We do a lot of things right at Memorial University and one of them is the annual orientation for new undergraduate students.
Student Affairs organizes the two-day event designed to familiarize new students with university and with Memorial, geographically, philosophically and actually, and to introduce students to each other. The key to the success of the exercise is that it is senior students, guided by the Office of Orientation and Student Leadership, who provide most of the familiarization.
On that first day most of our new students forge friendships that will carry through the four or five years of their undergraduate experience, and perhaps even through their lives.
One of the highlights of the orientation for me, as I hope it is for the students, is the annual President's Welcoming Barbecue. That's when our deans, directors, vice-presidents, student leaders and other university leaders join me in donning aprons and picking up spatulas to serve the hundreds of new students who are involved in the orientation.
This year we were again blessed with good weather for the barbecue, which meant that those of us on the front lines charged with serving the students were particularly busy. (According to Nova Services, this year we served approximately 1,400 hamburgers, 850 hot dogs, 100 veggie burgers, 200 veggie dogs, and about 500 litres of soft drink!) What's more, we all had a terrific time and, if appearances are anything to go by, so did the students.
So we do a good job welcoming new undergraduates to Memorial. We also do a good job of graduating them. Our convocation ceremony is second-to-none in this country for its attention to students and their families, its dignity, and its presentation, or so we are told by the thousands of people who have enjoyed it over the years.
But what do we do in between? It's what we do from the end of a student's orientation to the beginning of the student's convocation that will determine how that student judges her or his time at Memorial University.
As employees of Memorial, staff and faculty, the principle of providing service to students should guide our daily work and we should all take pride in what we do. Administrative offices should look at the systems in place for serving students. Professors and lecturers should examine their collective and individual interactions with students to ensure that students' needs are being met. From simple things such as accessible office hours, to the more complex aspects of imparting knowledge, such as special academic help and advice, every action we take colours students' experiences.
If we do our jobs over the next few years, those young people who
enjoyed
our barbecue on that sunny day will graduate with superior education and
positive memories of the time we shared together. They will also enter
the world of work with superior ability to contribute and to benefit as
a consequence of their time spent here.
A. W. May, O.C.
PRESIDENT AND VICE -CHANCELLOR