CACUSS Spring 2015

CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT SERVICES L’ASSOCIATION DES SERVICES AUX ÉTUDIANTS DES UNIVERSITÉS ET COLLÈGES DU CANADA

Get to know our 20 new Communities starting on P.9!

SPRING / PRINTEMPS / 2015 / ISSN 1206-8500

s Campu Mental Health

Stu co dent nd uct

STUDENT LTH HEA

micg e ad nin c A ar Le

peer student rt o p sup s program

, tion nta & Orie sition n Tra ention Ret

spirit uality and r eligio pluralis us m

Accessi

NATIONAL ABORiginal student services Alliance (NASSA)

bility and Inclusi on

Co-Curricular Recognition Program

Introducing the new

CACUSS Comunities

Cas Mana e gemen t

Equity Seekin g Group s

LEADER SHIP EDUCA TORS

Community Engaged Learning

, arch rese ent & ssm n asse uatio al v e ed Integrat and Academic al on Professi Advising

postdary secon elling couns

Digital ations Communic in Higher Education

n zatio nali atio n t r e Int den

ts studen y il m with fa ties ili b si n respo

u in St rs Affai

How to “Join” a CACUSS Community 1.

Visit www.cacuss.ca and login to your member profile

2.

Click on “My Profile” on the left-hand side.

3.

Select the “Update Profile” button from the top menu of your profile.

4.

(You might want to add a photo of yourself here too!)

Choose the Communities you wish to join.

5.

From then on, when you login and access “My Profile”, you will see your Community involvement.

6.

You can post your comments or questions to the Community member forums.

7.

You will eventually receive digests and email communications from the Communities you have “joined”

8.

Post, ask questions, participate, network, share information!

Joining us at CACUSS 2015 in Vancouver? Each Community will have an informal meeting on Tuesday, May 26 from 10:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Make sure to plan to join one or two of those discussions to learn more!

Contents 4

President’s Message / Message du président

5

Executive Director Update / Mise à jour de la directrice générale

10

CACUSS Communities 101

32

11

Academic Learning

12

Accessibility and Inclusion

13

Campus Mental Health

14

Case Management

15

Co-Curricular Recognition Program

16

Community Engaged Learning

17

Digital Communications in Higher Education

18

Equity Seeking Groups

19

Integrated Academic and Professional Advising

20

Internationalization in Student Affairs

21

Leadership Educators

22

National Aboriginal Student Services Alliance (NASSA)

23

Orientation, Transition & Retention

24

Post-Secondary Counselling

25

Research, Assessment & Evaluation

26

Spirituality and Religious Pluralism

28

Student Conduct

29

Student Health

30

Student Peer Support Programs

31

Students with Family Responsibilities

Student Success Initiatives: The Case for “Study Skills”

by Lisa Fraser

35

Help Us Write the Next Chapter of Communiqué

(and other CACUSS Communications)

We want your stories!

To submit for the 2015-16 editions of Communiqué magazine, please check the submission guidelines on our website and note the following submission deadline dates: Fall 2015

October 1, 2015

Winter 2016

January 15, 2016

Spring 2016

March 1, 2016

Communiqué Volume 15, Issue 2, Spring 2015 / Tome 15, Numéro 2, Printemps 2015 Editor / Rédacteur Mitchell Miller, communique@cacuss.ca Design / Conception graphique Managing Matters Inc., 647-345-1116 CACUSS Board/Conseil ASEUCC David Newman, President, cacuss-president@cacuss.ca Janet Mee, Past-President, janet.mee@ubc.ca Marcelle Mullings, Finance Director, marcellm@yorku.ca Jack Dobbs, Director / Professional Development jdobbs@mtroyal.ca Karen Cornies, Director / Professional Development, kcornies@redeemer.ca Corinna Fitzgerald, Director / Communities of Practice, corinna.Fitzgerald@Humber.ca Laurie Schnarr, Director / Communities of Practice, lschnarr@uoguelph.ca Kelli MacCulloch, Director / Research and Recognition, kmacculloch@lakeheadu.ca Shawna Cunningham, Director / Policy, scunning@ucalgary.ca Communiqué is published by the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS)/L’association des services aux étudiants des universities et colleges du Canada (ASEUCC). All material copyright CACUSS/ASEUCC unless otherwise noted. Material may not be reproduced without the express written permission of CACUSS/ASEUCC. The opinions expressed in Communiqué do not reflect those of the magazine or of CACUSS. Le Communiqué est publié par la Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS)/l’Association des services aux étudiants des universités et collèges du Canada (ASEUCC). Copyright pour le contenu : CACUSS/ASEUCC, à moins d’indication contraire. Aucune reproduction du contenu de cette publication sans l’autorisation écrite expresse de CACUSS/ASEUCC. Les opinions exprimées dans Communiqué ne reflètent pas ceux du magazine ou de l’ASEUCC. Jennifer Hamilton, Executive Director, cacuss-ed@cacuss.ca Advertising / La publicité CACUSS Secretariat, contact@cacuss.ca Submissions / Soumissions News, articles, updates, opinion pieces, letters to the editor, artwork and photographs relating to college and university student services in Canada are all very welcome. Send submissions to: Nous acceptons les nouvelles, articles, mises au point, énoncés d’opinion, lettres aux rédacteurs, illustrations et photographies se rapportant aux services aux étudiants des collèges et des universités. Faire parvenir vos soumissions à : Mitchell Miller, communique@cacuss.ca CACUSS Secretariat/Secretariat ASEUCC 720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2T9 • 647-345-1116 Email: contact@cacuss.ca Website: www.CACUSS.ca

President’s Message

A

s we approach the annual CACUSS conference in Vancouver, and as I complete the first year of my term as President, I am brought back to the topic I highlighted in my first Communiqué message. For those of you who remember, I likened this end-of the-academic-calendar time of year and the CACUSS conference to New Year’s Day. I reflected on the conference as a time to renew, refresh, and recommit.

As I reflect on the activities of this past year and recognize the changes that have shaped the evolution of CACUSS, I realize that we have many accomplishments to celebrate!

We need to celebrate our newly formed and emerging Communities. Indeed, this edition of Communiqué is dedicated to these amazing opportunities to engage in professional dialogue around the student experience. The Communities rose from our new organizational structure, yet another accomplishment to celebrate. Although many years of significant consultation went into the development of our new structure, our implementation of the model was the real test of its success. As you will see throughout this edition, and through much of the ongoing work of CACUSS shaped by the work of the Communities, student affairs and services in Canada has a very broad scope and touches on virtually all aspects of student experiences in our colleges and universities. Our Communities also embrace and highlight the importance of our interconnectedness in supporting student success.

As the annual conference approaches, the conference theme, “Whole Campus, Whole Student: Creating Healthy Communities”, reminds us that our work, both at our home institutions and within CACUSS, requires us to work together as a profession and that by doing so, we can accomplish much more. We have truly accomplished great things together, which is yet another reason to celebrate. I recently attended the annual conventions of both ACPA and NASPA, American organizations similar to CACUSS, where I heard from scholars and professionals from around the world who look to Canada as model of best practices in student affairs and services. From our ability to develop a national resource to guide our work in supporting student mental health, to David Newman our capacity to accomplish significant achievements with limited resources, our work is getting noticed.

However, our successes don’t just happen. Realizing our goals requires engagement from a number of highly dedicated people who believe in CACUSS and the work of student affairs and services professionals in Canada. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the tremendous work and contributions of our Executive Director, the Board of Directors, the many committees and working groups, the Communities, and the CACUSS Secretariat, who are all committed to supporting the needs of our members and aligning our work to the strategic vision and mission of CACUSS. And although we’ve achieved much, there continues to be more work to do.

Through maximizing member engagement and participation, we can fully realize our potential. Whether you are attending the annual conference, participating in one of our many professional development opportunities throughout the year, actively engaging in one or more of our Communities, or assuming a volunteer role in one of our leadership positions, there are many varied opportunities for you to help us advance student affairs and services in Canada.

As we celebrate our past achievements and continue to look forward to advancing the goals of the organization and profession, I hope that you take the time to learn from one another, work together collaboratively, and make the most of the 4 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

Communities that have been established for you. In doing so, we’ll have much more to celebrate as a profession in the years to come.

David can be reached at president@cacuss.ca.

Message du président

À

l’approche de la conférence annuelle de l’Association des services aux étudiants des universités et collèges du Canada (ASEUCC) qui se tiendra à Vancouver et de la fin de la première année de mon mandat à titre de président, je reviens sur le thème que j’ai abordé dans mon premier message Communiqué. Ceux qui s’en souviennent, je comparais cette période correspondant à la fin du calendrier universitaire et la conférence de l’ASEUCC au Nouvel An. Je considérais que la conférence était l’occasion de nous renouveler, de nous mettre à jour et de renouveler notre engagement.

Lorsque je pense aux activités de la dernière année et que je reconnais les changements qui ont façonné l’évolution de l’ASEUCC, je me rends compte que nous avons de nombreuses réalisations à célébrer!

Nous devons célébrer nos nouvelles communautés et nos communautés récemment créées. En fait, ce numéro de Communiqué est consacré à ces occasions exceptionnelles d’entamer un dialogue professionnel sur l’expérience des étudiants. Les communautés sont nées de notre nouvelle structure organisationnelle, ce qui constitue une autre réalisation à célébrer. Même si l’établissement de notre nouvelle structure a nécessité d’importantes activités de consultation pendant de nombreuses années, notre mise en œuvre du modèle donnait la vraie mesure de son succès. Comme vous le constaterez tout au long du présent numéro et dans une grande partie du travail continu de l’ASEUCC, qui a été façonné par le travail des communautés, les affaires étudiantes et les services aux étudiants au Canada ont une portée très large et touchent à presque toutes les facettes des expériences des étudiants au sein de nos collèges et universités. Nos communautés reconnaissent et soulignent également l’importance de notre interdépendance dans le soutien à la réussite scolaire. À l’approche de la conférence annuelle, le thème de la conférence, « Vie de campus sainement vôtre : Pour la création de communautés saines », nous rappelle que notre travail, au sein de nos établissements d’attache et de l’ASEUCC, exige que nous travaillions ensemble comme profession, ce qui nous permet ainsi d’accomplir beaucoup plus. Nous avons réellement accompli de grandes choses ensemble, ce qui est une autre raison de célébrer. J’ai récemment assisté aux congrès annuels de l’ACPA et de la NASPA, des organismes similaires à l’ASEUCC, où j’ai écouté des universitaires et des professionnels du monde entier qui considèrent le Canada comme un modèle de pratiques exemplaires au chapitre des affaires étudiantes et des services aux étudiants.

