COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Strategic planning process draws input from CBU staff.
The co-chair of the committee leading the strategic planning process underway at Cape Breton University says she’s been struck by how engaged the community is in the future of the university.
Vielka Salazar is an associate biology professor at CBU and is co-chairing its first strategic planning process in 16 years, with both internal and external consultations, which was launched by new president David Dingwall.
“For me what really resonates is just how engaged the entire community has been, not just the CBRM (Cape Breton Regional Municipality) community but the communities that we have visited,” she said in an interview Thursday, noting they included areas such as Port Hood, Port Hawkesbury, Ingonish, Louisbourg and Arichat.
For two days this week, the university was essentially shut down to allow all of its staff — more than 300 people — to take part in what was termed a “grand meeting” held at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre. They engaged in a rich discussion about CBU and its future and Salazar said the input was collected and will help finalize the strategic directions that they intend to address.
Salazar noted she moved to the area in 2008 and has been a full-time employee of CBU since 2010.
“What has been a real incredible experience for me … has been to see the community come to the sessions and be frank and share with us their
views and their opinions and what they expect from us and how they want us to be more involved in issues in the island and better connected with not just a few communities in the island but the entire island,” she said.
The wording may change somewhat, but generally speaking the strategic directions that have been identified where the university hopes to see progress from 2019-2024 are investing in students, globalizing with a difference, championing the island’s renewal, “indigenizing the L’Nu way,” and empowering faculty and staff. The directions
came from the consensus of the steering and working committees as they evaluated the input received, Salazar said.
“Today and yesterday, we came together to further improve upon the wording for those directions, so the essence of the five directions will be the same,” she said.
Shutting down the university for two days to allow everyone to take part reflected the culture of inclusiveness that they want to create, Salazar said, so that “everybody feels that they can contribute, they can voice their opinions, they can participate.”
A 300-page document based on the responses has been circulated internally. The next step will be to compile the information received this week and refining the wording of the strategic directions as well as a revised mission statement for CBU. The hope is to have a draft document ready to go to CBU senate and then the board of governors this fall. The process will then move on to implementation.
Salazar said the process has seen people with an interest in CBU come together in a way that they hadn’t in some time and illustrated the importance
of continuing to have those sorts of conversations.
In May, Dingwall said that for many years, the financial plan ran the operation at CBU. While it is an important component, he added CBU needed to move in a direction that would be sustainable for the university and for the community.
Dingwall has noted several times that there has been a feeling of a disconnect between CBU and the community it serves, something that he hopes to reverse.