Students: Faculty of Student Development

Student Success Courses

We offer two, three-credit elective student success courses that provide a strong foundation for university (and beyond!) achievement. These courses are offered in fall and winter semesters.

Students are required to meet the English language proficiency requirements for ESL Level 5 or for English 0600.
Information on how to register.

STSS 1010 Academic Success Skills

Academic Success Skills focuses on developing and enhancing the academic skills necessary to succeed at university and in professional settings by cultivating lifelong learning strategies. Theory-based and experiential, students will have opportunities to understand and reflect upon their learning preferences and knowledge gaps, to set goals, and to gain independent learning strategies and practical skills. Topics include time management, goal-setting, effective study strategies, reading for academic purposes, note-taking, and test-taking; students will also practice and improve fundamental research, writing, and citation skills for a solid understanding of academic integrity and effective communication in academic and professional settings.

STSS 1020 Local to Global: Intercultural Interactions

Local to Global enhances student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and encourages skill development essential for respectful engagement within the culturally diverse communities within TRU and beyond. Students will reflect on the historical and ongoing struggle to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples both locally and globally. They will explore the impact of national and international acts, charters, and declarations that impact the Secwépemc Peoples in the region; articulate how current cultural power dynamics are influenced by colonialism; and reflect on their own cultural orientations, preferences, and positionalities as one of many ways to experience and be in the world. Topics include intercultural dynamics, power and privilege, the ongoing impacts of colonization, reconciliation, critical allyship, responding to discrimination, stereotypes, and conflict resolution.

Project Overview Final Recommendations

Project Overview

The emergence of COVID 19 in early 2020 has impacted student mental health, increasing the urgency and importance of returning to this work. In the fall of 2020, discussions among TRUSU, TRU World and Student Development led to a decision to hire Kris McCleery Consulting to facilitate the current project with an overarching aim to identify and prioritize future investments in student mental health.

Under the sponsorship of the Associate Vice-President – Students, this project has engaged TRU students, faculty, and staff stakeholders primarily through online settings. Representatives from Counselling, TRU World, Indigenous Student Development, the Wellness Centre (including student wellness ambassadors), Accessibility Services, and Student Affairs have participated.

Project Goals

Define desired future state of student wellness.
Create an inventory of the mental health supports available to TRU students.
Identify gaps in current service models and / or gaps in communications about mental health services and supports
Identify opportunities to refer between mental health services, within TRU and within the communities we serve (Kamloops, Williams Lake).
Engage the TRU community (defined as TRU faculty, staff, and students) so that they feel consulted about this work and participate in identifying possible solutions to address identified gaps.
Prioritize identified solutions, considering feasibility.
Support implementation of priority solutions to fill gaps.

Project Phases

Phase 1: Discovery: Project background document review, project scoping and planning

Reviewed background documents relevant to the project
Identified project objectives, requirements, and scope
Identified project stakeholders, champions, and potential barriers

Phase 2: Problem definition

Defined desired future state of student wellness and reviewed current supports that are in place and evaluated their effectiveness against the future state. The outcome of this phase was a gap analysis and fulsome description of the gaps in student wellness supports.

Phase 3: Solution exploration

Given the problem definition and gap analysis findings, defined the full range of solutions to the problem and their pros and cons with identified stakeholders. The outcome of this phase was a list of potential solutions and their pros and cons.

Phase 4: Solution selection

Identified essential and distinguishing criteria against which to evaluate potential solutions. Evaluated the potential solutions according to both essential and distinguishing criteria. The outcome of this phase is the prioritization of solutions based on those criteria.

Phase 5: Solution implementation (to come)

Support implementation of the solutions by guiding and coaching the project lead in implementation. The outcome of this phase will be effective implementation of a durable solution (or solutions) to student wellness.

Final Recommendations

A summary (and potential sequencing) of recommendations below presents all the solutions in four categories. ⁵ The 7 recommendations that are Quick and Affordable are sequenced first, because they are inexpensive and require little planning and preparation to implement. Ideally, they are implementable within 6 months to a year from the start of implementation. The second level of sequence presents 7 recommendations labelled Slow and Affordable because solutions in this category have low costs but require more preparation. These are anticipated to take between 1 and 2 years to complete. The third category is Quick and Costly, because they are high cost and require low levels of preparation. There are no solutions in this category. The remaining nine solutions are categorized as Slow and Costly, requiring more time and resources to implement. These may take between 2 to 3 years to complete.

Quick and affordable

Provide clear information about evening and weekend counselling options (e.g., Here2Talk)
Provide mental health information in family study room in HoL and breastfeeding room
Provide virtual counselling appointment options
Consider means by which selected peer mentors / SWAT leaders include students with all types of family responsibilities
Provide elder support for counsellors
Implement a practice of providing honoraria for elders that honours their contributions to wellness and mental health programming
Develop cross training activities for Counselling, Accessibility Services, and Student Affairs

Slow and affordable

Regularly update TRU Safe App to include information specific to mental health
Evaluate current use of online live chat in Wellness Centre and determine whether to expand to other peer mentor groups and increase hours
Develop means to reduce barriers to access emergency funding across campus
Work with Finance Department to have emergency funds direct deposited
Consider means for students to book counselling appointments online
Provide on-going cultural training in decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion for staff and faculty involved in mental health programming
Complete drafting of Student At-Risk Policy and Procedures

Quick and costly

none identified

Slow and costly

Develop groups (i.e., support groups, social groups, etc.) specifically for students with family responsibilities
Develop ‘Outreach’ days where different staff (e.g., Case Managers) attend in areas such as TRU World or TRUSU to engage with students
Continue to enhance the mental health literacy of student leaders participating in peer programs (e.g., Orientation ambassadors, Supplemental Learning Leaders, Student Storytellers)
Provide training in trauma-informed practice for staff/faculty in all mental health and mental health related programs/services
Hire counsellors from different cultures
Employ more counsellors to help mitigate the number of students requiring appointments and to allow for on-going relationships
Consider how to improve and promote mental health group/workshop offerings and skillsbased counselling
Implement recommendations arising from the 2021-22 Suicide Prevention Education Project⁶
Consider integrating practica students and peer leaders into counselling and other mental health supports

⁵5This categorization of recommendations is based on work developed by TransFocus. We acknowledge and appreciate this framework for prioritizing and sequencing recommendations.

⁶6In the summer of 2021, TRU received a $50,000 grant from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions (via the Canadian Mental Health Association – BC Division) to develop suicide prevention education programming to support students at TRU. This work has recently been completed and a report is expected as a supplement to the work presented here.