Aug. 17, 2016

Here's a recap of Ono's first day in office yesterday

Written by Bailey Ramsay

photo Jack Hauen / The Ubyssey

A few months ago, multiple headlines reading, “Santa's coming to town” stirred a significant amount of hype within the UBC community. After much anticipation, President Ono began his first day in office yesterday.

His first task of the day was the most challenging and fearsome part of any new job — figuring out your email password. Over the past couple weeks, a pile of emails had been waiting to greet him first thing in the morning. How he had energy to smile at the meet and greet that followed, we'll never know.

In the courtyard outside the Nest from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., President Ono — sporting a Thunderbird blue and yellow bowtie — held a meet-and-greet that was attended by an estimated 400 people. Among the faculty, staff and students were four animal rights protesters from STOP UBC animal research.

“I wouldn’t call them protesters,” said Ono. “They were very calm. They were four people from the animal rights group and we had a very nice conversation. They said they were going to send me a presentation they had given to the Board of Governors (BoG) and I promised to look at it.”

Ono believes that the weather, being a perfectly cloudless 22 degrees, was one of the contributors to the success of the event's attendance.

“It was a much bigger crowd that had been anticipated and I just hope that there was enough coffee for everybody.”

Departing from the glorious sun and into the fluorescent glow of an office, Ono then had a series of meetings. After speaking with people from human resources, he had a two-hour long conversation with David Farrar, former interim president and provost, about all things transition-y.

“As you can imagine, during a transition, it’s really important for there to be a transfer of information and projects that are underway.”

Next was a meeting with Reny Kahlon, the secretary of the BoG, where they discussed the upcoming BoG meeting in September.

Stuart Belkin, the chair of our wonderfully tumultuous BoG, also got a slice of Ono's time yesterday as they began to look at possible topics of conversation for the upcoming board meeting in September.

“One of the things that's been an important conversation is governance — board governance. That’s a very possible topic for the agenda and the upcoming board meeting. I think that was the primary focus of our conversation.”

Spending hours talking about things to touch on at a later encounter sounds like a ridiculous level of adulting. Hopefully this will lead to the BoG and Ono being besties and avoid awkward secret meetings about each other.

After those meetings, Ono was kind enough to fit our short interview about his first day during the only free time he had left — the time it took to walk from his office to his home, the Norman Mackenzie House, to get ready for dinner.

During our walking interview, Ono was recognized by another gentleman in the street with whom he had been emailing earlier about ideas concerning UBC housing. Ono greeted the man for the first time in person.

“As you can see, I can’t cycle with you because you’re in infinitely better shape,” said Ono in his farewell to the gentleman. Clearly Ono is just making friend with everyone.

Later that night, Ono and his wife had dinner with the General Consul for Japan in Vancouver to cap off a “fantastic day.”

“It was a very productive first day. Often on first days, there actually isn’t a lot of work that gets done. But in my case, I’m taking homework back,” said Ono, gesturing to the binder in his hand. “I’m here to be the president of a university. You don’t want a slacker here, you want somebody who’s working hard.”

After spending five minutes walking home with Ono, I trust we'll all be biking to campus with him soon.

“I’m incredibly pumped and excited, and my interaction with the people of UBC today has exceeded my expectations,” said Ono. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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