The file of The Press about real influencers fills me with hope.
When we think of influence these days, it’s the immense popularity of certain digital content producers that immediately comes to mind. For some of us, including the baby boomer that I am, this form of socially networked influence can sometimes seem artificial or frivolous. We almost come to forget that there are other ways to act on the course of the world. Now, on reading the file of The Press, we discover not only that there is salvation outside Instagram or TikTok, but that there are in our society influencers and influencers deeply driven by the happiness of others who, through their behavior, their speeches and the values they embody, create trends. Men and women who pave the way and steer us in directions that we would not have thought of alone and who can commit us all. In lots of areas.
“For the common good”
So, on the strength of the observation that influence can be deployed for the common good, I claim for universities the title of real influencers. After all, I have spent a large part of my life there, as a professor and now as rector. And I am convinced that Quebec society needs them to guide its choices. Universities are full of expertise and knowledge. University research offers solutions and courses of action. Universities are credible, ethical. They support our power to imagine things differently, in support of science. They innovate, discover, create. They draw trends even before they are born. They change lives, living conditions too. They bring us together around knowledge and accompany us in our uninterrupted quest for knowledge, justice and well-being. And the hundreds of thousands of people who are trained there play a vital role in all sectors of our society, here and elsewhere in the world.
Each year, the University of Montreal graduates more than 13,000 people. Men and women who, once they have graduated, will for the most part pursue careers outside the university arena.
You will see them in the emergency rooms of our hospitals, in the classrooms of our schools, in the pharmaceutical laboratories of Laval, at international conferences on the climate, in our publishing houses, in the apparatus of the State of Quebec, in the OSM orchestra and in many other places and socio-professional circles that make up the fabric of our social body. It is primarily through these people that the Université de Montréal has exerted its most lasting and significant influence on Quebec society for more than 145 years.
Not only Quebec, moreover. At the University of Montreal, we aim to become the most influential French-language university in the world within a decade. We have a small idea of how to achieve this goal, which is within reach. But, surprise: the recipe is also in the many capsules that explain to those who wish “how to become an influencer”.
“Our collective future”
First, no influence without visibility. The influencer must be present everywhere. I deduce that the university must occupy even more space in the public sphere. That members of the university community must be seen, recognized, listened to and heard as such on all platforms. That the contribution of university graduates must be highlighted for its historic contribution to the advancement of our institutions and collective projects. That researchers must contribute as often as possible, in a public and transparent manner, to the elucidation of the problems facing society today. That the ivory tower must be open, accessible to whoever wants to enter it. #universityforallandall
Then, no influence without trust. The followers seek credibility and expertise, evaluate them at each of their visits to maintain the link or break it. The influential university gains ascendancy by creating content whose integrity is beyond reproach, which requires that it assert its autonomy, and preserve its freedom to critically, responsibly and without complacency examine all dogma, all opinions and received ideas. #academicfreedom
Finally, there is no influence without reactivity. Influencers who garner “ likes » listen to their community, dialogue with those who follow them to get to know them, and sometimes better meet their needs. Communication works both ways. The followers claim their affiliation with the person of influence at the same time as they nourish his power and his notoriety. The feeling of belonging unfolds in a delicate modulation of individual and collective relationships. The influential university does the same! It must make itself accessible and inclusive, and gradually correspond to a clear identity for the greatest number. #universityofmontrealandoftheworld
It is time for ideological polarization and social fragmentation, for withdrawal. We find it increasingly difficult to build common identities and major social projects. Universities of influence remain one of the few points of rallying and engagement in defining our collective future. #ilovemyuniversity