Photo: Dr. Keshen President of the University of Regina / Photo by Danielle Dufour
By: Danielle Dufour
The University of Regina shared a new strategic plan on Wednesday, “Together We Serve,” that will guide the university’s vision over the next decade.
“The plan is built around one shared vision, anchored by five strategic priorities,” said Adynea Russell, the Chair of the Board of Governors at the University of Regina.
The University of Regina accepts students from over 100 countries around the world.
“These priorities reflect the core dimensions of our work as a university,” said Dr. Jeff Keshen the President of the University of Regina. “Learning, research and scholarship, community engagement, reconciliation, innovation and we recognize these areas are deeply interconnected.”
Dr. Keshen suggests the plan will enhance student experience, impact research programs, improve the university experience for faculty and staff and create conditions where the entire campus community can flourish.
“Together we put things right, by 2035 the University of Regina will be known for advancing truth and reconciliation as a sustained institution-wide commitment, embedded across learning, research, governance and campus life,” said Russell.
“Ignorance is a luxury we cannot afford anymore, and that’s something that we really put in our strategic plan,” said Cadmus Delorme the Chancellor of the University of Regina.
One of the five key values and guiding commitments in this plan is truth and reconciliation. “Which embeds ongoing responsibility to Indigenous peoples and nations across all aspects of the university, shaping how it teaches, research, governs and builds relationships grounded in respect and reciprocity,” said Russell.
Delorme, who is a graduate of the First Nations University of Canada, which is one of the University of Regina colleges, noted that the University of Regina’s role is reconciliation and the First Nations University of Canada’s role of indigenisation.
“We are now starting to go to faculties to departments saying how do you embed truth and reconciliation as it’s all of our responsibility today,” said Delorme.
Delorme acknowledged the last strategic plan was focused more on qualitative outcomes saying, “You know, we’re going to bring up the orange shirt, we’re going to teach about residential schools, but how do you transition to the quantitative, how do we teach policy, … engineering, nursing, that’s where this strategic plan is going to take it up a notch.”
The university is opening the doors to knowledge keepers, and the president, executive and chancellor will be going out to the communities to meet with First Nation chief’s and councils and the Metis nation.
“Sometimes as First Nation and Metis people, we got to feel like we got to fit in, these institutions now have to make it where we belong, that’s where it’s really important,” said Delorme. “We want to transition this university to where you truly belong, and you can come learn, both that Canadian perspective and the Indigenous perspective, because that’s how we’re going to coexist together.”
Photo: Cake design of the University of Regina, by Queen City Cakes / Photo By: Danielle Dufour
“This plan provides focus while also providing us with the flexibility to respond to new opportunities and emerging needs and strengthens the work that’s already being done across our campuses and it aligns our efforts,” said Dr. Keshen. “We’ll continue to build a university that serves our communities and always advances knowledge and prepares the next generation of leaders.”