De notre capacité à mettre au point une ressource nationale permettant d’orienter notre travail à l’appui de la santé mentale des étudiants à notre capacité à accomplir

aux étudiants. De notre capacité à mettre au point une ressource nationale permettant d’orienter notre travail à l’appui de la santé mentale des étudiants à notre capacité à accomplir d’importantes réalisations avec des ressources limitées, notre travail attire l’attention.

Cependant, notre succès n’est pas le fruit du hasard. L’atteinte nos objectifs exige l’engagement d’un certain nombre de personnes très dévouées qui croient en l’ASEUCC et le travail des professionnels des affaires étudiantes et des services aux étudiants au Canada. Je m’en voudrais de ne pas souligner le travail incroyable et les contributions remarquables de notre directeur exécutif, du conseil d’administration, des nombreux comités et groupes de travail, des communautés et du secrétariat de l’ASEUCC qui se sont tous engagés à soutenir les besoins de nos membres et à harmoniser notre travail en fonction de la vision stratégique et de la mission de l’ASEUCC. Même si nous avons obtenu beaucoup de succès, il reste encore beaucoup de travail à faire.

En maximisant l’engagement et la participation des membres, nous pouvons réaliser pleinement notre potentiel. Que vous assistiez à la conférence annuelle, participiez à l’une de nos nombreuses occasions de perfectionnement professionnel offertes tout au long de l’année, preniez activement part à l’une ou plusieurs de

nos communautés ou occupiez un rôle de bénévole au sein de l’un de nos postes de direction, vous avez de nombreuses occasions diversifiées de nous aider à faire avancer les affaires étudiantes et les services aux étudiants au Canada.

Alors que nous célébrons nos réalisations antérieures et continuons à attendre avec impatience de faire avancer les objectifs de l’organisme et de la profession, j’espère que vous prenez le temps d’apprendre les uns des autres, de travailler ensemble et de tirer profit des communautés qui ont été créées à votre intention. Ainsi, nous aurons encore plus de raisons de célébrer comme profession dans les années à venir.

Vous pouvez communiquer avec David à l’adresse suivante : president@cacuss.ca

Congratulations

to the 2015 CACUSS Award Recipients!

Award of Honour • Tricia Seifert, Montana State University / New and Emerging Professionals Award • Tayyab Rashid, University of Toronto Scarborough University of Toronto • Kelly White, University of British Columbia Vancouver CACUSS Life Membership Award • Susan McIntyre, Saskatchewan Polytechnic Leaders in Learning Award • Gordon Dionne, Concordia University • Brian Henderson, Saskatchewan Polytechnic Research Award Innovation Award • Janet Miller, Mark Kelli, Alena Boczek, Mount • Mariam Aslam, Tayyab Rashid, Laurie Royal University Wright, Ruth Louden, Laura Boyko, Fahim Kazemi, University of Toronto Scarborough How do Residence Advisors (RAs) perceive the value of their • Duane Rendle, St. Michael’s College, RA training and leadership experiences five years after their University of Toronto position has ended? Are there elements of the RA training • Megan Pinfield, Simon Fraser University experience that have a positive and long lasting impact on • Jennifer Browne, Memorial University of the personal or career lives of these individuals?

Newfoundland 2015 CACUSS Conference Bursary Recipients Student Leadership Award • Basma Chamas, University of Toronto Scarborough • Paige Labar, Simon Fraser University • Amanda Sartori, Glendon College, York University • Darby Cumming, University of Manitoba • Freeman Woolnaugh, Queen’s University • John Loeppky, University of Regina • Josie Steeves, University of Saskatchewan

COMMUNIQUÉ / VOLUME 15 / ISSUE 2 / SPRING 2015 / 5

Executive Director Update

A

s I write this report, we have launched our member needs assessment survey. So far we have had close to a 30% participation rate in only the first week of the survey being launched. This is more than just a survey, though; it is meant to give us some key data from our members that will spark action-oriented outcomes.

The CACUSS Board of Directors identified the professional development (PD) of our members as a key priority in our strategic plan. Despite years of success in our annual conference and divisional and regional events, we have never had a comprehensive plan that establishes a clear, well considered, future direction for CACUSS-led PD. Our overarching goal is to be recognized as a leader in providing highquality learning experiences for our membership. Part of this process is doing an environmental scan and understanding where you, our members, are already getting high-quality professional development. We know that many of you are involved in other associations, have sought graduate courses/credentials, or have pursued certificate programs through providers such as Seneca College and the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD). Our key questions ask where the gaps are and what is missing. We do not have the resources to be frivolous or to duplicate quality programs that are offered elsewhere. As I wrote in my column in the Winter 2015 edition, continuing to develop partnerships can help provide our members with pathways to programs that already exist.

Our membership brings such a breadth and depth of experience. Coming up with one “institute” or program is not going to meet everyone’s needs. Another approach is building Jennifer Hamilton our ability to respond quickly to important emerging issues facing our students and campus communities. Mental health, sexual violence, and orientation programming are some examples of where we could be starting timely conversations, sharing best practices, and developing key learning outcomes as these complex issues emerge.

Another approach is developing a Canadian-specific set of competencies and building an ongoing, multi-level curriculum over time. Many of you have followed the competency conversation of our sister associations (ACPA & NASPA) in the U.S. Is this the right approach for CACUSS? That is another question we hope the member needs assessment will help us better answer. We also need to establish what learning experiences are going to give you the best return on investment, given the limited resources of your institutions. Lastly, we see great opportunities for our emerging CACUSS Communities to build momentum regionally.

These are all possibilities I hope the Board will address when we meet in May to consider the results of the needs assessment and the follow-up focus groups. We thank all of you who participated for your input. I also want to thank Dr. Jennie Massey from Baylor University for taking the lead on this project and the CACUSS Professional Development Committee for their stewardship on the assessment.

The results of the member needs assessment survey and our next steps will be shared via our website, summarized at our AGM on May 27, and disseminated through member communications. I am excited to support the organization moving through this process and am very much looking forward to our new plan!

Please be in touch. cacuss-ed@cacuss.ca @cacusstweets

6 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

Mise à jour de la directrice générale

A

u moment de rédiger ce rapport, nous avons lancé notre sondage sur l’évaluation des besoins des membres. Jusqu’à présent, nous avons enregistré un taux de participation de près de 30 %, et ce, uniquement au cours de la première semaine suivant le lancement du sondage. C’est toutefois plus qu’un simple sondage, il vise à nous permettre d’obtenir de nos membres certaines données clés qui entraîneront des résultats axés sur l’action.

Le conseil d’administration de l’Association des services aux étudiants des universités et collèges du Canada (ASEUCC) a déterminé que le perfectionnement professionnel de nos membres constituait une priorité clé de notre plan stratégique.

Malgré de nombreuses années de succès dans le cadre de notre conférence annuelle et de nos événements régionaux et divisionnaires, nous n’avions jamais mis au point un plan exhaustif qui établit une orientation future claire et bien réfléchie pour le perfectionnement professionnel mené par l’ASEUCC. Notre objectif principal est d’être reconnu comme un chef de file dans la prestation d’expériences d’apprentissage de grande qualité pour nos membres. Une partie de ce processus consiste à procéder à une analyse du contexte et à connaître les endroits où vous, nos membres, obtenez déjà un perfectionnement professionnel de grande qualité.

Nous savons que plusieurs d’entre vous font partie d’autres associations, ont suivi des cours de niveau supérieur ou obtenu des diplômes d’études supérieures ou ont suivi des programmes de certificat par le biais de fournisseurs comme le Seneca College et le Centre for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD) de l’Université du Manitoba. Nos principales questions visent à savoir où se trouvent les lacunes et à connaître les manques. Nous ne possédons pas les ressources nécessaires pour être déraisonnables ou pour reproduire des programmes de qualité qui sont offerts ailleurs. Comme je l’ai mentionné dans mon article paru dans le numéro d’hiver 2015, l’établissement continu de partenariats peut nous aider à fournir à nos membres des cheminements pour suivre des programmes qui existent déjà.

Nos membres amènent une expérience si vaste et riche. Proposer un « institut » ou un programme ne permettra pas de répondre aux besoins de tous. Une autre approche consiste à renforcer notre capacité à réagir rapidement aux nouveaux enjeux importants auxquels font face nos étudiants et nos communautés sur le campus. Les programmes de santé mentale, de violence sexuelle et d’orientation sont quelques exemples de thèmes pour lesquels nous pourrions engager des discussions en temps opportun, partager des pratiques exemplaires et obtenir des résultats d’apprentissage clés, et ce, à mesure que ces enjeux complexes surgissent.

Une autre approche consiste à mettre au point un ensemble de compétences propres au Canada et à créer au fil du temps des programmes permanents à plusieurs niveaux. Bon nombre d’entre vous ont suivi la discussion sur les compétences de nos associations sœurs (ACPA et NASPA) aux États-Unis. S’agit-il de la bonne approche à adopter pour l’ASEUCC? C’est une autre question à laquelle nous espérons pouvoir mieux répondre grâce à l’évaluation des besoins des membres. Nous devons également déterminer les expériences d’apprentissage qui vous permettront d’obtenir le meilleur rendement des investissements compte tenu des ressources limitées de vos établissements. Enfin, nous croyons que les occasions dont disposent nos

nouvelles communautés de l’ASEUCC pour générer un élan à l’échelle régionale sont excellentes, Ce sont toutes les possibilités que j’espère que le conseil abordera lors de notre réunion prévue en mai afin d’examiner les résultats de l’évaluation des besoins et les groupes de discussion pour le suivi. Nous remercions toutes les personnes qui ont pris le temps de répondre aux questions. Je désire également remercier Jennie Massey de l’Université Baylor qui est à la tête de ce projet ainsi que le Comité du perfectionnement professionnel de l’ASEUCC qui était responsable de l’évaluation.

Les résultats du sondage sur l’évaluation des besoins des membres et les prochaines étapes seront communiqués sur notre site Web, résumés lors de notre Assemblée générale annuelle du 27 mai et diffusés dans les communications aux membres. Il me fait plaisir d’appuyer l’organisme à mesure que ce processus avance et j’attends avec une grande impatience notre nouveau plan!

N’hésitez pas à communiquer avec nous. cacuss-ed@cacuss.ca @cacusstweets

May 24-27 · Vancouver 2015

JOIN US FOR Highlights of CACUSS 2015 •

Opening keynote speaker, Dr. Evan Adams – Join Coast Salish physician and actor from the Sliammon Band near Powell River, BC for a keynote chat and follow-up Q&A session.

•

60 Ideas in 90 Minutes – Using feedback given by the delegates on the 2014 CACUSS survey, there will be six presenters in each of ten rooms, totaling 60 Ideas.

