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Preamble:
Capilano University has a long tradition of developing sustainable, student-centric, innovative,
community-based programs. This has served us well in the past, and can serve as a platform for future
academic activities. This “little clearing in the forest” has played a variety of roles in the past, and while
we may need to focus on fewer programmatic options for our student in the future – to find our “niche”
in the market as the saying goes -- we need to find a way to knit the strengths of the past into the fabric
of the future.
Eight elements proposed for inclusion in CapU’s Academic Plan (and their
rationale):
In the future, Capilano must distinguish itself in the constellation of universities if it is to flourish. To
that end, we should focus on the following:
1. Maintaining small – perhaps smaller – intimate classroom settings with a focus on face-to-face
learning. First of all, we should not be dazzled by MOOCs. They are red herrings. Research
Universities offering large, impersonal classroom settings should keep a wary eye on MOOCs.
But not Cap. MOOCs cannot replicate the experience of small classes and the successes that
stem from that experience. We need only look to Alexander Astin’s 30-year plus longitudinal
studies to understand that the key indicator of student success in life is not the “name” of the
university, or GPA. After factoring out variables like sex, race, and class, the key indicators for
predicting student success are: 1) student participation in extracurricular activities, especially
leadership positions, and in particular, service learning; and 2) what he calls a “substantial
impact” while attending the university. A substantial impact can come from a number of
sources: direct interaction with faculty in a classroom; being a guest for a seminar or class at a
professor’s home; assisting a faculty member in teaching a class. Astin concludes that such an
impact has significant effects on academic outcomes, “including GPA, completion of degrees,
enrolling in graduate or professional schools, as well as personal growth in leadership and other
interpersonal skills (responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity) so much
in demand from business and industry these days.” (See, well, any of Astin’s sources actually; he
is rated the most referenced researcher in higher education:
http://studentdevelopmenttheory.weebly.com/astin.html )
2. Emphasize experiential learning – also called High Impact Practices in Higher Ed circles – and
in particular, Community Service Learning (CSL): The research 1 shows that when students are
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There is a growing body of literature in the field of CSL in post-secondary pedagogy which documents the benefits of CSL during
undergraduate studies (Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee, 2000; Singleton, 2007; Eyler, Giles, Stenson, & Gray, 2001; Eyler & Giles, 1999).
Studies indicate that “students evaluating their service-learning courses are more likely than students evaluating other courses to report
that the courses promoted interpersonal, community and academic engagement, were academically challenging, and encouraged their
continued study at the University.” (Gallini & Moely, 2003). Furthermore, there appears to be a correlation between CSL and increased
personal awareness, increased social awareness, and improved student learning outcomes that are all rooted in learning conditions that
ultimately engage and retain students in post-secondary institutions (Prentice & Robinson, 2010).
http://www1.carleton.ca/edc/ccms/wp-content/ccms-files/The-Influence-of-Community-Service-Learning-on-Student-Engagement.pdf
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offered the opportunities to apply lessons learned in the classroom to the real world, they are
transformed. Many universities are actively building High Impact practices into their curriculum
for that reason. Cal State Fullerton, for example, has set as its goal that every graduate will have
completed two High Impact activities before graduating.
These High Impact Practices can include:
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study abroad opportunities
internships
undergraduate research
and other outside-the-classroom, innovative instructional experiences such as
Capstones, and student-centred, community-based Research, and the like.
By far the most effective high impact practice for fostering transformative educational
experiences for students is the use of Community Service Learning 2 experiences. CSL has been
used for over two decades in the US. But it is a relatively new phenomenon in Canada.
Capilano’s Global Stewardship program was an early adopter in service learning in Canada; the
program was present at the founding of The Canadian Alliance for Community Service-Learning
(CACSL) in 2004. Capilano should continue to build on the experience of Global Stew in using
CSL for over 10 years.
The research shows that CSL more than any other form of engaged learning (internships,
volunteering, etc) leads to the following educational outcomes, all of which line up with Cap’s
Mission and Vision Statements (see http://www1.carleton.ca/edc/ccms/wp-content/ccmsfiles/The-Influence-of-Community-Service-Learning-on-Student-Engagement.pdf for further
discussion of these issues from which the following is taken):
a) Increased Personal Awareness: The literature indicates that service learning has: a positive
effect on students’ personal and interpersonal development, including a sense of personal
identity, spiritual growth, moral development, the ability to work well with others, and
leadership and communication skills (Eyler, Giles, Stenson, & Gray, 2001); student
empowerment coupled with the recognition that their knowledge in a subject area can
benefit the community at large and that they themselves can benefit society (O’Hara, 2001);
a sense of efficacy (Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee, 2000; Conway, Amel, & Gerwien,
2009; Eyler, Giles, & Schmeide, 1996) and a sense of accomplishment (Astin, Vogelgesang,
Ikeda, & Yee, 2000).
