A Truro tour

Last week, new president Richard Florizone spent the third day of the "100 Days of Listening" visiting Dalhousie's newest community at the Agricultural Campus. It was a day of tours, interactive activities and a strawberry social in the Alumni Gardens.

Dr. Florizone received a warm welcome from faculty, staff and students who introduced the president to the beautiful campus on one of the sunniest afternoons of the summer.

Dalhousie Agricultural Students’ Association President Robyn MacCallum kicked the day off with the presentation of an Agriculture T-shirt before Dr. Florizone spent the morning touring the departments of Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Business and Social Sciences and Plant Science.

Five employees won the opportunity to join members of the executive team along with the president for lunch including Research Intern Crystal Fullerton, Director of Enrolment Management Wayne Paquet, Manager of Research Services Heather Hughes, Manager International Office Nancy Thornton and Sarah Stewart-Clark, assistant professor in shellfish aquaculture.

An interactive Q&A session with staff and a tour of Animal Sciences and the Ruminant Animal Centre brought the day to a close before the campus community gathered in the Alumni Gardens for an old-fashioned strawberry social.

Acting Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture Claude Caldwell, speaking at the afternoon social, he described how the tour had gone.

"Dr. Florizone thoroughly enjoyed himself and the chance to meet members of our faculty, staff and students and was impressed with our facilities, our research and our connections to the community," said Dr. Caldwell. "But, most of all, he was impressed with our people."

Dr. Florizone couldn't have agreed more, saying how the warm welcome matched the one he'd received in Halifax.

In his closing remarks, he spoke to the Faculty's importance to the university, only a year following the merger, saying simply, "I have never known a Dalhousie University without a Faculty of Agriculture."