Student Success Office Year at a Glance

COVID-19 created unique challenges and uncertainty for international students as a result of travel restrictions, vaccine requirements for entry, access to approved vaccines, and quarantine requirements. For the second year in a row, many international students were forced to begin their first year of studies in their home country or outside of Canada. These challenges not only limited international students’ ability to enter Canada for their studies and gain Canadian experiences, but also prevented them from building meaningful, in-person connections to the campus community. 

To combat these challenges, we continued our collaborative work with Campus Wellness, Conference Management, and Information, Systems and Technology to deliver the International Student Arrival Plan, navigated immigration and travel regulations to support inbound exchange students arriving for the first time since 2019, and facilitated community building events, both in-person and online. 

In 2022-2023, we will deepen our understanding of the international student community at Waterloo by leveraging data and other new strategies for engaging students and solicit their direct feedback. This work will further uncover what gaps exist in our programming and services and ultimately help us adapt our offerings to establish a sustainable and supportive environment that is worthy of our students.  

Every student deserves to thrive—both at university, and in life. Getting them there is our priority.  

To empower students to start their studies with confidence, we refined Waterloo Ready modules, streamlined email communications, and responded to student feedback to improve peer mentorship opportunities. The SSO also assumed responsibility for Waterloo Grad Ready for fall 2021, a termly transition program for incoming graduate students. 

We continue to utilize the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) in faculties and report results to our partners. The MSLQ is one of the most widely used assessment tools in educational research. It measures the learning strategies and academic motivation of college and university students. The SSO has implemented the MSLQ into first year courses in the faculties of Arts (including the School of Accounting and Financial Management), Environment, Health, and Science.  

We applied lessons learned during the first waves of COVID-19, evaluated our new digital offerings, and again pivoted to a hybrid delivery model when classes began to move back in-person in early 2022. 

As we look ahead, the SSO continues to find opportunities to support students through this period of change and transition in a myriad of ways, including through the new “Student Success in the Post-Pandemic University” project, where we aim to understand the challenges students are facing coming out of the pandemic, expand awareness across campus, and advocate for an understanding of student experience in light of these barriers. Moreover, a key priority for our unit is to address and respond to the specific challenges faced by equity deserving groups, such as Black, Indigenous, racialized and traditionally under-represented populations; and reflecting on the goals and strategies outlined in thean Ontario Postsecondary Access and Inclusion Program (OPAIP), we created specialized peer mentorship opportunities within Waterloo Ready for these communities. 

In its most recent strategic plan, the University of Waterloo committed to creating diverse and sustainable communities that foster “inclusivity, a sense of belonging and a culture of involvement.”   

The SSO has direct accountability for this work. We know that connections with fellow students, staff and faculty create resilient Warriors who can access the tools they need when they need them and maintain strong networks to lean on in times of difficulty.  

Despite delivering classes and campus services virtually, we found ways to support students’ engagement with Waterloo and build connections with their peers. To combat loneliness and isolation during mandated COVID-19 travel quarantine periods, international students were encouraged to participate in support group sessions or engage with peers from around the world through the International Peer Community (IPC). Additionally, students shared their “new normal” through day-long takeovers, stayed up-to-date on vaccine mandates and campus access requirements shared via the UWaterlooLife Instagram account, and formed peer networks by participating in Waterloo Ready mentorship initiatives.  

Finally, through the cross campus advising strategy, the SSO continues to enhance the student experience by equipping advisors with the information and knowledge they require in order to meet students' needs and exceed their expectations. This year’s virtual Advising Conference focused on supporting equity-deserving students and featured a keynote presentation delivered by award-winning journalist and author, Eternity Martis. 

In 2021/2022 we began to action anti-racism and equity work with intentionality and care via the SSO and AccessAbility Services Anti-Racist Initiatives (SAARI) committee. 

SAARI’s ‘Onboarding and Baseline Education Working Group’ identified nine core competencies for all SSO/AAS staff and engaged an external facilitator to deliver training for 70+ SSO and AccessAbility staff members. A Student Equity Specialist was hired on a one-year contract to identify and develop opportunities to proactively contribute to the success of equity-deserving students at UWaterloo. Since joining the office, the specialist has built connections with over 70 campus partners, finalized nine campus consultations, and delivered six new workshops for full-time and student staff. 

Further, the Global Learning team in the SSO launched an equity exchange survey, to understand how the demographics and travel experience of prospective exchange students differ from the overall student body. The project aims to provide a more complete picture of students intending to study internationally and develop supports and initiatives for groups underrepresented in exchange participation.