Voicing | January–February 2027

Participate in facilitated listening sessions, offered in person and virtually, or contribute through the College-wide insights questionnaire.

These opportunities will invite you to reflect on what's working, what's getting in the way, what matters most, and what you hope for the College's future.

Participation information: Session dates, registration details, and questionnaire access will be shared as they become available.

Co-Design | Spring 2027

Take part in collaborative sessions where members of the College community will work with the findings from the listening phase to explore shared priorities, possibilities, and cultural aspirations.

You don't need experience in strategic planning to contribute. Bring your knowledge, questions, curiosity, and imagination.

Participation information: Dates and registration details to come.

Expressions of Interest

We're inviting students, faculty, and staff to express interest in joining a small Project Feedback Team.

This informal group will serve as a sounding board throughout the project, helping make the engagement process thoughtful, inclusive, accessible, and responsive to the College community.

Members will help identify perspectives we may be missing, anticipate potential barriers to participation, and provide practical feedback on engagement activities and communications.

We're seeking approximately 10–15 people from across disciplines, roles, career stages, and experiences. The commitment is light—approximately 4–6 hours in total, with most participation taking place asynchronously.

The team is not a formal governance or decision-making body, nor is it a substitute for broad College participation.

The College – and the University as a whole – is navigating significant financial and operational challenges, and work to strengthen its operations is already underway. This process creates an opportunity to develop a shared strategic direction and cultural aspirations that will help guide us through renewal and into the future.

Yes. The process takes place within the College's current financial and organizational realities. It is not intended to revisit every operational decision already underway. Rather, it creates space to shape the College's future direction, priorities, and ways of working within the realities and opportunities ahead.

The College's strategy and culture co-design process is distinct from, but connected to, the University's UPlan 2035 initiative.

As UPlan 2035 nears completion, colleges and schools will be asked to develop aligned plans in 2027. Our current engagement process is about something broader: understanding who we are, what we value, where we can have the greatest impact, and how we aspire to work together.

The strategy and culture framework we co-create will help prepare Arts and Science for the next phase of university-wide strategic planning, while also establishing a shared direction and cultural aspirations that serve the College's longer-term future.

Rather than beginning with a strategy developed by a small group and asking the community to respond, this process begins by listening across the College. What we learn will inform opportunities for collaborative design, feedback, and refinement.

The goal is not simply to produce a document, but to build shared understanding, direction, and a framework that can guide decisions and action.

All members of the College of Arts and Science community, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers, staff, alumni, community partners, and leaders, will have opportunities to contribute.

Not at all. Your experience of the College, your observations, questions, and aspirations are valuable contributions. You do not need to have solutions or fully formed ideas about the future.

Contributions from across the College will be analyzed to identify shared themes, tensions, strengths, and opportunities. These findings will inform the co-design process. We will report back on what we've heard and how that learning is informing the emerging strategy and culture framework.

Leadership interviews will be treated confidentially, and findings will be shared in synthesized, non-attributed form. An anonymous insights questionnaire will also be available. Information about privacy, confidentiality, and how contributions will be used will be provided for each engagement activity.

No. Co-design does not mean every suggestion will be adopted or every decision will be made by consensus. It means community insights will meaningfully inform the development of shared priorities and cultural aspirations, with opportunities for feedback and refinement.

The process will be informed by broad College engagement and facilitated by Tidal Equality. Final decisions and approvals will remain subject to the College's and University's established leadership and governance responsibilities.

There will be multiple opportunities to participate, including in-person and virtual sessions and an insights questionnaire. Updates and participation details will be shared on this page. You can join the process at any time, regardless of whether you participated in a previous step.

The Project Feedback Team is a small, informal group of community members who provide practical feedback on the design and delivery of the engagement process. It is not responsible for developing or approving the College's strategy and does not replace broader community participation.

Tidal Equality is a Canadian social innovation firm that works with organizations, particularly in higher education, to co-create inclusive strategies, strengthen organizational cultures, and build capacity for equitable decision-making and governance.

Tidal Equality will facilitate the engagement and co-design process, helping bring together diverse experiences, perspectives, and ideas. The strategy and culture framework will be developed with and for the College community.