SLC presents Student Wellness, Access and Support consultation and approves 2024-25 Annual Operating Plan
By Andreea Timis, September 8 2024—
The first SLC meeting of the fall semester took place on Sep. 3. The first half of the meeting focused on reviewing the updates to the Student Wellness Centre presented by the Student Wellness, Access and Support (SWAS) consultation committee.
The updates made pertained mainly to student concerns regarding access to mental health support. A review team was dispatched during the Fall 2023 semester to listen to students, staff and faculty concerns and draft recommendations based on expertise and experience. Dolly Kim — SWAS senior director — explained the benefit of the review.
“The benefit of this review was that deeper listening was conducted with those we serve, and we also gained some extra institutional perspective,” Kim said. “So the findings were that increased access to individual mental health support improved students’ experience by integrating health and mental health across units.”
From these findings, the recommendations drafted included providing same-day access, improved online booking processes and potential extended hours and additional services for flexibility.
“We set [this] up like a step to review with our teams and from that, we determined what’s most important and also what’s realistic in terms of timeline,” Kim explained.
In response to the SWAS review, three distinctive pillars were brought into effect as of August 2024: Health and Counseling Services (HCS) — which consists of primary and mental health services — Student Accessibility Services (SAS) — which focuses on student access support, the exam centre and neurodiversity support — and Campus Well-being Services (CWS) — which captures health promotion and outreach.
Brooke Nowicki – senior director of HCS – highlighted that one of the goals of this pillar was the recruitment of family physicians, which is still an ongoing process at this time. Edwin Morales – the Wellness Centre’s associate director for counselling – spoke about increased access to mental health support starting next week.
“We’re doing a soft launch of [this] though, so what that means is we’re not going to be advertising it yet, just because we have certain things we need to iron out as we move on,” Morales said. “But so far, we actually have coverage for every day of the week for these appointments. The way that this is going to work out is similar to drop-in appointments. So the goal with this is to create faster access, which is something that was encouraged.”
Additionally, this pillar aims to increase the diversity of counsellors going forward.
“I have received requests from different student groups saying that they would like to see more diversity within the team,” Morales continued. “So currently, we’re in the process of recruiting an Indigenous counsellor and we’re also in the process of recruiting a person of colour on our team.”
Brenda McDermott — senior manager of SAS — mentioned that with the creation of this pillar also came the creation of an online registration model to facilitate access. A revision of informed consent was also conducted and made available on the Wellness Services website.
“It’s really important to us that students know when they’re sharing information with us, what does that mean? [And] who gets to know that, especially if they have concerns,” said McDermott. “They may not want their parents to know, so we’ve clearly articulated that in many different ways for people to look at it.”
McDermott highlighted SAS’s goals of attempting to better connect the arts and science faculties as some accessibility issues can be attributed to teaching and learning issues. This will occur via the creation of a liaison model with the arts and science associate deans in the fall.
“[This might] give us a sense of support for faculty members who maybe want to be able to brainstorm how [to] support students, but maybe need that instruction or academic perspective,” she explained.
SAS is also working with neurodiversity support advisers to explore the idea of providing a starting point for students who might wish to inquire about identifying as neurodivergent and seek a formal diagnosis or informal support. Drop-in appointments for this will be offered to students in the Wellness Centre’s sensory-friendly lounge on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Nanako Furuyama and Carole Holt — managers of peer support and outreach and overseers of CWS — spoke about the goals for this pillar, which centre largely around working with peer helpers.
“Over the summer, we streamlined the recruitment process and training modules for the [CWS] peer helpers, and [are also] currently developing resources for the rest of the SWAS peer helpers,” Furuyama said. “We also standardized the name of peer support services within the SWAS portfolio, so it’s easier for students to navigate the support available for them.”
Holt added that CWS will also be working with various campus partners with the new Mental Health and Well-being strategy that was launched. Additionally, CWS will examine the results of the campus well-being survey implemented back in March.
“There’s going to be some really helpful information in there that will help us better understand how U of C students are doing with their mental health and well-being, but also using that data to inform our decisions and how we reorganize some of these things […] would be very helpful information that we want to make sure we leverage,” said Holt.
A question was raised by Faculty of Science representative Gabriela Dziegielewska about the feasibility of implementing the updates and assuring the maintenance of quality of the services offered without a staff extension.
“What we found from the review is that we have the right resources at this time, it’s just that we’re not fully optimized,” Kim explained. “So, how we optimize our resources is what we need to focus on first. How do we enhance efficiencies using the current resources that’s going to be sensible for all the people [already] involved?”
A question was raised by Faculty of Arts representative Simchah Atanda about the elimination of biases towards underrepresented groups in terms of access to information when presenting the newly implemented updates to students. Morales answered that students have the opportunity to call the 211 informational helpline to inquire about any resources to facilitate access and mentioned that 211 is also currently working on centralization to ensure individuals are receiving all the right information. Kim added that the Student Wellness website will also play a major role in accessing information, as well as keeping in touch with the SU about any student concerns that may arise on this topic.
The second half of the meeting was centred around the vote for approval of Resolution 82.09 — the 2024-25 Annual Operating Plan. This resolution requires each SU executive to develop their executive goals in accordance with the SU Strategic Plan and approved annual budget. Executives then presented their goals to be voted on for approval by SLC.
VP External Mateusz Salmassi presented his goal to work on restoring the Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) — which supplied over 3,000 jobs for students — previously eliminated by the provincial government through lobbying practices.
VP Academic Jessie Dinh presented her goal to work with the Student Appeals office to mitigate student concerns regarding the U of C appeals process and policy issues and improve accessibility via changes to the appeals website.
VP Internal Naomie Bakana presented her goal to host an annual cultural day celebration — and potentially a cultural week — as a way to build a better campus community.
President Ermia Rezaei-Afsah’s goals centred around strengthening organization. Mainly, he hopes to consult with students on the matter of envisioning a future for MacEwan Hall and the SU businesses. According the U of C’s strategic plan Ahead of Tomorrow, the U of C plans to bring 10,000 new students by 2030. Rezaei-Afsah wishes to avoid having the SU overshadowed by the university’s businesses and services so that it can remain the central student centre on campus.
“The goal this year is to consult with students for what they want to see. And so ideally, that is to bring MacEwan Hall [and] MacEwan Student Centre into the decade with plenty more to offer for students than the 1980s building in the centre of campus,” Rezaei-Afsah stated.
The vote to approve this resolution was won by majority vote, with all SLC members voting in favour of passing the resolution.
For agendas, minutes and upcoming SLC meetings, visit the SU website.