Acadia 2025 - Strategic Plan Summary

Acadia Transforming lives for a transforming world

Strategic Plan Summary

“Because we care deeply for our students, an Acadia education is not simply a transactional experience, it is a transformational experience; and that is what is needed for our graduates to be prepared to thrive in a transforming world.�

Dr. Peter Ricketts President and Vice-Chancellor

2

An education for the 21st century Acadia’s approach of educating the whole person has never been more relevant than it is in today’s rapidly changing society, where an increasingly complex combination of skills, knowledge and capabilities are required in order to succeed and thrive.

Critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, self-motivation, resilience, determination, numeracy, literacy, and the ability to work both individually and in teams are essential components of the character that an Acadia education builds.

In today’s transforming world, managing change, experiential learning, digital and technological competencies, international experiences, engagement with truth and reconciliation, and active learning prepare students for the world of work and the global society of the 21st century.

At Acadia, students learn how to live and thrive in community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Peter J. Ricketts President and Vice-Chancellor

3

Strategic Vision Acadia University is the top choice for students seeking a transformative university experience dedicated to unleashing their potential to prepare them for a transforming world.

4

Our place in higher education Based on our consultations, Acadia’s mission, vision and values statements have been nuanced and updated to create strategic statements for Acadia 2025. Although updated, they remain true to the reasons why the institution was founded more than 182 years ago.

Mission Acadia University provides an unparalleled learning experience through a liberal education model based on personalized attention, expanding the boundaries of knowledge, experiential learning, community engagement, environmental stewardship and global citizenship, and engaged research and innovation delivered by a passionate, dedicated, and nurturing community within a beautiful and historic campus environment.

Values Acadia’s values help define who are and guide our aspirations for the future.

They provide the foundation of our new strategic plan.

• Caring for our students

• Educating the whole person

• Critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, resilience, entrepreneurial spirit, and technological competence

• Global citizenship and responsibility

• Passionate community engagement

• Diversity, inclusivity, equity, and respect

• Excellence in academic, research, scholarly, professional, and personal achievement

• Environmental stewardship and sustainability

• Truth and reconciliation with indigenous peoples of Canada

• Social justice, human rights and the common good

• Engaged partnerships and outreach for regional development

• Authentic relationships with community and alumni

• Responsible management and allocation of resources

5

How we got started Acadia’s previous strategic plan was published in 2006, two years before the worldwide financial crisis crippled economies and only two years after the launch of Facebook, the unofficial birth of social media.

If we think about this for a moment, our world and the expectations of post-secondary institutions have so fundamentally changed that as the end of the first quarter of the 21st century draws near, a new strategic plan for Acadia is an inescapable imperative if we are to reflect the time in which we live, the new realities in which we operate, and the academic space we will need to occupy in order to remain relevant and sustainable.

The Acadia 2025 planning process began in March 2018 with a Town Hall presentation and publication of a Strategic Framework document. It then proceeded through three stages toward Plan Finalization – Ideas for Acadia, Strategic Directions, and Plan Development

Ideas for Acadia The ideation stage saw the creation of the Acadia Ideabook, a product of consultations and input from over 200 individual and group submissions.

Strategic Directions A Strategic Planning Task Force comprising members from across the Acadia community and external representation engaged in a community-wide consultation process to identify key strategic directions for shaping the plan. The Task Force report, Acadia 2025: Charting a Course, identified where we must concentrate new efforts such that by 2025, Acadia further differentiates itself from its competitors in a manner that amplifies the university’s contribution to regional and provincial social, cultural and economic prosperity.

Plan Development Several working groups comprising members of the Task Force and the Acadia leadership team produced an initial draft plan which was refined and re-drafted after further consultation with the Board of Governors, the Senate, and the Acadia community.

Plan Finalization The final draft plan was subjected to further consultation phase and was approved by the Board of Governors at its meeting in March 2020. Days later, Acadia University was thrust into a response to COVID-19 and a global pandemic.

6

Strategic Theme: Transforming Lives for a Transforming World STRATEGIC VISION Acadia University is the top choice for students seeking a transformative university experience dedicated to unleashing their potential to prepare them for a transforming world.

STRATEGIC MISSION Acadia University provides an unparalleled learning experience through a liberal education model based on personalized attention, expanding the boundaries of knowledge, experiential learning, community engagement, environmental stewardship and global citizenship, and engaged research and innovation delivered by a passionate, dedicated and nurturing community within a beautiful and historic campus environment.

