Reflecting on student success, reconciliation, gratitude, trust, and nature: A conversation with UTM Principal Alexandra Gillespie
In line with annual tradition, The Medium sat down with UTM’s principal to give students better insight into the office’s work, and the journey, motivations and goals of its holder.

As the new school year at the University of Toronto (U of T) Mississauga (UTM) begins to unfold, it is common for students and faculty to take time to reflect on their academic and professional trajectories and identify their priorities for the year ahead. 

At our campus, nowhere is such a practice more critical than in the offices of the highest echelons of UTM and U of T leadership, upon whom is the burden of steering the titanic that is our university — an institution with over 100,000 students, over 16,000 faculty, and an operating budget of $3.62 billion. 

At UTM, such leadership is represented by the individual with the responsibility and privilege of leading our campus: UTM Principal and U of T Vice-President Alexandra Gillespie. This year, faithful to tradition, The Medium sat down with Gillespie, just two months after the announcement of the extension of her seat as principal.

Through our conversation, The Medium aimed to provide readers an understanding of the inner workings of both UTM’s highest office and its holder by gaining insight into the achievements, ambitions and challenges facing the university, as well as getting to know Gillespie, her journey to the principal’s rank, her motivations and drive, and the philosophies that guide her leadership.

Accomplishments and milestones

Regarding what she is most proud of over her now five-year tenure as principal, Gillespie placed student success at the helm of UTM’s progress by pointing to the campus’s increases in graduation and student retention rates. While noting that such a detail may seem minor, Gillespie highlighted how such a trajectory represents “more students coming here and finding a place where they can thrive.” 

As to what makes UTM an environment conducive to student achievement, Gillespie referred to the university’s investments in student financial and wellness support over the last few years. These investments manifest through programs like activities in the Wellness Den, events like the Health and Counselling Centre’s Be Well Fair, which over 6,000 students attend each year, and the Recreation, Athletics and Wellness Centre’s (RAWC) extra-curricular support services. 

Gillespie also emphasized how such growth inspires substantial pride, specifically because of its emergence during the last five years, which “have not been easy years for anybody.”

Besides the various global and societal challenges that scarred this time period, the university also faced multiple fiscal obstacles, including frozen tuition fees, inflation that has eroded government funding, and challenges around international student enrollment. Despite these roadblocks, Gillespie proudly noted how the university was able to successfully manage the budget and drive resources into what matters, namely, student success. 

Gillespie also recalled the raising of the Indigenous Tipi in 2023, calling it a moment of “joy and pride.” The tipi, which sits on the end of Principal’s Road, serves as a space for UTM’s Indigenous community to connect and for the campus community as a whole to practically engage in the work of reconciliation. 

Moreover, Gillespie spotlighted the university’s announcement that the government would be funding 30 new nursing placement spots at UTM in collaboration with the Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at U of T. This venture will provide new pathways for undergraduates and respond to the lack of healthcare in our province and nation. “Like, what’s more important than a nurse? Not much,” Gillespie said, stressing that these placements would fill this dire gap with skilled graduates right out of the Peel Region. 

Gillespie’s passion for student success was evident, as the conversation ultimately ended where we started, with her underscoring what she considered the biggest source of joy. “I do want to stress — the thing I’m proud of is when I stand up on that stage during convocation, and students walk across and get their degree, and I see their parents’ faces in the audience and we’re all trying not to cry with joy. That’s what makes me proud.” 

A conversation on truth, reconciliation, and renewal

In September 2023, The Medium’s then Editor-in-Chief, Juliana Stacey, and Managing Editor, River Knott, sat down with the principal, to discuss the concept of “diagrammatic representation” — a model of organization Gillespie used to depict the “heart of campus.” In 2023, the “heart” in question referred to the university’s aspirations around Truth and Reconciliation and environmentalism. 

This focus on the “heart” was a guiding principle to this interview, as ultimately, statistics and figures can be found online at the click of a button; however, it is more difficult to lay flat the schematics of the heart — to articulate what makes someone or something tick.

Regarding UTM’s current core list of priorities, Gillespie revisited the idea of Truth and Reconciliation and took it a step further. Gillespie first emphasized the importance of placing reconciliation “at the heart of our strategic framework,” especially by how it speaks to the commitment of Canadians to reconcile and “doing things in a better way than we have in the past with Indigenous Peoples.” 

Running with this idea, Gillespie elaborated with an emphasis that Truth and Reconciliation reinforces “telling the truth about the past and indeed the present, and using that truth as a foundation from which to springboard into a more honest, more just, [and] more beautiful future. I believe in that really, really deeply.” 

Gillespie continued by offering this truth-telling lens as a new perspective to adopt in every area of the university, from administration to class, to ensure that students are armed to take on a world “full of all kinds of complicated misinformation.” 

Such a focus might be easy to overlook, especially among the various other tasks that the Principal engages with, such as reducing the campus’s carbon emissions as a part of Project SHIFT to renovating, and reopening Spiegel Hall to increase space for student activities and multi-faith religious observation and prayer. However, Gillespie emphasized that even with the weight of tangible goals and duties, there is a need to base our relationships on mutual respect, honesty, good faith, kindness and grace, which she believes compose the foundation of a bright and flourishing future. 

On the topic of motivation

One can imagine Gillespie’s burdens as the principal of UTM and one of the nine vice presidents of U of T. With a role that involves making decisions that impact tens of thousands of students, her responsibilities are no easy job to handle. Having thought about this, it was natural to ask Gillespie what motivates her day after day. 

Gillespie reiterated the inspiration that originates from the hope that the students she impacts will walk the graduation stage, facing the “possibility of a future that’s better than the past” — a future that “they will help to create.” 

