If Marsden has made it her business to raise her own, and other women's stature, in the eyes of the world, it seems she now also has her sights set on raising York's both at home and abroad. "I come back again to what I think of as a central issue for my first few months at York," she says "which is answering the question 'What is York?' -- the focus of our goals and our mission and what we're going to achieve in this new world.

    "It's not about reinventing York. I met with some alumni in the U. S. in mid-July. And I was very impressed. They said that when they had to describe York to their colleagues there, they needed a short phrase against the name of York, [like] "York is ..." York is high quality and it provides opportunity for people, innovation, but what I want to know is what alumni and students, staff and faculty feel. That is what I'll try to find out in the first couple of months. I'm looking forward to those conversations. I invite them to give me their views. If I've got 15 seconds, what should I say? Nobody gives you much time to get your message out."

    Within the small, rarefied world of university presidents, Marsden is among yet a more rare group -- those presidents who are women. Does it bother her that despite more and more women choosing careers in academia that there are so few women presidents? " It is sad," she says. "There used to be more than there are now. When Pauline Jewett was named president of Simon Fraser [in 1974]it was a big breakthrough. But I'm encouraged by the fact that there are now women presidents of small, medium and large universities.

    "For me, the big question always has been,'If you're an average, ordinary woman, can you get a good education, earn a good living, escape being poor in your old age?' Can you live a full life? Looking at these questions, what is happening to everybody is more important than the issue of a few getting to the top. I think it's true that you need people leading institutions who represent the whole of society, a diverse group. But I also think women should succeed everywhere, not only in the top jobs. I'm interested in faculty careers, staff careers, where students go, and how people are treated at all levels of the organization. All of those issues take time, but they need to be looked at."

    A question Marsden frequently gets asked is what the future of education in Ontario is going to look like. Are universities just in the job training business? And what about liaisons between community colleges (such as York's with Seneca) and universities? Marsden says differentiation is the way of the future. "We're much more differentiated than we used to be. It's a major issue for students, but it's also a question of self-identity for staff and faculty too. It relates to the question, 'What kind of a place am I working in?'

    "Ten years from now Canadian students will continue to get an excellent education at Canadian universities, although universities will have changed a lot. But they'll still be that institution you won't find anywhere else. The skills students are learning now in high school -- interdisciplinary skills, technology and information gathering skills -- will all be put to good use in the university of the future."

    Marsden says the economic restructuring that society is going through isn't just affecting universities, it's affecting everyone and every kind of institution. "It's part of a major change in our society." How can universities meet these challenges? Planning and smart marketing, she suggests. "People's lives have changed so much. We have to respond to the needs of students. What some universities around the country are doing is tapping into all the marketplaces -- like the large one of Toronto.

    "Universities aren't separate and apart from society. So the issue for me is, how do we achieve our academic objectives and provide the opportunity for our students as well as serve society? For example I don't think partnerships with private industry are necessarily a bad idea. I think if you're really clear about what you're doing and why you're doing it, and what the accountabilities are, then you can have good partnerships with all kinds of people.