Retirement of Desmond Pouyat, Dean of Student Experience & Wellbeing, UTSC

From: Wisdom Tettey, Vice-President and Principal, University of Toronto Scarborough
Date: December 16, 2021
Re: Retirement of Desmond Pouyat, Dean of Student Experience & Wellbeing, UTSC

It is with truly mixed emotions that I inform you that Desmond Pouyat will retire from his role as Dean of Student Experience & Wellbeing (OSEW) on June 30th, 2022.

Desmond has served the University and the University of Toronto Scarborough since July 2010, when he was appointed Dean of Student Affairs, UTSC. Since his arrival, he has provided steadfast, student centered, and innovative leadership in the Student Experience and Wellbeing portfolio of departments, programs, and services, all of which are critical to the academic and personal success of U of T Scarborough students. Under Desmond’s direction, the unit has grown into a collaborative portfolio, where colleagues work to co-learn, to co-create, and to provide a rich, holistic experience for students. He has also made the Office of Student Experience & Wellbeing an exemplar of our values of equity and inclusion, by ensuring that the staff and services reflect, and are responsive to, the students they serve. Throughout his tenure, Desmond has been unwaveringly committed to embracing students as partners. The result is a legacy of strong, positive, and collaborative working relationships that campus leadership and OSEW have enjoyed with students and student leaders.

We are grateful for Desmond’s leadership on many important issues and initiatives, the impact of which will endure and serve our campus well into the future. As a champion of student mental health, he helped position UTSC as a leader in this area, with colleagues in OSEW working tirelessly to implement the recommendations from the Presidential & Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health. We saw the benefit of his vision, commitment, and guidance over the course of the pandemic, as he and the OSEW team pursued approaches to service delivery that ensured that the health, wellbeing, and safety of students remained a paramount focus for our campus. Desmond’s input has also been instrumental in the design/vision for both the new student residence, which is on track to open in 2023, and the soon-to-be student services hub which will be located in the Instructional Centre 2 (currently under construction).

In the New Year, information will be shared regarding a search for the Dean of Student Experience & Wellbeing, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2022.

Please join me in expressing gratitude and thanks to Desmond for his dedicated service to our institution and his innumerable contributions to UTSC.

We will have an opportunity in the Spring, as a community, to celebrate those contributions and his retirement, and to give him a deserving farewell. My office will be in touch in due course with details about that event.