One table also suggested the development of social enterprise grants for students to encourage social and
community innovation, leadership, and involvement. Others wondered whether a common community service
program requirement, comparable to the secondary school model, would drawmore students into the community.
Another innovative suggestion was institutional adoption of a street or small area for community service —
gardening, cleaning, house painting, and other service activities and programs, possibly with an added one-week
charitable giving focus. This might also create opportunities for interdepartmental collaboration with a focus on a
specific street or location. Participants from the county also noted the great need for services and support for
temporary worker populations (over 10,000 at any given time) and to address the communications and cultural
barriers they often face. Others noted, however, that internships and volunteering can be a hardship to students
struggling to make ends meet, and that this is a core challenge to increasing experiential and community-based
learning.
As with a number of other sectors, participants encouraged the University to take amore active role in generating
pride in both the city and the University, potentially through showcasing events, summer festivals, and other
activities that students could develop and lead with supervision. They also noted that a more inviting policy and
cost-structure for rentingUniversity spacewouldbringmore communitymembers on to campus, which could also
be used as an opportunity for outreach.
Finally, one table strongly emphasized the need for the University to enhance its presence and success as a
research university, as this would serve as an important engine for the creation of innovative jobs and improved
institutional and civic reputation. They suggested greater study of and investment in the coordination of innovation,
knowledge translation, andbusiness development.
Specific research, curricular, andprogram suggestions:
•
Agri-science/agri-business
•
More emphasis onpublicpolicy andgovernance
structures
•
Meaningful mathematical and statistical
knowledge
•
Adaptive technologies
•
Social and employment impact of technologies
•
Ethics
•
Cross-border issues
•
Greater priority on expanding researchprofile and
successwithgranting agencies
•
Computer programming in conjunctionwith social
services and civic engagement
•
Applied learning inmunicipal contexts
•
Municipal governmentmentors for student
government leaders
•
Leadership and service indiverse contexts
Report onCommunityConsultations:Winter 2017