STRATEGIC DIRECTION AND GOALS Caring for our students and employees

Caring for our planet

Revitalizing our academic core

Maximizing our impact regionally and globally

Sustaining our institutional future

Goals:

Goals:

Goals:

Goals:

Goals:

ransformational student T experiences focused on academic and personal success

Environmental stewardship and sustainability are signature institutional features of Acadia

Embrace a 21stcentury liberal education model that is central to Acadia’s vision and mission

New partnerships and collaboration to drive regional development and educational opportunities

Make measurable progress and establish a target date for achieving net carbon neutrality

Enhanced support for teaching and learning excellence

Leadership and impact in environmental, rural and coastal research and innovation

Achieve optimal rates of student enrolment to ensure institutional and campus community sustainability

An inclusive and supportive community campus culture A campus culture passionate about professionalism, inclusion, service excellence, and leadership Caring for our community’s safety, health and wellness

Acadia’s research is impactful regionally, nationally and globally

Establish a culture of sustained fundraising and giving Enhance infrastructure renewal and campus development to meet priority needs

Msit No’kmaq - advancing Acadia’s contributions to truth, reconciliation and decolonization

7

Strategic directions that embrace change The world is changing at a never-before-seen pace and we cannot predict what challenges lie ahead. One thing is certain, Acadia will continue to deliver the kind of educational experience that will care and prepare our students for the world.

Acadia 2025 provides a strategic framework designed to guide decision-making, priority-setting, and, finally, resource allocation.

The plan’s five overarching Strategic Directions are of equal and interchangeable value, each with supporting goals, objectives and key performance indicators.

8

Acadia 2025: Phased Implementation Plan PHASE I: Student success and building resources 2019/20 - 2020/21

PHASE II: Building and sustaining 2021/22 – 2022/23 Mid-plan review June 2022

PHASE III: Investing for the future 2023/24 – 2024/25

Priority Goals:

Priority Goals:

Priority Goals:

Transformational student experiences focused on academic and personal success

Enhanced support for teaching and learning excellence

Enhance infrastructure renewal and campus development to meet priority needs and reduce our accumulated deferred maintenance deficit

Achieve optimal rates of student enrolment to ensure institutional and campus community sustainability Embrace a 21st-century liberal education model that is central to Acadia’s vision and mission

New partnerships and collaboration to drive regional development and educational opportunities Determine a date for and make measurable progress towards achieving net carbon neutrality

Establish a culture of sustained fundraising and giving Acadia’s research activities and outcomes are known regionally, nationally and globally

Environmental stewardship and sustainability are signature institutional features of Acadia University Msit No’kmaq - advancing Acadia’s contributions to truth, reconciliation and decolonisation

Incremental Goals: • An inclusive and supportive community campus culture • A campus culture passionate about professionalism, inclusion, service excellence, and leadership • Caring for our community health and wellness • Acadia recognized for leadership and impact in rural and coastal research and innovation

9

10

caring for our caring for our students andstudents and employees employees Enriching the Acadia learning revitalizing and working experience our

academic core

One of the distinguishing features of Acadia is that we truly and deeply care about our students and for each other as a learning community.

Given Acadia’s small size, students and employees are not merely numbers, they are valued and treated as individuals.

maximizing our impact

Acadia prides itself on being a community where everyone supports each other, but especially where we all support and care for the welfare and success of our students. This is a key part of Acadia’s commitment to a personalized educational experience, whether it be in small classes where professors know all their students by name, or whether it is from the individual support and mentoring of students by professors and staff alike.

sustaining our institutional future At Acadia, students learn how to live and thrive in a community.

This extraordinary learning environment can only be delivered when our employees are fully committed to that goal and are supported in delivering outstanding educational and professional services to our students.

caring for our planet

Goals • Transformational student experiences focused on academic and personal success • An inclusive and supportive community campus culture • A campus culture passionate about professionalism, inclusion, service excellence, and leadership • Caring for our community health and wellness • Msit No’kmaq – advancing Acadia’s contributions to truth, reconciliation and decolonization on and off campus 11

caring for our students and employees

caring for our students and employees

revitalizing our our revitalizing academic corecore academic

revitalizing ou academic co

Compellingmaximizing and impactful programs, experientialour learning, and inspired impact teaching to prepare graduates for 21st-century careers

sustaining our institutional future

sustaining ou institutional fu

caring for our planet

caring for our planet

When Acadia joined with its Maple League partners to formally launch the Maple League of Universities in 2016, the four institutions established the key differentiators that make our teaching and learning environments different from what has become the norm in Canadian post-secondary education. Top among these is the ease with which students engage directly with their professors, colleagues, alumni and community members during their learning process.

Student proximity to and engagement in faculty research is another, as is the ability for students to engage in experiential learning in all programs, and to become part of one of Canada’s most highly community engaged universities. In its 2018 Humans Wanted: How Canadian youth can thrive in the age of disruption, RBC said “they will need a portfolio of human skills such as critical thinking, social perceptiveness, and complex problem solving to remain competitive and resilient in the labour market.”

Regardless of their specific program or area of studies, Acadia students learn these skills due to the rich research environment in which our undergraduates are taught and the engaged community that are part of the Acadia educational experience.

Goals • Embrace a 21st-century liberal education model that is central to Acadia’s vision and mission • Enhanced support for teaching and learning excellence 12

maximizing our impact

13

14

revitalizing our academic core maximizing maximizing our impact our impact Engagedsustaining research, innovation, our and collaborative initiatives institutional for community cultural futureand economic development Overlooking the highest tides in the world in the Bay of Fundy and the majestic coastal landscape of Cape Blomidon and the Minas Basis, Acadia’s’ unique geographic location in Nova Scotia is a defining feature of the Acadia experience.

caring for our planet Acadia is blessed to be in a region that is blossoming economically and socially, and to

be part of such a beautiful community as the Town of Wolfville, Canada’s quintessential university town.

