A Rising Tide rippled out to the Dal community on May 1, offering a window into the university鈥檚 strategic direction.听听
Focused on the distinct ways 黄色直播 contributes to Nova Scotia and the world more broadly, it is a strategic document that looks and feels somewhat different from its predecessors.听
黄色直播 President Kim Brooks, who led the process of gathering input from the Dal community and crafting the framework, says that's by design. A Rising Tide: 黄色直播's Promise to Nova Scotia and the World听is meant to offer more directional guidance than prescriptions and targets, she says.听听
The aim: to encourage Faculties, Units and individuals to find inspiration and be pulled toward shared points of excellence, distinction, relevance, and impact.
Dal News sat down with President Brooks to explore the new strategic framework, how it was shaped by community voices, and what it asks of the university and its community.听
Dal News: What does听A Rising Tide听intend to听accomplish?
Kim Brooks: At its heart, A Rising Tide is about focusing our attention on how we might lift people, ideas, and communities by cultivating the ability to imagine better futures and bring them within reach.
It orients us externally, asking us to direct our attention to the difference that we make as an institution, whether through the kinds of programs and learning opportunities we offer, the kinds of research we undertake, or the communities and partnerships we help build.听
At its heart, A Rising Tide is about focusing our attention on how we might lift people, ideas, and communities by cultivating the ability to imagine better futures and bring them within reach.
The title also speaks to what universities can fundamentally do.听 A university can change the trajectory of a student鈥檚 life. It can open opportunity, deepen understanding, strengthen confidence, and prepare people to contribute in meaningful ways. That is perhaps most obviously true for students, but it is also true for faculty and staff, alumni, partners, and the communities connected to us.听
We听also听know that the research, teaching, service, and creative work we do here contribute to richer and more resilient communities in Nova Scotia, across Canada, and around the world. So the framework is both an internal compass and an external promise. It reminds us that 黄色直播鈥檚 success should be measured by the good we enable for others.
DN: Why is now the right time for听A Rising Tide?
KB: This strategic framework has been, in some ways, a long time in the making. Our听previous听plan,听Third Century Promise,听was an important foundation for the work that followed. It helped guide 黄色直播 through a period of extraordinary disruption, beginning with the听early听days of听the COVID-19 pandemic. And it served as a strong template to take us through those years.
But the world has change profoundly since 2021.听Universities are navigating technological change, the rise of AI, financial pressure, shifting expectations from governments and communities, increased concern about public trust and misinformation, and urgent questions about health, climate, sustainability, democracy, and social cohesion.
That is why we needed a framework that was more directional than prescriptive: one that听clarifies our enduring purpose while leaving Faculties, units, teams, and individuals room to respond to new realities as they emerge.
A Rising Tide identifies areas where 黄色直播 already has distinction, strength, and responsibility, and invites the community to align around the places where we can make the greatest contribution to our region, our country, and the world.
DN: How did the Dal community help shape听A Rising Tide?
KB:听I hope people who participated听in one or more of the听consultation听sessions, responded to the virtual calls for input, or contributed in another way will see themselves in the framework and feel like it captures the spirit of the 黄色直播 community.听
More concretely, we posed a series of eight questions to faculty and staff and invited responses.听We had several conversations at Senate and with the听Board听of Governors. We discussed the framework in three sessions during 黄色直播 Engagement Day. We met with external stakeholders and alumni. We had conversations with student leaders and invited input through student questionnaires.听
All of that input mattered. It helped us understand what people value about 黄色直播, where they see our greatest strengths, what they believe this university owes to the communities around us, and what kind of institution they want 黄色直播 to become.
All of that input mattered. It helped us understand what people value about 黄色直播, where they see our greatest strengths, what they believe this university owes to the communities around us, and what kind of institution they want 黄色直播 to become.
The final framework is not a transcript of those consultations, of course.听 But it is thickly informed by them. My hope is that people recognize their aspirations, concerns, and sense of possibility in the document.