On a more personal level, Gillespie named gratitude as her foremost inspiration, and noted the outlook she’s adopted to funnel tire into power to create positivity.

To articulate her point, Gillespie referred to a quote from the British actor Alec Guinness (who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy). 

Summarizing the quote, Gillespie stated that “we have our moments of sorrow and solitude, and that’s [when] we worry about ourselves and the people we love.” However, in this pain, “we become aware of others’ suffering”  — a truth also encapsulated in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, where he wrote “I have suffered / With those that I saw suffer!” (Act 1, Scene 2). Gillespie, drawing on Guiness, affirmed that despite these trials, you can “acknowledge your losses, acknowledge those feelings, and then get right back up … get out there, and extend a hand to those who need help.” 

Zooming out, Gillespie underlined the crux of the matter: “giving, giving, giving” — an optimized offering of the gifts, privilege and blessedness we experience to those around us. The key to this “giving” is working out who we are and what makes us special, and then unapologetically doubling down to ultimately possess a skill that can be used to help the people around us. 

“That is what inspires me — that I’ve got lots that I’m so lucky to be able to give … so there you are, that’s what’s in my heart.” 

Words of wisdom

As one might expect, Gillespie is not new to the academic grind. After finishing her undergraduate degree at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Gillespie made her way to Oxford University, where she completed her master’s and doctorate as a Rhodes Scholar. 

After fellowships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, she proceeded to UTM, where she served as a professor (and received UTM’s highest teaching award in 2010) until 2020, when she became principal. Given both her experience and success in academics, a point was made to ask Gillespie for the advice she would give to students of all levels of experience. 

Gillespie started by preaching an open-mindedness that takes advantage of the many opportunities offered by U of T to expand one’s horizons as a student and person. “The advice I would give is don’t be afraid of letting your education and your experiences change you. It almost sounds like the opposite of the advice I just gave, when I said figure out who you are and then double down on that,” she said. “Don’t be ashamed of who you are — and yet I’m also saying, allow yourself to be transformed by what is happening around you. I think it’s possible to think of two contradictory things and hold space for both.” 

Gillespie also stressed the potency of pursuing one’s interests and curiosity. “Follow your curiosity … when something sparks inside of you, just go that direction. Don’t worry too much about what’s going to happen at the end.” 

To articulate her point, Gillespie rendered her own experience in undergrad, when her school counsellors advised her to pursue law, while her parents encouraged her to identify what she truly wanted. Torn over her passion for nature and the arts, Gillespie ultimately made a decision. “And I was like, you know what, I’m just going to go with the arts thing, I’m going to go with books [and] literature.” 

Gillespie contentedly observed that her decision was not the absolute end, as her options ultimately intertwined, not just through her hikes through UTM’s trails but also through the intriguing study of fungal growth in books. “I just managed to combine them,” she said. 

On that note, Gillespie mentioned that the power of curiosity and its consequent self-discovery is best applied with a special ingredient: trust in oneself. “I followed my curiosity. I trusted myself. If you’re good enough to be at this university and if you’re going to get the lift that this university is going to give you, you can afford to follow the things that really excite you.” 

Drawing on her own experience, Gillespie pointed to the adjustment in her trajectory when she was introduced to Geoffrey Chaucer in a class that would change the rest of her academic career. “I haven’t stopped being interested in him … I [still] care about his ideas about the world and the beautiful art he made.”

With the evidence submitted and her arguments laid out, Gillespie rested her case with the essence of the matter, “So, follow your curiosity … I think that remains the case. Back yourself. Trust the transformation that education wreaks.” 

A campus shaped by nature

Besides her work studying fungal growth in books, Gillespie is an avid naturalist and forager — a hobby that is well served by the natural splendour of UTM’s landscape, one filled with various types of flora and fauna.

Given her knowledge of UTM’s terrain, Gillespie was the perfect person to seek advice from regarding where students should go to best experience our campus’s beauty. 

In our conversation, Gillespie provided readers with specific directions to one of her favourite spots: start at Lislehurst, the principal’s residence, which can be accessed through Principal’s Road on the North of the Maanjiwe nendamowinan building. From there, access the nature trail that goes off the turning circle by the house towards the Missinnihe, also known as the Credit River. “At this time of year, you can look down and you can see people casting and catching actual salmon that are swimming upstream to spawn.”

Reflecting on the “immemorial” cycle of the salmon run, Gillespie also highlights the river’s importance to the Mississaugas of the Credit to identify a key takeaway from the discussion: “you’re both seeing something beautiful in nature, but also something that [speaks to us] about the history of our relationship with the land and our relationship with one another.” 

Moreover, the forest, especially right now in the fall, is “extremely pretty,” prompting Gillespie to suggest that “every student should walk that path before they graduate.” “Within the next two weeks, the leaves will seriously start to turn, and there are parts of it where you’re going through maples and beech where it’s like you’re in an elven forest.” 

To further illustrate this beauty, Gillespie crosses realms to compare the spot to the “goldengrove unleaving” noted in the English poet Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poem, “Spring and Fall.”

Reflecting on the last line of the poem, which reads, “It is the blight man was born for / it is Margaret you mourn for,” Gillespie pointed out a common experience for many during the fall. She simultaneously highlighted the valuable lesson it contains, a takeaway not just relevant for the onset of fall, but perhaps any nostalgic experience or entrance into a time a bit more daunting. 

“It’s talking about why we feel sadness in the fall, and you can feel sad,” Gillespie said. “You feel yourself slowly getting ready for winter … but for me, the beauty of fall tells us that we shouldn’t grieve — that this too is part of what is, and is right.”