Meet Our Sponsors: Heather Berringer

Heather Berringer is the Chief Librarian & Associate Provost, Learning Services at the UBC Okanagan (UBCO) campus. As an Integrated Renewal Program (IRP) academic sponsor, Heather shares her perspective on enhancing the experience for UBC’s students and faculty.

Tell us your history with UBC, your current role and your connection with the IRP.

I started at UBC in 2012 as Deputy Chief Librarian and became Chief Librarian in 2014. I took on the additional portfolio as Associate Provost for Learning Services in 2019. My connection with the program is as an academic sponsor from UBCO.

As an IRP sponsor with a specific portfolio, what is your role within the program?

I came on as a Student sponsor because my background and current portfolio in Learning Services is highly student-centred, focussing on providing the best possible experience for students. As part of the Provost’s office, the Learning Services mandate is about helping to deliver effective and supportive learning experiences to students. In addition to special projects my portfolio includes areas like the Library, the Student Learning Hub (in partnership with the Associate Vice-President, Students), and makerspace UBCO.

What is your vision for the IRP in terms of the Student portfolio for UBCO and UBCV?

My goal is to ensure students are satisfied with their experience. Students and faculty members expect to be supported and enabled by the technologies and systems we’re using institutionally. My vision is to enable their success and see positive outcomes for these groups.

One of the unique things about UBCO is it’s a very high-touch campus. The community is accustomed to accessing in-person and highly personalized support services. Conversely, this is a great opportunity to collaborate across campuses and work at an institutional level to get where we hope to be. As Tim Gunn would say, we need to “make it work.”

What excites you about the coming changes with Workday?

I’m always interested in being learning-centred as an institution. For the Student implementation, this means ensuring we’re delivering the best possible experience for students and faculty, enabling a seamless transition where we can, and using technology as a facilitator. Working through the process of moving from architect into subsequent stages and building something collaboratively with Workday is quite exciting and interesting in this regard.

What do you see as some of the challenges with this transformation?

I think the biggest challenge is with communication, which is common with managing any type of organizational change. People can, at times, not take note of messaging until the moment where it becomes particularly relevant to them and changes their day-to-day. It’s going to be critical that we meet them at the right place when they need to hear from us.

How do you see the UBCO community, and the community at large, working to help make the change a success?

If people are engaging with the process, asking questions and feeling comfortable and safe to bring their ideas, opinions, and diverse perspectives forward, that is going to help create the conditions for success and be representative in the work that we’re doing

What does success look like to you?

My role in this process is to be thinking about our students and faculty and trying to bring that perspective to the conversation. If students and faculty members are satisfied with their experience, understanding that it’s not going to be perfect straight out of the gate, then I would say we have been very successful.