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Community service learning (CSL) is a unique form of experiential learning – different from volunteerism, co-op placements, internships,
etc. The underlying difference between CSL opportunities and other experiential approaches to learning is that CSL opportunities benefit
both the student and the recipient of the service while ensuring that the outcomes are equally shared by both parties involved; a service
is provided while at the same time learning is occurring (Furco, 1996). Furthermore, CSL programs, unlike volunteer programs, must have
some type of academic context and to be effective, “members of both educational institutions and community organizations work
together toward outcomes that are mutually beneficial” (CACSL, 2010). The community organizations tend to be the under-sourced nonprofit/NGO sector, but not exclusively so, with some CSL taking place in partnership with public institutions and the private sector. The
key to CSL is that the learning experiences are well-connected with the course material in a way that the engagement with the course
material aids in more successful and effective comprehension of the content matter being taught (O’Hara, 2001).
http://www1.carleton.ca/edc/ccms/wp-content/ccms-files/The-Influence-of-Community-Service-Learning-on-Student-Engagement.pdf
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b) Increased Social Awareness : CSL increases students’ awareness of their community and its
needs, helps change stereotypical beliefs, reduces ethnocentrism, and increases
understanding of social and cultural diversity (Eyler & Giles, 1999; Matthews, 1999; Borden,
2007; Denby, 2008; Duffy et al., 2008); increases awareness of the world and of their
personal values (Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee (2000); and fosters global citizenship
(Eyler, Giles, & Schmeide 1996) by connect students with each other, with faculty members,
and with their communities, leading to greater interest in social and community problems.
c) Increased Student Learning Outcomes CSL helps students retain more information learned
in class, achieve higher course grades, and have greater satisfaction with the course (Astin &
Sax, 1998; Vogelgesang & Astin, 2000; Gray et al., 1998; Markus, Howard, & King, 1993;
Strage, 2001); improves problem-solving, critical-thinking, and rhetorical skills (Matthews,
1999); a greater confidence in their communication skills (O’Hara’s 2001); a better
understanding of the “real world” linking the application of the knowledge and skills they
have learned in their university courses to their future careers (Eyler, Giles, Stenson, & Gray,
2001); and greater course satisfaction, better study habits and significant higher scores on
scales measuring community engagement, academic engagement, interpersonal
engagement, academic challenge, and retention than non-service learners (Gallini and
Moely’s 2003). Another study found that students who partook in the service-learning
project options instead of an interview project and a research paper scored significantly
higher than those who completed the non-CSL choices on all but their first exam and they
demonstrated a significant increase in emotional empathy as measured by the Emotional
Empathetic Tendency Scale (Lundy, 2007).
Furthermore, from a marketing perspective, greater student engagement through CSL leads to
greater Student Retention (Astin & Sax, 1998; Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee, 2000; O’Hara,
2001; Duffy et al., 2008; Prentice & Robinson, 2010). A recent study of engineer students
concluded that engineering students who completed a CSL were more motivated and concerned
about helping others as a result of partaking in service-learning projects (Duffy et al., 2008).
And a study by Matusovich, Follman & Oakes (2006) showed that more women were attracted
to science and engineering if programs offered learning situations in which there were personal
interactions, hands-on learning with real applications and authentic contexts. A review of the
literature illustrates numerous accounts from faculty members stating that when they
incorporated service-learning components into their classes, the students were more motivated
and responsible for their learning, more engaged in the readings and more participative in class
lectures; students who had failed or dropped their courses in the past excelled in this type of
learning environment, and many students who may not have otherwise done so, went on to
pursue master’s degrees in similar fields (Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee, 2000; Prentice &
Robinson, 2010).
Thus Capilano should steer resources towards developing many types of High Impact methods
of instruction across the faculty; but in particular, Cap should leverage the experience of Global
Stewardship and focus on offering CSL opportunities to students across the university.
