加拿大多伦多新飞扬留学
2020级绿色通道的学生和家长们，大家好！
非常高兴“见到”大家，欢迎加入多伦多大学士嘉堡校区绿色通道云社区！我是多伦多大学士嘉堡校区学术副校长兼教务长比尔·高夫教授。根据传统，每一年绿色通道开学仪式都由我主持。正常情况下，我应该是站在大礼堂的讲台后面欢迎大家；而今年，我只能通过视频会议的方式进行。虽然如此，我却感觉与大家距离更近，因为你我此时都是共同抵抗全球疫情的世界公民。
整个多伦多大学社区成员、教职员工、学生和校友们正为抗疫工作付出巨大贡献，他们的领导力和影响力获得了全球关注。
多伦多大学药物病原体学家Samira Mubareka 和Robert Kozak将工作地点设在多伦多新宁健康中心，与麦克马斯特大学的科学家一起分离并复制了病毒，并与世界各地的团队协同致力于病株基因研究和疫苗研发。
药剂学Keith Pardee教授正在研究开发高效，低成本的新冠病毒检测药盒；该药盒将广泛应用于世界卫生组织重点关注的偏远地域。
多伦多大学校友 Paul 和 John Lem兄弟, 作为Spartan Bioscience（生物科技公司）创始人, 正在开发世界上最小的移动式手持DNA新冠病毒检测仪；该检测仪将于未来几周内投入批量生产。
我们为多伦多大学所做的一切感到自豪。然而在这一段时间里，我和你都在不同层面经历了由不确定性和错位感而带来的各种心理挑战。在我研究的环境科学领域中，大约10年前出现了一个新名词，“solastalgia”（“乡痛症”，此处指在家的乡愁），是指人们在熟悉的环境变化发生时产生的安全感和舒适感缺失。同译为乡痛症，“nostalgia”则是指离家的乡愁, 是指人们对过去的家乡和快乐时光的怀念而产生的忧郁情绪。
Solastalgia包括了很广的情绪范围：从冬天雪量降低而引起的轻微不安情绪到由于地震或滑坡失去家园而产生的极端失落感 -- 所有情绪的中心，都是由于熟悉稳定环境的丧失而导致的不安和失落感。在过去的几周中 （你们经历了更长的时间），我们也失去了自己所熟悉，且常常被认为是理所当然的部分生活和工作环境。我们大家都经历了Solastalgia；或者说我们都经历了“covistalgia”“疫痛症”。
我的童年是在加拿大的农村度过的。我儿时经历过停电。一旦停电，我就进入一个只有蜡烛昏暗映照的黑暗和不安的世界。但这种不安情形很快会由于电力恢复而迅速终止。而我们现在经历的困境却不太可能如此幸运地快速终止。所以如果你感到焦虑或疫痛；渴望回到过去正常，甚至可能由于太过平淡而被你忽略的正常生活，是可以理解的。如果当前的情况使你产生不安或沮丧的情绪，也是正常的。
让我们在这场危机中共同努力，相互依靠，一起变得强大，共同战胜疫痛症。让我们学会内省，在充满不确定因素的环境中找到能够强大自己内心的方式：比如说建立工作和生活的新常规；利用禁足期间与家人长期相处的机会获得对亲人更深的理解和尊重；通过网络建立社交互助平台。绿色通道项目对你们也有同样的期待，让我们在这个集体中建立新友谊和健康的互动管道；让我们共克时艰，在世界恢复“常态”前战胜疫痛和焦虑。
作为多伦多大学士嘉堡校区的教务长，我首要的职责就是在疫情期间保证教学的连续性。我很自豪地告诉大家所有冬季的课程都以网课形式得到顺利完成；所有夏季课程的网课也已经准备就绪。受疫情影响，我们多次与学生和家长沟通了绿色通道课程方案；每次沟通，大家都给予了极大的理解、耐心和支持。在此，请允许我向大家表达诚挚的感谢！
今天，我们正式开始网课前系列讲座，为大家的绿色通道课程和本科学习做准备。这一系列讲座包括学术规划、学术诚信、校内外住宿、健康与保健、大学生健康保险等重要内容。我们也会邀请优秀校友分享他们成功学习和工作经验，相信你们一定会受益匪浅。
我们密切关注疫情变化，并会根据具体情况提前或推后同学们到校注册时间。在条件允许的情况下，我们非常期待尽早在校园和大家见面。若条件不允许，多伦多大学高品质的网课也会陪伴大家渡过非常时期，保障大家本科学习的正常进度。
亲爱的2020级绿色通道学生，再次感谢你们这段时间的理解、耐心和支持。保持坚定，享受学习！
原文如下：
Dear 2020 Green Path students, parents,
Great to “see” you and welcome to the University of Toronto Scarborough Green Path virtual community! Under normal circumstances, I would be standing behind a podium in a lecture hall on campus to greet and welcome you in person. My name is Bill Gough, I am proud to serve as the Vice Principal and Dean (Academic) at the University of Toronto Scarborough. It is the university’s tradition to have me open the Green Path program each year. Today, I am very pleased to open this year’s Green Path program – although I can only deliver my remarks remotely, I feel even more closely connected with you as we fight against the global pandemic crisis together as global citizens.