•

Pre-Conference Session Series at Simon Fraser Burnaby Campus – Choose one of the following NINE pre-conference sessions taking place on Sunday, May 24 (*pre-registration required): • • • • • • • • •

Experience Quest University Canada Implementing Interventions for Long and Short Term Prevention of Sexual Violence on Campus Introducing Ceremony into the Post-Secondary Environment Supporting Students with Mental Health Conditions on Campus: Critical Elements, Skills and Techniques Promoting Student Success through a Strengths Based Approach to Student Affairs Sexual Violence, Alcohol Harms, & Mental Health/Illness: Whole Person, Whole Campus Issue The Intercultural Campus: Concepts and Strategies for Inclusion Exploring a Stepped Care Model to Mental Health Treatment Spirituality & Religious Pluralism on a Secular Campus: Challenges and Celebrations

For a list of concurrent sessions, pre-conference offerings, optional s

CACUSS 2015 Highlights of CACUSS 2015 •

“Degrees of Well-Being: The Roles of Well-Being in Higher Education” hosted at the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University Downtown Campus – SOLD OUT! This facilitated discussion in this unique space set up in concentric circles with microphone access for 154 participants will expand views of health from a systems perspective taking into account the role of well-being in education, learning, ethic of care, core business of higher education, civic engagement and preparing students to be engaged global citizens.

•

Closing Panel: How Do We Create Healthy Campus Communities? – Participants will leave this closing energized with new ideas on how to create healthy campus communities at their respective institutions.

•

CACUSS Closing Gala featuring emcee and keynote, Blake Fly – Join Tedx conference host, featured Tedx speaker, and author of “The Campus Life Guide”.

•

Communities of Practice & Networks meetings – Join the emerging communities of CACUSS for discussions, idea generation, networking and sharing!

social excursions and more, please visit www.cacuss.ca/conference

CACUSS

COMMUNITIES 101 CONTRACT STAFF

CACUSS BOARD

EXEC. DIR.

Includes 2 Directors At-Large, Communities of Practice

ASSEMBLY OF CACUSS COMMUNITIES

Co-Chaired by Directors-At-Large, Communities of Practice

MANAGING MATTERS

Annual applications to form new communities & continue exisitnng ones.

CACUSS COMMUNITIES

Communities will officially launch at the Annual Conference

Five former divisions are now CACUSS Communities

CACUSS is launching an online platform to engage virtually

Currently there are 20 emerging Communities

Members can be involved with one or more Communities

Each Community has a primary and secondary contact

Each Community will set annual goals & objectives based on the work that is of interest to that group

Academic Learning The Academic Learning Community seeks to explore, develop, and extend knowledge and best practice in academic learning and skill development in PSE. Our work will have a particular focus on the nature of academic learning and skill development work as it manifests in a Student Service or Student Affairs context.

The Community will continue to build an identity for academic learning and skill development professionals within PSE more generally and within the strong professional community of Student Affairs/Service professionals in Canada. We will encourage and facilitate discussion and inquiry regarding what makes academic learning and skill development professional work distinct within the broader community of Student Service/Affairs practitioners.

This Community will be of particular interest to members who want to bring the lenses of student development, student affairs, and higher education teaching and learning to bear on their daily work with PSE students.

Please join us in Vancouver on May 26 for a Networking meeting on next steps for our Community and its collaborations. This roundtable discussion is directed at Academic Skills support workers, including professionals in writing centres, English-as-an-Additional Language (EAL)Â support, diversity workers, and those in university transition initiatives. We would like to engage colleagues working in a wide range of student learning support activities in a discussion of priorities, venues, and media for dialogue and knowledge creation, as well as roles and structures for governance. We seek to establish a blog, advocate for Academic Learning concerns within CACUSS, liaise with like-minded communities and organizations nationally and internationally, spotlight best practices and resources, and highlight exemplary professionals in the field.

For more information on the Academic Learning Community, please email Christina Halliday at challida@ryerson.ca and Sheilagh Grills at grillssh@brandonu.ca.

COMMUNIQUÉ / VOLUME 15 / ISSUE 2 / SPRING 2015 / 11

Accessibility and Inclusion We are pleased to introduce the Accessbility and Inclusion Community (formerly known as CADSPPE, the Canadian Association of Disability Service Providers in Post-secondary Education). It is serendipitous that the last time SFU hosted CACUSS, almost 20 years ago, CADSPPE first began as a Disability Special Interest Group. By 1998, it was formally recognized as a CACUSS Division.

Today, we are a group of colleagues who share common interests in accessibility, equity, inclusion, and the promotion of barrierfree campus communities for students with disabilities. Our work is guided by federal and provincial legislation as well as campus policies on inclusion and accessibility. Our target members are individuals who work in accessibility/disability services in postsecondary institutions, campus diversity allies, and any individual with an interest in the creation and promotion of inclusive, barrierfree campus communities.

Over the last two decades, we have seen major change and transition in post-secondary accessibility. The initial population of students we served was primarily made up of those with physical and sensory disabilities. Over time, we have seen growing numbers of students with invisible disabilities, including learning disabilities, ADHD, and mental health conditions, as well as students presenting with multiple disabilities. Over the last decade, units have reported a growing number of students on the Autism Spectrum. Overall, we have seen large increases in the number of students requesting services, oftentimes having to advocate for increased resources to meet our duty to accommodate. We support Universal Instructional Design, which promotes living and learning environments that are intentionally designed from the outset to be accessible for all.

Accessibility is an ever-changing field, which makes our daily work exciting but challenging. We benefit from sharing questions and best practice via a national email listserv. We look forward to CACUSS’s support in launching new technological forums to share collegial advice. We gather at the yearly CACUSS conference and lead pre-conference workshops and conference presentations highlighting our triumphs, exemplary practice, and learnings in the field. The more seasoned professionals offer informal mentorship and guidance to novices. We benefit from exhibitors and vendors who showcase the newest assistive technologies and database support.

This national Community affords us with the opportunity to benefit from the collective wisdom of a group of professionals to promote service excellence in the field of accessibility and inclusion.

We look forward to launching our new Community and we have the following goals for the coming year: • Developing an online forum for members to discuss topics and share advice 12 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

• • •

Actively recruiting new members Establishing guidelines for assessable webinars Creating a historical archive of CADSPPE to preserve history and identity • Offering a pre-conference institute as a blended learning opportunity We are proud to announce a CACUSS pre-conference workshop featuring two members from our Community, Anna Barrafato and Gordon Dionne from Concordia University. It is titled, “Supporting Students with Mental Health Conditions on Campus: Critical Elements, Skills and Techniques.”

Our current Community leadership team emerged from the former CADSPPE Board. We have representatives from across the country. I am pleased to introduce: • Anne Comfort, Mount Allison, Atlantic Provinces Representative, CoP Co-Chair • Sarah Knitter, University of British Columbia, BC & Yukon Representative, CoP Co-Chair • Gordon Dionne, Concordia University, Québec Representative, former CADSPPE Secretary/Treasurer • Lynda Kitzan, Lakehead University, Ontario Representative • Michelle Magnusson, Brandon University, Manitoba Representative • Maxine Kinakin, University of Saskatchewan, CADSPPE Past-President • Teri Phillips, University of Regina, Saskatchewan Representative • Debbie O’Halloran, Keyano College, Alberta Representative We would like to extend a big thank you to Sarah Hildebrand of St. Mary’s University and Nissim Louis of Université de Montréal for their most recent participation on the Board. Sarah was responsible for ensuring accessibility at last year’s conference in Halifax, and Nissim was instrumental in organizing last year’s pre-conference workshop.

We look forward to the development of our new Community, made up of past CADSPPE members and new members interested in the topic of accessibility and inclusion. We encourage you to reach out and connect to anyone on our leadership team to find out more about getting involved during the annual conference or throughout the year. We welcome ideas, suggestions, and contributions in any format and at any time. Look for opportunities to connect and learn more during the CACUSS conference in May. For more information on the Accessibility and Inclusion Community, please email Anne Comfort at acomfort@mta.ca and Sarah Knitter at sarah.knitter@ubc.ca.

Campus Mental Health Our goal is to establish a collaborative, collegial, inclusive, and vibrant community to share knowledge, skills, and expertise that enables, improves, and advocates student mental health on campus and beyond. As a member of our Community, you will join a circle of professionals who are committed to science and sensitive to culture, who are innovative in their ideas and pragmatic in the actions, who are generous in sharing their resources and appreciative of receiving them.

Through collaboration, our Community would like to create an applied, adaptable, effective, and resource-rich repository of best practices covering all areas of campus mental health – from assessment to intervention, from prevention to crisis management, and from drafting policies to evaluating their impact.

Moving forward, we are looking forward to organize a series of focused dialogues and discourses in form of webinars, symposiums, presentations, and publications to highlight key current issues facing campus mental health, as well as advocate and disseminate our Community’s work across different forums.

Students of the millennial generation face a multitude of challenges of both personal (cyber bullying, acculturation, obesity) and societal (political polarization, youth unemployment, environmental degradation, global warming, viral pandemics, terrorism) proportions. These complex challenges take a heavy toll on the mental health of students. Results of the 2013 National College Health Assessment Survey, completed by some 34,039 students from 32 post-secondary institutions across Canada, reflect this toll (ACHA-NCHA, 2013). The results are truly staggering with some nearly one in five Canadian students reporting feeling so depressed or anxious that it was difficult to function. Mental illness is the most common medical condition, presenting through increasingly more complex and chronic symptoms (MacKean, 2011). Almost two-third of all mental disorders have their onset between the ages 15 to 24 (Manion, 2011). The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) estimated that the annual impact on productivity was over $6.4 billion in 2011 alone, rising to $16 billion by 2041 (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2012). The current cumulative 30-year productivity impact is estimated at $198 billion. Mental illness also affects Canadians in all aspects of their lives, whether it is their personal relationships, their families, their ability to work or study, or even their physical health. Seventy percent of adults living with a mental illness in Canada reported having developed symptoms before the age of 18. This is the time when young adults would be in or entering post-secondary environments; therefore, post-secondary institutions are ideal locations to target youth vulnerable to mental illness.

Campuses have multiple channels to intervene. CACUSS, in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, have integrated these channels into a coherent approach called PostSecondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach. Launched at the 2013 CACUSS Conference, the guide is a unique resource,

designed to help colleges, institutes, and universities self-evaluate and plan systemically within the campus environment. The guide focuses on the whole campus as collectively responsible for maintaining and enhancing the mental health of its community, which includes students, faculty, and staff. It provides a student-centered framework to create conditions that enable students to flourish, seek appropriate treatment, and consult with relevant support services in dealing adaptively with mental health challenges. The systematic approach of the guide comprehensively covers student mental health approach through seven key components, which include: 1. Institutional Structure: Organization, Planning and Policy 2. Supportive, Inclusive Campus Climate and Environment 3. Mental Health Awareness 4. Community Capacity to Respond to Early Indications of Student Concern 5. Self-Management Competencies and Coping Skills 6. Accessible Mental Health Services 7. Crisis Management One of the salient tasks of our Community is to provide a supportive platform, a hub of committed people, and supportive processes to help students thrive.

Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach can be accessed from cacuss.ca/_Library/documents/CACUSS_ Handbook.pdf For more information on the Campus Mental Health Community, please email Tayyab Rashid at trashid@utsc.utoronto.ca and Patricia Kostouros at pkostouros@mtroyal.ca.

References American College Health Association (ACHA). American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II. Hanover, MD: American College Health Association; 2013.

MacKean, G. (2011). Mental health and well-being in postsecondary education settings: A literature and environmental scan to support planning and action in Canada. Canadian Association of University and College Student Services. Retrieved Feb 27, 2015, http://www.cacuss.ca/Library/ documents/Post_Sec_Final_Report_June6.pdf Manion, I., & Short, K. (2011). Child and youth mental health in Canada: The role of school boards in promoting well-being.

Presentation to the Canadian School Boards Association, Ottawa, 2011. Accessed Online: https://kec.mentalhealthcommission. ca/partners/sbmhsa/documents/presentations/csba-2011.pptx Mental Health Commission of Canada. Changing Directions, Changing Lives: The Mental Health Strategy of Canada. 2012.

Accessed Online: http://strategy.mentalhealthcommission.ca/ pdf/strategy-images-en.pdf, p.84.

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Case Management The Case Management Community provides a platform for professionals working in case management roles within postsecondary settings, as well as institutions in the process of developing a case management approach, to communicate, identify best practices, share information, conduct research, and support one another.

Members joining this Community can expect to gain access to networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities, information about the different models and approaches to case management that are currently being used, tools and resources being used in case management practices across Canada, and a community with which to learn more and further develop this new approach to supporting students.

The development of case manager roles and approaches within higher education has grown significantly over recent years in response to the complex concerns and needs that students are experiencing.

A survey in the United States reports that the number of case managers working in postsecondary institutions has increased from fewer than seven case managers in 2007 to more than 67 in 2012 (Adams, Hazelwood, & Hayden, 2014). Moreover, as of January 2015, the Higher Education Case Managers Association (based in the United States) has over 150 members. This trend can also be seen in Canada where there are currently 20 members of the emerging case management network, the majority of which are new positions that have been developed within the past two to three years. It is expected that this number will continue to grow as more institutions are moving forward with implementing a case management approach and the caseload demands at institutions currently employing a case manager increase and require additional support.

Case Management, within a higher education setting, provides support to at-risk students through utilizing a holistic and collaborative approach that recognizes the impact of all possible stressors on a student’s wellbeing. This often entails working closely with academic advisors, financial aid, campus counselling and health centres, housing, security, conduct officers, disability services, and other student support services. In addition, case management also often involves liaising and coordinating supports with off-campus service providers, such as local hospitals, substance abuse and/or 14 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

mental health treatment centres, therapists in private practice, and community agencies. As such, it is necessary for a case management approach to consider the whole student, in addition to the systems in which they live and study.

Approaches to case management differ greatly across postsecondary institutions, with some programs utilizing a clinical model and others implementing a referral/broker approach.

Situations being referred to case management also vary as many Case Managers are specialized in working with students experiencing mental health concerns while others work with students experiencing a wider variety of challenges impacting their personal and/or academic life goals (e.g., physical health concerns, homelessness, sexual assault, domestic violence). Case management also takes different forms, such as case management teams that include representation from departments across the institution or an individual case manager who may work directly with students.

As case management continues to grow as an approach to responding to the complexity of concerns that students are experiencing, it is vital that best practices be developed and shared to ensure the quality of service that students receive. Moreover, as most institutions currently only employ one Case Manager, it is helpful to have a Community from which to learn, share information and resources, identify trends and challenges in the role, and continue to grow.

For more information on the Case Management Community, please email Anh Brown at anh.brown@uwo.ca and Dianne Norman at dianne.norman@ryerson.ca.

Reference Adams, S.D., Hazelwood, S., & Hayden, B. (2014). Student affairs case management: Merging social work theory with student affairs practice. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 51(4), 446-458.

Co-Curricular Recognition (CCR)

Programs If your institution has a CCR Program, is in the process of developing one, or thinking about developing one, then this Community is for you! Our Community has 150 professionals across the country and is intended to provide a space for open communication and dialogue through a listserv, workspace, and regional and national meet-ups.

In recent years, enthusiasm for the Co-Curricular Record (CCR) program has grown at an exponential rate, with many Canadian universities and colleges rushing to adopt the program. While a host of institutions currently have or are launching a CCR program, they are very individualized to the institution’s needs and differ on the types of activities that are included or excluded in the production of the CCR. One of the intended benefits of the CCR is that it will highlight the robust student experience beyond the classroom and help students market these experiences to potential employers, graduate programs, and scholarships.

There have been questions about the future of the CCR and its implications if adopted into these current processes of applying for jobs and graduate schools. For example, one of the challenges of the CCR is that only institutional-affiliated programs can be captured on the record. Therefore, if a student is heavily engaged in their local community, rather than institutional-affiliated programming, those activities are not captured on the record. If graduate schools and employers start expecting students to submit a CCR, what are the implications and equity concerns for students? While the future uptake of the CCR among employers and graduate programs is unknown, colleagues across the nation expressed the need for cross-institutional conversation and critical discussion about the Co-Curricular Record program.

In the fall of 2012, Kimberly Elias (University of Toronto), Chris Glover (Dalhousie University), and David Grad (University of Manitoba) established an informal network of professionals working on co-curricular recognition programs. Since then, this community has grown to over 150 contacts representing more than 70 institutions in Canada.

The primary purpose of the CCR Community is to provide the opportunity and space for professionals across Canada to discuss the CCR program. There are five primary purposes:

1. To share some of the challenges and successes of developing and implementing a CCR program.

2. To share institutional best practices, including the criteria for approved activities and communication strategies.

3. To share existing research and research that individuals have conducted locally, including employer and student reactions to the CCR. 4. To discuss the future of the CCR program in Canada and some of the potential implications and equity concerns.

5. To provide the space to discuss any other questions, comments, or concerns that members would like to address.

The Community strives to create opportunities for open discussion among colleagues across Canadian postsecondary institutions. Some of the ways in which the group intends to provide these opportunities include: 1. Listserv: To disseminate information, including dates of regional meetings, national meetings, teleconferences, research, etc.

2. Online Workspace: To provide a space, such as a wiki, to share research, best practices, job descriptions, etc.

3. Regional Meetings: To organize regional in-person meetings where colleagues can come together to discuss some of the challenges, successes, best practices, etc.

4. National Conference: To provide an opportunity for professional development, sharing research results, and discussion tables to discuss CCR programs across the nation. The first national Summit was held at the University of Toronto in May 2014 and the second will be held at Vancouver Island University from May 21-22, 2015.

For more information on the Co-Curricular Recognition (CCR) Programs Community, please email Chris Glover at chris.glover@dal.ca and Kimberly Elias at kimberly.elias@utoronto.ca.

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Community Engaged Learning (CEL) The Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Community aims to connect professional staff members who promote civic engagement in all forms, with a particular emphasis on the development, implementation, administration, and assessment of curricular and co-curricular programs and services that connect students with meaningful, hands-on learning opportunities in the community.

By sharing our resources, best practices, innovative solutions, and challenging questions, we will become enhanced facilitators of and partners in community engaged learning.

Traditionally, CACUSS has not had a strong presence in knowledge sharing around community engaged learning and civic engagement. Yet this is an area of growth that is being widely discussed and mandated in Canadian post-secondary institutions because of its ability to equip our students for diverse career paths and to be contributing lifelong citizens, while also cultivating strong community partnerships based on respect, reciprocity, and mutual learning. We need a stronger dialogue around this at CACUSS and an opportunity to learn how colleagues from different institutions are approaching these important topics. This Community will allow for members to make connections with colleagues in similar positions at other institutions, to be exposed to innovative approaches to community-university partnerships, and to enhance the dialogue on civic and community engagement virtually and at CACUSS through sponsored workshops, presentations, and faceto-face meetings.

There has been interest expressed in creating a presence at CACUSS for those who develop volunteer programs, social-justice initiatives, and democratic engagement campaigns for many years. Likewise, this need has been discussed by professionals from across Canada since the inception of the CEL movement. In Ontario, those conversations began collectively when the Ontario Community Service Learning (CSL) Community was formed in March of 2009. There are now 24 Ontario universities, 8 colleges, and over 80 professionals who are part of this vibrant Community.

A different PSE institution hosts the quarterly meetings that feature 16 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

speakers with specific expertise on a topic related to the day’s theme. Participants are encouraged to bring information about their programs to each meeting (e.g., flyers, promotional material, assessment instruments, guide books, reflection instruments). This is a networking group and a place to share information where everything from the basics of CEL (e.g., how to create a centre/ office) to everyday questions and challenges/opportunities are exchanged. Different perspectives are invited, and opportunities are provided to enjoy learning from each other as well as to contribute to each institution’s growth. This is a group that is focussed on the needs of people who are actively involved in administering the CEL centres or departments at their institutions.

Participants value the opportunity to share challenges, strategies, promising practices, discussion of issues, and knowledge exchange that enhances capacity for all, whether new to the field or a seasoned professional. To have an opportunity through CACUSS to expand these conversations across the country, both virtually and on-site at the annual conference, has been a long sought-after dream.

For more information on the Community Engaged Learning Community, please email Janet Doner at janet.doner@uoguelph.ca and Jennifer Browne at jbrowne@mun.ca.

Digital Communications in Higher Education The mandate of the Digital Communications in Higher Education Community (DCHEC) is to raise levels of digital communications expertise across Canadian higher education. We aim to develop a shared repertoire of resources, experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring challenges.

Despite the outstanding efforts of select institutions, digital communication strategies across Canadian higher education are still failing to keep up with students’ behaviours and expectations. There has been a slow uptake in dedicating resources to manage, produce, and build the content needed to maintain effective engagement. It is our hope that this Community will inspire all member institutions to continue to reach their goals and prove that no matter what resources you may or may not have, you can be effective.

Meet some of our Community members:

& Tricia Kenderdine

Bailey Parnel

As part of the Student Life communications team, I work to convey the messages of the division to students across the university both directly and through collaboration with staff and faculty. I am responsible for many communication vehicles, including Life @ U of T, Gradlife @ U of T, and several e-newsletters and student life departmental websites. I also serve as a resource to staff throughout the Division in the implementation of consistently high-quality, professional communications products, both in print and online; providing advice on design, navigation, accessibility, imagery and messaging; and ensuring compliance with accessibility legislation and established standards. A graduate of U of T, I have worked in marketing and communications, most recently at the University of Toronto Press, before coming to Student Life in 2007.

