In the ordinary university, belonging is not a certainty.
As students move from cavernous theatre to massive hall, they seek what they’ve been
promised by post-secondary institutions all their lives. Close and supportive friends. Faculty
mentors and allies for life. Extraordinary growth and profound experiences.
Perhaps students find what they yearn for there. Perhaps not.
Here, at Concordia University of Edmonton, we rally around that central promise in everything we do and all that we build. We say to students: if you join us, you will belong.
For more than a century, it has felt this way here.
Today, if students arrive on campus with doubt or hesitation, someone at CUE will see
them, and help them. That someone will likely cheer them years later at convocation. Here,
connections endure.
In our classrooms, CUE is a university of action and passion, small enough that every student
is essential but large enough to make real differences when we tackle global challenges.
We are a students’ university. Students can sit in the back. But at CUE, when they’re ready,
someone will invite them to the front.
Because of our size, our closeness and connection, we blend and mix in surprising –
sometimes delightful – ways. If we’re scientists, we can follow our curiosity into drama. A
business student can graduate with a foundation in history, philosophy, and Indigenous
knowledge.
We can test our ideas with people from every department and course of study, from around
the world. We can change directions and find our path. We can be our best selves.
At CUE, the centre for innovation may focus on the very latest on artificial intelligence, while
our Education faculty braids into contemporary curriculum millennia of Indigenous ways of
knowing and sharing. In the Tegler Centre, CUE’s president might sit down with students,
buy them coffee, and ask why they chose this school and how we can all make it safer, more
diverse, more accessible and memorable and fun.
Our ultimate goal has not changed since 1921: to be more than students and professors, to
create a community of active citizens, to inspire good and honourable people who have
found a university where they belong.