A World Without Limits
Letter from the President and Vice-Chancellor of Saint Mary's University, Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray
Dear Saint Mary’s alumni,
This issue of Maroon & White is the first to reflect our newly updated Saint Mary’s brand platform.
Launched publicly on June 2, 2021, our new platform is the culmination of months of work, research and dialogue with our entire community, including you, our alumni family.
The exercise to update our new brand platform went far beyond the visual (although we did take the opportunity to modernize our logo and other elements.) It allowed for an intentional examination of who we are and how others see us. It was an effort to crystallize that which makes Saint Mary’s distinctive.
The result is compelling, truthful and aspirational.
The phrase World Without Limits is a key element of the platform. It feels especially bold at a time when our access to the physical world is still necessarily restricted, and when members of our community face invisible barriers. But taken as a key idea, as a way of being in the world and as something to strive for, the phrase rings true and becomes a call to action.
Many of you participated in the consultation process, whether via sessions with the Alumni Council, Young Alumni Council or added your voices via an online survey. Thank you for your engagement.
The interest, and the sense of ownership and pride, that our community showed throughout this process was astonishing. This new form of expression, or brand, is a reflection of the stories you shared.
We heard about professors creating innovative opportunities for discovery and possibility for our students. We heard of students engaging their professors and classmates to examine ideas and issues from diverse and varying perspectives. We heard about people from a wide range of communities coming together to create a shared community - a community that is both international and domestic and one that fosters collaboration and innovation.
This blend of world-leading research combined with a friendly and welcoming Maritime feel creates a place of possibility.
World Without Limits is a distillation of the best of Saint Mary’s University. It’s also a call to action as we work towards a future that is inclusive, sustainable, diverse, positive and resilient.
And, it is a new, refined logo, graphic elements and associated language treatments, all with the intention of telling the Saint Mary’s University story in a vibrant new manner, while still honouring our history and traditions.
You have all contributed to where we are today and our progress towards our shared future. Thank you for continuing to be our proudest ambassadors and for your part in the Saint Mary’s story.
Age Quod Agis.
Letter from the Alumni President
Welcome to Summer 2021 and second edition of the fully digital Maroon & White alumni magazine. If you’re like me, you are slowly coming out of one of the most challenging years in our province, our country and around the world. It’s been a challenging time but summer is upon us and things are opening up here in Nova Scotia. It’s hard to believe but I know this will be behind us soon enough and we will be gathering again. My thoughts go out to our alumni who have lost loved ones, been separated from family and have had challenges in business. Resilience has been a common theme throughout the past year and I know our alumni will come out of this stronger, wherever you are in the world. In May, we graduated our fourth cohort during the pandemic with another virtual convocation. The classes of 2020 and 2021 will be faced with tougher times than other classes, no doubt. Our students and alumni benefit from a university that values its people. We are a caring community. If you are in a position to hire a recent grad or support them through their career search, please do what you can. You can learn about a few of our newest alumni in the Alumni Features section. We are proud to count them among our more than 53,000 alumni. We are also delighted to display this edition in our new brand for the university, which was launched officially in June after many months of consultation and work with the Saint Mary’s community, including you, our valued alumni. The Alumni Council was consulted in the beginning stages and we had the benefit of a preview before it was launched to the community. The response was very positive. Thanks to our alumni who participated in our three brand launch events held on June 2. We had alumni from all over the world taking part in these events and hearing about the story of Saint Mary’s and its new look and feel. Enjoy the stories in this edition of Maroon & White, including how alumni-owned bicycle shop Cyclesmith dealt with the pandemic bike boom and our Wicked Problems Lab is using data to solve global issues like food security. Also, read about faculty member Dr. Evie Tastsoglou and her important work on global migration and the causes and impacts of violence against women refugees. These are just a few of the stories to be found in this issue, stories that are true to our new brand, World Without Limits. Take some time and browse and read about our alumni and campus. If you have a story you would like us to share, please get in touch at alumni@smu.ca.
Scott McElman BComm'91 President, Saint Mary's University Alumni Council
