By Ainsley Carry
This blog post was adapted from the Acadia Park Follow-up Student Listening Session report originally developed in February 2025.
On February 19, 2025, I hosted a follow-up Listening Session at the Acadia Park with Andrew Parr, Associate Vice-President, Student Housing & Community Services.
This follow-up session provided us an opportunity to connect and share updates on the actions taken in response to themes that emerged during the January 2025 Listening Session with students living in residence with their families at Acadia Park. In addition, this session also offered attendees the opportunity to share any thoughts they may have based on the five guiding questions:
- What is working well?
- What is not working well?
- What should we keep doing?
- What should we stop doing?
- What questions are we not asking?
Participants
Approximately 20 students participated in the follow-up Listening Session for UBC Vancouver students in residence with their families – most of whom were returning attendees.
VPS staff took notes, analyzed the data from the session, and organized it into themes. This report [PDF] provides a summary of the aggregated data from the follow-up session.
Actions Taken
At the January 2025 Student Listening Session, five themes emerged: Accessibility, Accommodations and Amenities, Graduate Student Funding, Safety, and Wrap-Around Support. At the February follow-up session, we provided updates on actions taken in the following area:
- Laundry services
- Accessibility
- Housing and parking payments
- Acadia Park Resident Association
Please see the full report [PDF] for a detailed summary on the actions we’ve taken and will be taking to address the above areas.
Other Opportunities for Enhancement
Acadia Park residents shared other areas in which there are opportunities for further improvement. The following key areas for enhancement were brought up at the session:
- Accessibility
- Security
- Affordability
- Awareness of services
The full report [PDF] provides details on what students shared with us and our approach to tackling these areas for improvement.
Moving Forward
The main purpose of this follow-up Student Listening Session was to discuss the actions taken to address the issues and challenges that were brought up in January 2025. This work remains ongoing, and updates will be shared on an ongoing basis. Multiple initiatives are either in development or are already being executed to address some of the concerns that were raised by students. These initiatives come from the implementation of existing institutional plans and actions.