{"id":22385,"date":"2012-02-29T18:47:41","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T23:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/?p=22385"},"modified":"2025-04-02T08:49:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T12:49:55","slug":"a-day-of-new-experiences-for-yorks-presidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2012\/02\/29\/a-day-of-new-experiences-for-yorks-presidents\/","title":{"rendered":"A day of new experiences for York's president(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For third-year student Rabia Sajun, it was the pace that surprised her the most as she swapped roles with President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri Feb. 28\u00a0in York's inaugural President for a Day<\/a> contest.<\/p>\n

\"York's<\/a>\u201cI hadn\u2019t anticipated just how fast it all is and how you are literally running from one place to another, always a little bit late, but trying to make the most of every minute,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

York's president(s) exchange stories during a breakfast meeting on Feb. 29<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sajun was also amazed at how much York\u2019s president crams into each day. \u201cThe very short periods of time that you have to meet with someone, perhaps 45 minutes or so, and then you have to be somewhere else, and you are there for just five minutes before going to the next meeting,\u201d she said, admitting she was \u201cjust a little tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting across from her in the President\u2019s Boardroom in the York Research Tower at a wrap-up breakfast yesterday morning was York \u201cStudent for a Day\u201d Mamdouh Shoukri. \u201cDid you give them clear instructions at the office yesterday as the president and tell them that from now on, this is how breakfast for the president should be?\u201d he said with a big grin as he tucked into a bowl of fresh fruit.<\/p>\n

The two had traded places as part of what could be a Canadian first \u2013 a university president swapping roles with a student for a full day. As part of his experience, Shoukri took the hour-long GO Bus ride from Streetsville to the Keele campus, backpack in tow, and then worked his way through Sajun\u2019s ambitious timetable, which consisted of two lectures, a physics lab and a 90-minute meeting with the Chemistry Society. It was no easy feat, he admitted, as Sajun is doing concurrent degrees in York\u2019s Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Faculty of Education and one of the classes was biology, a subject Shoukri had not studied since high school.<\/p>\n