There’s a good chance you’ve already met Principal Charlie Keil. If not, you’ve likely seen him walking around the college, talking to students or rushing to a meeting. As the former Director of the Cinema Studies program, he tells me that he was prepared to take on his next challenge of being principal- that his “path wasn’t a deliberate one, but a logical one.” He admits that he already came to a great place in little need of his intervention, particularly mentioning the self-sufficiency of the Registrar’s Office.

“It’s kind of fascinating to learn about all those different parts, because every college is like a mini university,” adds Principal Keil.

He explains the breadth of experience he had working in university administration along with being a film professor in the Cinema Studies program. Nonetheless, he says that “the principal job is sort of an intriguing one…. It’s dealing with so many definably different aspects of the administration and student experience.” For Principal Keil, there doesn’t seem to be any other campus job quite like it.

The principal isn’t just a figurehead

What struck me most about Principal Keil was that he doesn’t only show a willingness to communicate with students, but genuinely wants to get know them as people. If you live in residence, you’re likely to see him on more than one occasion. He’s decided to begin having dinners with all the residence houses in an attempt to reach out to as many Innis students as possible. Apparently, these dinners have begun to evolve.

“What’s happened in the two subsequent dinners is that we’ve been having conversations. We just talked about stuff.  We’ve had pseudo-philosophical discussions. We’ve talked about people’s hobbies, why they came to U of T.”

He also says that he realizes the difficulties international and commuter students face- especially when those categories merge. “When I have the next dinners, they’ll be focused on the international student experience,” he adds.

The importance of student involvement

It’s fair to say that Innis College has some of the most intense student involvement at U of T. This may be precisely why we talked extensively of getting immersed in all aspects of student life. Principal Keil says he has already found himself acting like a cheerleader on the sideline with pom-poms, encouraging students to divert their focus a little bit from purely academic goals.

“You’ve got to look at these four years as an opportunity to take advantage of all the resources that are being offered to you. If you squander them, you’re wasting your money and time to some degree,” he states.

Although he wasn’t a distant commuter, he says that he found first year as a non-resident at U of T quite isolating. This is precisely why it may even be more important for commuters to get involved in student life- to bridge what could be a very distant gap.

Student experience is exactly what you decide to make of it, a mantra that seems to be repeated from the first days of university to the last. But what does that mean? Principal Keil defined it as interacting with the same space in multiple and novel ways. “Families are wonderful but they’re comfortable. They reinforce what you already know about yourself,” he says.

“These four or five years of being an undergrad… there’s such potential for personal growth in those years, you have no idea. You’re going to be such a different person … and much closer to the adult you’re going to be for the rest of your life,” he explains. Perhaps this justifies why he is adamant about pushing students outside of their comfort zones.

The challenges of being a student today

Being a student today in a school as large as U of T presents its own challenges. Principal Keil believes one to be “the pressure students feel coming to university that they already have made a decision that will shape their life.” This is the sentiment particularly held by a lot of new students he’s spoken to, and part of his encouragement to get involved is advising them to explore their interests through a breadth of courses. There’s such a huge variety of course content, which he believes can be both a benefit and a liability when attending a school so large.

“A challenge specific to the University of Toronto is just negotiating a university that is so big and that can seem impossibly impersonal – this is where the colleges come in and help,” he adds. It can be intensely overwhelming, but Principal Keil hopes once there is a supportive environment created for students, they should be able to explore parts of themselves through a variety of personal and academic interests.

He begins to talk about the differences of being a student today and claims that “in terms of what’s great about being a student now… in some ways students are more savvy about a lot of things. I sometimes feel like I could be in a lecture and students can tell me what I’m lecturing about simply by looking at like five different websites.” This, however, can come with it’s own set of difficulties. Just because students are able to access information doesn’t mean that the place of peers and a professor hasn’t remained equally important. Information is one thing, but being able to organize and connect it within a more complex framework is entirely another.

Perspective as a professor and principal

As a long-time film professor, Principal Keil says that he’s met a multitude of young people that have genuinely blown him away. With a degree of self-degrading humour, he tells me a story about a particularly intelligent new student he met who excels in both science and language. “He knows all of this stuff I don’t, and he can express himself just as eloquently, so where’s my advantage?” he asks, laughing.

A tempting question I felt obliged to ask was whether he’s checked his profile on ratemyprofessor.com. Apparently, he didn’t even know it existed until a friend told him to check it out. He calls a few of the things written on there embarrassing.

“Reading those comments, it’s not necessarily defensiveness for professors but more wanting to ask where students where they got that from. Sometimes you want to ask: what was behind this?”  A comment that struck him most was a student calling him “insincere,” which I was admittedly surprised by. However, there are always factors beyond a professor’s control that contribute to a student’s perception of the class.  This seemed to be confirmed by the fact that the majority of the reviews were positive (I checked).

He compares the ability of a professor being able to make an otherwise dry course exciting to a chef making a mediocre dish taste amazing. He goes on to say that “a bad cook will ruin the best recipe in the world.”

Upgrading college space

Coming into his current role, Principal Keil knew a number of the challenges he would be faced with. Most students who have had classes at Innis College are sympathetic to these issues. It’s a hard building to navigate- even with its comparatively small size. It is architecturally complex, and the layout isn’t particularly accessible to everyone. As he put its, “it’s an interesting space, but not a particularly legible space.” The quick solution to this will be putting up better signage for students to minimize confusion. This is called wayfinding, and is something that can produce tangible results with little expense.

There is also concrete planning for long-term expansion and renovation. “All of the different parts of the college just have to be served better. There will absolutely have to be expansion. I knew that coming into this job,” adds Principal Keil. The main aspect he stresses is that “student groups will get new spaces no matter what.” Although Innis Residence is a clearly marked student space, it doesn’t seem to be geared towards commuters.

Principal Keil says that he feels like students are currently pushed away to a corner of the College and “in terms of a symbolic welcome to the students, it doesn’t say the right things.” For a college that encourages such active student participation, this certainly isn’t physically manifested.

If the dedication that Principal Keil has shown to students this early into his term is any indication, Innis can expect to be well supported by their new principal.

Featured image courtesy of  Alice Xue