Café Santa Maria 2009/2010 report

On November 25th from 1:00-3:00pm, in the Student Centre Cafeteria, SMUSA hosted Café Santa Maria, an event based on the World Café concept, to learn more about student priorities, ideas and to hear from members of the Saint Mary’s University community, including faculty and staff.

The pdf of this report can be downloaded in its entirety here or at the bottom of this page.

The intention of Café Santa Maria was to obtain the following information:
• Identify both challenges and positive experiences students have on campus.
• Learn what issues need to be focused on for the student body.
• Learn what an ideal solution would be for these issues.

What is a World Café?
The idea of a World Café is to promote a conversation and interaction in a friendly environment. The concept was derived from consultants Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, and used by companies to get more value from their otherwise dull meetings. Instead of a lecture-style presentation, they suggest many small conversations should take place, with the lessons and feelings from each being shared to the group. This stimulates open, honest conversations, like you would have with a friend in a cafe. For more information on the World Café concept, check out http://www.theworldcafe.com/.

Building Café Santa Maria
SMUSA staff helped arrange the event to provide a comfortable environment for participants to freely speak their mind. A significant section of the cafeteria was segmented off before the café occurred. Tables were arranged with café etiquette on the table. Vases with flowers were also placed on the table with paper, sticky notes, and markers. SMUSA also provided a buffet of international foods, including Italian meatballs, spring rolls, nachos, tabouleh, hummus, California rolls, and more. Local suppliers were used where possible to provide the ingredients as well.
About 200 members of the Saint Mary’s University community attended the café. The music and diverse selection of food created an inviting and hospitable atmosphere. Cait Dix, Vice President Academic and Laura Slauenwhite, Volunteer Coordinator greeted everyone as they entered the café.

Café Flow
Matt Anderson, SMUSA President, kicked off the café welcoming everyone and giving them an opportunity to grab some food and settle comfortably into their environment. He welcomed everyone to the event and thanked them for coming out and explained why SMUSA was hosting the café. Matt was grateful to all turned out to participate and explained how the resulting conversations would impact life at Saint Mary’s University.
Matt briefly explained the café etiquette and process and got conversations started by asking What has been your most positive experience during your time at Saint Mary’s University? Following that, participants were asked to switch tables and have the following conversations with others:

Q1: What have been the challenges that you have faced during your time at Saint Mary’s University?
Matt allowed twenty minutes for students to partake in conversation regarding the question and allowed them time to write on the sticky notes. Sticky notes were then posted to various pillars within the cafe so all participants can share their experiences.

Q2: What is one thing, if it were changed or different would improve your experience here at Saint Mary’s University?
Matt allowed another twenty minutes for students to have conversation surrounding the question.

Q3: If anything was possible, what would you create that doesn’t currently exist?
Matt again allowed twenty minutes for students to discuss the question. Following the discussion Matt circulated the microphone to each table and allowed them to discuss the most common idea to be discussed at each table.

To close, Matt Anderson thanked everybody for coming out and indicated that there will be a report from the session in the forthcoming New Year.

Café Conversation Themes and Outcomes
This section analyses the data collected from table paper and sticky notes during the café and groups the information into key theme areas. These areas include food services, academic support, communications, and financial Aid.
Food Services
Many comments from Café Santa Maria stemmed from the food service provided to students. Comments included issues surrounding the affordability of food on campus. Concerns about food options being local and healthy were a popular subject as well. Other comments included the availability of microwaves on campus and the new buffet system at the Dockside cafeteria.
Communications
Many comments seemed to stem from a lack of communication coming from SMUSA and the University. Areas where there may be a lack of communication include society ratification, events on campus, and how to opt out of the SMUSA Health and Dental Plan. Comments also surrounded getting students involved and offering more volunteer opportunities on campus.
Quality of Education
There were a variety of comments that came from this subject. The bulk of the comments stemmed from a lack of selection for courses at SMU and study space on campus. Comments also surrounded having more learning support on campus.
Tuition & Scholarships
Naturally, there were comments surrounding the affordability of tuition more specifically the cost of tuition for international students. The accessibility of scholarships was a topic that was brought up. Comments stated that there should be more promotion of scholarships and bursaries and more scholarships for international students.
Freshman Student Issues
Adjusting to a university ca prove to have its challenges. Some of the comments for adjusting to the university life style were budgeting, time management, coping with being away from family.
Computer Space
Many comments addressed concerns about the availability of computers on campus. With the growing popularity of Mac computers there were some concerns about compatibility with Mac operating systems on campus.
Parking
Many subjects were not broad enough to have their own subject line but should be identified. The availability and cost of parking was an issue that was popular enough to address.

APPENDICIES
- CSM2009-Student Notes.pdf – This is a collection of all sticky notes that students shared from their discussion groups, organized by the areas of student life they most closely relate to.
- CSM2009-As a Result of This event.pdf – As students, faculty and staff were leaving the cafe, they were asked to fill out a short exit survey entitled As a result of this event... This is a collection of all of those statements.