September 30, 2005 Source: University of Toronto:
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/050930-1673.asp Goel recognized for dedication to university This honour comes with wheels
Sep 30/05
by Michah Rynor (about) (email) Professor Vivek Goel, acting president, vice-president and provost, was surprised when a Sept. 29 administrators' meeting turned into a celebration of his outstanding service to U of T.
As the principals, deans, academic directors and chairs meeting began, Professor David Naylor, president-designate, jokingly recalled a day recently when his "old friend Vivek" stopped by Naylor's new office at Simcoe Hall. Seeing the classic wooden chair on wheels that Naylor's colleagues at the Faculty of Medicine had given him as a departing gift, Goel exclaimed, "Gee, that's fancy." "This immediately suggested to me that there was an appropriate way to salute three extraordinary months that he served as acting president, preceded by nine months in which he worked with Interim President Frank Iacobucci, a time when Vivek went above and beyond the call of duty so many times," Naylor said. As he spoke, a U of T chair -- on wheels -- was presented to Goel. Naylor applauded Goel for his "superb judgment, his relentless dedication to the academic mission of the university and his calm and unflappable demeanor." Rose Patten, chair of Governing Council, said she was impressed with how Goel "very generously and unselfishly" answered her call to help out when President Robert Birgeneau left mid-term to become president of the University of California at Berkeley. She told the assembly that during the summer she looked forward to Goel's telephone calls "because his subject matter is always important but what is most impressive is his sound judgment and the wisdom that he has brought to the issues that he has undertaken." Goel, a U of T graduate, has won numerous prestigious academic awards, including the Lee B. Lusted Prize from the Society for Medical-Decision Making, the Robin Badgley Award for Excellence in Community Health Teaching from U of T and the Janssen-Ortho English Literature Award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada. He has been with the university since 1991.
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