I am a digital marketing professional with a passion for the Grind, a slight obsession with learning, and a love of quality television.

I currently work as a Digital Marketing Assistant on the Student Affairs Creative Unit at Ryerson University, Canada’s leader in innovative, career-focused education. I also work as a Community Engagement Specialist at Splash Effect, a Toronto-based digital marketing agency; write for our publication Year One; and TA classes in the Social Media: Graduate Certificate Program at Seneca College. I enjoy public speaking on such topics as social media, leadership, and personal experience, and I hope to make the spreading of ideas a larger part of my portfolio in the future.

Currently, I am also an honours student in Ryerson’s RTA School of Media and sit on the Project Funds Allocation Committee for Students (P-FACS) at Ryerson. I’ve previously worked as a local news reporter on Rogers TV’s Access Peel and as a writer for Canadian news and living magazine CanCulture.

For more information on the Digital Communications in Higher Education Community, please email Hamza Khan at hamza.khan@ryerson.ca and Michael Ferguson at michael.ferguson@humber.ca.

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Equity Seeking Groups The Equity Seeking Groups Community will endeavour to share knowledge among professionals responsible for equity work across CACUSS. We will share best practices regarding outreach programs directed at students who are part of equity seeking groups. This group will support CACUSS in its commitment to generate/share knowledge regarding equity issues in ways that represent the diverse CACUSS membership.

Members can expect professional development and learning opportunities regarding equity issues. This Community will also endeavour to provide a space for professionals who identify as part of an equity seeking group to connect, support one another, and discuss their stories. In addition, networking opportunities for professionals who are both a part of an equity seeking group as well as those supporting students of equity seeking groups will occur with an effort to communicate across difference, and create connections that can support work on local campuses.

Many Communities that capture the work of various equity seeking groups were proposed to CACUSS. In an effort to connect across difference, one Community for equity seeking groups was proposed. A call was organized and over 10 professionals from across Canada have shared their vision for this group.

For more information on the Equity Seeking Groups Community, please email Jen Gonzales at j8gonzal@ryerson.ca.

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Integrated Academic and Professional Advising

The purpose of the Integrated Academic and Professional Advising Community is to bring together advising professionals from across a range of common roles, such as academic, career, learning support, admissions, financial, student life, and student success advising.

While each of these roles may report through different divisions and may vary in the scope of their advising (from transactional processes, through developmental practices, and to counselling relationships), the core of practice for all of these roles is founded on student development and success.

In response to the open call for proposed Communities, throughout the fall I engaged a number of Academic Advisors, Professional Advisors, and Advising Administrators across the country in a conversation about this question: Do we need a national Community for Advising? A draft proposal was written and circulated through a number of organizations, including the National Academic Advising Association’s (NACADA) Canada Interest Group and the Ontario Academic Advising Professionals (OAAP). A conversation cafÊ was also facilitated at the annual OAAP conference. Through this dialogue, a number of facts became clear: 1. Lack of coordination and understanding on campus - In Canada, advising is so diverse that it struggles to find consistent campus-wide coordination.

2. Increasing attention on advising - With increasing evidence on the importance of advising for institutional retention rates and student success, there is also a movement to co-locate or integrate a variety of advising functions into one service and support area on campus.

3. No formal national voice for advising - While many of the target members for this Community do fall within Student Affairs and Services on many campuses, they are not well represented in Canada and not currently represented through CACUSS. Equally as many advisors also work directly within an Academic department, but again, there is no national voice for faculty or staff advisors.

4. Very little Canadian information, research, and literature about advising - It has also been noted that there is very little Canadian content available in literature and research across Canada. Making assessment, evaluation, and research available across the country appears to be a core objective of this Community and would support the previously stated objectives.

5. Advisors are the natural bridge between Academic and Student Affairs - Academic and Professional Advisors

often serve as the most natural link between Student Affairs and Academic departments. Since academic collaborations are a core objective within Student Affairs, this would be a strategic addition to CACUSS and a primary focus for this Community.

In the end, this proposal was broadly supported by dozens of independent leaders in advising across the country, 25 OAAP members in a focus group, the Chair of the NACADA Canada Interest Group, and the OAAP Steering Committee.

What are the opportunities to contribute within the Community?

Our work in the first year or two will define the purpose and objectives of the Community with more clarity. Since this is a new Community, identifying the actual primary activities is not entirely possible yet.

Since there are already some established regular conferences and events where advisors meet, sharing information about this Community with attendees will be an important way to engage new and potential members. Any new member will have the opportunity to contribute in any way or ways that may support the achievement of our initial objectives: 1. Formation of Community; establish leadership roles.

2. Create communication and awareness plan, including e-mails and attendance at upcoming association meetings and the annual CACUSS conference.

3. Discuss potential for unique programming at annual Conference - pre-conference workshops, advising-specific sessions, and advisor networking to discuss the Community.

4. Through a survey to all potential members, conduct a basic environmental scan to assess preliminary value of the Community for potential members and gain an understanding of advising from a Canadian perspective.

5. By the end of year one and/or early in year two, report on the environmental scan and next steps/objectives, which should focus on key issues pertinent to advising in the Canadian context and planning around the objectives derived from feedback survey.

For more information on the Integrated Academic and Professional Advising Community, please email Tim Fricker at tim.fricker@mohawkcollege.ca.

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Internationalization

in

Student Affairs The Internationalization in Student Affairs Community will share best practices and develop capacity to support internationalization and international students across Student Affairs divisions at Canadian campuses. By bringing discussions of internationalization issues into the broader Student Affairs community, this Community will facilitate the incorporation of thinking internationally into the way Student Affairs operates.

Members will gain insight into what it means to think internationally and will also develop strategies for incorporating this thinking into daily practice. Topics for discussion will include, but not be limited to, the following: incorporating intercultural learning into programming and services for all students; cultural barriers to accessing mental health resources; recognising the strengths international students bring to our campuses, as well as responding to the particular challenges they face as international students; and emerging trends in student mobility (e.g., international undergraduate research exchange programs).

Learn more about two programs in which some our Community members are involved:

Intercultural Learning

Speaking Your Language Project

The Centre for International Experience (CIE) at U of T is developing an Intercultural Learning Program (ILP). Designed to provide intentional interventions into student learning in this area, CIE is developing a stand-alone program that brings together international students, domestic students going abroad, and domestic students remaining at U of T, as well as collaborating with other departments at U of T to embed intercultural learning into their programming. In 2014, CIE piloted the first component of this program, which focuses on understanding of one’s own cultural location and provides an introduction to intercultural communication. 2015 will see the pilot of the whole program, which includes two additional components: an experiential piece and a debrief and next steps piece.

Like their domestic counterparts, international students face issues and challenges throughout their academic careers but often face additional stressors, unique to their population. In most cases, international students and those new to Canada are less likely to utilize preventative mental health supports available on campus, waiting until they are in crisis to seek help.

From May 2014, the Speaking Your Language pilot project, a government of Ontario-funded partnership between Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, and OCAD University investigated barriers that prevent international students from seeking mental health support and piloted various models of support, including culturally and linguistically specific initiatives.

On February 20th 2015, we hosted a symposium that was attended by 150 professionals from 30 academic institutions representing six provinces. We presented findings and lessons learned from the Speaking Your Language project. We discussed the best practices in supporting international student mental wellbeing and discovered where connections can be made both within and between institutions, to increase capacity and understanding.

For more information on the Internationalization in Student Affairs Community, please email Arif Abu at arif.abu@ryerson.ca, Cathy Maloney at cathy.maloney@utoronto.ca, and Dale Mullings at dale.mullings@utoronto.ca.

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Leadership Educators OkCommunity Profile Looking to learn, grow and connect.

Education: Life-long learner Ethnicity: Diversified Religion: Student Development Theory and Practice Profession: Student Affairs and Services Eye colour: Dazzled with opportunity

Looking To: Unite Leadership Educators to create a strong, supportive, and networked community of professionals in Canada.

If things go well… the possibilities are endless: collaboration, research, international networks. The sky’s the limit!

Looking For: A long-term relationship, but don’t let that scare you! While I’m into LTRs, I’m also open to connecting with folks who are just curious about leadership education in higher ed. (You don’t need to be able to name all 7 Cs!) For new, experienced, and all colleagues who have leadership in their portfolio. Looking to meet with anyone who is interested in leadership training, leadership development, or leadership advising.

Interests: Growing together; networking; reading; learning; research; scholarship; meeting new people; travel; connecting via phone, email, or in-person.

About me: I was born out of the former LEARN community, a Birds of a Feather session at a CACUSS conference, and regional meet-ups across Canada. Even though I’ve had some experience, I’m excited for this next chapter and looking to do a lot of connecting

and learning together with professionals from colleges and universities across Canada. I’m excited to facilitate some regional meet-ups to leverage the magic of meeting IRL, but I’m equally excited for some online community building, like Google Hangouts, Twitter chats, webinars, and more.

Ideal date: Together we could… share best practices, generate new and innovative ideas, and collaboratively engage in professional development. Definitely something low-key to start, just to see where things go.

How would we get together?

Interested? Give us a shout! We hope that our profile has sparked your interest. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch! Don’t be shy!

For more information on the Leadership Educators Community, please email Adam Kuhn at adam.kuhn@utoronto.ca and Jessica Carter at jessica. carter@uoguelph.ca, and join the Facebook Group at facebook.com/groups/cacussleadershipCOP.

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National Aboriginal

Student Services Alliance (NASSA)

NASSA’s mandate is to share best practices while working collectively to improve First Nations, Inuit, and Métis student experiences and success in post-secondary institutions across Canada.

For First Nations, Inuit, and Métis staff and students, we will offer networking and professional development opportunities; create and share knowledge that is relevant to our community; identify issues that require advocacy; and increase First Nations, Inuit, and Métis representation within CACUSS. Anyone interested in contributing to our Community will have the opportunity to host a networking event, submit program proposals to CACUSS, have a specific role in the core group, share research papers or best practices, assist us with communications, become a mentor, facilitate a webinar, and more!

Meet our two NASSA Community co-chairs:

& Irvin Hill

Marcia Guno

Hello I am Irvin Hill, a member of the Oneida Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy.

I started with the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education (CACE) at Carleton University in 2004. I have been extensively involved with the Ottawa Aboriginal community since the 1980s.

Prior to joining Carleton, my dream was to work with people who wanted to get ahead and to succeed, so I guess you can say I’m working my dream job. I’ve seen students come in for a tour and then a few years later they’re graduating and moving on to grad school. Knowing I was here to give assistance is a sense of accomplishment.

One big accomplishment for CACE was our recent move from a 300-square-foot Aboriginal student lounge in the tunnels to Ojigkwanong, our new 1800-square-foot centre on a piece of prime real estate in the centre of campus.

