Trinity’s 15th Provost, Mayo Moran, concludes 10 years at the helm and leaves the College – and the Trinity community — even better than she found it
She arrived as a neighbour from U of T Law. She leaves as a lifelong member of the Trinity community.
In 2014, Trinity College announced that its 15th Provost would be Professor Mayo Moran, then the first female Dean of the Faculty of Law and James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair at the University of Toronto (U of T). Although her move was just down the street, arriving at Trinity was “a whole new world” for Moran.
“Trinity is so unique, and I had a lot to learn. I’d never even taught undergraduates before,” Moran recalls (she is also a professor at the Faculty of Law). She moved into the Provost’s Lodge in June 2014, along with her partner, Stuart; son, Aidan; and dachshund, Alfie. She did a lot of “listening and learning” in those first few months, gaining knowledge and insights from staff, faculty, alumni and students, all of which eventually fed into an updated strategic plan for the College. “People were full of great ideas. All I had to do was ask,” Moran says. She also delighted in getting to know the students, hosting salon-style concerts and fireside chats in the Lodge, and teaching her popular course, “Ten Cases that Changed the World.”
Focus on students
At the beginning of 2016, the Trinity Board of Trustees approved Moran’s strategic plan based on the pillars of People, Program and Place. Those pillars have informed and shaped the growth of the College since then. Some of the most obvious transformations have taken place in the main building on Hoskin Avenue, from the donor-supported, beautiful Trinity Archives on the lower level, to the new elevator, to the pièce de résistance, the new Student Services Centre.
“It’s all about the student experience,” Moran explains. “When I first arrived, students had no privacy to meet with counsellors and our student services were spread out across different buildings. Our staff were big proponents of integrating everything under one roof. Today, students walk through the front door of the College and it’s a truly warm welcome to Trinity.”
Talking with students about their stressors and experiences pointed to a clear need for expanded mental health and wellness supports. Thanks to the generous support of Anne Steacy ’76, and Michael Royce ’68 and Sheila Royce ’68, the College created unique programming spearheaded by a new position — Director of Community Wellness. The University of Toronto then partnered with Trinity to enhance this important initiative.”
To bolster peer-to-peer support, the role of Trinity College Community Advisors (CA) was created. CAs are undergraduate students who live in residence, and whose role is to build, promote, and maintain welcoming, supportive, and inclusive residence communities at the College. “These upper-year students receive special training, are compensated for their work, and have become so important in giving new students a sense of belonging,” Moran says. The CA program started with nine advisors, and has expanded to 12, with overwhelming interest in applying for the role.
A place for everyone
As Moran consulted on the development of the strategic plan, the urgent need for updated and expanded space to meet the needs of the Trinity community came to the forefront. After extensive consultation with students, alumni, staff and faculty, and a comprehensive master planning exercise, it became clear that only a new building could solve the College’s space and infrastructure challenges. Inspired by Trinity students’ commitment to the environment and fuelled by a $10 million donation from Brian Lawson ’82 and Joannah Lawson, the College launched the Integrated Sustainability Initiative and The Living Trinity Campaign, the most ambitious capital campaign in the College’s history, in 2019.
The Lawsons’ vision and support is enabling Trinity to build on its commitment to the environment and responsible stewardship by creating a new model in which students both “live and learn” sustainability. In addition to integrating sustainability into all facets of academic and student life at Trinity, the Initiative is transforming the built environment through the College’s new building, the Lawson Centre for Sustainability. The mass timber, zero carbon, LEED platinum multi-use structure will provide 350 desperately needed residence beds, flexible, beautiful spaces for learning and events, and welcoming communal areas for residence and commuter students. Innovative features like the George and Martha Butterfield Rooftop Farm and the Community Kitchen will benefit the entire community.
The Living Trinity Campaign’s focus on student supports, academic programming and a new sustainable building has deeply resonated with Trinity alumni and the entire community, and has inspired unprecedented giving, with the College announcing that the Living Trinity Campaign recently reached the $100 million mark. “It has been incredibly rewarding to see how the alumni community has come together to support the Living Trinity Campaign and the Lawson Centre in so many different ways,” Moran says.
Leaving a legacy
Her experiences working with Trinity students and witnessing the many positive impacts of donor support on students’ lives inspired Moran to amend her will with a planned gift to include Trinity College earlier this year. “Over my decade here at Trinity I have seen first-hand what a tangible difference alumni support makes in the lives of our students,” she says. “Young people come here from all walks of life, and they come at a pivotal point in their lives. Being able to support them as fully as possible can often make the difference between those who flourish and those who struggle. I know the enormous promise that all our students have, and I want every one of them to be able to realize that promise.”
