By acting
thoughtfully, and jointly, the College of Arts and Science will renew,
strengthen, and advance arts and science disciplines, programs, and research,
scholarly, and artistic work, and collaborate, thereby setting strategic directions
for the university as a whole.
Creativity is empowering and in the College of Arts and Science, creativity is in all that
we do. It is encouraged, accepted, championed, and rewarded.
We will
create and strengthen partnerships inside and outside the college and
university, create diverse teams and nurture critical skills, set platforms for
identifying local and global issues and solve complex problems.
With an enthusiastic and energetic
approach to change, the College of Arts and Science will create innovative
plans in anticipation of future issues, including infrastructure, funding, programs,
research, scholarly and artistic work, enrolment (vision in what we do, and how we
do it).
Our students will know that they belong, that this college is truly
theirs, and that opportunities are unlimited.
Internships offer a sort of safe space for you to put your learning
into practice. They are a soft-launch into the working world where you can test your
skills and put what you learn in class— often abstract concepts applied to
theoretical situations— to good use, without the added pressure of doing it for
money. Experiential learning is the best way to prove, even just to yourself, that
you know what you’re doing and that there is so much potential for turning your
degree into a career.
College-Specific Commitments
With an enthusiastic and energetic approach to change, the College of Arts and
Science will create innovative plans in anticipation of future issues, including
infrastructure, funding, programs, RSAW, enrolment (vision in what we do, and how we
do it). Our students will know that they belong, that this college is truly theirs,
and that opportunities are unlimited. Our college family is comprised of many valued
strands of communities. We are enriched when we embrace all points of view, cultural
diversity, and backgrounds: this is especially appropriate for a college as diverse
as Arts and Science.
Build an Arts and Science ‘Student First’ center to give students direct and
immediate access to the co-located services they need, and a gathering space
for collaborations, pop-up performances, readings and conversation;
Target recruitment to increase student enrolment in programs with capacity,
and create capacity in programs with high demand;
Increase retention of students between first- and second-year, with special
attention to Arts and Science Indigenous student populations, and
individuals who are among the first generation in their families to attend
university;
Improve the student experience, build student community, and formally
recognize non-credit learning opportunities with co-curricular record;
Promote and facilitate internationalization through study abroad, student
exchange, and international student recruitment initiatives.
Guidepost:
Increase in student satisfaction, reflected in
qualitative and quantitative ways
Growth of enrolment and retention rates
More inbound and outbound students participating in
varied international activities
Collect feedback about graduated students and make
connection to employers
USask graduate Brody Burns (BA'21), an emerging Treaty Six Plains Cree artist, is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree after completing a psychology degree in the College of Arts and Science
Includes Video Seven students joined the first official voyage of the boat in September to learn practical skills in the field of limnology—the study of inland waters
Build and retain an outstanding faculty and staff complement:
Increase college’s percentage of and support to Indigenous faculty, and
Indigenous role models in all fields;
Increase percentage of women promoted in a timely manner to full
professor in all departments;
Increase percentage of women in college leadership positions and
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields;
Ensure plurality of voices in experiences, diversity of community, interests
and issues related to gender and sexuality;
Ensure commitment to diversity is long-term, sustainable, authentic, and
self-perpetuating.
Guidepost:
Contribute to the university’s commitment to
recognized Indigenous leadership at all levels of the academy, administration,
and governance
Indigenous faculty are thriving in terms of merit,
tenure and promotion
Address in real and tangible ways the
underrepresentation of women scholars at senior ranks
Enhance our position as an institutional leader of
diversity, equity and inclusion
Dr. Allyson Stevenson (PhD), Gabriel Dumont Research Chair in Métis Studies, said Indigenous historians play a relevant role in the reckoning currently happening across Canada
Deepen the culture of RSAW engagement and activity by providing a suite of
supports, services and strategies tailored to faculty and students;
Appreciate the rich diversity of RSAW approaches, resources, timescales,
outcomes and impacts across all disciplines in our college: humanities, fine
arts, social sciences, science and technology;
Incubate cross-disciplinary clusters from existing and emerging RSAW
strengths;
Partner with community and institutional initiatives to support all aspects
of Indigenizing RSAW;
Build capacity and continue to advance community-engaged RSAW across the
college;
Celebrate and champion the impact and achievements of our artists, scholars,
and researchers, acknowledging that those impacts and outcomes vary greatly
within the rich diversity of our RSAW activities.
