David W. Atkinson

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David Atkinson is a Canadian academic and former president of two Ontario universities, Brock University in St. Catharines and Carleton University in Ottawa.

1 Early life and academic career, 1950s-1997
2 Brock and Carleton years, 1997-2006
3 Controversial resignation
4 External links

[edit] Early life and academic career, 1950s-1997

Born in Britain and raised in Calgary, Atkinson went to study at Indiana University on an athletic scholarship — in 1968, he was an NCAA All-American in cross-country running — but he completed his BA at the University of Calgary. There he also received his MA and PhD in English, specializing in 16th and 17th-century religious prose.

In 1976 he took a teaching job at the University of Lethbridge, and over 15 years he rose through the administrative ranks to become associate vice-president (academic). From 1991 to 1997 he was dean of arts and science at the University of Saskatchewan. [1]

Atkinson's wife, Terry, gave birth to twin sons, Jonathan and Zachary, in 1978.[2]

[edit] Brock and Carleton years, 1997-2006

During his eight-year tenure as president of Brock, Atkinson helped manage a massive construction boom and an enrolment increase of nearly 7,000.[3] He instituted a campus-wide non-smoking policy at Brock in 2002, a rule he also introduced as president of Carleton four years later.

At both Brock and Carleton, one of Atkinson's first moves was to create strategic-planning task forces to seek feedback from departments, staff and students about possible improvements to the school. The Brock task force's final report in 1998 led to an increased enthusiasm for graduate studies at the primarily undergraduate school; eight graduate programs and five PhD programs were added as a result.[4] The Carleton task force's preliminary report in June 2006 also recommended beefing up graduate studies.[5]

When he left Brock for the Carleton presidency in 2005, Atkinson was replaced by Jack N. Lightstone.

[edit] Controversial resignation

Only 15 months into his tenure at Carleton, Atkinson abruptly resigned from the presidency on November 20, 2006, under mysterious circumstances.[6] Neither he nor Carleton officials have explained what his reasons were, but speculation in the news media has focused on several factors:

Response to the Maclean's ranking. Carleton ranked dead last in the comprehensive category of the 2006 Maclean's university rankings. In a story about the rankings on November 3, the Ottawa Citizen referred to Carleton in a headline by its 1990s-era nickname of "Last-Chance U."[7] In response, Atkinson excoriated the Citizen at a Kiwanis Club meeting, and sent a mass e-mail to students and alumni urging them to write in to the Citizen and complain.[8] Atkinson later had to defend himself against critics who said he overreacted, and caused more public-relations damage than he solved.

Labour relations. Only days before his resignation, Carleton narrowly avoided a faculty strike in acrimonious, 11th-hour negotiations. Atkinson's role in the negotiations is still unclear.

Atkinson was replaced by interim president Dr. Samy Mahmoud, formerly Carleton's acting provost and vice-president (academic).