The university announced that Bill Rosehart, a triple UW graduate who is currently provost and vice president academic at University of Guelph, has been appointed as the new president and vice chancellor of UW. His five-year term will start on July 1. 

In an interview with Imprint, Rosehart said he was honoured to be appointed to these roles.

“It’s a special type of homecoming. As a three-time graduate, it holds a very special place in my heart and it always has,” he said. “I’m extremely excited to be working with the students, the faculty, the staff, leaders across campus and the community to advance Waterloo even further.”

In addition to working at University of Guelph since August 2024, Rosehart also served as dean at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary for over a decade. He is also a three-time electrical engineering graduate of UW, obtaining his BASc in 1996, his MASc in 1997, and PhD in 2001. Rosehart will be the first UW alumnus to be elected president. 

When asked if he has specific goals over his five-year term, Rosehart said he planned to initially focus on connecting with undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty and staff. He added that it’s currently a turbulent climate, and that he feels UW is well-positioned to manage that.

“Waterloo is a global leader in cooperative education. When we think about challenges in the job market due to global dynamics and economics as well as to AI, cooperative education is a real powerful tool, a real powerful experience for students to be able to graduate with a real competitive advantage compared to others going into the job market,” Rosehart said.

“That would be an example of how we can lean into some of those distinctive strengths, to have a very positive impact on our students.”

Jordan Bauman, science senator who also sits on board of governors, had the chance to chat with Rosehart.

“He’s a personable guy. Just from the interactions I’ve had, I think he’s going to be someone that students can connect with, and he might be someone who’s more on-the-ground and accessible,” Bauman noted. “You can see he’s an academic too – you can see he thinks about things.” 

Bauman noted that Rosehart brings experience implementing major institutional changes. For example, during his time at the University of Guelph, Rosehart introduced a new budget model and multi-year budget planning process. He also led the launch of two new colleges – the College of Engineering and the College of Computational, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 

“He’s changed the budget model at Guelph, and helped them go through those tough financial times which is something we’ve been dealing with here,” Bauman noted. “He fits very well into that organizational picture of leadership during a time of uncertainty – both organizationally structure-wise, but also fiscally.”

Throughout his leadership roles, Rosehart also advocated for Indigenous and equity, diversity and inclusion. At Calgary, he embedded Indigenous voices into the core curriculum, launched an Indigenous Engineering Pathways initiative, and created new spaces through collaboration with Indigenous Elders.

Arya Ramzjoo, an undergraduate-at-large on senate, expressed excitement for the selection, noting that Rosehart said he wants to take a student-centric approach. He hopes that the new president will set a tone of expansion and growth. 

“One thing I hope he does prioritize is looking to expand the university. Waterloo started as the premier school for co-op, but of course, over the years, other schools have caught up to us. So what makes us distinct is slowly fading,” Ramzjoo said.

“I’m hoping he positions the university in a way that actually takes risks, looks at possibly medical doctorate, university law school, looking to expand creative avenues.”

This announcement for his presidency was made in confidential senate and board of governors meetings that occurred today, March 9. 

Bauman noted there was more discussion surrounding the decision during the board of governors meeting, including the chancellor, board members, and the Kitchener mayor. 

“The comments were generally themed around thanking the nominating committee – they did a ton of work,” Bauman said. “There were 14 meetings, some of them all day, and apparently that was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Thanking Goel for his service, and recognizing that it’s a historic meeting. In the chamber there, there’s a few portraits of the founding presidents. And we’ve just elected the eighth one, which is not that many in the grand scheme of things.”

The search was led by a 19-member presidential nominating committee chaired by UW alum Murray Gamble. Current president Vivek Goel announced he would not seek reappointment for the president position in October 2024 due to family circumstances. 

“A lot of positions in senior admin are turning over right now – registrar, that’s been an interim capacity, provost, that’s in an interim capacity. It’s good to have a president nailed down,” Bauman said. “I think the leadership he brings is leadership that people can trust.”

This story was updated on March 10 to include interviews with Rosehart and Razmjoo.