Orillia Campus Outlook Framework

2020-2025 Orillia Campus Outlook Framework

The Orillia Campus Outlook 20202025 will work with the university’s strategic, academic, and research plans to lead academic and capital development on the Orillia campus over the next five years. This outlook is an expression of specific strategic directions coming out of extensive campus community consultations and gives voice to a uniquely Orillia approach to the goals and objectives specific to those identified in the overarching Strategic Plan 2018-2023.

Community consultation was at the heart of the process, with a goal to create a “uniquely Lakehead Orillia campus” approach for the implementation of the strategic themes within the university’s strategic plan. The process included data synthesis, including a review of inputs gathered from consultations and the online survey to ensure that there was alignment with strategies identified within each pillar of the university’s strategic plan.

Lakehead University is committed to a process of integrated planning that works to coordinate strategic, academic, and research priorities with needs around space, infrastructure, human and financial resources. Outlook 2020-2025 has been created with this framework in mind, and is informed by multi-year budgeting, decision making, and priority setting processes that will enable academic and capital development on the Orillia Campus.

Comments and ideas collected from the community consultation process were organized into three main strata, which include:

General faculty-based comments: This included many comments and suggestions that were considered potential “quick wins” coming out of the consultation sessions, and were then forwarded to the academic dean for consideration.

Intersections with the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic): Approximately 80 percent of the comments and suggestions feedback received from the consultation sessions were forwarded to the Office of the Provost for review and interpolation into the action items for the institutional academic plan.

Office of the Principal initiatives: This segment of data was transformed into action items that directly connect to the mandate of the Office of the Principal and the work of the Principal’s Team Working Group. Outlook 20202025 is based on this capture.

Strategic Plan 2018-2023 Academic Plan 2019-2024

Lakehead Orillia Campus Outlook

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

LOCAL AND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGY: Academic Excellence

The Orillia Campus will continue to enhance the student experience and cultivate a strong learning culture on campus. In support of this strategy, we are committed to the expansion of academic programming and correspondent learning and social spaces, and to student access to resources that affect all areas of health and wellbeing.

THE PRINCIPAL’S INITIATIVES

• Develop and implement a plan to address space concerns to support student study and learning needs;

• Provide resources to inspire cross-disciplinary student entrepreneurship, community-based and experiential education, and international learning, including study abroad opportunities;

• Work with the Office of the Provost to increase community service-learning and engaged research opportunities in academic programs;

• Work with the Office of the Provost and Dean of

Graduate Studies to support expanded graduate programming;

• In collaboration with the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, advance a culture of research excellence at Lakehead Orillia;

• Support development of an enhanced profile of Lakehead University’s research activity and expertise within Simcoe County;

• Support initiatives to increase research funding at

Lakehead Orillia; and

• Champion the creation of an athletics, recreation and fitness facility on the Orillia campus in support of student health and wellbeing inside and outside of the classroom.

STRATEGY: Social Responsibility

Lakehead Orillia is in Simcoe County, one of the areas in the province with the lowest degree attainment rates. In 2019, 18.3 per cent of the population of Simcoe County had a university degree, compared with 54 per cent from the City of Toronto, and 32 per cent from the Province of Ontario. Increased degree attainment is required to fuel the economy of Central Ontario and ensure the population can fully participate in Ontario’s future economy. The Orillia campus will work to implement a social justice framework through academic programming accessible to under-represented communities of learners. We are committed to developing strategies that improve student access and outcomes through bridging programs in collaboration with our college partner, and to implementing sustainability initiatives.

THE PRINCIPAL’S INITIATIVES

• Support Lakehead University’s implementation of a social responsibility evaluation framework on the Orillia campus;

• Champion the creation of an Indigenous Resource Centre;

• Work with the Office of the Provost to increase enrolment of underrepresented student groups in undergraduate and graduate programs, including Indigenous students, first generations students, and students from Simcoe County;

• Champion the implementation of the Equity, Diversity, and

Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan;

• Support the creation of summer bridging programs, pathways and other resources to enable student mobility;

• Expand pathway opportunities and integrated program offerings within the Lakehead-Georgian Partnership; and,

• Champion the implementation of the University Sustainability Action Plan at Lakehead Orillia.