The University of Saskatchewan officially welcomed its new leader, Peter Stoicheff, on Oct. 24 at fall convocation. As the 11th president and vice-chancellor of the U of S, Stoicheff has made many of his long-term and short-term goals public knowledge, including his plan to “Indigenize” the institution, among others. However, for U of S students especially, there remains much to be known about the man behind the presidency.

Name: Peter Stoicheff

Year of birth: 1956

Birthplace: Ottawa, Ont.

Marital status: Married to Kathryn Warden, going on 30 years

Parental status: Two children, Alex (28) and Chris (26)

How did you come to the U of S?

Stoicheff: “I had heard a lot about the U of S — and this takes me way back to when I was a young kid in Ottawa — my dad worked for the National Research Council of Canada and he worked very closely with Gerhard Herzberg, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1970. He wrote a biography on Herzberg actually that came out about 10 years ago.

Herzberg used to talk a lot about the U of S because he had been here for 13 years. His wife was Jewish and in 1933, they had to leave Germany where they were and Walter Murray, who was the president here at the time, put together a Carnegie Fellowship that paid for Herzberg to come here. So Herzberg felt that he owed a lot of his life to the U of S and he talked about it a lot.”

“I would not have wanted to be the president of another institution and I think that is an important point to make. I wasn’t necessarily looking, as a career move, to be a president. What I did want to do was serve this particular university.”

What are you most looking forward to in your new role as president?

Stoicheff: “When I was dean of arts and science … I really loved interacting with students and I would hope that as president of this university, I can continue doing that with students from all colleges, but also with the GSA and USSU leadership. It’s a huge thing for me. It was a danger as a dean too, particularly of a really large college, and it would be a danger as a president that other things draw you away from that. So, I am really looking forward to continue interacting with students.

It is important for me that the U of S becomes a place where students and faculty can debate the current and important issues of today. The university isn’t just about making sure its budget is fine and that its different systems are working. All of those things are necessary and we have to be responsible about those, but the ‘why’ for ‘why do you do all that?’ is so that you can have a place that I call a cultural institution where students and faculty together, or students on their own, can debate the really urgent issues of today. Where else in society can you do that? This is the place. I am really looking forward to creating that kind of environment.”

What is your favourite Netflix film/TV show?

Stoicheff:“The Wire.”

What is your favorite memory as an undergraduate student?

Stoicheff: “I was in Kingston at Queen’s University and Kingston was a place where all kinds of amazing musicians — particularly folk musicians — would come through, so I have memories of hearing some of the really great folk musicians really up close and personal at that time, like Bruce Coburn and people like that.”

Any words of wisdom for U of S students?

Stoicheff: “You don’t have a very long time at university and it is a really special time. My advice is to see the richness of being able to explore different things here at the U of S. You might come into university thinking that you want to take one direction and you may be absolutely right, but there might be other things that you are exposed to; don’t ignore them, because those things, they may change the course of your life. University is a place where you can get exposed to tons of different things and soak it all up.”

Book recommendations:

• Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan

• The Orenda, Joseph Boyden

• Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden

•The Narrow Road to the Deep

North, Robert Flanagan

“Read William Faulkner. Fantastic writer.”

I love reading — I was an English prof for many years here, and so I guess a hobby is still reading not just literary texts, but crime fiction. I am a huge fan of William Deverell, who is an alumnus of here, actually. He wrote Street Legal and Needles. Look him up, really interesting guy.”