A Magazine for Alumni and Friends
Laurier has taken an important step forward in the process to create a new campus in the Town of Milton with the recent appointment of public-affairs strategist Deborah Dubenofsky to the position of executive director and senior project lead for Laurier’s Milton campus bid.
The appointment initiates a comprehensive strategy that will engage the public, civic officials, key stakeholders, partners and supporters in a dialogue with the Ontario government about the importance of access to university education in Milton and Halton Region.
Dubenofsky will champion the development of Laurier’s bid for a Milton campus in response to a request-for-proposal (RFP) process announced last May by the Ontario government to build postsecondary facilities to serve the growing demand for higher education in the Halton and Peel regions. The province has stated it will provide details of the RFP in early 2016.
The Laurier Milton plan proposes a 150-acre environmentally sustainable university campus within a larger 400-acre Milton Education Village, adjacent to the protected Niagara Escarpment greenbelt. The proposal benefits from broad community support and includes a gift of 150 acres of land from the Town of Milton, valued at $50 million.
The proposal would also enable shared use of the $56-million Milton Velodrome, which was built for last summer’s Pan Am/Parapan Am games and presents an excellent opportunity for cost-sharing and long-term facility use.
Dubenofsky has a distinguished career in public service and public-policy advocacy, including senior executive roles in municipal and provincial government, and the private sector.
The role of executive director and senior project lead for Laurier’s Milton campus bid is a one-year engagement funded entirely through donations raised specifically for the effort to secure a university campus in the Town of Milton.