“We accept more undergrads each year than all the Ivies combined”: Meet U of T’s new president, Melanie Woodin
The university’s first woman president talks representation, campus protests and the role of higher education in the age of AI
Here’s a question more and more people are asking in 2025: What is the point of going to university? What we offer at the University of Toronto is an academically rigorous degree. If you want to work in advanced technologies or write about the future of democracy, for example, then U of T is where you should be. University is where you learn how to think critically, to consider ethics, to get disciplinary knowledge. It’s where young people figure out who they are.
But what about their careers? Thanks to the AI revolution, it’s not clear what jobs will even exist in 10 years. In many ways, U of T is considered the birthplace of AI, so we’re constantly talking about its implications. When you’ve been in education for a while, you get used to change. I remember when students started bringing devices to class to record lectures and presentations, which was super contentious at the time. My feeling is that, if you’re here to learn, you should have all of the tools available. U of T needs to be a leader in the responsible adoption of AI, which can allow us to focus on the things that are uniquely human.
Related: Why Geoffrey Hinton is sounding the alarm about AI
In your first address as president, you talked about your goal to bolster faith in higher education. What happened to that faith in the first place? There’s a narrative that universities are elitist, but it’s important to differentiate between what’s happening in the US versus here. Ivy League universities pride themselves on the number of students they reject. At U of T, we accept more undergrads each year than all the Ivies combined. And we subsidize deserving students who can’t afford tuition. This year, we’re investing more than $400 million in scholarships. That’s the narrative I’ll be shouting from the rooftops.
Do you see a silver lining for Canada as higher education in the US reaches crisis mode? The reality is that it’s allowed us to recruit top talent in fields where Canada is at the leading edge, the kind of work that translates into Nobel Prizes. For example, the Toronto start-up Xanadu, founded by U of T alum Christian Weedbrook, is racing to build the world’s first commercially viable quantum computer. We’ve partnered with them to bring in researchers from all over the world.
You’re U of T’s first woman president. What took so long? Representation matters, full stop. I’ve heard from people of all genders about how important it is for them to see a female president. I’m also a neuroscientist, which has always been a male-dominated field, so I have quite a bit of experience being a “first.”
Managing protests on campus has become a large part of a president’s role. Last year, your predecessor, Meric Gertler, cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at King’s College Circle by way of a legal injunction. Is that what you would have done? I’m not going to say what I would have done given that I have the benefit of hindsight. Universities have always been places where geopolitical tensions play out. It was true during the Vietnam War, it was true with the pro-Palestinian encampments last year, and I expect to face more tensions in the future. U of T exists, in large part, to develop civically engaged people who care about issues and feel free to debate them. The challenge, of course, comes when people are excluded from discussion.
Related: Scenes from the pro-Palestine encampment at U of T
Gertler had protesters show up at his home. Is that a reasonable expression of democracy? I’m aware of those incidents. If protesters disagree with me, my hope is that I can have a meaningful dialogue with them so we don’t arrive at that point again. I’ll leave it to the police to assess where and when protests should happen. Having said that, there are formal channels for debate, but I also make myself available publicly. I ride my bike to campus every day and talk to students in the coffee line.
Will you still be two-wheeling it as president? It seems like a good way to counter the ivory tower stereotype. Like anyone who loves cycling, I do it for the endorphins—the wind in my hair when I need to get somewhere fast. I’ve been riding a vintage Raleigh junker for years. It was a gift from a neighbour after his wife passed away. Recently, my friends who own Mariposa Bicycles in East York stripped it down, painted it in U of T colours and slapped on our school crest. It even has my name on it. So, students: come on up and chat.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
An earlier version of this article stated that U of T graduates more undergrads each year than all of the Ivy League universities combined. In fact, U of T accepts more undergrads each year than all of the Ivies combined.
