Donald Ipperciel (left) and Marc Trouyet, the Consul General of France in Toronto, celebrated 50 years of collaboration between Glendon and France.
“On behalf of the French Minister of National Education, I am honoured to make you a Knight in the Order of Academic Palms,” Marc Trouyet, the Consul General of France, declared to Donald Ipperciel. The Principal of Glendon Campus was honoured for his commitment to an active bilingualism within this fifty-year-old institution.
On Wednesday, May 31, in front of a gathering of sixty guests in the campus’s rose garden, the solemn announcement preceded a warm embrace. The two men are very well acquainted. They share a continuing commitment to advance the use of the French language, through knowledge, business and innovation.
As the representative of the French Republic pinned the honorary medal to Mr. Ipperciel’s jacket, the philosophy graduate was certainly thinking of the work he has accomplished since his arrival three years ago, re-establishing the French language to its rightful place at this campus of York University where bilingualism is a strategic focus. No doubt he must have also been preoccupied with the work still left to accomplish.
“We have made great strides in the availability of programs, in research and with the francization aspect at Glendon. The translation of the website and reports and bilingual exchanges at meetings demonstrate this progress. We want to go further and be on the leading edge of technology to offer our students the best service possible,” said Mr. Ipperciel, who credits this distinction to Glendon’s fifty-year collaboration with France.
“At its founding in 1966, the first Francophone professors were deliberately recruited from France, before subsequently turning to French Canadians. We maintain a unique connection with France. We stand with France in its success, its sorrow and its courage,” he indicated, alluding to, among other events, the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice.
“Institutions only achieve excellence because they are supported by men and women with a vision. Without that vision, success is not possible,” recalled Marc Trouyet. “As the head of Glendon College, you have engaged in strengthening the place of our language and you have done it with tenacity, diplomacy and creativity, by diversifying the availability of instruction in French but also, on a daily basis, with your delightful concept of asymmetric bilingualism” (which consists of starting all meetings in French).
Lastly, Marc Trouyet paid tribute to the principal’s constant care in developing an inclusive francophonie. “At this significant moment when Ontario has rejoined the International Organisation of la Francophonie (IOF), and there is a greater need to understand what it means to be a world open to trade, Glendon exemplifies the best way to shape citizens of the world.” And in highlighting the international partnerships, the exchange programs with French universities (three times more than the national average) and the quality of double degrees that nourish a complementary North American and European approach to, as well as, a mutual understanding of global concerns.
“It is a recognition for Glendon and for its tremendous efforts to live up to its Francophone mandate,” Donald Ipperciel concluded, “and encouragement to pursue our mission to promote the francophonie locally, national and internationally.
Source : journal Le Métropolitain
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