New support for Academic & Student Achievement
Announcing the Provost’s Task Force on supports for Academic/Student Achievement (SA/SA)
Welcome back to all our faculty, staff and students. It is so nice to see the campus bustling with activity at the start of another academic year.
During the first phase of academic restructuring a few years ago, where the two new faculties of Nursing and Management were created, there was a “constellation of services” (or academic restructuring phase II) that still required consideration. In late spring of this year, the Provost’s Task Force on Pan-College Services, now more aptly named Supports for Academic/Student Achievement (SA/SA), was created. This group has been working diligently over the summer to ensure there is strategic alignment between the services’ structure and their operational mandate within the College. The services being considered are acknowledged to be core academic supports and infrastructure required to support student academic achievement.
The Task Force is overseen by a Steering Committee of Ben Cecil, Marg Heldman, Patricia Cia, Ann Syme and Jacqueline Bradshaw. The Task Force has been asked by the Steering Committee to consult widely and deeply in alignment with Langara’s Values to ensure we understand how the structure of the supports actually helps students achieve academic success. The Task Force’s mandate of consultation spans those areas previously known as the “constellation of services” and include:
Academic Innovation, Applied Research Centre, Co-Op & Career Development Centre, Educational Technology (EdTech), Work Integrated Learning/Experiential Learning, Langara Student Success Course (LSSC), Learning Strategist Program, Library & Learning Commons, Maker Space, Office of the Associate VP Academic, Peer Supported Learning (PSL), Prior Learning Assessment (PLAR), Quality Assurance, Return to Learning Course (RTL), Student Services, and the Teaching and Curriculum Development Centre (TCDC).
The Task Force of Ryan Vernon (Chair), Alison Curtis, Briana Fraser, Heather Workman, Sarah Bowers, Kelly Sveinson, Clayton Munro, Wanda Pierson, Jim Bowers, Bridget O’Donnell, Jimmy Aitken, Daryl Smith, and Michele Bowers may be reaching out to you in the coming weeks (if they haven’t already) to get your perspectives and thoughts about the supports for academic/student achievement. When they reach out to you, I hope you will engage them in a dialogue to ensure they gain your valuable perspective.
The Task Force is currently undertaking consultations to help inform a World Café event to be held on October 8th in the T-Gallery. This event will be posted shortly for your participation. After the World Café, the Task Force is planning a survey to the college community based on the information gathered during the Café event so we gain the perspectives and thoughts of even more members of the community.
The Task Force will then consolidate all the information and make a recommendation, or series of recommendations, to the Steering Committee by mid-November. The Steering Committee will then be presenting their final recommendation(s) to SLT at the end of December for implementation in the next fiscal year.
I would like to thank everyone on the Task Force and Steering Committee for all their work to date, and I wish them, and everyone at Langara, a wonderful start of term and a successful academic year.
Dr. Ben Cecil
Provost & Vice-President, Academic and Students