Guidepost:
Empower and support our researchers, scholars and
artists at all ranks to engage in RSAW activity, and to promote the value of
their work
Become a partner of choice for national and
international collaborators
Increase number of competitive applications and the
success rates in all competitions, including Tri-Agency and other sources of
funding
The funding—Insight Development Grants awarded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)—is intended to support research in its initial stages for up to two years
Equip our students with the skills, knowledge, and cultural competencies
needed for the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century;
Implement new degree requirements for all our students: English Language
Writing, Quantitative Reasoning, Indigenous Learning;
Encourage and support faculty to offer courses and programs that cross
traditional departmental and disciplinary lines;
Encourage and support faculty to offer courses and programs that extend
off campus and into local and regional communities;
Encourage and support students to take courses for credit in select
locales around the world;
Develop a School of Architecture and Visual Arts with vibrant
interdisciplinary curricula that embrace, reinforce, and amplify
Saskatoon’s standing as a city of economic and artistic ambition.
Guidepost:
Students attain skills for forming conclusions,
judgements, or inferences from quantitative information; have a
writing-intensive experience to achieve competency in writing; learn the
context of the contemporary and historical position of Indigenous people,
and in so doing also understand the need to challenge and transform core
elements of settler colonialism
Faculty offer courses and programs that
attract, and meet the needs of, a changing student population that is more
diverse and mobile than ever before
Sheldon Miller is completing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Steven Rayan (PhD) and is working with Rayan at the Centre for Quantum Topology and its Applications (quanTA)
The new BMSC program was made possible through a first-of-its-kind partnership at USask between the College of Arts and Science and the College of Medicine
In partnership with Nuit Blanche Saskatoon, USask will host a Nuit Blanche Eve event from 4 pm – 7 pm on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021
Alignment to the University Plan
OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK:
“THE WEAVE”
The College will align its strategic commitments and related goals and objectives to
the university’s ambition to be the university the world needs:
Transformative Decolonization Leading to Reconciliation. The
world needs a university in which Indigenous concepts, methodologies,
pedagogies, languages, and philosophies are respectfully woven into the tapestry
of learning, research, scholarship, creativity, and community engagement.
Productive Collaboration. The world needs a university in which
research and innovation are inspired by and accountable to community partners.
Meaningful Impact. The world needs a university resolutely
committed to measuring its own success in terms of the aspirations of the
communities it serves.
Distinguished Learners. The world needs a university whose
graduates have the drive, the curiosity, and the humility to work with others in
addressing the greatest challenges and opportunities the world faces.
Global Recognition. The world needs a university that sets the
standard in learning, research, scholarship, creativity, and community
engagement.
By 2025, the job market and technology will have changed, and the College of Arts and
Science, through our students, staff and faculty, will ‘create the times’. A
sustained breadth of knowledge-creation allows us to capitalize on existing and
unpredictable questions and challenges of the future.
We will reach out more broadly across the college and see that the synergy of
knowledge is bigger than the convergence of 21 major disciplines. We will use
current and new frameworks for problem solving.
We need to work closely with the institution on risk mitigation for our top risks:
academic program capacity and equipment age; financial reserves; cyber security;
competitive, funded and in-compliance RSAW; communications; technological
innovation; management structures; health and safety; post-secondary education
competition; availability of information about critical operations and processes.
The college is an ecosystem, with students and researchers, scholars, and artists
working across boundaries. The students who see boundaries as porous at the
University are Arts and Science students. We are a college in tune with today’s
problem-centric needs: our diversity is at the heart of why our college is such an
asset to the province and beyond.
School
of Architecture and Visual Arts: Participate with
central administration on co-creating a strategy for program rollout that is
cost-sustainable in terms of phased-in faculty complement, start-up costs,
and operating costs, and that attracts new student enrolments to the
college.