Cap should also create a virtual and/or physical environment where students and faculty from
across the curriculum involved in CSL and other forms of experiential learning, social
entrepreneurship and community based research (as well as across curriculums as noted in
Point 6 below) can meet formally and informally to share experiences and findings as a method
of further fostering a learning community of change agents.
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3. Focus on the whole student, not just the brain: Oregon State University researcher Brad
Cardinal examined data from 354 randomly selected four-year universities and colleges going
back to 1920. His conclusion:
“We see more and more evidence about the benefit of physical activity, not just to our
bodies, but to our minds, yet educational institutions are not embracing their own research.
It is alarming to see four-year institutions following the path that K-12 schools have already
gone down, eliminating exercise as part of the curriculum even as obesity rates climb.”
Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
CapU is uniquely blessed with our location, sitting on the edge of wilderness that stretches to
the north pole and beyond. The university should take advantage of this unique attribute, both
in terms of course work/programs with labs set in this remarkable resource, and leveraging
programs in both Kinesiology and Outdoor Recreation present at the University. These areas
could be used to offer all students at Cap the unique opportunity to share in the experiences
found in our own backyard, perhaps as part of their orientation, a leadership program, or a
shared first-year experience. A recent study ( http://wilderness.org/blog/study-shows-timeoutdoors-away-technology-can-boost-creativity )showed that being in the outdoors makes you
smarter and more creative. In the study, David Strayer studied 56 participants went on hiking
trips in the wildernesses of Colorado, Maine, Washington and Alaska for four to six days before
taking creativity tests. The tests showed significant improvement in creative thinking. The
results: According to the study's authors, immersion in nature can restore certain brain
functions that are taxed by technology, including:
• attention span
• problem solving
• multi-tasking
4. Give every Cap Student a common experience that brands them as a “Capper”: Many liberal
arts colleges in the States have used an extensive core curriculum as a means to “brand”
graduates from those institutions with a common experience. For example, Gonzaga, in
Spokane Washington, requires all students (business, engineering, theatre, or the arts) live on
campus the first year, and take a certain number of courses from across the curriculum
(including 12 credits of philosophy.) Despite reducing the number of courses in Engineering to
make room for these “liberal arts” courses, Gonzaga consistently ranks in the top 4 universities
in the western US, and ranks number 2 for average freshman retention rate (tie) and graduation
rate, while its School of Engineering and Applied Science is the No. 22 best undergraduate
engineering program nationwide. Cap should use a similar model to improve our learning
outcomes, as well as for marketing purspose and building stronger alumni support.
This value of this type of experience can be found in the words written for the Ivey School of
Business alumni awards:
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“In the crucible of the Ivey experience, students form an abiding connection to the
School and its staff and faculty, and above all, to one another. Ivey alumni are bound
together by common experiences, deeply shared values, and a sense of pride in the
School’s legacy. This connection forms a powerful network, more than 20,000 strong,
that reaches across Canada and around the world. Consistently acknowledged as one of
the most valuable aspects of an Ivey education, the alumni network provides both
practical benefits and a sense of belonging. http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/alumni/docs/SOS.pdf
Cap has already created this sense of belonging in a number of programs, such as the business
school to some degree, the Global Stewardship, and the now (sadly) departed McRae School
(the alumni network of which needs to be fostered soon or we’ll loose it.) But these tend to be
in cohorts, which we want to move away from if we are to use scarce class resources more
efficiently in the future. Rather than just disperse this sense of belonging between a variety of
areas of the university (which will continue of course), we should also design a number of
common experiences at CapU which foster an institution-wide sense of identity. This would
follow in the footsteps of universities like Clarkson
http://www.clarkson.edu/common_experience/ and their’ “common experience.” Such a group
of common experiences could fall within both the student life and academic areas and might
include:
• Core courses for all graduates (potentially linked to the Northwest Consortium’s critique
of our lack of general studies and/or competency in understanding environmental
issues); 3
• Requirements for a minimum number of CSL and other high impact activities (as
discussed above) before graduating;
• Required outdoor experiences either as part of course, or as part of our orientation
program and/or leadership programs (as discussed above) before graduating;
• A weekend retreat program for all students, perhaps focusing on leadership or career
planning;
• A “Thought and Expression” block requiring that all freshman take three courses as a
block in either of their first year semesters: a) logic, b) written comp, and c) speech.
