Student life at Canadian post-secondary institutions in the 21st century

As the start of another academic year approaches, post-secondary institutions across Canada are preparing for classes, welcoming new students (plus their family and friends), and fulfilling their respective mission and vision statements. It is common for institutions to put the needs of students at the top of their priority list, but less common to assign human and financial resources strategically to see that students are engaged outside of the classroom.

In recent months there have been several job postings, from Prince George to Halifax, where institutions are seeking student-centred individuals to provide programming that will fill the void. I have recently transitioned to the University of Manitoba to become its first Director of Student Life. Previously affiliated with Housing, the Student Life office has been around and providing programming for more than five years. Now our own unit within Student Affairs, the job description for Director, Student Life is relatively simple: “In collaboration with university and community partners, enhance the student experience for all 27,000 University of Manitoba students.”

In my experience, institutions’ residence life programs have been instrumental in providing purposeful and proactive programming to the students in their care. What about the rest of the student population? Post-secondary institutions typically have more students living off campus than on campus. Student unions have also been the primary social organizers for students -- yet while they are one of our best allies, we need to be involved more actively.

Sure, we have offices that support students and offer program, but is the engagement as active as demonstrated within residence life units? Providing an exceptional student experience is inherently subjective -- some students might want an international experience, some might want to gain career skills beyond what they learn in their discipline, and some might want to just go to class.

As institutions, we need to become more in tune with our students and be proactive in our approach. Our faculty, teaching/graduate assistants and our advising staff are ideally situated to see all of our students, whether they live on or off campus. We need to develop better ways to determine what a student would like to accomplish outside of their academic studies, and do our best to work with them to accomplish it. We also need to be prepared for the fact that a student might not know what they want or need until later on, and be prepared to have timely and effective communication with each student to realize their desired experience.

At least that’s what I hope to do with this new position: to engage students living outside of a residence as well as our colleagues in residence do. We will welcome all students back to the campus community -- first-year and upper-year students alike (and let’s not forget distance education students). We will work with faculty, staff and the greater community in order to better support students’ academic success and augment their learning opportunities. Retention rates should increase and student engagement survey scores should go up, but ultimately it will be the students who will benefit the most from this emerging trend of supporting student life units within Canadian post-secondary institutions.

Brendan Hughes is the Director of Student Life at the University of Manitoba. This new position has been created to facilitate intentional institutional programming and engagement opportunities for University of Manitoba students. Brendan has research interests in Student Engagement, Leadership, Orientation, Service Learning and the broader realm of Student Affairs interests. He can be reached at 204-272-1596, at brendan_hughes@umanitoba.ca, or by visiting http://umanitoba.ca/student/studentlife/.