Helping Aboriginal students through their academic career is the reason I am here and the reason I’m involved with NASSA and attend CACUSS conferences.

Marcia Guno, a member of the Nisga’a Nation and the new director of Simon Fraser University’s Indigenous Student Centre (ISC), understands firsthand what it’s like to struggle with university courses and the transition to a large university community. She completed her undergraduate and masters’ degree at SFU. Her thesis examined Aboriginal students’ post-secondary educational experiences. After graduating, she spent three years employed at SFU, initially as the First Nations Student coordinator, then as an Aboriginal recruiter, and finally, as acting director of the then-named First Nations Student Centre. During that time she was instrumental in forging a BC provincial Aboriginal recruitment initiative, called “Strengthening Connections,” for Aboriginal youth living on reserves. She left SFU to work in the community for a number of years and recently returned in June 2015 as the Director of the ISC.

For more information on the National Aboriginal Student Services Alliance (NASSA) Community, please email Irvin Hill at irvin.hill@carleton.ca and Marcia Guno at mpguno@sfu.ca.

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Orientation, Transition & Retention (OTR) For the last several years, the discussion within CACUSS and NODA circles about the differing needs of Canadian institutions in terms of orientation, transition, and retention (OTR) has reached fever pitch. There is a widely acknowledged desire that there should be a national space for Canadian OTR professionals to meet one another, to engage in dialogue around the unique issues faced by Canadian colleges and universities, and to share the many promising practices from across the country. And with the creation of the CACUSS Communities, we have been given the opportunity to do just that!

The brand new Orientation, Transition & Retention (OTR) Community welcomes all professional staff and student members whose roles, studies, and interests intersect with the areas of student orientation, transition, and retention. As the OTR Community continues to take shape, we will be looking to offer conference sessions, regional drive-in workshops and roundtables, webinars, and other professional development opportunities to our members. We plan to support our members in adding to the body of Canadian research in OTR and in sharing that information as widely as possible. We hope that the OTR Community will be a space where we can come together to collectively tackle emerging issues, and discuss trends and topics integral to the successful transition of Canadian students. We will also be working with CACUSS to build an online community for Canadian OTR professionals to share materials, programs, and great ideas. These ideas are just a start and, of course, we also want to hear what you want out of this new Community so we can help make it a reality.

Should you be interested in joining us (and we hope you are), we would be completely remiss as OTR folks if we did not take this opportunity to properly welcome you to your OTR Community Orientation (WELCOME!), ensure that your transition into the OTR Community is a safe and enjoyable one (inherent risk: paper cuts; please use caution when flipping to the next page), and (if we work hard and all goes well) retain your membership in the OTR Community for years to come. And how better to do so than by providing you with this super-fantastic OTR Community Involvement Checklist! ☐ Recommended: Declare your interest in being a member of the OTR Community when renewing your CACUSS membership this year (more information will be provided during the renewal period). ☐ Optional: Develop near-divine knowledge of Maslow’s

Hierarchy of Needs (praise be unto the multi-coloured pyramid). ☐ Recommended: Join us at the Communities sessions during the CACUSS 2015 Annual Conference in Vancouver (check your conference schedule or Guidebook for more information). ☐ Optional: Consider taking a leadership role within the OTR Community or volunteering to host a regional drive-in workshop or webinar (we’d be happy to help!). ☐ Recommended: Engage your Canadian OTR colleagues in our online community. Maybe pitch an idea you’re working and looking for feedback on, or help someone flesh out their idea by sharing any related successes (and ummm… not-so-successes) from your institution. ☐ Optional: Take a tour of a building on your campus or in your community that you’ve never entered before. Reflect on the experience by writing three haikus (Reminder: It’s 5-7-5). ☐ Recommended: Watch for upcoming news on professional development opportunities in your region or online (and feel free to tell us what you’d like to see!). ☐ Optional: Let your colleagues know about this snazzy new Community you heard about (and maybe provide them with this super-fantastic OTR Community Involvement Checklist). ☐ Recommended: If you have any questions about the Orientation, Transition & Retention Community, or have ideas you’d like to share, please feel free to e-mail your co-leads, Josh Hass (josh.hass@utoronto.ca) and Lesley D’Souza (lesleyd@ryerson.ca). We look forward to working with you to make the OTR Community grow!

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Post-Secondary Counselling The division formerly known as Canadian University and College Counselling Centre Association (CUCCA) has been reimagined as the Post-Secondary Counselling (PSC) Community. PSC is moving forward as a result of the continued involvement of what is now referred to as a design team comprised of Nathan Cooper, Rice Fuller, Jeremy Greenberg, Vicki Herman, Michael Huston, Philip Lemieux, Sarah McCallion, and Chris Mercer. As a division, CUCCA came into existence in the early 1970’s as a result of the imagination and effort of pioneers such as Dr. Ace Beech and Dr. John Wine. Many followed in their footsteps, adding to the vision, mission, by-laws, policies, and procedures of the association. The mission and guiding principles of CUCCA have been adopted by PSC and are cited as follows: PSC promotes excellence, professionalism, and inclusivity in the development of counselling skills and in the provision of counselling services in post-secondary institutions by: • Providing leadership and advocacy for counsellors and counselling services; • Facilitating professional development; • Providing opportunities for communication and networking; • Supporting and recognizing counselling initiatives and innovations.

The work of PSC continues through nationwide dialogue and projects on issues large and small. Discussions on the listserv offer counsellors and directors opportunity to compare notes on policies related to no-show fees, session limits for counselling/ couples counselling, and how to develop state-of-the-art group programming. Among the larger issues being addressed is a working group that is in the process of revising the Counselling Centre Guidelines. This document was last revised in 1992. The process of updating the guidelines will provide opportunity to reflect on what constitutes the essence of counselling services as well as how these services are being adapted in different settings. For example, counselling services are structured quite differently on the basis of the size of an institution and whether or not they are integrated with health or other service units within student affairs. The revised guidelines will aspire to provide parameters that highlight the structure and function of counselling services relevant to the wide variety of post-secondary institutions present in the Canadian landscape. The revision is being chaired by David Ness, Director of Counselling Services at University of Manitoba. Additional members of the team include Nathan Cooper at McMaster 24 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

University, Les McCurdy Myers at Brock University, and Krista Pierce at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

The PSC is very interested in member engagement. We are awaiting the release of a new software platform to improve our ability to connect electronically. At present, member engagement can include reading posts on the listserv; making posts of your own; and planning professional development for yourself, your team, or your region. Perhaps you would like to consider forwarding an article of interest to the listserv? Or you could develop a discussion group with a shared professional interest (e.g., addictions, dialectical behavior therapy, etc.) to promote discussion and sharing of resources. The PSC is interested in helping you foster relationships that will contribute to your professional development in order to support personal well-being and excellence in professional practice.

It may appear that the PSC has significant overlap with the Campus Mental Health Community. On the surface the two Communities appear similar, but the mission and focus are different.

The PSC is designed to support professionals who are employed in counselling within student affairs. The Campus Mental Health Community has historically been directed more broadly toward advocacy and a systems approach to issues of wellness within campus communities. The two Communities are certainly close cousins and would do well to share resources. One of the biggest resources that both Communities share is people. It is likely that there are many individuals who will be members of both Communities. It is important to underscore this point because a community is not a community without people. As a newly formed Community, PSC is very interested in hearing your voice. All of us have something that we can share in managing and improving counselling services.

We will recognize your contribution whether it is listening or speaking. We should never forget that listening is participation; we are counsellors after all.

For more information on the Post-Secondary Counselling Community, please email Nathan Cooper at ncooper@mcmaster.ca and Jeremy Greenberg at jeremy.greenberg@uoit.ca. If you are interested in posting a question or information to the listserv, please email ncooper@mcmaster.ca or cucca-l@mailman.mcmaster.ca.

Research, Assessment and Evaluation The purpose of the Research, Assessment and Evaluation Community is to promote the awareness and utilization of relevant literature and shared practices as well as the development of skills/capacity related to various methods of systematic inquiry, including research, educational outcomes assessment, and program evaluation, to support the personal, social, cultural, and intellectual development of students. This Community will ensure that colleges and universities in Canada endeavour to create and share knowledge regarding the assessment of student learning, and the evaluation of educational programs and services intended to facilitate those outcomes.

Members will have an opportunity to actively collect and share examples of successful practices, services, programs, and/or initiatives related to research, assessment, and evaluation. They will also have access to opportunities for ongoing professional development and training in a Canadian context.

By participating in this Community, members will be able to: • Learn about relevant literature/shared practices related to research, assessment, and evaluation in the Canadian context; • Share institution-specific and national initiatives for inquiry, and discuss challenges and successful strategies for implementing research, assessment, and evaluation; • Access existing resources and contribute to the design and development of new resources that promote the development of knowledge and skills for pursuing inquiry.

For more information on the Research, Assessment and Evaluation Community, please email Tim Tang at tim.tang@queensu.ca and Lisa Endersby at lmendersby@gmail.com.

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Spirituality and Religious Pluralism How do you build community when you don’t know who is out there? That is a question many of us working in chaplaincies, campus ministries, and spiritual life centres at post-secondary institutions asked ourselves. How do you not reinvent the wheel when you are faced with questions regarding volunteer staff, request for prayer space, interfaith programming, or even questions of what to call yourselves? How do other secular universities deal with religious practice and diversity on campus?

The answer to these and many other questions started to emerge on a bit of a whim when Adriana Tulissi, Community Engagement Manager, SU Wellness Centre at the University of Calgary, attended the CACUSS conference in Montreal two years ago. She decided to take an afternoon off and visit with Rev. Ellie Hummel, Chaplain and Coordinator at Concordia’s Multi-faith Chaplaincy. At first, the conversation was a bit like comparing notes; we heard about the structures at both universities and about the various staff models used at different institutions. We talked about programs offered and events that were hosted for the benefit of the university community. Soon, we realized that we shared questions and difficulties, as well as highlights and joys. And then this idea emerged: the idea that if Adriana and I had so much in common in our work, there must be other people out there doing similar work who would benefit from connection and collegiality. The idea was born to build a network for administrators working in chaplaincies at post-secondary institutions in Canada.

Over the next few months, we contacted people we knew and approached chaplains’ networks to invite people to connect with us. The inaugural meeting was a conference call in April 2014 where the group focused on building the network and setting some initial goals. These goals were to share best practices in our field, which included developing chaplaincies as a functional multi-faith environment (programming, staffing, etc.), developing relationships between different stakeholders (volunteers, students, staff, faith communities), establishing a Code of Ethics/Guidelines for chaplains, and sharing information/documents. The other goals were to break the isolation of those working in this field and to develop professional development opportunities. The initial name for this group was the “National Post-Secondary Chaplaincy Administrator Network”.

