![\"Camosun](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/DSC_0041.jpg\")
<\/a>What have some of the victories or successes been in your first year?<\/i><\/p>\n
One of the things that I\u2019m proud of is the reorganization of our senior administration. We were able to do that because we had two openings at the vice president level, and that allowed us to look at what was important. When we were trying to figure out what structure would make sense for the college, we were crammed into my office and I had poster paper and I drew a stick figure of a student, and drew a circle around it, and said, \u201cEvery decision we make, we have to go back to the centre, which is, \u2018How is this going to benefit the students?\u2019\u201d And although it sounds like a bureaucratic exercise, it wasn\u2019t. So that\u2019s when we came up with the idea of having a student experience portfolio; Joan Yates is the vice president of student experience, and that\u2019s never been done before. So how do we take that restructuring and really make something happen that we can all be proud of and that students who come here leave saying that that was an experience second to none? That\u2019s my end goal. Joan\u2019s got a big job this year in creating a plan (laughs). She\u2019s done a wonderful job so far in talking to people. She\u2019ll sit in Student Services and just watch. We can\u2019t make good decisions without information or data. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing right now, just talking and listening and looking at what we can do and how we can make it better. So that\u2019s something I\u2019m quite proud of; even though it\u2019s an administrative change, it will permeate, I\u2019m hoping, throughout the student experience. I think we can look forward at the college to hearing more about that as the year goes on. And I\u2019m happy not just with the strategic plan, but the process that we took was unique, and I like the outcome.<\/p>\n
What were your impressions of Camosun coming into the job? How were you surprised?<\/i><\/p>\n
I think the difference was before I came here, I didn\u2019t understand the core values or feel that heart, so that\u2019s what I learned. This might sound a bit corny, but I go home at the end of the week on a Friday, and my husband would say, \u201cHow was your day? How was your week?\u201d and I\u2019d say, \u201cAwesome.\u201d He finally, around November, said, \u201cOkay, I\u2019m really tired of hearing, \u2018awesome\u2019.\u201d But it\u2019s just how I felt. I was so excited, and I still am. I\u2019d come home after an event and say, \u201cYou should see what we do. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last time we talked, you mentioned indigenization at the college. How has that gone in the past year?<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad you asked that question. This year, that has been a big priority for me. Again, it\u2019s just getting to know people and what we do, talking to people from other colleges and universities on the island\u2026 We\u2019re leaders in indigenization and have been for years. I think where we have an opportunity to really make a difference is what we do in response to the Truth and Reconciliation. We have our senior leadership council and we have a small committee that\u2019s looked at all the recommendations and has come back to our senior leadership council, and we approved about 86 actions to be taken. We\u2019re so far along that we\u2019ve actually started to talk about what specific things will happen each year, what\u2019s the budget for it, and who\u2019s responsible. Beside every one of those actions is someone\u2019s name that\u2019s a member of the executive team, because I believe that we have to be held responsible. Whether or not we do the hands-on work is one thing, but we all need to take responsibility for certain actions we want to see happen. I\u2019m probably most excited about rolling that out and getting the college involved and working with different groups of people to put the actions into place. So I\u2019d say that that was a priority last year, and I have been absolutely amazed at what we already do, but I also feel it\u2019s really important to talk about where we\u2019re going. That\u2019s what we\u2019ll see in the fall: what\u2019s the plan to take us to a place we need to go as a college and as a country?<\/p>\n
You mention the student experience a lot. What exactly do you feel the Camosun student experience is and what do you want it to be?<\/i><\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s everything, from the moment you make a phone call to Camosun to ask a question to walking in the door to meeting with advising to starting classes to getting a diploma or degree; it\u2019s all part of the student experience. So any interaction you have with anyone at the college is part of that experience. Any smart institution is always looking for improvement, and we\u2019ve been fortunate with budget that we can actually add support where we see the need, and we have done that over the past couple of years to improve the student experience and to help students that perhaps need more support. What the plan is going to look like is unknown right now; we\u2019re still in that data-collection and information-collection stage. There are also certain things that I think we do well that we want to beef up a bit, which is experiential learning or hands-on learning, workplace learning, co-op student employment\u2014that part of what students experience here, I think we can improve. We\u2019ve put a director into that role, Nancy Sly; she\u2019s got a big job, because we\u2019re depending on what she and her team come up with to add to that student experience. That\u2019s one thing. I\u2019d like to see students more involved in applied research, taking problems from the community to the college and having our students focus on problem solving. We do a really great job right now in many areas of technology; mechanical engineering is a huge part of what they do. We want to spread it. Social innovation is another area; again, it\u2019s real-world issues that come to us that our students have that experience with. It\u2019ll all unfold a little bit more as we fine-tune the focus.<\/p>\n Lots of these ideas we\u2019re talking about, they tend to be more conceptual. We did a couple stories about a year ago about Camosun students who don\u2019t have ADD or ADHD using ADD or ADHD medication to help them study. That\u2019s a world away from me and you sitting here talking about these big concepts. There are students over there taking drugs because they feel they need them to get through their studies at Camosun. How do you feel about that?