The University of Winnipeg is planning new, dramatic and innovative spaces for its Global College to enhance international learning and dialogue - creating a unique opportunity for naming rights for the magnificent dialogue centre, and the spaces for students, community, and faculty that make up the Global Learning Commons.
The Global College needs $2.5 million to build this new home on the top floor of the building under construction at 460 Portage Avenue beside the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The new space and new programs for students, faculty, and the local and international communities served will build on the growing reputation of the Global College for excellence.
We would like to talk with you about the scope and depth of learning at Global College, its mission, research, outreach, academic goals and achievements, and all that may be realized with this new space. The new Global Learning Commons will help put Global College and its university firmly on the international map as an intellectual beacon for specialized learning and debate, enhancing Winnipeg's reputation as a world centre for Human Rights.
On behalf of the Global College New Space Committee, I invite you to explore the opportunities and would be delighted to speak with you in person.
Marilou McPhedran Principal, Global College
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At Global College we are creating space and time for dialogue - in classrooms and in communities, on campus and online - with local, national and international Dialogue Associates.
The University of Winnipeg Global College mission is to foster global citizenship and engagement in human rights through interdisciplinary teaching, research, dialogue, and action in local and global communities.
Global College is an action-oriented, interdisciplinary forum for Canadian and international students. It brings students and community members into contact with local faculty, visiting scholars, local leaders and notable speakers from around the world to discover their role within the local and global community, their responsibility to protect, and responsibility to act.
At Global College we strive to provide students, faculty, staff, visiting scholars, dignitaries, and community representatives with spaces to interact to share their diverse perspectives about global citizenship, human rights, and other issues affecting our planet.
We welcome members of institutes of learning, governments and civil society - including the business community. All are invited to participate in dialogue and take action through a range of initiatives, for example: What does it take to build a human rights city?
Students - of any age - who are committed to obtaining an interdisciplinary education organized around questions of social justice, global citizenship, and human rights are welcome to explore our new BA in Human Rights, the first in Western Canada, launched in September 2009.
Click here to explore our new BA in Human Rights and Global Studies
Anyone can access the teach-ins, symposia, conferences, and lectures offered by the seven Institutes of Global College, each headed by distinguished University of Winnipeg faculty, as well as condensed intensive credit courses taught by visiting scholars and our faculty - usually for one-time only - in Global College Spring and Summer Institutes.
Click here to explore the seven Institutes of Global College
Building the Global College Learning Commons involves eight naming opportunities:
the entire Global Learning Commons $2.5 million,
or
the Dialogue Space round room $750,000 skylight $250,000 accessibility fund $200,000
round room $750,000 skylight $250,000 accessibility fund $200,000
the Student Space $250,000 global citizenship fund $300,000
global citizenship fund $300,000
the Support Space $250,000 global scholars fund $500,000
global scholars fund $500,000
Through these spaces, we commit to active learning and social engagement, with faculty who support students to understand multiple paths through content. As technology becomes more affordable and mobile, we use it to create a ‘global learning commons’ with adaptable technology platforms that allow our students to engage in research, dialogue and action, locally and globally.
commons
noun a space belonging to or affecting the whole of a community
a space belonging to or affecting the whole of a community
The Global College Learning Commons enhances the art of learning by sharing space with other faculties within 460 Portage Avenue, including Continuing Education and Business. Co-location gives students of all ages coming to the Global Learning Commons the opportunity for porous interface with technology-based learning through the telepresence studio and exhibits on every floor of Winnipeg’s foremost contemporary art gallery - Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art - confronting and celebrating ideas and issues affecting today’s society through interdisciplinary artworks of all media.
The round Dialogue Space with its inspiring skylight is not just a classroom, it is designed to facilitate communication and conflict resolution and will be available as a meeting space for Winnipeg civil society – including community, business and government.
University of Winnipeg is part of its larger community – with the cultural, economic and religious diversity that is now a distinguishing feature of inner city living – in Winnipeg and much of the world.
The 4000 square foot Global College Dialogue Space is more than a classroom, with a shift to focus on interaction, uniting formal and community based learning. Strongly committed to experiential learning as a key component of the Global College degree program in Human Rights and Global Studies, this space is essential to learning the practical implications of the multi-dimensional nature of respectful, productive dialogue - enhanced by Global College Dialogue Associates from business, governments and communities.
