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NEW PREZ HAS RYE PRIDE

By Matt Kwong

Ryerson’s future president told a press conference Tuesday that accepting the presidency was his proudest moment, short of the birth of his children.

“I think it’s going to be a wonderful, wonderful journey,” said Sheldon Levy, the man who, it was announced yesterday, will succeed President Claude Lajeunesse come July 31.

Levy, a former president of Sheridan College–who also served at York University, the University of Toronto and the new University of Ontario Institute of Technology–told an audience in the Commons “in some magical way, I think (those jobs) were all part of a mystical plan to be able to be here today.”

Chancellor John Craig Eaton listed off Levy’s contributions to the Ontario post-secondary sector, before saying: “In short, this is a man who makes things happen.”

Levy, a math whiz who studied at York before teaching at his alma mater, has long championed better post-secondary funding.

“He really worked his way up,” said Levy’s former executive assistant at York, Linda Livingston. “He was a professor, then was vice-president administration and finance, and then he became president of Sheridan,” she said. “He moved up and now I’m certainly very pleased to hear this news.”

Sheridan honoured Levy by naming a new building after him. The 11-month presidential search ended officially on Monday night, when the Board of Governors voted unanimously to have Levy become Ryerson University’s eighth president.

Levy said his interest in the presidency began a year and a half ago at U of T’s governing council, when friend Bill Davis “called me over and said ‘You and Ryerson should try to get together.’ ”

Lajeunesse later took to the podium and turned to Levy, saying: “I know when I leave on July 31, I will feel very good,” adding that Ryerson was in the right hands.

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