Brock U names new interim president after woman slated for job doesn’t take post

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – Ontario’s Brock University has named a new interim president a month after announcing that a woman who was to become the school’s first female president would not be joining the institution.

The St. Catharines, Ont., school says Tom Traves, the former president of Halifax’s Dalhousie University, will become its interim president on Oct. 1.

Traves’ appointment comes after Brock announced at the end of August that its board and then incoming president Wendy Cukier had “arrived at a mutual decision” not to proceed with Cukier’s appointment.

Brock’s board of trustees vice-chair would only say Cukier’s departure was a “personnel issue.” Cukier previously acted as a vice-president at Ryerson University.

Brock says Traves will lead the school for the next year while it conducts a search for a full-time president.

It says Traves was Dalhousie’s president for 18 years and stepped down from the post in 2013.

Traves says he will not be making “major changes” in Brock’s direction but does want to identify two or three goals for the coming year.