25 years of growth
Photo: Long-time employees were celebrated at the 25 Year Club ceremony on May 24 at the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre. Photo by Clifton Li.
In her office in Jorgenson Hall, Janice Winton, vice-president, administration and finance at Ryerson, pulls out a black notebook. “I started this book back in 2008 for my retirement in 2012,” she says. Instead, her retirement plans were put on hold.
What kept her at Ryerson so long? “The main reason is, I like it here,” said Winton. “I like the work I do, I like the people I work with, I like the students, I like being downtown.
“The benefit is you meet all kinds of people in all kinds of different roles, and you learn all kinds of things. There are a lot of opportunities to learn and grow: ‘What new adventure can I have this week?’”
Winton is one of 25 inductees this year in the 25 Year Club, an annual celebration of employees from across the university who have worked at Ryerson University for a quarter-century. Winton has been on staff since 1991, first as the university’s Executive Director, Finance, which became chief financial officer. She has served in her current position of vice president, administration and finance since 2014, and after many delayed plans, will retire at the end of the year.
This year’s 25 Year Club inductees were celebrated on May 24 at the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre. “Everyone remembers an inspiring professor, or a challenging class—I know I certainly do,” said Ryerson Chancellor Lawrence Bloomberg in a speech at the event. “You are the builders of a unique university known for caring and inclusion. When you say ‘Ryerson,’ people think of energy and innovation. There is a boldness and a teamwork there that sets the standard—and you have made a difference by being here for 25 years.”
Speaking at the event, university President Mohamed Lachemi noted that Ryerson itself is just a year away from celebrating its 25th anniversary as a university (it was Ryerson Polytechnic Institute until 1993). “I’m very pleased to be here to thank you this afternoon for your dedication to Ryerson through what has become a time of remarkable growth for our university,” he said.
“Ryerson is now recognized as a leader in the university sector in Ontario. We consider ourselves the leading comprehensive innovation university in Ontario, and this is all because of the hard work of our community.”
Photo: Janice Winton, VP, Administration and Finance, with President Mohamed Lachemi. Winton has worked at Ryerson since 1991. Photo by Clifton Li.
Winton witnessed that growth first-hand working in Financial Services. “It was the same job, but Ryerson just kept getting bigger—it got more complicated, and had more responsibilities, more staff, more departments reporting in. But I used to laugh about the fact that even though we doubled or tripled the number of students, I still had the same number of staff that I had when I started! It’s not quite the same now.”
“I think it was sometime during the time when Sheldon Levy was president, and we moved to being, ‘Hey—everybody wants to be us,’” she added. “Once you get to a certain size of enrolment, you’re no longer a small school, and not even a medium school. We went from ‘small school’ to ‘big’—we skipped the medium.”
The 25 Year Club is part of Ryerson’s employee recognition program celebrating service milestones. Each spring, Ryerson invites the more than 700 employee and retiree members of the 25 Year Club to join in celebrating its newest inductees. For more information about the event, including photos from previous ceremonies, visit Recognition and Awards.