Welcome Equals Wellbeing and Happiness

Dean of Students Duane Rendle has three key goals as he works daily with students. He focuses on building a welcoming community, promoting student wellness and respecting diversity. “We want St. Mike’s to be a welcoming place to live, work and study,” says Rendle, who cites ongoing plans to renovate dorm rooms as one of the many ways the university is trying to fulfill these goals. Recent renovations in Elmsley Hall, which still had its original 1950s built-in furniture and green linoleum flooring, transformed those rooms to spaces that are especially popular with students.

A committee is currently examining how best to renovate the Queen’s Park building, to provide students with dorm rooms and classrooms that have modern amenities and a refreshed aesthetic.

But a welcoming environment at St. Mike’s is much more than just bricks and mortar. For example, Rendle sees one of his team’s roles, which includes both residence and commuter dons, as educating students on issues of importance to the university community. He cites the online harm reduction course his office created a few years ago, Alcohol ABCs (Always Be in Control), as a way to provide students with strategies on how to consume alcohol safely. He is also an advocate for modelling responsible behaviour.

“You want to learn from your mistakes while you’re at university, not when you’re at your first job,” he says. “This is a safe, supportive community where people look out for each other.”

Being welcoming at St. Mike’s also means truly caring for students’ wellbeing and happiness and finding ways to support it.

Rendle offers particular praise for SMCSU, the St. Mike’s student union, for reaching out to Interim Principal Mark McGowan and President David Sylvester on the important issue of student mental health. The students respectfully advocated for increased access to counselling as well as expanded training for student leaders, so they can correctly recognize the signs of mental distress and refer students to appropriate resources.

“There is a maturity about these students that is really impressive. When they identify issues that are adversely affecting students’ mental health, they offer thoughtful and creative recommendations on how they can be addressed,” he says.

As for Rendle’s third pillar, respecting diversity, he says: “We function in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, which is a tremendous asset in our increasingly interconnected existence. We want our students to learn from each other, to support each other and to celebrate what makes them unique. That’s why we are expanding our EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity) training and making it available to more and more of our student leaders.”

While he doesn’t list it as a fourth goal, Rendle also says he wants to see graduates share the talents that were fostered and nurtured while on campus with the rest of the world. My own experience living at St. Mike’s was transformational. Yes, I learned a lot in my classes, but it was the experiences I participated in outside of the classroom that made me the person I am today.