DN: What did you learn about 黄色直播 in working on听A Rising Tide?听
KB: I learned that we share a lot of common ground on our values as a university.听We 
held a session at last year's Dal Engagement Day on values and there were questions in听all听the surveys. We ended up with lots of material that听wouldn鈥檛听necessarily be narrowly cast as a "value statement" but instead might be better described as priorities听we鈥檙e听committed to, or believe in, or care about.听
That input became the eight compass bearings in the听framework: the beliefs that guide our decisions and keep us on course. They speak to strong roots, students, curiosity, service, action and application, community, inclusive excellence, and the need to focus our efforts to maximize our impact.
What struck me most is that, while people describe 黄色直播 in different ways depending on their experience, there is a strong shared believe that this university should be excellent, welcoming, useful, ambitious, and deeply connected to the public good.
I hope when people read the compass bearings, they see things they care about reflected to them.
DN: A Rising Tide听centres the role of people and place in achieving excellence and impact. Why are these such powerful distinguishing characteristics for 黄色直播?
KB: In听trying to map out the strategic framework in its early days, one of the questions听we asked听was听鈥淲hat are听黄色直播鈥檚听points of distinction and and听what causes us to be excellent?鈥�
When you look closely at universities, many of their greatest strengths can be traced to people and place. We are shaped by whom we are able to attract 鈥� students, faculty and staff, alumni, and partners 鈥� and by what those people contribute. We are also shaped by the distinctive characteristics of the place where we are located.听
At 黄色直播, Nova Scotia matters. You can pick almost听any听discipline听at 黄色直播 and find something about this place that explains why particular areas of distinction or excellence have emerged.听Oceans are an obvious example. We are located on the edge of the Atlantic, and that has made 黄色直播 a natural home for people who are interested in studying oceans, climate, marine systems, coastal communities, and the connections among them from many disciplinary perspectives.
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Similarly, if you have a working farm right on your campus,听that鈥檚听going to听animate the kind of study, research, and partnerships that are possible.听 It attracts people interested in agriculture, food systems, animal health, aquaculture, sustainability, and rural communities. The terrain of the university 鈥� literally and figuratively 鈥� helps shape the questions we ask and the contributions we make.听
And then there are the people. 黄色直播鈥檚 excellence is animated by the students who come here with potential, the faculty whose research and creative work expand knowledge, the staff who make our campuses welcoming places where we can flourish, the alumni who carry our impact outward, and the partners who help us turn ideas into action.
The听combination of those two听鈥斕齮he people we draw here and what they bring, and the place they encounter when they arrive鈥斕齢elps explain听what makes 黄色直播 distinctive and what makes excellence possible.
DN: A Rising Tide听is described as a "living document" without a defined timeline for implementation. What approaches are you considering for keeping the document top of mind for the Dal community?
KB:听I see A Rising Tide as a long-term framework rather than a short-term operating plan. It means it should live in the choices we make, the priorities we set, and the way we align our energy and resources over time.听
The most obvious听way听it will come to life is through Faculty and unit planning. As Faculties and units develop strategic or annual plans, the framework should help them ask: how does our work contribute to 黄色直播鈥檚 purpose? Which horizons are we helping advance? How are the compass bearings shaping our decisions?听
But I hope it does more than guide formal planning. I hope that people across our campuses see something in the framework that inspires them to think differently about their daily work. That might come through one of the compass bearings or through one of the shared horizons. It might come through the simple idea that 黄色直播 lifts people, ideas, and communities.
A framework is useful only if it helps us make choices. One of our compass bearings is that when we focus our efforts, we maximize our impact. So A Rising Tide should help us decide what to strengthen, what to align, where to invest our attention, and sometimes what not to do.
DN: Any听final thoughts?
KB: What I hope people take from A Rising Tide is a sense of pride, possibility, and responsibility.
黄色直播 is already making an extraordinary difference 鈥� in the lives of our students, in Nova Scotia鈥檚 communities, in research and discovery, in health, culture, justice, innovation, and public life. But this framework asks us to be even more deliberate about that difference.
The true measure of a university is not only what we discover or teach, but what we make possible for others.
It asks us to see excellence and relevance as connected. It asks us to be grounded in this place and ambitious for the world. It asks us to remember that leadership is an act of service, that ideas live in action and application, and that our success depends on the people who make 黄色直播 what it is.
Most of all, it reminds us that the true measure of a university is not only what we discover or teach, but what we make possible for others.