<\/i><\/p>\n I saw those stories, yes. When I read the story, I guess I shouldn\u2019t have been shocked, but I was. It made me incredibly sad to think that we have students who have to resort to that kind of thing. So, the one part that I haven\u2019t talked about that will be a part of that student experience is mental health. We\u2019ve got a document now, but a document is just a piece of paper. We need to roll that out once we know exactly what it is that we want to be doing. So we\u2019ve taken the first step, and with the next step hopefully students will see some support. And I think with that focus on student experience, we have to be listening to students. Right now, we\u2019re collecting information and data. That\u2019s what it is: listening to what the student society says, individual students, groups of students, faculty, staff; it\u2019s hearing from people who say, \u201cThis is an issue.\u201d I think we know what some of the issues are, but the deeper, personal ones, I think, are a little bit more challenging to get at and will be a part of our strategy as well. But, yeah, students that feel that in order to finish the work that they\u2019re working on have to resort to that, maybe we need to do something different that we haven\u2019t thought of around timing and coordination of assignments.<\/p>\n What about how Camosun deals with students with disabilities? We\u2019ve covered that and heard both criticisms and compliments. How do you feel Camosun does in that regard?<\/i><\/p>\n I think there\u2019s always going to be stories of excellence and stories of \u201cI wasn\u2019t served properly.\u201d I think we need to learn from the stories that are \u201cthis didn\u2019t work for me\u201d and figure out why. I feel very, very strongly about the fact that if someone has a learning disability or a physical disability, the plan has to fit whatever is their disability, and support has to be given in classrooms. It has to happen, not just with one person and not another. I believe that, in education, we\u2019ve come a long way. I have a daughter that has a learning disability, and she struggled until she figured out what her disability meant for her and the fact that she was really bright. She went on to university and graduated. I don\u2019t think that would have happened without some support from people and a plan. So, I\u2019ve lived it and seen how it can affect people, and, again, I\u2019m never averse to listening to students saying, \u201cThis didn\u2019t work for me,\u201d and learning from the student. We\u2019ve added some more supports into supporting students in general. There\u2019s such a range of disabilities, and everyone with a disability needs for people to understand what their disability is and that it doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t do everything else. They just need some support in place, whether that\u2019s with writing or reading, or they\u2019re in a wheelchair, or visually impaired\u2026 As a society, we have come a long way in understanding it\u2019s what we have to do as Canadians. If I ever heard something that was happening here where someone didn\u2019t get what they should have got because of their disability, I would take action. It\u2019s incredibly important.<\/p>\n What are some areas where Camosun needs improvement?<\/i><\/p>\n I think a lot of leadership is about clarity. I\u2019ll give you an example. I think we do a really good job with sustainability, and we\u2019ve done some excellent work around recycling and reusing, and added the Camosun Express [bus shuttle service between the two campuses], and added some incentives so people don\u2019t drive. But I think it needs to involve more students than faculty and staff. It needs clarity. What are we really talking about when we say this? I want people to have a crystal-clear image of what we\u2019re working on. That\u2019s part of my job this year as the strategic plan unfolds. Yeah, we\u2019ve got a plan, but what does it actually mean? Being really, really clear, I think that\u2019s one thing we can improve on. And of course student experience we\u2019re still working on\u2014sustainability, indigenization, what it means to have an international population, and are we supporting domestic and international students? I think there are lots of places where we could look to improve, places that we\u2019re doing a good job, but we continually ask questions. \u201cHow could we make this better for students?\u201d<\/p>\n Last time we talked, you mentioned you go to a lot of concerts. Have you been to any good ones in the past year?<\/i><\/p>\n Yeah, I have. I went to Adele in July in Vancouver at Rogers Arena. I\u2019ve been to a lot of concerts there, but the sound of her voice was unbelievable. It ranks right up there. And she\u2019s by herself; it\u2019s not like watching Eric Clapton with a huge band, or Paul McCartney. She was just incredible; it just sent chills up your spine. That stands out, and the Marimba band on Hornby Island (laughs).<\/p>\n What\u2019s in store for the upcoming year?<\/i><\/p>\n Rolling out\u2014and, again, I don\u2019t want this to be bureaucratic\u2014our strategic plan with real, tangible, clear changes and ideas, and getting feedback. So, more engagement and hopefully information and action. Last year we were collecting a lot of feedback. Now it\u2019s responding to that and giving people information to say, \u201cHere\u2019s what we\u2019re working on. Is this hitting the mark?\u201d This is a plan that will last for five years, and we want to be hitting the mark with it. I\u2019m as excited, maybe even more, about this year. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Camosun College president Sherri Bell started her job here a year ago, following the unexpected and prompt termination of previous president Kathryn Laurin\u2019s contract. Bell was stepping into a position filled with questions, and she was about to lead the college through a year of change. We caught up with Bell recently to talk about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-september-21-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12463,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12460\/revisions\/12463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>