Conceptualizing the Role of a Strategist for Outreach and Indigenous Engagement to Lead Recruitment and Retention of Indigenous Students.

Abstract

A number of universities have introduced Indigenous student-specific programming to improve recruitment. These programs target the needs of Indigenous students and often impart a sense of comfort or belonging that may be more difficult to obtain in a mainstream program. The University of Saskatchewan, College of Nursing, implemented a Learn Where You Live delivery model that challenged the university community to think differently about outreach and engagement. This is best described by redefining distance such that student services and supports would no longer be localized to a main campus but redesigned for distribution across the province. Sustaining this model meant the College leadership had to find new ways to support faculty to engage in teaching and learning opportunities that would be context relevant and aid student recruitment and retention. The new position of Strategist for Outreach and Indigenous Engagement was created to lead opportunities for faculty and staff to gain knowledge and expertise in policy development, negotiation and implementation for success in the distributed delivery model. The framework of Two-Eyed Seeing was adapted to guide the introduction and ongoing implementation (Bartlett et al. 2012).