Across University of Toronto community, faculty, staff, students, and alumni are making significant contributions to the battle against COVID-19—in many cases garnering global attention for their leadership and impact.
UofT Medicine virologists Samira Mubareka and Robert Kozak based at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, together with a McMaster University scientist, have isolated and reproduced the virus, of benefit to teams around the world working on its genomic profile and on vaccine development.
Pharmacy professor Keith Pardee is working on tools to make it faster and cheaper to carry out widespread tests for COVID-19, particularly in remote parts of the world—a WHO global priority.
UofT alumni brothers Paul and John Lem, founders of Spartan Bioscience, are developing a mobile, hand-held testing kit—"the world's smallest DNA analyzer"—for production in the next few weeks.
While we are very proud of what U of T is doing, for most of us and you for a longer period, we have been experiencing a very trying time on multiple levels, filled with uncertainty and a sense of dislocation. In my field of study, environmental science, a new term emerged about ten years ago: “solastalgia”, this is the lack of solace or comfort when environmental change takes place. Solastalgia is modelled from nostalgia, a sentimentality for the past, especially for a period or place characterized by happy memories.
Solastalgia describes the full range of emotions from wistfulness arising from winters that are no longer as snowy and intense as they once were, to a complete sense of loss when our homes and all that we know are destroyed by an earthquake or landslide. Within this range, the sense of loss of the familiar is central and often very unsettling. Much of what we were familiar with and often taken for granted has been lost to us in the last few weeks, and for you even longer, and for the foreseeable future, and this leaves us with feelings similar to solastalgia. Perhaps we can call it covistalgia.
As a child growing up in rural Canada, we often had power outages that propelled us dramatically into a different world of candles, eerie darkness and uncertainty. These often ended abruptly with the lights going on and our lives instantly restored. Our current crisis is unlikely to end so abruptly and it is understandable if you feel anxious, or covistalgic, about our lives, yearning for a life we had previously accepted often without much deep thought and perhaps without much appreciation. It is thus ok if the current circumstance has caused you to react negatively and be unsettled, or even despondent at times.
We can work together, and lean on each other, as we progress through the successive stages of this crisis, and defeat aspects of covistalgia. This may mean some introspection, looking deep within ourselves to find solace when experiencing uncertainty. Some find comfort in developing new routines, or a deeper appreciation of family or forming new supportive social networks via on-line pathways. We are going to do this with the GreenPath program as we form new friendships and a network we can rely on. Be assured you are not alone in this and we do not have to wait until the world returns to “normal” to feel an easing of our covistalgic anxiousness.
As the Dean of University of Toronto Scarborough, to ensure continuity of teaching and learning at such trying time, is my first priority. I am proud to say that all the remaining winter term courses have been delivered remotely without minimal disruption. All the summer courses are well prepared as remote offering.
In terms of the Green Path program delivery, we have communicated multiple contingency plans with you and your parents. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your understanding, patience and support.
Today, we officially open the online orientation month to prepare you for your Green Path program and degree studies. The online orientation sessions include “First Year Academic Planning”, “Academic Integrity”, “On and Off-campus residence”, “Health and Wellness”, “UHIP Insurance Coverage”, “Banking” and “Get Started”, etc. Each week, you are also invited to a “My story” session when a high-achieving GP alum shares his/her experiences. I am confident that you will find all the sessions beneficial.
The online academic studying will start on June 1. I am confident that you will find the studying intriguing, stimulating and challenging. Enjoy the journey with your new friends and instructors.
Finally, I want to note that the pandemic is fast-evolving. We are monitoring the conditions closely. If conditions permit you to arrive earlier than the announced date, we will be thrilled to have you on campus earlier and teach you in person. If conditions prohibit punctual arrival, our university is well prepared to ensure your degree progression by offering courses remotely, but at the high standard that University of Toronto is famous for.
Dear 2020 Green Path students, thank you again for your kind understanding, patience and support during this very trying time. Stay resilient and enjoy the online learning!