As with other organizations that are volunteer-driven, things seemed to move at a fairly slow but steady pace. Then, by both a stroke of luck and providence, the group connected with the Inspirit Foundation (inspiritfoundation.org), “a national, grantmaking organization that supports young people in building a more inclusive and pluralist Canada”. The foundation was very interested in our group’s work as it aligns with their vision to encourage and mentor young adults in Canada. They promptly offered to fund an in-person meeting in August 2014.

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Members of our group met in August for a day and a half and affirmed our original goals. We shared many of our experiences, highlights, and lowlights from our work in a safe and supportive environment. Many members also realized how isolating the work can be, as we had not had a network up until now. Over the course of the gathering, many people expressed the same sentiment: It is so wonderful to have colleagues to share with! It is so empowering to know we are not alone in our work. Some of the key issues that arose were how to get chaplains involved with each other (inter-faith action), concerns over space and process for equitable access to multi-faith prayer and gathering spaces, campus understanding of what chaplains do, the unique roles of chaplains as volunteers and the accountability and expectations of them, chaplains not feeling valued by the institution, lack of structure for chaplains (documents, contracts, training – qualifications vary), the public relations we as coordinators have to deal with (represent diversity, damage control, relationship with external/university relations), and funding issues and allocation.

The other piece of work that emerged at the gathering was a structural proposal. And this is where CACUSS came in. The group discussed the option of becoming our own stand-alone organization but in the end decided that the most helpful structure would be to become a Community within CACUSS. This structure would allow us to be part of an already established and well-respected organization and give us access to resources that will be helpful in our development. In return, the group would offer expertise and direction to universities on how to encourage and strengthen religious pluralism on campus and how to address questions of religion and spirituality in a secular environment. Since our in-person meeting, the group has been accepted as a CACUSS Community called “Spirituality and Religious Pluralism,” a group which has the possibility to engage with everyone interested in questions of spirituality and diversity, not just administrators.

The group will have five offerings this coming May at the CACUSS conference in Vancouver: 1. A pre-conference on May 24: “Spirituality & Religious Pluralism on a Secular Campus: Challenges and Celebrations.”

2. A presentation: “Conversations across Religious Differences: The Role of Secular Institutions in Engaging Students of Faith Backgrounds in Diversity Initiatives.”

3. A poster session: “Spirituality & Religious Pluralism on a Secular Campus: Challenges and Celebrations.”

4. A presentation: “Establishing Effective Relationships between Chaplains and the Institution: Considerations for Developing Memorandums of Understanding.”

5. A Community meeting and networking event on May 26.

Spirituality and religious diversity are hot topics on today’s campuses. Conversations are happening on campuses across Canada around religious accommodation, developing interfaith programming in a respectful environment, and building and sustaining relationships with religious communities and leaders.

Administrators, faculty, staff, and students alike look to chaplaincies, campus ministries, and spiritual life centres for leadership in questions of faith in a secular environment, interfaith work, and religious accommodation. It is the hope and intention of the Spirituality and Religious Pluralism Community to gather people in person and virtually and discuss these topics with integrity, wisdom, and courage, and create ways to connect people across religious and spiritual diversities.

Religion and spirituality are a part of campus life and we hope to contribute to a flourishing and diverse society.

For more information on the Spirituality and Religious Pluralism Community, please email Adriana Tulissi at artuliss@ucalgary.ca.

PHOTO: From left to right: Adriana Tulissi (University of Calgary), Kate Johnson (Queen’s), Martha Martin (Dalhousie), Ellie Hummel (Concordia), Victor Thomas (Simon Fraser University), Sara Parks (McGill University). Not captured: Danny Richmond (Inspirit Foundation), Richard Chamber (University of Toronto).

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Student Conduct The Student Conduct Community will create, encourage, and support opportunities for professional development, communication, and resource sharing for and among the membership on the topics of student conduct administration, in conjunction with the intersection of mental health, students with disabilities, student advocacy, and threat assessment.

We will monitor, solicit, and share best practices, trends, projects, and current affairs within student conduct administration with the membership. The Community will also serve as a resource hub for the membership to access various publications, documents, policies, literature, networking opportunities, and resources online and in person via various conference programs and professional development events. The Student Conduct Community will take the lead to author publications to serve as resources for the membership and CACUSS. Thanks to the commitment of handfuls of dedicated volunteers, the Student Conduct Community has evolved and persevered over the years through various organizational changes. Deborah Eerkes, former association President, documented the association’s origins in Achieving Student Success. In the chapter “Student Judicial Affairs and Academic Integrity,” Deborah writes: …while attending the 1998 ASJA conference Ellen Schoeck (University of Alberta), Lynn Smith (University of Manitoba), and Kathleen Kwan (University of Guelph) decided that there was a real need to connect Canadian student judicial affairs practitioners with each other, in order to approach issues arising from a Canadian legal and cultural perspective (Smith, 2007; personnel communication, 13 June) The first Canadian Conference on Student Judicial Affairs (CCSJA) was held in Banff in 1998, hosted by the University of Alberta (Utgoff 2005; personnel communication, August). Since then, despite having no formal structure or resources, conferences have occurred nearly annually. In 2007, at the CCSJA in Windsor, Ontario, the conference participants voted to formalize their association. It was decided that any initiative should include both student judicial affairs and academic integrity, partially because the practices are so closely linked and also because the number of people in each category is very small.

Given this group’s dedication to student success, a student services organization seemed to be the best fit. As of December 2007, the 28 / COMMUNIQUÉ / TOME 15 / NUMÉRO 2 / SPRING 2015

group became a division of the Canadian Association of Colleges and Universities Student Services (CACUSS), an umbrella organization for student services and student affairs professionals across Canada. The division named Canadian Academic Integrity and Student Judicial Affairs (CAISJA), is now fully integrated within CACUSS. The annual CACUSS conference provides a venue for ongoing professional development in both academic integrity and student judicial affairs, set in the wider context of Canadian student services.”

In 2008, to reflect changing times, the predominantly American Association of Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA) changed their name to the Association of Student Conduct Administration (ASCA).

Shortly afterward, CAISJA followed suit and renamed the Canadian organization to the Student Conduct and Academic Integrity Association (SCAIA) and continued to operate as a division of CACUSS. By offering various professional development opportunities to the membership, such as restorative justice training, a Living Library event, and weekly resources, the association continues to thrive as CACUSS transitions to a Communities structure. With the growth of the Centre of Academic Integrity and a growing Canadian consortium, only recently did SCAIA decide to narrow their focus to non-academic misconduct. Our determination to foster professional development, provide a platform for sharing resources, and monitor current trends and events will continue as the Student Conduct Community.

For more information on the Student Conduct Community, please email Lara Hof at lara.hof@humber.ca and Marcelle Mullings at marcellm@yorku.ca.

Reference Eerkes, D. (2010). Student judicial affairs and academic integrity. In D. Cox & C. Strange (Eds.), Achieving Student Success: Effective Student Services in Canadian Higher Education (pp. 100-111). Montreal, QC & Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Student Health The Student Health Community will focus on creating and sharing relevant knowledge, as well as supporting professional networking and connections among Community members. Any member of CACUSS who is interested in the health of postsecondary education students can become a member of the Student Health Community. For this inaugural year we will be focusing on hosting a network or two, developing a CACUSS preconference, offering professional development opportunities through webinars and conference calls, and exploring how to establish professional education credits in support of members’ professional development.

Derrick Enslow (Dalhousie) and Amanda Unruh (McGill) will be acting as co-chairs of the Student Health Community and, along with the leadership of Kandi McElary (Mount Royal), will organize a CACUSS pre-conference session for the upcoming May 2015 conference in Vancouver. The focus of this session will be the intersection between sexual violence, alcohol harms, and mental health as they pertain to our practice and with reference to data from the 2013 NCHA survey. In other words, we will be asking what are common approaches, promising/best practices, and the intersections of these health issues.

As a result of participating in this pre-conference session, participants will: • Have increased understanding of existing data and how data can contribute to policies, procedures, programs, and services; • Be aware of current national initiatives being proposed/ underway to address these health issues; • Explore a systemic approach to these health issues; • Determine next steps to further this dialogue nationally and members’ commitment/involvement; • Learn promising and best practices; • Identify the intersection of these health issues.

It is going to be a busy time for the Student Health Community and we welcome input from all university and college stakeholders.

As such, we look forward to seeing you in Vancouver in May, online through community forums, and during our teleconferences.

For more information on the Student Health Community, please email Derrick Enslow at derrick.enslow@dal.ca and Amanda Unruh at amanda.unruh@mcgill.ca.

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Student Peer Support Programs During the “open” Birds of a Feather session at the CACUSS 2014 conference, there was interest from CACUSS members in forming a group related to peer-to-peer support programs. To help support that interest, the Student Peer Support Programs Community has been formed.

The purpose of this Community is to connect professionals that supervise, support, and/or coordinate student peer support programs on university and college campuses, and share resources, strategies, and best practices. These particular programs are often identified by terms including, but not limited to, peer mentors, peer helpers, and peer leaders.

Our initial vision for the Community is to create opportunities for professionals to meet and network with others in the student peer support program field, both online (via listservs or CACUSS web platforms) and in person (via regional/annual meet-ups). We would also like to generate and house a comprehensive listing of student peer support programs and services offered on university and college campuses for the purpose of understanding the breadth of ways students are involved in campus service delivery to their peers. However, we are hoping that interested members will help us set the network’s needs and goals for the 2015/2016 year, beginning at the CACUSS 2015 conference in May. There are several different roles within student affairs that work with peer support programs. We are looking forward to getting to know you, but first take a few minutes to get to know the roles of the Community’s co-chairs.

Daniel Poulin, Coordinator, Experiential Learning Programs, University of Guelph The University of Guelph’s Peer Helper Program has offered experiential learning placements on campus since 1984. Each semester, students are selected and trained to assist with the design and delivery of peer-to-peers services. Daniel’s role is to support the 35+ placement Supervisors by coordinating Peer Helper benefits, new Peer Helper training, learning assessment, and recruitment activities each semester. In the 2013-14 academic year, 287 individual students participated as Peer Helpers, cumulatively contributing 37,500 of hours of service.

Since 2003, all Peer Helper placements have been aligned with employability skills research to ensure that they provide opportunity to develop concrete skills that complement a student’s classroom learning and enhances their employability. The cornerstone of assessing student learning in these areas is the Learning, Development and Performance Review (LDPR), a reflective document completed by both the Peer Helper and their Supervisor.

The Peer Helper experience is recognized at the institutional level through the zero-credit UNIV course that appears on a student’s academic transcript.

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There are currently 27 different placement opportunities across 13 different departments including Student Life, Athletics, Student Wellness Services, Co-op and Career Services, the Learning Commons, Sustainability Office, and the School of Fine Arts and Music. Peer Helpers provide regular input to ensure programs remain responsive and relevant to the student population they serve.

