| dc.description.abstract | The western honeybee (Apis mellifera) plays a significant role in most pollination networks globally (Hung et al. 2018). Bee City Canada™ is an organization that supports the establishment of bee sanctuaries in cities across Canada. To determine the feasibility of Studley Campus in Halifax, Nova Scotia at Dalhousie University being designated as a Bee Campus™ we focused on student support prior to an application sent to Bee City Canada™. The initiatives are creating & maintaining pollinator habitat, educating the community about pollinators, and celebrating pollinators during National Pollinator week. The study design only targeted student support and concerns through a Google Form which consisted of 20 questions with varied styles, and a poster which included a QR code to our survey link. Survey distribution was through Dalhousie Institute student emails to professors, and they were asked to distribute them to their classes. The Bee Campus™ application form requires a single applicant to briefly summarize reasoning to become a Bee City Campus, adopt a Bee City Canada Resolution, and create a Bee City pollinator team of at least two faculty members, 2-5 students, campus staff, and employees from the campus grounds department. Of the student respondents, majority identified as being in their 4th year of Undergraduate study. No respondents identified as being in their first year of Undergraduate studies. A high portion of respondents answered yes when asked whether they would like to see more pollinators present on Studley campus. Using Likert-scale questions, we determined the highest levels of support were for the establishment of pollinator gardens (4.90). Coding trees were created for two open response questions in our survey. The most common concern was about being stung, and the safety of those who have anaphylactic allergies. A one-way ANOVA test showed that there was no relationship between the three main initiatives by support versus student interest for volunteering. A limitation is we did not receive first-year student survey responses, and we did not determine professor support or gather the opinions of groundkeepers. With the initial application, there are no fees, although Dalhousie’s renewal fee will be $150 (BeeCity Canada, 2023). Along with increasing green spaces on campus, adding bee boxes made of bamboo, Dalhousie’s Studley campus should submit an application to Bee City Canada™ and seek a designation of a Bee Campus™. If the project goes forward, it is crucial that it targets more students in first and second year to ensure that there will be smooth student turnover. | en_US |
