Three priorities

Business plans usually focus on the new and different, giving short shrift to the “business as usual” parts of the operation.

In an organization the size and complexity of Seneca, there is a lot of business as usual that requires a proportionately significant amount of time and resources to make sure it happens. Students taught, programs developed, bills paid and collected, campuses cleaned, and a thousand other daily responsibilities done, and done well.

Even as we plan how to do all or some of that differently, none of it can stop. And all of it is important in an organization with tens of thousands of students and thousands of employees, whether they are teaching, learning or working remotely or on-campus.

Equally important, particularly in a time of great disruption, is making sure that those business-as-usual activities are supported and valued. That continues to be a focus across the organization.

Given where we are in the pandemic, the 2021-22 Business Plan is taking a rigorously focused approach. While FY20-21 was appreciably better than expected from a financial perspective, among the key lessons of the past year is that we take nothing for granted.

We continue to assess risks and monitor key metrics around enrolment and our financials closely and constantly.

Key priorities have been scoped into three areas:

• Navigating through the pandemic
• Enrolment management
• Seneca Au Large

These are not mutually exclusive categories. Some ideas and innovations that came through the Au Large consultations are being implemented as part of how Seneca is navigating through the pandemic and strategically managing enrolment.