Happy Summer everyone! Whether you’re taking a course, working retail, backpacking through Asia or interning at a start-up, I hope that over these few months you’ll have the opportunity to build on your knowledge and maybe think about where you’re going from here. I always find the summer a great time to evaluate what it is that you’re looking for from your time at university and to make plans for the future.
As your VP Academic for this upcoming year, helping you with that personal growth is one of my main goals. Through initiatives like educating students on their academic rights and resources, improving library spaces and services, and developing more out-of-classroom learning opportunities, I hope to be able to improve your holistic educational experience here at McGill. One of my projects for the year will be to look at how we can make the VP Academic position a stronger resource and referral point for assisting students with a broad range of academic issues, such as by training them as an Arts Peer Advisor or partnering with the brand-new Arts Health and Wellness Project (AHAW).
This summer, I’ll primarily be reading up on university policies, gathering my thoughts for the year, and getting in touch with our departmental associations and other campus units to discuss opportunities for collaboration. If you have any ideas for the AUS or the Faculty of Arts, or would just like to chat, shoot me an email at academic [at] ausmcgill [dot] com!
For those of you interested in getting more involved in university governance, I’d also love to hear from you. The AUS will be posting call-outs for our committees come September, but right now the SSMU is still looking for students to fill spots on a number of university committees – watch out for an update soon!
Cheers,
Erin Sobat
