Sustainability, diversity, teaching quality, campus bars and how to help single parents studying at Dalhousie were just a few of the topics raised at last week’s Imagine ’08 event.
“Anything can be brought up for discussion,” said Mike Tipping, president of the Dalhousie Student Union. “This is also the first year we’re using Open Space Technology at an Imagine event.”
Open Space Technology is a way of facilitating discussion using four basic principles: “whoever comes are the right people, whatever happens is the only thing that could have, whenever it starts is the right time and when it’s over, it’s over. ”
Imagine is the fifth in a series of ongoing events run by the DSU to help identify what needs to be done at Dalhousie to make it better for students. About 50 students attended. Discussion was lively and enthusiastic — people had lots of ideas.
“We have a poll on the DSU website about teaching at Dal,” said Tara Gault, DSU’s vice president (education.) “Approximately 40 per cent of people who took this poll are satisfied with teaching quality at Dalhousie, which says to me there’s still room for improvement.”
Other issues, including how diversity can be promoted better on campus, were also discussed at Imagine.
“Diversity was recognized as an issue that must be addressed on an ongoing basis and this cannot be satisfied with a ‘Diversity Day’,” remarked Lisa Buchanan, an Imagine participant. The discussion took place last Wednesday afternoon in the McInnes Room.
The group discussed the creation of a ‘diversity centre’ in the Student Union Building where various societies on campus could network with one another, work together on events and get involved in raising diversity awareness on campus.
“This is all about talking about an idea and turning it into action,” said Ms. Gault, 21. “You can see from the Project Flow Chart in the SUB that student ideas do create real results.”
LINKS: DSU on Facebook | Imagine '08 on Facebook | Dalhousie Student Union