make the world a better place,” Dr. Wildeman said. “Significantly rebuilding the campus has been about significantly rebuilding the place where promises are fulfilled.”

He did not set a target amount, saying that he hopes donors will give as much as they are able for the causes important to them.

“Support student scholarships, support the library, support the Armouries project, support the new science research facility,” Wildeman said. “Give a dollar or a million. It all counts.”

He said the “Place of Promise” theme will appear on materials used by gift officers and staff in alumni and donor relations. The campaign will run until May 2018, and it will be for his successor to decide whether to extend the concept.

The other priorities he plans to tackle are acting on recommendations on how to optimize enrolment, negotiating a new strategic mandate agreement with the province, concluding a collective agreement with faculty, and completing key infrastructure projects, including the River Commons on the site of the parking lot formerly located immediately east of the Biology Building.

Read the entire text of Wildeman’s address, “2017: A Prime Number for a Prime Year,” or watch a video of his presentation.