
Renison community members attended sessions to discuss and prioritize the goals and themes within the Strategic Plan.
Lewis Carroll is credited with having said, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Renison’s new president, Marc Jerry, knew precisely where we needed to go as a College when he was installed almost a year ago – creating a roadmap became a top priority.
Renison, like so many Ontario colleges and universities, is contending with the long-term impacts of COVID, chronic government under-funding, tuition freezes and changes in federal policies related to international students. Looking to the future, Renison needs to get back on the road to financial sustainability. To get there, we need to determine what we can afford to stop doing so that we can meet our core mission.
Using Renison’s newly created Strategic Plan as a starting point, we set out to create a clear roadmap to success. Beginning in September, 2024, we held a series of community engagement sessions comprised of students, faculty, staff and Board Members: well over 100 members of our community participated and engaged in meaningful dialogue and conversations.
We began each session with an individual exercise challenging each participant to briefly describe Renison as it is today. Every word and phrase was collected and recorded. The list included such words and phrases as “small,” “student-centred,” “innovative,” and “inclusive,” as well as “financially challenged,” “busy,” and “depleted.” We were capturing a true snapshot of where Renison is today; we are continuing to meet the academic and spiritual needs of our students and residents, but it is taking a toll on a depleted workforce.
We also encouraged the group to look into the future and describe Renison in 2028 (the year that the current strategic plan comes to an end). This generated such responses as “thriving and well-resourced,” “inclusive and decolonized,” “expanded mental health support,” and “upgraded facilities.” It was evident that, despite the obvious financial challenges and heavy workloads, our community remains hopeful and optimistic. According to our community, 2028 would find Renison in a better position than it finds itself in 2024. Now the hard part: how do we make that happen?
The next stage of the community sessions consisted of group work. Renison’s Strategic Plan is divided into five strategic pillars; each pillar is made up of five or six strategic goals. Each working group was randomly assigned a strategic goal and was asked to come to consensus and prioritize the top 3 goals within their assigned pillar. Following much debate and discussion, gradually the rankings were made. Each group was assigned a spokesperson whose job it was to explain their reasoning behind their rankings. This process was repeated nine times and, through the course of these sessions, we saw strong themes begin to surface.

Each idea was collected and recorded during the process. In the end we had hundreds of post-it notes collected, in addition to the notes we took.
The major themes:
- Continue to support the emotional, cultural, spiritual, physical and mental well-being of our students, staff and faculty;
- Expand and diversify our revenue streams,
- Strengthen our institutional capacity towards excellence in teaching, learning, and research.
Of the 28 strategic goals in Renison’s Strategic Plan, six emerged as critical to our mission. While this is not to say that the remaining 22 priorities are not important – we will get there too – but it helps us focus our efforts on the priorities that matter most to our community. In so doing, it helps us to identify what we can put on pause, at least for the short term.
The difficult work continues. Making decisions on how to best to utilize our reduced workforce means making tough decisions regarding how our time can be best used. Change is difficult; we need to focus our energy on building a better future for Renison, our students, and our employees. We thank you sincerely for supporting us on our journey.
2025 Renison Reports
This is part of the 2025 Renison Reports publication. Return to the Renison Reports page for other articles.