How to foster a welcoming campus

Plus more television references and a higher education book recommendation

Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here. 

Like many a good Gen Xer, I am a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And while I can get into lengthy discussions about the more acclaimed episodes (Hush, Once More with Feeling, The Body – yes, I can actually name them), today I want to focus on a less celebrated one. 

In Out of Mind, Out of Sight, a student disappears. She literally turns invisible. She doesn’t mean to. She attempts to be part of the school community but no one notices her. It is as if she doesn’t exist.

And then one day in class, when a teacher ignores her raised hand, her hand just… disappears. She disappears. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that there are many invisible students, ignored to the point of vanishing.

I find this idea chilling.

The world can be a lonely and unwelcoming place without connections to others. And this matters for student success. As Peter Felton and Leo Lambert detail in Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College, it is important for students to feel connected to their peers, instructors, and campus community. 

I suspect that this need for connection is stronger than ever. After two years of pandemic pivots and educational upheaval, students crave a return to campus life. Some students are entering the second or third year of their programs with limited connection to their classmates, instructors, and campus. Important years of socialization and connection have been disrupted. 

As university faculty, instructors, staff, and leaders, we each have the opportunity to help make establishing campus connections easier for students. Here are some small ideas to do so.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Small Daily Acts of Connection

Creating a ‘welcoming campus’ seems like a big once-and-done task involving an orientation tent and free pizza. Establishing ‘relationship-rich education’ sounds suspiciously like something that requires more (often unavailable) resources, such as mentorship programs and new staff positions.

Felton and Lambert argue this is not the case. They write, “The answer rarely is a new program. Instead, the most important work is cultivating a relationship-rich campus culture, which is fostered by small daily acts by many people across the institution.”

“Small daily acts” are much less intimidating. “Many people across the institution” reminds us to consider our own agency to create a welcoming campus community, whatever our roles. None of this requires a committee, a budget, or even much time.

Here are some ideas to foster a welcoming campus culture that spring to mind for me:

Walking around campus: Make eye contact with people and smile. If you feel daring, say hello. If someone looks lost, ask them if you can help them find their location. 

In the coffee lineup: Put your phone away (gasp!), channel your extroverted mother, and say something to the person in front of you. Try “the campus is so beautiful at this time of year” or “it is great to see so many people on campus.” 

In the classroom: Arrive early and introduce yourself to individual students. Make an effort to learn five names per class session. Welcome students to your class and tell them you are glad they are there. Use active learning activities and encourage students to work with students they don’t know. Share information about department talks and other opportunities for engagement. Encourage students to join the program’s student association or club.

Online: Send students a welcoming email or course announcement. Here is an example to adapt if you like:

Dear SOC 111 students,

It was so great to meet you in our first class! I am looking forward to getting to know you over the term. I would like us to have a very welcoming classroom, so I encourage you to make an effort to introduce yourself to your classmates before classes start. I will also create opportunities in class for you to work with your peers to strengthen your learning of the course material.

I invite you to come and say hello during my office hours, which are Mondays and Fridays from 2-3 pm. My office is in Social Sciences 480. (The Social Sciences building is the squat, windowless bunker on the north end of campus that looks like it was designed by Soviet architects in the 1950s. The elevators are just past the Tim Hortons.) Office hours are drop-in and I am happy to chat with you about the class and our program. I look forward to seeing you there!

Have a great day!

Professor Keating

In your department or unit: Talk with your colleagues about how your department or unit can collectively create a welcoming, relationship-rich culture. Felton and Lambert write, “Individual relationships can be educationally powerful, but a network of overlapping relationships is more likely to meet a student’s evolving needs than any single mentor can. A web of student-student, student-faculty, and student-staff relationships creates a more resilient resource for a student to draw upon when the going gets tough - and offers institutions a more scaleable approach to reaching every student, because faculty and staff can contribute their distinct expertise to support students” (2020, 15). If you are a teaching and learning geek like me (note: this is a super-cool thing to be), get a group together to discuss Relationship-Rich Education. (Yes, I have done this. Yes, it was awesome.)

We all have an opportunity to foster a relationship-rich culture at our campuses. I believe our students and our colleagues deserve this environment, and I will be doing my own small part to promote this. I encourage you to do the same.

Chipping Away: What I Have Been Up To

A quick update on some of my own activities since my last newsletter, since I have your attention:

• My family has been watching Virgin River. Meddling neighbours, evil twins, mysterious shootings, hidden identities … oh, the drama! It is a lot of fun and the British Columbia scenery is stunning.

• I am reading Jennette McCurdy’s child star memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. I have no idea how this book got on my radar, as I don’t know the actress and I didn’t watch iCarly. But it is, um, quite the story. Yowsa.

• Saskatoon is currently enjoying a late summer heat wave, with temperatures in the low to mid-30s. (Fahrenheit translation: high 80s to mid-90s). While it is tempting to deny that summer is gone, the cool mornings are a strong reality check. Ah well.

Until next time…

It is not just students who stand to benefit from a welcoming environment. If you have new faculty or staff colleagues, please take a moment to let them know that you are glad they are part of your team. Pop by their office, send them a short email, and go out of your way to say hello. Let new team members know you see them and that their presence is valued.

And then do the same for your long-standing colleagues. They just might appreciate it.

Stay well, my colleagues. 

P.S. Returning to the Buffy episode, when I looked it up I was surprised to learn that the invisible student was played by Clea DuVall. DuVall has had a pretty decent career since then, and it makes me wonder who else might have made appearances on Buffy. A great excuse to rewatch the series! If you are also a Buffy fan, please let me know.

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Loleen Berdahl, Ph.D.: I am a twin mother, wife, runner, cat lover, and chocolate enthusiast. I spend far too much time on Twitter and binge-watching television, and my house could be a lot cleaner. During the work hours, I am the Executive Director of the  Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. I am the author of the University Affairs Skills Agenda column and my most recent books are Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD and Explorations: Conducting Empirical Research in Canadian Political Science. 

Full disclosure: some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links, which means that if you use the link and then make a purchase, I may make a very small commission that I will use to support my chocolate and book-buying habits. The cost is to the corporation and not to you, but you don’t want to use the link, no problem: just search up the item again without using the link provided. Better still: support a local business and source the item(s) that way!