By Connor Kay – Staff Writer
The semester winds down to final essays and exams while the light at the end of the tunnel approaches. It also marks the end of Principal Michael Goldbloom’s work at Bishop’s University.
Goldbloom’s path to Bishop’s University began with his successful career as the president of both Alliance Quebec and the YMCA in Montreal. Goldbloom’s leadership then took him into his career in journalism as editorial writer, soon to become president and publisher of The Gazette in Montréal and then later the publisher of the Toronto Star. Goldbloom would stay in the field of news and journalism by later becoming chair of CBC. After briefly working at McGill University, Goldbloom found his position as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Bishop’s University in 2008. Goldbloom quickly rose to become an asset to the campus life of the university with his friendly and approachable character to alumni and incoming students alike. Goldbloom was quick to get to work as the newly appointed principal, as he was already prepared to promote a bilingual space for the campus to be as inclusive as possible for English and French speakers while promoting the environment for students who chose to study abroad at Bishop’s.
When Goldbloom was asked about his first impressions of the university as he stepped into the principal’s position, he stated: “What I found when I got here was a fragile institution in a period of severe disunity, but I also found an institution that wanted to succeed and move forward as long as everyone was pulling in the same direction.” In perspective, the low number of roughly 1700 students and financial troubles led to the nearing possibility of the closure of Bishop’s. However, Goldbloom was quick to act as he expressed that the three most important priorities were “student recruitment, student recruitment, and student recruitment” to begin to bring the university back into unity between faculty and students.
Upon increasing the number of students by 40 per cent, the next significant change was to offer more opportunities for students to engage in casual academics which began in the creation of the Donald Lecture Series. Having the lecture series began to bring balance to the image of Bishop’s as a party school with balanced academia. Bishop’s social climate and academic opportunity has developed with enrollment.
With the rise of Bishop’s growing attendance, status, and academia, Goldbloom mentioned that the buildings and facilities quality were unsatisfactory due to the previous mismanagement of the budget. This posed the challenge of securing funding from both the government and donors to renovate and revamp the campus piece by piece while planning ahead for renovations to come. An accomplishment that resonates to this day with that challenge is the Sports Complex, Purple Pod, the greenhouse, and the new residence building, all which give students the widest variety of opportunities that Bishop’s can offer.
In discussing Goldbloom’s leadership at Bishop’s, he expressed: “It has been an enormous gift to be a part of this community and wake up every morning to try and make a difference, which has been my privilege to meet so many talented people.” Goldbloom also became conflicted when asked to share his favourite memory he has of the university. One of many was his recent invitation from the director of athletics, Matt McBrine, to announce the starting line-up for the women’s hockey team versus McGill when the team surprised Goldbloom by retiring the #18 Jersey, standing for the 18th Principal of Bishop’s University, in salute for coordinating the revival of the women’s hockey team to join the RSEQ league in 2020.
Principal Goldbloom’s final message to students is:
“This is a place to take chances, take a course or do something that makes you nervous and gets you out of your comfort zone because it’s the right time and place to do that; never stop challenging yourself because you never know how valuable that might be in the future.”
The Campus 