Reflecting on UWindsor’s top on-campus events of 2025

By John-Paul Bonadonna

Memorable events took place across UWindsor’s campus in 2025. From celebrations of people to collaboration announcements to ribbon cuttings, campus was buzzing all year — with something for students, faculty, staff, retirees, alumni and future Lancers alike.

In January, the Odette School of Business hosted the 2025 North American Debating Championships, drawing 75 elite debate teams from across Canada and the United States. UWindsor welcomed top-tier institutions like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, McGill and the University of Toronto to our campus.

Annual Open House events welcomed future Lancers in both the Spring and Fall seasons, with thousands of attendees taking part in campus tours, information sessions and conversations with current students, faculty and staff.

Spring attendees who chose the University of Windsor were likely some of the first from the campus community to meet President J.J. McMurtry who attended “Welcome Week” events in September upon his arrival to Windsor.

Convocation ceremonies in 2025 featured added flair, as Dr. McMurtry was formally installed as President and Vice-Chancellor during October’s Fall ceremonies, with Chancellor Dwight Duncan having been installed as Chancellor during Spring ceremonies. Over 5,500 students also became alumni as they crossed the stage and became graduates.

In early May, UWindsor senior leadership and the Windsor University Retirees’ Association (WURA) celebrated the grand opening of Sunset House, a newly repurposed home located on Sunset Avenue that now serves as a welcoming hub for faculty, librarian and staff retirees. The space is designed to foster connection and collaboration across generations and keep retirees involved in meaningful ways.

2025 also showcased the vibrant intellectual and cultural life on campus, with events that bridged research, community and national conversation.

The Humanities Research Group (HRG) hosted a special lecture by acclaimed author and cultural critic Musa al-Gharbi in September, recorded live for national broadcast by CBC Ideas.

Alumni Week in late September engaged graduates and welcomed them back to campus life. Highlights included Black Alumni Weekend — bringing together Black alumni and students for mentorship, conversation and community building. The week also featured a campus barbecue and a spirited football tailgate and game, giving alumni a chance to reconnect and celebrate their shared identity as Lancers.

In October, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Rodzik Hall took place. The new six-storey student residence adds more than 450 beds to campus housing and includes private and barrier-free accommodation options, large community lounges, shared laundry facilities and a dining hall.

Athletic momentum roared back to campus in late October as the Windsor Lancers football team secured a home semi-final game — their first at home in 35 years — at Alumni Stadium. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and the broader Windsor community took part in pregame tailgates and a loud and vibrant demonstration of blue and gold in support of the Lancers.

In support of athletic excellence, the University welcomed a distinguished class into the 2025 Alumni Sports Hall of Fame in November. The inductees included standout Lancer athletes Corey Bellemore (track and field), Brian Jones (football & track), Gisèle Poulin (women’s track and field), and Parker Van Buskirk (hockey), along with the 1985 Lancer men’s soccer team receiving a Team Achievement Award for its undefeated division-championship season.

That same month, DevFest Windsor 2025 transformed campus into a hub of innovation. Over 300 developers, designers, entrepreneurs, students and tech-enthusiasts gathered at the Odette School of Business. Part of a global series by the Google Developer Group, participants engaged with cutting-edge topics like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity and software development.

UWindsor also played host to a historic international gathering as more than 50 biodiversity experts, Indigenous knowledge holders and science-policy leaders came together for a landmark workshop at the Caldwell First Nation restoration site. It marked the first time the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) convened in the Great Lakes Basin.

Over the course of the weeklong conference, participants took part in a first-of-its-kind water ceremony at a wetland restoration site, attended medicine-plant walks in Point Pelee National Park and explored Indigenous histories and ecological perspectives through collaborative tours co-led by Indigenous knowledge holders and Parks Canada staff.

For UWindsor, the workshop wasn’t just academic. It was an opportunity to show how a campus in Windsor can engage with global environmental issues while honouring local land, history and community relationships.

Through events across campus, the UWindsor community was more connected, more inclusive, more engaged and more ready than ever to build on the foundations laid in 2025.

Here’s to another year of Lancer pride and to all the stories, successes, and milestones yet to come in 2026 and beyond.

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