by Monica Bisal
A survey this past spring surfaced the unique vibrancy of SFU's three campuses from the university community to inspire the addition of Indigenous campus names to existing campus names.
To help inform this work, students, faculty, staff and alumni were invited to participate in a two-question survey during the month of May which asked: "What word(s) come to mind when you think about what is special about or at the essence of each of SFU's three campuses?" and "Is there anything else you would like to share with the Indigenous Naming Committee (INC)?"
Aligned with the key pillar of upholding Truth and Reconciliation in the What's Next: SFU Strategy, along with the Pathways report, the INC is steering various revitalization projects at the university related to Indigenous Naming, responding to Call to Action 5 of the Walk this Path with Us Report.
Survey highlights
The survey garnered a total of 424 responses and 153 comments from the university community who shared their perspectives on the collective work.
From those surveyed, common descriptor themes for each campus emerged with the top word most closely associated with each campus being: mountain for Burnaby campus, community for Surrey campus and city for Vancouver campus.
For a high-level snapshot of the most common words for each campus from the survey, scan the three-page word cloud infographic here.
The journey forward
The valuable feedback received from across the university community will be shared with Host Nation language experts to guide Indigenous naming at SFU.
