Prominent members of the political, transit and academic sectors will come together at York University Friday to talk about how to provide an efficient, comprehensive transit and transportation system for the more than 300,000 students, staff and instructors who travel to southern Ontario’s post-secondary institutions.
The transit summit, Going to School, will take place Sept. 28, from 10am to 4pm, at the Underground Restaurant in the Student Centre, Keele campus.
The forum is a call to action for the coordinated and sustained funding, construction and maintenance of a regional transit system to support and enhance the 
civic and economic vitality of Toronto and the entire Greater Golden Horseshoe region.
Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) Professor Roger Keil (left), director of the City Institute at York University (CITY), will deliver 
opening remarks followed by a keynote address by City of Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan (right).
Panellists will discuss a wide-range of issues.
Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance Chair John Tory (left), former leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario, will moderate a president’s panel 
with York University President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri; President of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning Tim McTiernan; President of the Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning Chris Whittaker; Deanne Fisher, associate vice-president students at OCAD University; Rob MacIssac, president of Mohawk College of Applied Arts & Technology; David Agnew, president of Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology; Brad Chapman, chief financial officer & vice-president business development, Centennial College; Franco Vaccarino, vice-president, University of Toronto and principal of University of Toronto Scarborough.
The panellists will discuss transportation and transit challenges at their particular institution 
and what they believe regional transit priorities should be when it comes to institutions of higher learning.
Mamdouh Shoukri
City of Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat (MES '99) will moderate a discussion of how to improve transit-oriented development on and around campuses with Bryan Tuckey, president and CEO at the Building Industry & Land Development Association, Chris Wong, transportation and master planning director of York University Development Corporation, Marcy Burchfield, geomatics/research program manager, 
Neptis Foundation, and Sean Hertel, urban planning consultant.
Jennifer Keesmaat
The Toronto Star urban affairs columnist Royson James will lead a discussion of how transit operators can serve and link learning institutions with Gary McNeil, GO Transit president; Karen Stintz, City of Toronto councillor; and York University student Michael Collens.
Leslie Woo, Metrolinx vice-president, will talk with academics, including York FES Professor Laura Taylor, planning programs co-ordinator, and Pierre Filion, associate director of the University of Waterloo’s planning program, and Zack Taylor of the University of Toronto's Department of Geography, program in planning, about the future directions of discussions and how talk can be turned into action.
Closing remarks will be delivered by Keil.
This event is organized by the City Institute at York University and Adam Vaughan with support from the Canadian Urban Institute and Spacing, and sponsored by Bombardier Transportation, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 and the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.
For more information, visit the City Institute at York University website.