WRITING
CENTRE, LEARNING COMMENTS,
AND
THE STRATEGIC PLAN
The Hayward Alumni Learning Commons is one of the new initiatives that have emerged with the Strategic Plan, announced by the office of the Vice President Academic. It is defined as a creative, dynamic, cross disciplinary centre that reaches out to faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the wider community. Indeed, it seems the Commons will emerge as a hub of new initiatives, which include internationalization and civic engagement, as well as engaged learning and teaching. These initiatives are clearly important, designed to build on Acadia’s strengths, as well as develop institutional support for new programs. The Learning Commons is designed to enable students, faculty, staff, the local community, and alumni to be fully engaged in the new initiatives that make up the Strategic Plan.
So far the Learning Commons is a plan waiting to be realized. However, since the Writing Centre began to take shape even before the Strategic Plan was announced and was later absorbed into the larger initiative, it allows us to get some sense of how faculty and students might be engaged in the new initiatives.
Stephen Ahern, the coordinator of the Writing Centre, has said that the Centre will offer tutoring services, workshops on writing for students and faculty (grant writing), and in-class instruction upon request from faculty members. It is not clear how the Centre will integrate its work with the Strategic Plan, or even with the other initiatives at the Learning Commons, such as civic engagement and internationalization. However, since the Strategic Plan is itself a new initiative, with an emphasis upon consultation with faculty and staff, it is hoped that the new initiatives can be made to dovetail with the services provided by the Centre. Although civic engagement is perhaps open to various interpretations, we might note already that students working alongside faculty in responsible positions can emerge as community leaders. The Writing Centre in its formative stage thus suggests the sort of opportunities that the Learning Commons might make available to students, staff, and faculty.
Given that the Centre has been absorbed into the Strategic Plan, it is important to consider what part faculty will have in shaping the Centre and the Learning Commons, including hiring staff, and of course in the practical work of teaching, advising, and counseling that the Centre will promote. This question goes beyond consultation with faculty, but rather points to a concern that faculty take part in the decision making processes as the Strategic Plan moves forward. Will the ambitions and objectives of faculty members involved in the Learning Commons mesh with the larger Strategic Plan? For this to be the case, faculty members need a clear sense of the objectives of the Strategic Plan and how it will practically be applied in new and old institutions. Shane Donovan, who is coordinating Strategic Planning, has already established various venues for consultation with faculty; moreover, he invites faculty members to contact the Vice-President Academics’ office with their suggestions and concerns.
Jamie Whidden