ITS virtual town hall highlights

Published on: February 18, 2022

ITS staff at the virtual town hall.

Information Technology Services (ITS) at the University of Toronto (U of T) hosted a virtual all staff town hall on Feb. 16, led by Bo Wandschneider, Chief Information Officer. The town hall was attended by more than 200 staff members and provided updates on the IT@UofT 2022 Conference and capital projects, followed by an open Q&A session.

Keep reading for highlights from the event.

IT@UofT 2022 Conference

Bo spoke about the upcoming IT@UofT 2022 Conference, which will be hosted virtually on the Hopin event platform on May 4 and 5. The conference theme is: Change. Resilience. Adaptation.

ITS previously announced this year’s conference co-chairs Anthony Betts, Director, Information and Instructional Technology Services, U of T Mississauga, and Marden Paul, Director, Planning, Governance and Assessment, ITS.

Bo noted the call for proposal submissions (now open) and encouraged ITS staff to consider submitting a proposal to present at the conference.

Campus and facilities planning

ITS staff learned about the many capital projects underway across U of T campuses from Christine Burke, Assistant Vice-President, University Planning, and Brian Szuberwood, Interim Executive Director, Capital Projects.

Some of the project highlights included:

Robarts Common (St. George campus) – expected to open in March 2022
Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre (St. George campus)
Retail and Parking Commons (Scarborough campus)
Landmark Project (St. George campus)

U of T’s capital projects support the University’s low-carbon action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 37 per cent from 1990 levels by the year 2030 and become a climate positive campus by 2050.

Q&A session

Bo opened the Q&A session by thanking ITS staff for their hard work through the challenges brought on by the pandemic.

“Let me acknowledge how challenging the last two years have been for all of us, both personally and professionally. I’m extremely proud of how you’ve all worked to keep our IT@UofT community connected and how well you have delivered on the evolving technology demands in the community.”

Lori-Anne Hill, Director, Human Resources (HR), Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, chimed in to answer some HR-related questions from employees.

On the topic of health and safety while working on campus, staff were reminded to:

Complete UCheck each day before coming to campus.
Refer to the UTogether website and U of T’s face mask policy for information about wearing masks on campus.
Contact Health & Well-Being at hwb@utoronto.ca or (416) 946-0537 if you are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and need medical accommodation.
Make use of the Employee and Family Assistance Program if you need support.

As Bo noted, our return to campus plans and all future phases include on-campus staff presence. This approach will foster opportunities for collaboration, relationship building and career connections.

Thank you to those who presented and attended the town hall. Survey feedback is collected and reviewed after every town hall to inform future events.

See you at the next town hall!