“Galleries
Reimagined”: Place Indigenous representation and
engagement as cornerstones of the reimagined approach to visual arts on
campus. Include Indigenous peoples in the hub’s activities, targeting growth
of the university’s collection of works by Indigenous artists, and
prioritizing partnerships with Indigenous arts organizations and artists
under the new academic programming structure.
Museum
of Natural Sciences Revitalization: Update and
redevelop to enhance its standing as a signature feature of this campus: a
hub of scientific research, teaching, and outreach; a prime destination for
families, school groups, and visitors to the city; and a vital link between
the campus and the community. Build on our success in captivating and
inspiring visitors, so that it serves as an inclusive space that respects
the land we are on and the Indigenous peoples and cultures here.
Science Meets Art, and the Public: “Smart-P” is a project
through which university can provide a physical space to engage, excite, and
inspire the public in the university’s creative scholarly activities.
Interdisciplinary research and problem solving activities need to be
supported in the university’s ecosystem to realize our community’s
innovative potential. Curiosity-based scholarly inquiry, with community
engagement and knowledge translation are top drivers in conceptualizing this
new space.
Sustain,
coordinate, expand environmental programming: Dovetail with
schools and colleges and departments, and coordinate our environmental
initiatives with the Global Institute for Water Security, Global Water Futures,
Global Institute for Food Security, Plant Phenotyping and Imaging and Research
Center.
Expand and re-envision Northern programming strategy. Build on
current and past successes and use Prince Albert and La Ronge as jumping-off
points for programs, faculty, and facilities in the north. Pursue creative
course delivery options with our partners in regional
colleges and communities. Enhance land- and community-based programming.
Support a revisioning of the Emma Lake Kenderdine Campus.
Increase
internships and experiential learning: increase
opportunities for students and engage more students in those opportunities; hire
outward-looking new faculty and continue to align our degrees and programs to
best equip our students for the challenges and opportunities of the future.
Connect more meaningfully with our college alumni and the new generation of
donor investors who seek long-term sustainable impact. Enable and enhance a
culture of philanthropy founded on relationships built to last
and evolve over a lifetime. Support lifelong
learning, and in doing so involve seniors and retirees in
college life.
The College will align its strategic commitments and related goals and objectives
to the university’s aspirations:
Transformative Decolonization Leading to
Reconciliation. The world needs a university in which
Indigenous concepts, methodologies, pedagogies, languages, and
philosophies are respectfully woven into the tapestry of learning,
research, scholarship, creativity, and community engagement.
Productive Collaboration. The world needs a
university in which research and innovation are inspired by and
accountable to community partners.
Meaningful Impact. The world needs a university
resolutely committed to measuring its own success in terms of the
aspirations of the communities it serves.
Distinguished Learners. The world needs a
university whose graduates have the drive, the curiosity, and the
humility to work with others in addressing the greatest challenges
and opportunities the world faces.
Global Recognition. The world needs a university
that sets the standard in learning, research, scholarship,
creativity, and community engagement.
By 2025, the job market and technology will have changed, and the College of
Arts and Science, through our students, staff and faculty, will ‘create the
times’. A sustained breadth of knowledge-creation allows us to capitalize on
existing and unpredictable questions and challenges of the future.
We will reach out more broadly across the college and see that the
convergence of knowledge is bigger than the convergence of 21 major
disciplines. We will use current and new frameworks for problem solving.
We need to work closely with the institution on risk mitigation for our top
risks: academic program capacity and equipment age; financial reserves;
cyber security; competitive, funded and in-compliance RSAW; communications;
technological innovation; management structures; health and safety;
post-secondary education competition; availability of information about
critical operations and processes.
The college is an ecosystem, with students and researchers, scholars, and
artists working across boundaries. The students who see boundaries as porous
at the University are Arts and Science students. We are a college in tune
with today’s problem-centric needs: our diversity is at the heart of why our
college is such an asset to the province and beyond.
Sheldon Miller is completing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Steven Rayan (PhD) and is working with Rayan at the Centre for Quantum Topology and its Applications (quanTA)
