Dr. Santa Ono is the new president and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia, making him our 15th president. We’ve probably heard the announcements and received emails when he was appointed, but let’s put a face to the name of our new president:
Dr. Santa Ono was born in Vancouver and his father was actually a professor in UBC’s math department. But Ono spent most of his life in the US, in Baltimore to be exact, and is more than thrilled to have finally returned home to Vancouver for his new position. Ono has a bio degree from the University of Chicago and an experimental medicine PhD from McGill specializing in immune systems and eye diseases.
Before joining us at UBC, Ono held a lot of highly esteemed positions at universities all over the U.S. like Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. He was appointed president at The University of Cincinnati in 2012 where he was known for being a strong public speaker, a University president who fully embraced social media (@PrezOno) and was passionately involved in campus life activities such as shaving his head at a cancer fundraiser and being an advocate for student’s mental health.
Let’s focus in a bit more on this mental health point, seeing as there’s still very much a stigma around it. Yes, communication around these tough topics are getting better at universities, there is still so much room for improvement—
Ono spoke honestly and openly about his mental health history at a fundraiser at The University of Cincinnati. The event was to remember and honour a student who killed himself in 2014. Ono revealed that he himself had twice attempted suicide as a teen and then as a young adult. He says his goals are to spread awareness by sharing his own story as a high-achieving student who battled and beat depression.
So he tweets, he engages with students & he cares about our wellbeing? Seems like he might be just what we need at UBC. Since we go to a school that’s the size of a city, having a leader who takes time to connect and make our experience more personal means for positive change and a healthy campus.
“There are lots of students here,” Ono once said about the University of Cincinnati. “I can’t physically get in front of them all the time, but through social media, I can find out what they are worried about. I try, where it is appropriate, to allay any of their fears and, where possible, to mobilize people to address things that I otherwise wouldn’t see. And they seem to appreciate the fact that they know what I’m doing and what I care about.”
Fun Fact about Ono: He and his brother are named after characters in Japanese folk stories, but his father removed a few letters from each claiming it was because he was a mathematician who was a subtraction enthusiast. His brother’s name is Momoro, after Momotaro, a folklore hero known as a “peach boy.” In the story, “Peach Boy” who was placed in a large peach bobs down the river and is found by a childless couple that decides to raise him.
When Ono was born, his parents named him after a samurai character, Santaro. He removed the ‘r’ and ‘o’ from Santaro, and it became Santa, regretfully forgetting most people might think he was named after Santa Clause. “I don’t think they knew what they were setting me up for by naming me Santa, especially around Christmas time,” Ono says, “People teased me about it as a boy, but I have no problem being called Santa. It is a very happy name. And it is a great icebreaker at parties.”
Fun aside, it seems that Ono really does value what every university’s core mission should be: Us. The students:
“[At universities] We exist to educate the young,” he said at an event in Cincinnati last year, “Not only their minds, but also their hearts. So I focus on them. That’s why I try to make decisions that will enrich their experience. I look at situations and try to figure out how a decision I make will impact people. And I really try to focus on the most vulnerable people. I guess my overriding principle is this: What can I do with my privileged position to help others?”
So Welcome President Santa Ono and his family to Vancouver. Looking forward to seeing how you make The University of British Columbia an even brighter, better place.
