There are more Acadia people around you than you know

The goggles of time sometimes warp the memories we have of our time as students at Acadia. I found that while on campus recently for an Alumni Board meeting. Thirty or more years later many things are different; but some things remain the same; like the smell of the agricultural lands as spring turns to summer, and campus comes into bloom in a very different way.

A former university leader asked me to describe a “slice of life” from my time as an undergrad in the 1990s. I stumbled around a bit trying to articulate what my nearly 50-year-old self-remembered of something I experienced as a twenty-year-old. I’m not sure my answer was great, but I keep thinking about the question.

Each of us reflects on our experiences from those times for different reasons: when we (re)visit campus, when we see an old friend, when we’re engaged in supporting Acadia in some way like trying to gently (or more assertively) recruit friends or family to enrol at this place that we found so magical and special.

Our job as the Acadia University Alumni Board is to steward the relationship that the nearly 47,000 alumni have with Acadia. We’re a bit like two-way translators – explaining to the current university leadership and members of the university community how and what we believe alumni might feel about things that are relevant to them, that matter to the Acadia experience and or that bear in their ongoing relationship with the university. And vice versa. We take a very active role in supporting the Acadia that we love as it evolves through a period of significant change.

Legislative, policy and financial pressures are forcing universities around the world to revisit how they approach their mandates. In Canada, that situation might differ by province or territory, but the underlying impetus is the same: duly elected governments attempting to align policy and financial support with objectives and goals that they believe best serve the population.

Acadia is in the midst of another set of those changes, which it has the capacity to put forward and to do on its own motion, or policymakers will alter the programs and offerings at Acadia without its say.

These changes are happening close on the heels of federal policy changes that impacted the international student population of universities, shrinking their numbers significantly and impacting tuition revenues.

Our role as active members of the broader university community is anchored in ensuring that the students of yesterday – that’s you, and me – the students of today, and the students of tomorrow can sow the same core seeds of magic through the combination of care, attention, expertise and mentorship they gain at Acadia.

Supporting the university’s academic and administrative leaders as they undertake these necessary changes isn’t just about words – although our Board admires the commitment to engaging the broader community they continue to demonstrate.

We are also jumping-in financially to support student accessibility and financial need. This summer, you have received our appeal to support student financial aid – and the Alumni Association will match $100,000 of contributions during this campaign. We encourage you to do what you can, in whatever way you are able, to join us in making the Acadia magic available to a wider group of deserving students (QR code below).

It never ceases to amaze me that wherever I am in the world, I meet Acadia Alumni. In the last two months alone, I’ve had that experience sitting on a plane across Canada, walking through an airport in Barcelona, and standing in line at the farmers’ market in Dartmouth. Each of their stories is unique, while their gratitude for the role Acadia played in their lives is shared.

All of these conversations lead me to believe that in the most challenging of times – in a world that feels sometimes increasingly unknowable – there are more Acadia people around you than you know. With your support, even more of them are waiting to cross that stage and bring their magic into the world. Let’s help them do that.

In Acadia Spirit,