A global pandemic: Keep calm and carry on
“I’m a strong believer in a ‘keep calm and carry on’ approach to leadership,” Moran says. That belief served her well during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We took it one decision at a time,” she says of navigating College lockdowns and the shift to online learning.
“The willingness of every single person at the College to do whatever was necessary to care for our students during that time was incredible. Sometimes that was making sure that students got home safely, assisting with unexpected travel arrangements, helping with move out, or finding ways to stay in touch. And some of our wonderful staff came into the College every day to make sure that the students who couldn’t go home were taken care of, fed nourishing food, and felt safe and not alone,” Moran says.
As “pivot” became part of everyone’s vocabulary, Moran gathered a tight nucleus of key members of the College’s leadership team to co-navigate each hurdle. Also helpful were the student mental health and wellness supports already in place. “It was an ‘all community’ effort to think through what we can do to ensure that everyone who comes here can flourish and feel fully included,” Moran says.
Then-16-year-old Alfie, Moran’s beloved dachshund, may have been the only one for whom the pandemic was entirely positive, as he was never without company in the Lodge. Sadly, Alfie passed away in his 17th year (“he lived the best years of his life at Trinity as the King of the Castle,” Moran smiles).
A cause for celebration
“On Valentine’s weekend 2020 in Paris, Stuart asked me to marry him. The pandemic threw a bit of a wrench into our timing, though!” Moran laughs. “A couple of years later we decided it was finally the right time. And after COVID, what we wanted was to have a huge party.” In August
2022, 130 people, many of them from the Trinity community, gathered in the Trinity Quad to celebrate the happy couple — and the opportunity to gather together again. “It was so beautiful,” Mayo remembers.
A new Chancellor
In 2022, Trinity Chancellor Bill Graham, who was a dear friend and trusted advisor to Moran, passed away after an incredible 15 years of service to the College. In April 2023, following an extensive search, Trinity’s Board of Trustees approved Brian Lawson ’82 as the 13th Chancellor of Trinity College. “We are so lucky to have Brian,” Moran says. “He’s an incredible leader, a longtime volunteer and a passionate supporter of the College who has taken on this role at just the right time for Trinity.”
What’s next
One of Moran’s first items on her post-provost to-do list: not saying “yes” to anything. “I am looking forward to spending time back at the law school and enjoying my administrative leave,” she says. “I am also so honoured that I was just named the inaugural Irving and Rosalie Abella Chair in Justice and Equality.” Fall travel is also on her “to-do” list: “It’s wonderful just to think about the novelty of being able to travel during the school year!” On the longer-term list is completing her book, The Problem of the Past and How to Fix It, for Oxford University Press. She will also continue her work as a co-organizer of “The Restitution Dialogues,” a transnational project that brings together global expertise on issues of cultural loss and return such as Holocaust restitution and colonial-era belongings. She also looks forward to having more time to cook, ski, bike and read for pleasure.
Living Trinity
“Stuart, Aidan and I, and of course, Alfie, loved being here,” she says. “This really is a remarkable community. It’s like living in a village and I will miss the daily contact with all the people who make this place so special.”
She may be leaving the Provost’s Lodge, but Mayo Moran will be a part of Trinity College forever.
–by Jennifer Matthews
More fond memories from the Trinity community…
“I have never worked with anyone like Mayo Moran; she is kind, caring, thoughtful, worldly and of course, an intelligent, strong and tenacious leader. It has been a fabulous 10 years working with her as Provost of Trinity College.”
–Cera Taylor, Administrative Assistant, Office of the Provost
“The Lawson Centre for Sustainability will exist as a lasting tribute to Mayo’s vision, leadership and determination. The Trinity community and I personally have been blessed by her time with us.”
–Carolyn Kearns ’72, Living Trinity Campaign Co-Chair
“One of my favourite memories was visiting with Mayo and her family in the south of France the year she was appointed. It was such a lovely visit and she even procured the local speciality (aligot) and we had wine from a local vineyard.”
–Jonathan Steels, Assistant Provost
“Mayo’s commitment to the students of Trinity College is among her most admirable qualities.”
–Christopher Brittain, Dean of Divinity and Margaret E. Fleck Chair in Anglican Studies
“While everyone knows of Mayo’s innumerable academic and administrative accomplishments, it is perhaps not as widely known that she is never happier than when she, and her husband Stuart, are working on their vintage Morgan roadster maintaining the well-known Morgan ratio of five hours of maintenance for every hour of driving.”
–Michael Royce ’68, Living Trinity Campaign Co-Chair