Camosun College has launched a new interdisciplinary Student Affairs department. It consists of Academic Advising, Counselling, the Office of Student Support, and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Camosun vice president of student experience Joan Yates says the college has tried to consolidate the services that focus on students into one group.
“Philosophically and otherwise we are making it easier for students to access things, making it easier for us to cross-reference,” says Yates.
The vision began, says Yates, by looking at what students need to be successful and keeping the services as concise as possible.
“That includes students who may be needing some support,” says Yates, “be it counselling support, or [for people] who, perhaps, are a little marginalized; how do we advocate and be there for them?”
To the college, the answer lay, in part, by forming an umbrella department that shows students every path they might need in terms of services. If this works and Camosun can offer support through one unified office, it can do other things the same way, says Yates.
“It also means that we can do policy work through one lens rather than two or three,” says Yates.
Camosun director of Student Affairs Evan Hilchey says Student Affairs focuses on making sure students have easy access to the supports they need.
“I really am looking forward to continuing the implementation of Camosun’s five-year Strategic Plan,” says Hilchey.
The Strategic Plan is the college’s five-year mandate between 2016 and 2021; its goals include working toward sustainable practices and cultivating learning for students through new approaches to instruction.
“This speaks to the continuation of enhancing the student experience on the campus by bringing these services together in a holistic manner,” says Hilchey. “I look forward to furthering the resources available to students so that they can meet their academic or personal goals while at Camosun.”
Yates says the Student Affairs department will provide Camosun students with one vision and a more consistent focus.
“We get everybody on the same page in terms of where we want to go, and, more importantly, we make it easier for students to access us,” says Yates. “They don’t have to do the rounds. We can refer them in a much more coherent way so that they can get what they need, and we’re talking with each other so that we know that students are not falling through the cracks, particularly those that need a little help.”
Yates says that the college is trying to develop a five-year plan to build on the department; for now, this opens up the college’s options when a student comes to the department in need of support, whether that support is academic or personal.
“If we have student who is a survivor of sexualized violence,” says Yates, “we’re able to connect them more readily with a range of services rather than just one or two.”
Student Affairs is located at Fisher 106A at Camosun’s Lansdowne campus, although the departments that make up Student Affairs will stay in their current offices.