The skylight, the central feature of the global college dialogue space, brings the indisputable benefits of learning within a space lit by natural light. It spiritually and emotionally nourishes those who use the space, while creating a connection to communities, locally and globally. The visible movement of the prairie sky parallels the movement of ideas occurring within the dialogue space.
An effective learning space is open to the larger community, physically flexible - humanized to encourage students to define and organize their space to construct knowledge - not just to find information but to learn to apply it in meaningful ways.
The 1000 square foot Global College Student Space is co-located with the principal, visiting scholars and staff because, at Global College, learning is not confined to scheduled classroom spaces and times, and students are encouraged to explore issues of human rights in a context of globalization – past, present and future.
A guiding premise for the Student Space is that the concept ‘human rights’ is understood in multiple ways, thus the Human Rights and Global Studies degree explicitly adopts an interdisciplinary approach not only in its core courses and practicum, but also within and across each of the three streams from which students will choose elective courses:
Students majoring in Human Rights and Global Studies will be exposed to diverse perspectives from fields such as peace and conflict studies, women’s and gender studies, international development studies, culture and communication, English, French, politics, history, geography, philosophy, anthropology, economics, and religious studies.
Teaching, research, dialogue and action at Global College cannot happen without full-time dedicated leadership. The 1500 square foot Global College Support Space combines an open work area with offices for the Principal, Executive Coordinator, Global Scholars, visiting Dialogue Associates, and Community Liaison, connected to the Dialogue Space and the Student Space, to sustain the Global College Learning Commons.
To be sustainable, Dialogue Space costs have to be recouped. Community leaders and organizations often do not have the money to pay for using such space when they need it. The Accessibility Fund is an endowment to ensure that the Dialogue Space remains a resource for strengthening the communities that surround the University and are essential to building a human rights city.
Already launched through the Dr. Douglas W. Leatherdale Global Citizen Internships, this fund is needed to support local and international experiential learning opportunities for all Global College students, regardless of their socio-economic situation.
Infusion of fresh thought and demonstrated expertise from diverse perspectives and locations nourish learning and teaching. In the past five years, Global College has built an impressive network of Dialogue Associates, Global Advisors, and academic collaborations. The Global Scholars Fund is a flexible and comprehensive investment in bringing international experts to leadership and scholarship positions, including the Principal of Global College, and to sharing knowledge and skills developed at Global College with international communities.
Local and international leaders who have agreed to act as Dialogue Associates contribute in person and through technology to academic programs and the community learning agenda of Global College. The Global Scholars Fund will be a means of bringing Dialogue Associates as visiting scholars for the Global College Spring and Summer Institutes.
Claire L’Heureux-Dubé Justin Funke Leslie Spillett David Steen
“We have struck a chord with some of the world’s leading authorities on human rights, international affairs, education and information,” said Lloyd Axworthy, the President of the University of Winnipeg, in naming the following Global Advisors to Global College:
Dr. Madeleine K. Albright Leonard Asper Dr. Thomas Axworthy Dr. Roberta Bondar Dr. William H. Foege Dr. Paul Heinbecker Mamadou Khan Jeremy Kinsman Dr. Douglas W. Leatherdale Martin Lees Hon. Peter Liba Haile Menkerios His Excellency Amre M. Moussa Fidel Ramos Peter Stringham Jose Miguel Vivanco
As a group of dedicated volunteers, many of whom were invited by President Axworthy to be members of the Global College Advisory Council, the New Space Committee is leading the fundraising campaign with Principal McPhedran for the Global College Learning Commons. These academic, community and business leaders help to ensure that a wide range of contributors can be engaged in putting Global College and its university firmly on the international map as an intellectual beacon for specialized learning and dialogue in global citizenship.
Dr. Keith Black, Winnipeg Donna Carreiro, Winnipeg David Choi, Vancouver Dr. Mohinder S. Dhillon, Winnipeg Margot Franssen, Toronto Elba Haid, Winnipeg Nicholas Hirst, Winnipeg Philip M. Sheps, Winnipeg Mary Scott, Winnipeg Muriel Smith, Winnipeg
Marilou McPhedran Principal, Global College University of Winnipeg 491 Portage Avenue R3B 2E4 p. 204.988.7101 e. m.mcphedran@uwinnipeg.ca
The University of Winnipeg Global College www.globalcollege.uwinnipeg.ca
University of Winnipeg www.uwinnipeg.ca