Creating the ideal student experience through student retention and making sure students feel like they\u2019re prepared for their future because of their experience at Camosun is key, says Cummings. Student experience also goes hand in hand with academic experience, she says; despite the organizational structure that separates the two, student experience and academic experience \u201creally have to work together,\u201d says Cummings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens in the classroom translates into what happens in the rest of the institution and vice versa,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cIf students aren\u2019t getting supported, not receiving mental health support… They\u2019re working three jobs because they don\u2019t want student loans, or they didn\u2019t qualify, that\u2019s going to impact the learning experience. And our faculty are going to have to be the ones that try and figure that out. I think we\u2019ve got to create that common language between the areas where we\u2019re talking about the same things and we have the same goals.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cummings started at Camosun on August 19, taking over from Joan Yates. She says that many of the solutions to problems students may face are already on campus, but sometimes it\u2019s a matter of finding them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of talking to people and figuring out where support needs to be to get those solutions in place,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As far as the position influencing students in day-to-day life, Cummings says that it\u2019s hard to identify specifics because student experience changes on a student-to-student basis. Cummings says that Camosun has an extremely diverse student population and that she wants to focus on what each individual needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of having a flexible learning environment where every student sees themselves in the halls and the walls and knows that this is their place and that there\u2019s something there to help them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But part of the reality Cummings is facing is that \u201cwe won\u2019t have all the answers, and we won\u2019t have everything,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can help direct students to those community partners that may have the support that we ourselves don\u2019t have,\u201d she says. \u201cI see a lot of attention on community relationships, and getting to know what our students are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to dealing with a diverse student population, Cummings says that it\u2019s key to approach it from a principle of inclusivity so that any student can find the things they need to succeed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be designated services for this population versus designated services for this population,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Even though there is special attention paid to certain demographics like Indigenous learners and international students, Cummings says, they still have similar needs to other students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s keeping that principle of inclusivity. I also think we need to be extremely flexible in the way we deliver services, and it\u2019s about the relationship between the staff. My thought is, if the people who are supporting students love what they\u2019re doing, feel like they\u2019re making a contribution, students are going to feel that,\u201d she says. \u201cHappy staff, happy students.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mental health, supporting victims of sexual violence, and post-secondary affordability aren\u2019t just issues on Camosun students\u2019 minds\u2014they\u2019re all areas that new Camosun vice president of student experience Heather Cummings plans on focusing on in her job. \u201cThose are three hot buttons that I can\u2019t imagine not being responsive to,\u201d she says. \u201cIt breaks my heart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18188,"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":[15,239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-september-11-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18138","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=18138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18140,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18138\/revisions\/18140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_3975-e1568053693917.jpg\")
<\/a>