Today, we also recognize that Acadia University is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq nation. We value the seven sacred truths of Love, Wisdom, Truth, Honesty, Respect, Humility, and Courage, and we respect and honour the culture, traditions, and traditional knowledge of the Mi’kmaw people. We recognize these as small, but meaningful steps in reconciliation and our continued efforts to build a strong relationship between Acadia and the Mi’kmaq nation, especially the communities of Glooscap, Annapolis Valley, Bear River, and Acadia within the Mi’kmaq districts of Sipekne’katik and Kespukwitk, two of the seven districts of Mi’kma’ki.

Acadia’s contribution to the growth and prosperity of our region is significant, and we also recognize the enormous contributions of our region and surrounding communities, as well as those of our provincial and federal governments, in supporting Acadia. We will continue to play an increasingly important role in the economic, social and cultural development of our region, our province and our country.

Goals • New partnerships and collaboration to drive regional development and educational opportunities • Leadership and impact in environmental, rural and coastal research and innovation • Acadia’s research is impactful regionally, nationally and globally 15

maximizing our impact sustaining our our sustaining institutional futurefuture institutional caring for

Optimizing enrolment, fundraising and our planet campus infrastructure renewal Institutional sustainability takes on many meanings in today’s world. Achieving greater financial security is a top priority for Acadia as we seek to improve our revenue base, without which we will not have the resources to maintain our current level of operations let alone invest in new areas of development. Optimizing enrolment is, therefore, a critical component of our ability to sustain ourselves as a viable institution, as is always the need to maintain an effective level of fundraising.

However, institutional sustainability also involves environmental stewardship, and ensuring that we do everything we can to become more energy efficient, more effective in our use of resources, and work towards net-carbon neutrality. While some of these initiatives cost more money up-front, they also bring long-term savings, as seen in our recent successes in lowering energy and water consumption, reducing single-use plastics on campus, composting and recycling, and committing to fair trade.

For a university like Acadia, institutional sustainability also includes conserving and enhancing our historic infrastructure, ensuring that we preserve the unique architectural heritage and natural beauty of our campus.

Goals • Achieve optimal rates of student enrolment to ensure institutional and campus community sustainability • Establish a culture of sustained fundraising and giving • Enhance infrastructure renewal and campus development to meet priority needs

16

17

18

sustaining our institutional future caring for caring for our planet

our planet

Leading, educating, and researching in environmental stewardship, climate change and sustainability In 2019, the United Nations reported in its Emissions Gap Report that global greenhouse gas emissions rose to record levels. Climate change experts predict that at this rate our planet’s temperature will rise by 3 to 5º C with disastrous consequences. The IPCC special reports on the implications of a 1.5ºC increase in global temperature (2018) and on the oceans and cryosphere (2019) have provided further scientific proof of the existence of a climate emergency.

There is simply no more time to delay the action necessary to reduce emissions, and while governments and industry have the primary role, it is important that organizations and individuals do their part, and that our students are educated about the crucial importance of environmental stewardship, climate change and sustainability.

Today’s students are graduating into a world that is not only changing socially, culturally, economically and technologically at an increasing pace, but due to climate change it is also changing physically in a way that no previous generation has experienced. It is imperative that progressive educational institutions make environmental responsibility and sustainability as core elements in curricula, programming and institutional practice; and make progress towards becoming net-zero carbon emitters.

Goals • Environmental stewardship and sustainability are signature institutional features of Acadia • Make measurable progress and establish a target date for achieving net carbon neutrality

19

The future is ours to create In 2025, Acadia will be a university that is clearly differentiated within the Canadian post-secondary landscape.

Our faculty will be known as leading researchers in their disciplines and the value to students, alumni, and potential employers of its liberal education model will be widely recognized. We will be an acknowledged leader in reducing its environmental footprint and will be known as a leader in teaching all students how to be stewards of our environment.

Acadia will be an excellent place to work and our campus culture, rooted in inclusivity and equity, will provide students with a learning environment in which they can excel.

Beyond our campus, Acadia will be known by its Mi’kmaq neighbours and Canada’s Indigenous Peoples as a place where truth and reconciliation matters, and by members of marginalized and Black communities, regional entrepreneurs, artists, and athletes as a place where they can achieve their dreams of success.

Acadia will be a model partner to the Annapolis Valley, welcoming community members to participate fully in its campus and rewarding its students for engaged learning.

Join us.

Together, we will transform lives for a transforming world.

20

21

acadia2025.acadiau.ca

Produced by University Communications November 2020 | Photography: Dan Callis, Mike Dembeck, Grant Lohnes, Peter Oleskevich, Sherri Turner

Office of the President 15 University Avenue Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, B4P 2R6