5. Playing to our strength across the curriculum: Another unwanted remnant of CapU’s history of
cohorts and silo-building is the lack of rationalization in our teaching of courses. One need only
scratch the surface of some programs to see that courses taught by faculty in one area would
best be taught by faculty with their post graduate degree in that area. (It would make as much
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If I may make a discipline-based observation for a moment: having as an part of our mission statement that students will be
global citizens, and then not measure as an outcome their knowledge of how their own political system works, and its history, is
questionable at best. Merry Merryfield (1997) notes that global citizenship requires an understanding of the self in relation to
a global community requiring a curriculum that attends to human values and beliefs, global systems, issues, history, cross
cultural understandings, and the development of analytical and evaluative skills. Sears (1996) stresses that global citizens are
“expected, and enabled, to participate in the affairs of the state,” and the “good citizen” is one who is “knowledgeable about
mainstream versions of national history as well as the technical details of how public institutions function...the highest duty of
citizenship in this view is to become as informed as possible about public issues and, based on this information, to vote for
appropriate representatives at election time”. This requires three elements: Informed citizenship (informed citizen should be
able to demonstrate an understanding of the reasons for and dimensions of democracy within personal, community, national,
and global contexts; Purposeful citizenship (A personal sense of civic identity, moral purpose, and legal responsibility); and
Active citizenship. Civic literacy skills include inquiry strategies, critical and creative thinking, decision making, resolving
conflicts, and collaborating. (For further discussion of these comments see
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/cidec/UserFiles/File/Research/Global_Citizenship_Education/intro.pdf )
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sense, for example, to have a philosophy professor teach a course in Marketing as it would for a
Marketing professor to teach a course in Ethics.) Capilano should make it a policy that we will
review courses offered in each area and rationalize the teaching of those courses. In the
example above, students in business could still be required to take a course in Business Ethics.
But that course would be taken in the Philosophy department. This would have a two-fold
positive effect. First, students would have a broader Cap experience, taking courses with
students and faculty from across the university; and in this case, the business school would free
up a course to create another course in its area of expertise, if it so wished. (Please note this is
just one example of this irrational use of resources, stemming from past practices; many others
could be cited.)
6. Leverage the CapU’s expertise to foster social entrepreneurs to strengthen the social economy
of our local and global communities: In 2013, the provincial government of British Columbia
created the first ministry dedicated to Social Innovation in Canada. The purpose of this move
was to find ways to build partnerships between three sectors – the public sector and the private
sector and the social sector – to achieve measureable outcomes in the area of social change.
(To view the reasons for the creation of this ministry from the government’s perspective, please
see http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/ministries/social-development-socialinnovation/factsheets/factsheet-social-innovation-in-british-columbia.html ) But for those
partnerships to work effectively and achieve such change, each of the sectors must be
strengthened in their own particular method of pursuing social solutions from their area of
strength, all the while keeping an eye to the potential partnerships to augment the impact of
their work. CapU could play a significant role in achieving these goals.
CapU’s School of Business already improves the skills of students entering the private sector
and can helps build the capacity to link between sectors by augmenting courses in Corporate
Social Responsibility. CapU’s Local Government Administration program hones the skills of
those planning to working in the public sector, and can foster partnerships between sectors by
encouraging collaborative approaches in their graduates to effectively work with the other two
sectors to address social, economic, and environmental issues faced by municipal governments. 4
But CapU is also uniquely positioned to play a leading role among educational institutions in BC
to further develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes of students hoping to enter the social
sector in the province and beyond. We can do so by building on the lessons learned teaching
about the social sector in the Global Stewardship program, the Tourism program, the Arts and
Sciences Faculty, and (to some considerable extent) the documentary film program. To do so,
we must build on the strength internal to this sector, and encourage a collaborative approach
for partnering with other sectors when appropriate. Both would be done through the Applied
Global Studies program presently under development which received an AIP from the Senate
last year.
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Again, if I may, another discipline based observation: CapU has the opportunity to create a unique public sector education program, namely a
BA and/or post baccalaureate certificate in Global Public Policy. Many universities offer Public Policy BAs and MAs, but these focus on
domestic politics, either at the provincial or federal level. Today, despite any form of global government, global governance does go on, and in
particular through the creation of Global Public Policy by non-democratic institutions like the World Bank, WTO, IMF, and the UN. A program
preparing students to see themselves as the creators of public policy in this arena, or to better understand the impact of this “Global Public
Policy” on the development of domestic public policy, would be a unique and worthy program for Arts and Sciences to develop for CapU, to
position us as a destination university.
