August 2021: Welcome back, students!
On a recent trip to Labrador, I met Nicolas Flowers from the community of Hopedale on the North Coast. Nicolas is heading to our Grenfell Campus this September for his second year in our environmental science program.
He’s looking forward to being on campus this fall so he can meet his classmates and professors in person. But he’s also nervous about living away from home. Nicolas’ life will be different, he says, but he chose Grenfell because it’s smaller and more personalized. Having two older sisters who graduated from Grenfell also helps.
Many students, like Nicolas, have hopes and fears for their university experience, I’m sure, and for all students we have programs and supports in place to help them make that transition. We’re ready to ensure they’re ready to take on the challenges and opportunities that Memorial will present them with come September and beyond.
Those high-quality student services we are so proud of garnered us an award recently. Memorial has been honoured with the Atlantic Association of College and University Student Services Award of Excellence in Student Services for a campus-wide initiative called MUN Up. MUN Up was created early in the pandemic as an online, one stop-shop to house student supports and services to help prepare them for the remote learning environment.
Now that we’re returning to some in-person learning, we’ve got everything in place to welcome our students back: From our Ask Me campaign, a point of contact for questions about anything related to Memorial and university life, to our parent and supporter resources to the Blundon Centre, which is here to ensure students have an accessible learning environment, we are ready.
Our strategic plan reinforces our commitment to the care and well-being of each other as well as strengthening the student experience.
In the weeks and months to come, each Memorial campus, unit and department will set goals and targets to implement that plan and make it their own. It is a living document, a flexible blueprint that will allow us to make deliberate, achievement-driven actions.
Fall 2021 will be a transition semester for Memorial University as we continue to follow provincial public health guidelines to keep our students, faculty and staff safe.
We can’t wait to see everyone on campus again.