It’s been wetter than normal this summer, stormier than normal. Wonderful for the greenery, less so for many basements. Yet many of us remain undeterred. It’s been great to see huge crowds still enjoying everything Edmonton has to offer during this season, including the seemingly endless festivals chock full of food, culture, performances and other delights for the senses.

Summer gives us a chance to thaw out for a little while, to get back in touch with the water and the land and rediscover our playful sides. We get to relax a bit and let our thoughts wander a little more. As we watch flowers bloom and tend to gardens, we can’t help but contemplate change and growth.

That’s on our minds at MacEwan during these months. With over 1,700 enrolments in our Spring and Summer terms, we still have busy classrooms full of students receiving high-quality undergraduate education. But our faculty also spend a larger proportion of time pursuing the foundational work that enables great teaching and learning.

Professors are reviewing and integrating the best possible pedagogy, so that their instruction can be even more effective. Faculty members are continuing research in their fields of expertise, building knowledge to keep their courses relevant and robust, so that students will be armed with the information they need to succeed. Across the institution, people are gathering to share ideas and undertake planning for the fall, when we’ll be back in the full swing of teaching greatness to over 23,000 learners. It’s a time for academic planting and harvesting, restocking and preparing.

Some see summer as a slowdown. We see it as our competitive advantage. While others pause, MacEwan is making the decisions that will ensure we thrive if funding shifts, if student demand changes or if new technology is seen as disruptive. The risk isn’t that we plan too much, but rather that we show up in September having only reacted to last year, instead of planting the seeds for success over the next five.

Having the opportunity to step away from the daily drumbeat also gives us some bandwidth for calm and purposeful reflection. We can take stock and consider our place in the world. Are we where we want to be? Are we meeting the needs of those who count on us? What could we be doing better or differently?

At MacEwan University, these questions are framed by our commitment to fulfill a unique and important role in society. We pride ourselves on exceptional undergraduate teaching, but we’re not an isolated island of professors and students. Our planning is intended to support student success and work across employers and neighbours in the downtown. We are a vital part of Edmonton’s downtown and a crucial member of the wider community, and we take that seriously.

So as we contemplate the coming academic year, and do some dreaming and scheming, we’re also working to deepen our connections.

For example, we’re continuing to build and enrich our relationships with businesses, industries and employers. These connections help us gain a stronger sense of current and emerging issues facing the private, public and non-profit sectors, giving us insight on how to keep our teaching meaningful and effective. With these partners, we’re exploring how we can create better pathways that connect students from their post-secondary studies to the world of work.

We’re also reinvigorating connections with local development partners to enhance student experiences while contributing to downtown. Our off-campus housing project is expanding to offer nearly four times as many housing units as last year. This will give MacEwan students a wider array of living options and enable more people to live, work and play in our city’s core.

A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of hosting Canada’s Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry Karim Bardeesy on our campus to announce the latest round of grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We were thrilled to celebrate 12 MacEwan faculty members who received funding from the council.

We’ve also had the pleasure of welcoming hundreds of Edmontonians to MacEwan for various events and programs this summer. It’s been great to see community members enjoying the diverse facilities of our campus in everything from summer sports and music camps to aquatic certifications, theatre performances, retreats and meetings in our collaborative spaces. Our halls are alive with the sounds of laughter, fun and creativity as Edmontonians of all ages undertake learning at MacEwan in lots of different ways.

Renewing and refreshing these touchpoints, with ourselves and with each other, is a big part of what summer is about. We hope yours has been similarly filled with healthy amounts of reflecting, recharging and relating.

And umbrellas. Plenty of umbrellas.