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The nexus between the three sectors, and where partnering for real social change can occur,
then lies not in the sectors themselves, but in a spectrum of approaches to “doing good” found
in each sector. We should not muddy the areas of expertise of each of these approaches; to do
so would decrease the effectiveness of partnerships which are by definition built on the
respective strengths of each sector. These approaches would include those most closely tied to:
a) the business sector (learning about Corporate Social Responsibility, fundraising for
organizations like the United Way or Ronald McDonald house, volunteering through business
associations like Rotary, etc); b) the government sector (creating ministries to address social
issues, allocating resources to support the work of international NGOs, creating public policy to
enhance the impact of the social sector, etc); and the social sector (employing communitybased participatory research for social change in the classroom, training for social
entrepreneurship to create social capital in the social economy, organizing social movements
like One and Idle No More, etc.)
One key element to building capacity in the social sector is in the training of social
entrepreneurs. This term has been twisted and watered down until it no longer has the
meaning it once had -- and needs to have for us to succeed in successfully address the myriad
social challenges we face. According to the Ashoka Foundation (established by Bill Drayton, one
of the first individuals to ever use the term social entrepreneur), “rather than leaving societal
needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find out what is not working
and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire
societies to take new leaps…..They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the
practical implementation of their vision above all else. “ Or, in the words of the Canadian Social
Entrepreneur Foundation (http://www.csef.ca/what_is_a_social_entrepreneur.php ),
“[w]hereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a
social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social
entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals….[S]ocial entrepreneurs are most
commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors, [but] this need not
necessarily be incompatible with making a profit.”
CapU is in the enviable position of starting a social entrepreneurial education program in the
proper setting – that is within the social sector – rather than what has happened at some other
universities: cramming it into a business school curriculum with the mistaken belief that all one
need to do is teach a business student to have a social perspective, rather than take those
coming to Cap from a social justice perspective/background, augment their critical
understandings of that approach to social change, and add “management skills” when necessary
to help them achieve their goal of accumulating social capital in their communities. If we are
successful in developing a first-class educational experience for those students hoping to pursue
various careers in the social sector (including social entrepreneurs), CapU will not only succeed
in building capacity in this sector; it can also build a mindset in its graduates from the 3 sectors
that they can and should partner to achieve social goals when appropriate. This could again be
fostered by creating a virtual and/or physical space for students to talk across the curriculum.
7. Don’t Ignore the Post-Graduate Diploma option: Both the APMCP and LAMP in the McRae
School were ahead of their time, offering in their cases a two year mix of context (art, history,
politics, geography, language) and management courses. According to the Asia Pacific
Foundation, there is now a strong desire for both Canadian and international students who have
completed a BA to continue with a credential program short of a full MA or MBA. Capilano
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should continue to pursue the post-Graduate diploma offer, preferably with a laddering
agreement into a Masters or MBA.
8. A “Blue Sky” idea: An interesting trend is occurring, both at the level of city and state
governance: Aristotle’s focus on happiness and its place in the polis is now becoming a reality in
the development of policy around the world. The Kingdom of Bhutan has adopted gross
national happiness as a measure of progress rather than gross national product. In their wake,
the governments of Bogota, Seattle, France, Thailand and Great Britain have all announced they
will now measure the happiness of their citizens when evaluating the effectiveness of their
policies. Considering that in 2007 six to eight times as many college students experienced
depression as they did in 1938, climbing higher on what mental health researchers call the
paranoia, hysteria, hypochondriasis and depression scales (see Charles Montgomery [2013],
Happy City, p. 11), perhaps CapU could take a leadership role in having as our main outcome
happiness of our students. A motto like “Canada’s Happiest University”TM may sound Mickey
Mouse, but there may be some value in measuring our success in terms of the
happiness/wellbeing of our students. What’s interesting is they may be able to tell us if they
are happy or not. As Daniel Kahneman (the only non-economist who has won the Nobel Prize
for economics) has shown – along with many others – there is a direct correlation between the
results of self-testing for happiness and the physical characteristics of a sense of well-being
(including the presences and amount of oxytocin) in the persons being studied. So the
institutional research office may have an easy job testing our students for happiness: all we have
to do is ask them.
Respectfully submitted by Cam Sylvester, December 11, 2013