As we enter the second month of the Fall 2018 term, I am writing to thank all of you for your exceptionally hard work as we welcome a record enrolment of students, and to outline some of the important steps we’re taking to support our faculty and staff, and to ensure our students’ success.
While there is much to celebrate as we begin a new academic year, there have been operational challenges associated with our enrolment increases and the growing diversity of our college community.
I would like to thank those of you who have shared the issues that you are facing in the classroom and on the front lines in our service areas, as well as those who have offered ideas and solutions moving forward. Our strength is a collective dedication to our students’ satisfaction and success, and I appreciate that the important feedback that our leadership team is receiving reflects this shared commitment.
Our college’s leadership team is working with staff and faculty to identify and implement short and long-term solutions to ensure that our classroom environments are conducive to teaching and learning. While there are challenges that can be addressed quickly, others may require longer-term solutions. Some initiatives are already underway and others will move forward in the coming days and weeks.
Classroom Task Force
Recognizing that our record enrolments have pushed many classrooms and labs to capacity, we have established a classroom task force that will deal with the immediate challenges we’re experiencing in this area. With representatives from Facilities Management Services, the Centre for Academic Excellence, and Information Technology Services, this group will provide solutions for classroom issues, ranging from technology to furniture and layout. Associate Deans are reaching out to faculty and staff to identify specific classrooms/labs that need to be addressed. Once received, the task force will prioritize and address specific items in as timely a fashion as possible.
Academic preparedness
All of us want our students to be engaged and succeed academically and socially, and we’re committed to delivering high quality programs and services. The Beacon system has been developed to allow identification of students at risk of failure. Based on identified concerns, the Academic and Liberal Studies and International divisions have worked together to assess the written language skills of learners who were identified as being academically at risk due to low language capabilities, and developed assistance plans or alternatives for these students. The Beacon system can continue to be used to identify students at risk, and we will be working to support these students.
Additional support for faculty and students
Recognizing that our learners are more diverse – based on culture, background and experience – and therefore bring different knowledge, perspectives and expectations to our learning environments, we are establishing new resources for faculty and students. In the coming weeks, we will hire Educational Developers, specializing in inclusive and culturally responsive services and teaching so that we can continue to improve our supports. We are providing additional supports for students in the Learning Commons, especially supporting language skills.
Student Transportation
Public transit has been an issue for postsecondary students in Niagara for some time due mainly to the challenges associated with having multiple local providers, with no Regional integration of these systems. This is improving, with new Regional Transit systems under-development and significant investments made for this year. However, our record enrolments have put additional strain on some key transit routes that serve our campuses. We are working very closely with the Niagara College Student Administrative Council and transit providers to increase capacity on main routes during key times. Additional buses were added last week, and further steps to increase capacity will be made as the situation is monitored.
In many cases, it’s these challenges that are causing some students to arrive late for class because buses are too full, or cause students to have to leave early because they want to make sure they find a spot on a bus going home. I recognize this can be disruptive to classes but I ask for your understanding if this has interfered with your teaching.
Facilities resources
The college has dedicated additional resources to ensure that we’re also adapting outside the classroom. Work is underway to expand parking at the Welland Campus, additional parking attendants are on hand to assist in maximizing the available parking spaces. Cleaning services will be increased to deal with issues related to increased traffic and classroom utilization. Additional staff have also been added to accommodate increased demand for foodservices.
Moving forward
The strategies and initiatives listed above are designed to respond to immediate issues and concerns. Over the longer term, we are committed to looking at additional, sustained strategies to help us adapt to the growth and changes in our learning community.
One of the most important things we can do is to be collaborative – to work together as individuals, departments, schools and divisions toward a common goal.
Information sharing is equally important, and whether it’s an idea or recommendation for a solution, information regarding a student at risk, or notification of a classroom or service issue, I encourage you to reach out to the appropriate area for support. Through the initiatives and resources listed above, we will do our best to ensure that issues are addressed in a timely way.
Once again, I offer my sincere thanks to all of our faculty and staff for going above and beyond in support of our students and for providing valuable feedback in support of student success. As we come into the Thanksgiving Weekend, I very much appreciate the commitment of everyone at the college to our students.
