The University of Regina has been the second home of Chancellor Jim Tomkins for more than 50 years. While a student in 1963, he worked for a local concrete company that poured the foundations for the Laboratory and Classroom Buildings. As Dr. Tomkins likes to say, "My roots go deep at the U of R."

In the intervening years, his roles have included professor, department head, vice-president, senator, president, and the University's eighth Chancellor. June 30 will mark the conclusion of Dr. Tomkins' second and final three-year term as Chancellor, but not before he confers 2,221 degrees, diplomas, and certificates on the 2,093 students set to graduate at the University's 45th Spring Convocation on June 5, 6, and 7. All told, he will have seen more than 16,800 walk across the Convocation stage and into the alumni family of more than 75,000.