While each placement is supervised by a different professional staff member and can include a variety of tasks, all Peer Helpers complete a centralized Core Training Program to ensure that regardless of role, they are equipped with the necessary foundational skills to provide the best possible and most consistent service to students.

Laura Maple, Peer Mentorship Coordinator, University of Waterloo Since 2012, support offered to peer mentorship programs at the University of Waterloo has undergone a campus-wide change. After the creation of the Student Success Office in 2011, a campus-wide review was undertaken of the student development opportunities offered, including existing peer mentorship programs. This review revealed two key findings: (1) While a large number of peer mentorship programs existed, very few programs communicated with each other. (2) The purpose and target audience of the programs, as well as the training for mentors, varied widely from program to program.

Laura’s role is to provide campus-wide support of the university’s peer mentorship programs. One of the key forms of support is through the Peer Mentorship Training program, a one-day foundational training program that focuses on establishing mentoring relationships, on-campus resources and support, communication skills, and inclusivity and cultural awareness. The training program is facilitated by a team of student trainers, many of whom are or have been involved with a peer mentorship program on campus.

Peer Mentorship Training currently supports 18 peer-to-peer programs on campus, which are coordinated by staff, faculty, and students. These programs stretch over 3 of the 6 faculties; 4 academic departments; and 10 central support departments, including Health Services, the Centre for Career Action, International Student Experience Programs, the Student Success Office, Athletics and Recreation, and Housing and Residences.

In addition to coordinating Peer Mentorship Training, Laura provides support to on-campus programs through program and goal development, creating or restructuring programs, and offering best practices in the areas of recruitment and assessment.

For more information on the Student Peer Support Programs Community, please email Daniel Poulin at dpoulin@uoguelph.ca and Laura Maple at lcmaple@uwaterloo.ca.

Students with Family Responsibilities The Students with Family Responsibilities Community will focus on providing connections for staff in colleges and universities who are interested in improving services to students with family responsibilities. The Community will be an opportunity for ideas to be shared and generated so that we can improve resources and services available to students with family responsibilities in postsecondary institutions.

A student with family responsibilities could be a single parent undergraduate student, a graduate student caring for an elderly relative, or perhaps a student who has to take on a guardianship role for a younger sibling. Often these students will look for assistance within various post-secondary offices such as a counselling office, student affairs office, a First Nations service, or an office working with international students. Very few post-secondary institutions have a dedicated service to help these individuals, and yet many of us may be doing this “work.”

Through this Community you will have an opportunity to bring up your challenges and identify what you feel are the common issues for this student population group. Through this sharing of insights we can develop best practices that will help us in our work.

There will be an initial networking opportunity at the CACUSS 2015 conference that will be the starting point for this group, and then decisions will be made on how we continue to stay connected and share ideas throughout the year. A longer term goal would be to look for ways to highlight the needs of students with family responsibilities, so that more colleges and universities invest in the

staffing and time to address these students’ concerns while they complete their education.

As the Manager of the Family Care Office at the University of Toronto, I am part of a group of four staff who are working to provide resources, educational programming, and advocacy for our students, staff, and faculty, and their families. We are assisting student parents and expectant student parents; students who are caring for a parent with elder care concerns, such as a parent who has Alzheimer’s disease; and also students who have additional caregiving responsibilities for family members. We plan workshops and groups on family care issues, and also organize on-campus family activities. As we spoke to colleagues at other post-secondary institutions, we realized that the type of service we offer rarely exists in one office but that this assistance is needed and is happening ad hoc. Moreover, we found some institutions had polices and guidelines that addressed students with family responsibilities that we would be interested in bringing to our institution. The opportunity offered by CACUSS to form a Community to address students with family responsibilities was too good to pass up! This Community, I hope, will be the starting point in a discussion of how to ensure students with family responsibilities are not marginalized and are able to achieve their education goals while balancing their family life.

For more information on the Students with Family Responsibilities Community, please email Kaye Francis at kaye.francis@utoronto.ca.

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Student Success Initiatives:

The Case for “Study Skills”

By Lisa Fraser

L

et me start by saying that I’m all for creative thinking, experiential learning, critical thinking, and collaborative learning. Problem solving is my “go-to” skill and at the heart of discovering new and better ways of doing things.

Our students unequivocally require these skills to be successful.

That said, my recent work at a local college brought me full circle to 1990 when I first became involved in the work of student retention. I was hired to help design an Ontario community college’s inaugural student success initiative, and in those days, the focus was primarily on helping students learn in the classroom. “Study skills” was the phrase of the time, but no doubt today these two words are thought of as outdated – or even irrelevant.

Yet in our efforts to support our students in more progressive ways, I wonder if we may have moved away from the essential elements of a comprehensive student success program. Last year, as I worked in a mentorship role at a local college, it became increasingly clear that every student I worked with had at least one significant deficit in their ability to manage their academic workloads. Many were A students, while others struggled with their academics, but the common thread was that once we’d established a relationship, each student was brave enough to tell me that they secretly needed help: “I don’t know what to write down when I’m taking notes. … Oh, really?? The PowerPoint slides contain information that should be in my notes? And what else should I take down?”

“I’m not sure how to write this paper. … I have the professor’s assignment criteria, but I’m not sure how to put the information in logical order. … Could you help me know what goes first?”

“I didn’t hand in my assignment on time because I was working all weekend. I don’t know how to find time for school work.”

“I really want to get an A, but I don’t know how to study for my midterm. I was given a review sheet from my professor, but I don’t understand how to use it, or how it relates to my notes.”

So many of our students weren’t taught how to learn content. They struggle with confidence in their ability to be successful in their program. We must assume that every student needs support of some kind, and as with so many invisible challenges that each of us faces, we can’t presume there is no need just because we can’t see it.

It is not uncommon for colleges to post an academic resource web page and/or offer optional success workshops and believe they’ve addressed this learning gap.

Students learn best by being involved and by doing; reading about learning skills is not the same as developing learning skills. Knowing about a workshop does not mean students will attend. We do our students, all of them, a disservice by not bringing new and innovative ways of teaching academic learning skills into the classroom setting.

How can accomplish this? In the most ideal of worlds, everyone on campus – presidents, VPs, deans, chairs, faculty, student services, alumni – would divide up

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the various learning skills areas and each deliver a short, 10-to-15-minute, dynamic and interactive presentation during classroom time, covering best practices on their assigned topic (e.g., note-taking, time management, midterm studying, outline writing, stress management, etc.).

[A quick side note on involving all campus staff in a student success initiative: The best boss I ever had was the branch manager of the bank where I worked as a teller when I was 18 years old. This manager not only told the tellers that we were the face of the company and had a responsibility to deliver the best service possible, she opened a till on paydays when customers were lined up to the door and showed us that customer service mattered from top management to front-counter staff. All branch staff – loan officers, administrative assistants, financial advisors – lived the greater company mission of providing excellence to our clients by providing timely teller services whenever required, and nothing could have demonstrated our mission more clearly to a customer than having the manager count out two twenties and a ten.]

Interactive learning exercises result in students practicing academic success skills and reinforce the concepts of dedicated practice and mastery of skills. We have at our disposal so many new technologies that can make these presentations – and skills – engaging, relevant, and effective. Zapier, a webapp-automation service, posted a comprehensive list of college student productivity apps and technologies in their blog post on March 5, 2015, which you can read at zapier.com/blog/collegestudent-productivity.

Using this approach, an academic success strategy is doable on a zero-based budget, presented where learning takes place, and is all-inclusive. No student left behind. And students and staff alike will benefit from a truly “all-for-one” cohesive college culture.

We are proud to be a sponsor of the CACUSS 2015 Conference again this year. Please check your conference kit for a copy of Making Your Mark: High-Performance College and Career Success or look for our student success resources at the CACUSS booth, and watch for our CACUSS webinar in the fall 2015.

Lisa Fraser founded LDF Publishing Inc and is the author of Making Your Mark: High-Performance College and Career Success, which has been used by more than 1.6 million students. Lisa can be reached at lfraser@makingyourmark.com.

CACUSS Conference june 19-22, 2016 - winnipeg, manitoba The annual CACUSS conference brings together Student Services professionals from across Canada to share best practices, engage in educational opportunities, and network with colleagues.

Hosted by Red River College, the 2016 conference will be heading to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The conference will explore the theme of Muddy Waters, Blue Skies.

We look forward to seeing you in Winnipeg in 2016!

For details please visit: CACUSS.CA/CONFERENCE

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ACUSS’s dedication to professional development and membership engagement has for many years been reflected in its print publication, Communiqué. The overall purpose and goal of Communiqué is to highlight the profession in Canada and serve as a communication tool to share association information and best practices in the field. Communiqué enriches the community of practice in Canada but also serves as a platform to showcase the work of CACUSS and its members to other higher education associations both in Canada and internationally.

Communiqué (regardless of it delivery method) is an important part of the CACUSS identity.

That’s what we think, but what do you think? You have literally just finished reading the Spring issue of Communiqué. (Assuming you didn’t just jump to this article.) What did you think? Do you think we can do better? Be different?

Go further?

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CANADA VICES T SER LÈGES DU STUDENS ET COL SITY UNIVER UNIVERSITÉ E AND DES COLLEG DIANTS ÉTU ON OF OCIATI VICES AUX 00 AN ASS DES SER 6-85 120 CANADI IATION ISSN 5 / L’ASSOC 201 / VER / HI TER WIN

Recently, a CACUSS Editorial Committee was formed to guide and oversee the renewed direction and development of Communiqué and other CACUSS communications. Communiqué and other CACUSS communication platforms will soon be undergoing a community-driven transformation to reflect the changing needs, make-up, and interests of our members.

CACUSS’s recent member needs assessment survey will help shed some light on how you want to be communicated to and how you can help us communicate.

If you will be joining us in Vancouver for the CACUSS 2015 conference, we also invite you to join us at our conference session, “Get Involved with and Help Shape CACUSS Communications.” This workshop will synthesize the key creations and changes the committee is looking to effect through its goal-driven communication strategy. You’ll be given an opportunity to react and respond to these goals and ideas, and we will also be looking to you to develop and formulate suggestions of your own.

However, we’re not just starting and stopping at Communiqué! We will also be introducing new platforms for involvement that connect to, but offer different opportunities than, the Communiqué publication. Our new blog and social media projects will offer members, and especially new professionals in the field, easy, multimodal, timely, and thematic opportunities to have their voices heard and shared.

Now put this issue down and start thinking about how you want to see CACUSS in your mailbox, online, on social media, and anywhere else you can think of. The sky’s the limit!

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COMMUNIQUÉ / VOLUME 15 / ISSUE 2 / SPRING 2015 / 35

Thank you to all our conference sponsors

Exhibitors