About Me

I am Phil Wood, Dean of Students at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. At McMaster I am also a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs). In my spare time I’m the Academic Director of McMaster’s Centre for Leadership in Learning (CLL)- the Teaching and Learning Centre on campus. My favorite job though is host of “Soul in the Hole” my radio programme on 93.3 CFMU the campus radio station (Mondays from 10:00 am until noon – available on the web).

I have been a part of the university scene in Canada and the United States continuously since 1968. I received my Bachelors degree from the University of Waterloo and my PhD from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). I started my teaching career at Michigan State University (MSU) in 1978 and have been at McMaster since 1983. At McMaster I have been Professor and Chair of the chemical engineering department and was Associate Dean of Engineering for four years. I have also taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara for a year. For the first twenty five years of my teaching career, like most professors, I focused on teaching, research and service. I dealt with students in an academic capacity for the most part but also served as advisor to various student clubs and societies.

I was appointed Associate Vice President (Student Affairs) and Dean of Students in 2002. I was re-appointed for a second five year term in July of 2007 and as I tell everyone who will listen – I have the best job on campus! The Student Affairs portfolio is a large one with annual expenditures of over $70 million. Our Annual Report is on our website. I am responsible for student life at McMaster (at least from the university’s side). I am directly responsible for such things as housing, the bookstore, food services, the counselling centre, athletics and recreation, student health services, scholarships and financial aid, career services and the first year experience office. A complete list (and a picture of me) is available on my website. One of the newest parts of Student Affairs is the Judicial Affairs department through which I administer the Student Code of Conduct and sometimes have the unhappy task of delivering sanctions to students for their behavior.

Nowadays students occupy my entire calendar and I couldn’t be happier. I hope, in this blog, to address several issues of relevance to students from the point of view of a nearly forty-year veteran who has seen it all as a student, professor and administrator. I will speak not only as someone who has done these things but also as someone who has had accomplishments – i.e. from a knowledgeable perspective. For example, with regards to teaching and learning, I have received several awards for teaching: notably the 3M Teaching Award – Canada’s highest honour. I have published extensively in the teaching and learning literature and have given seminars and lead workshops on the matter. As a faculty member I have supervised thirteen graduate students through their PhD degrees and four of them are now professors at universities in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Recently I was named Academic Director of McMaster’s Centre for Leadership and Learning (CLL). I feel very comfortable talking about teaching and learning and the present state of same at Canadian universities.

 

Teaching was a passion for me as a professor and now as Dean of Students I have adopted a similar passion for student development. The buzz word in student development these days is “engagement” and McMaster University will once again be participating in the National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE). This will be our third time doing NSSE and I will be blogging on that topic throughout the year to explain the survey to our students and faculty. It is an important survey and one that the Province insists we do. I will be working with the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) to develop best practices for using the survey at Ontario universities.

Over my university career I have learned a lot about student life, faculty member life and universities generally – both in Canada and the U.S. My two sons both attended this university and lived in residence so I had the opportunity to see the university through their eyes as a parent. It was this experience that lead me to create the McMaster parents webpage. I will be blogging about issues that affect students: safety and security, social networking, teaching and learning, student engagement, orientation, McMaster athletics, residence life, health and wellness, academic integrity, and so on. Because of my experience as a faculty member, I hope that my teaching colleagues will also find it useful as they get a glimpse of student life. I also hope that parents of university students will read my blog as well. I think that they will find the perspective of a parent/professor/Dean enlightening.