Senate

LAKEHEAD UNIVERSITY

Minutes of Senate Meeting #2006-6

held on Monday, June 5, 2006

at 3:00 p.m. in the Senate Chambers

Present:

Dr. F. Gilbert

Dr. F. Allaire

Dr. P. Allingham

Dr. A. Bartley

Dr. R. Berg

Dr. J. Birkholz

Dr. G. Boire

Dr. A. Carastathis

Dr. R. Dilley

Dr. L. DiMatteo

Dr. J. Farrell

Dr. P. Fralick

Dr. M. Gallagher

Dr. T. Gillies

Dr. S. Hamilton

Dr. L. Hayes

Dr. M. L. Hill

Dr. S. Islam

Dr. P. Jasen

Dr. M. L. Kelley

Professor T. King

Dr. J. Leggatt

Dr. M. Leitch

Dr. S. Mansour

Dr. R. Maundrell

Dr. M. McPherson

Dr. L. Meyer

Dr. I. Newhouse

Professor M. Nisenholt

Dr. J. O'Meara

Dr. R. Payne

Professor K. Poole

Dr. R. Pulkki

Dr. H. Saliba

Dr. M. Shaw

Dr. S. Siddiqui

Dr. M. Uddin

Dr. P. Wakewich

Dr. K. Yu

Dr. R. Wang

Observers:

Mrs. M. Anderson

Mrs. K. L. Clarke

Mrs. G. Wojda

Guests:

Ms M. Dufresne

Dr. L. Gilchrist

Mr. B. Johnson

Dr. G. Siddall

President Gilbert called the meeting to order.

1. Approval of Agenda

Moved (P. Allingham/G. Boire) that the agenda be approved with the following amendments:

(a) Delete item 8: "Report of the Senate Organization Committee (Dr. R. Omeljaniuk);"

(b) Under "ITEMS FOR INFORMATION" add Item 9a: "Report of the Department of Civil Engineering (Dr. A. Gillies).

Carried.

2. Minutes of Senate Meeting #2006-5

Moved (P. Allingham/A. Carastathis) that the minutes of Senate Meeting #2006-5, held on May 15, 2006, be approved as presented. Carried.

3. Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes of the previous meeting.

4. Proposed Calendar Changes for Referral

Moved (R. Dilley/P. Fralick) that the proposals by the Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies for Calendar changes in Mathematical Sciences be referred to Senate Committees. Carried. The proposals would be referred to the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee.

5. Reports from Senate Standing Committees on Proposed Undergraduate Calendar Changes

Moved (M. Leitch/M. Shaw) that Senate approve the proposals for Calendar changes concerning Grade XII admission requirements for Science programs at Lakehead University on condition that the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities approve the revision to admission requirements for Science programs in Psychology and the addition of new admission requirements for the HBSc in Northern Studies. Carried.

6. Report of the Senate Academic Committee

6.1 J. O'Meara reported that Dr. D. West had been elected Chair of the Senate Academic Committee for the period from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007.

6.2 Moved (J. O'Meara/G. Boire) that the proposed Policy for Internal Adjunct Professors be adopted. Carried. F. Gilbert noted that Senate could approve the establishment of the policy, but that the Board of Governors would have to approve individual appointments.

6.3 There was extensive discussion on the draft Academic Plan. B. Strang was concerned about the power granted the Senate committees to review and terminate programs. F. Gilbert noted in response that only Senate, not the committees, had the power to terminate programs. L. Di Matteo and T. King were concerned about the posting of the final version of the draft Plan. L. Hayes assured them that the final draft was available on the Vice-President (Academic)'s web site. M. Gallagher asked about the frequency of review for under-enrolled programs. P. Fralick was concerned about the sheer volume of work that would be required to review all programs with small enrolments and proposed reviewing them on the basis of academic merit. L. Hayes said that academic merit would be considered in all reviews. R. Dilley opined that maintaining a rich variety of programs would benefit overall enrolment. F. Gilbert said that the enrolment figures did not bear out this contention.

Moved (J. O'Meara/R. Pulkki) that Senate approve the draft Academic Plan. Carried.

The President thanked all who had been involved in the consideration and drafting of the Academic Plan for their efforts.

7. Report of the Joint Senate Committee for NOSM

Moved (J. Farrell/G. Boire) that Senate approve the revised NOSM Academic Calendar of Events for 2006-2007.Carried.

9. Report of the Senate Nominations Committee

Moved (M. Leitch/S. Islam) that Senate approved the following appointments to Senate committees for the terms indicated:

(1) Senate Academic Committee: Dr. D. Ivison (English) (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2009);

(2) Senate Research Committee (SSHRC eligible researcher): Dr. M. Flegel (English) (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2007);

(3) Senate Information Systems Committee: Dr. H. Ali Malik (Economics) (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2008);

(4) Senate Research Ethics Board: Dr. Philippe Grgoire (Business Administration) (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2008).

Carried.

9a Report of the Department of Civil Engineering

A. Gillies reported that Lakehead University Engineering students had performed very well in the prestigious American Steel Bridge Competition. Out of some 45 universities Lakehead had placed 5^th overall and 1^st in the aesthetics category.

10. Professor Emerita

The President reported that Professor Patricia Vervoort had been offered and had accepted the title of Professor Emerita of Visual Arts.

11. President's Report

The President thanked all faculty and staff who had been involved in this year's Convocation. He spoke about the Higher Education Quality Council, now under the leadership of Frank Iaccobucci, and concerns about the impact of FIPPA under whose jurisdiction the Ontario universities would come on June 10^th. He noted that the Ontario government had not yet indicated how they planned to distribute the remaining 30% of allocations for graduate funding, and had communicated nothing so far about capital funding allocations. He hoped that material on the establishment of a law school would be forthcoming this Fall for consideration by Senate committees; a business plan for such an enterprise was currently being worked on.

12. Report of the Vice-President (Academic) and Provost

L. Hayes thanked all involved in Convocation; the ceremony had made a good impression. She congratulated the Department of Geography for successfully hosting the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers. Balloting would shortly be completed for a new Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities; a recommendation would then be made to the President. Some 90 applications were being reviewed for part-time faculty at the new Orillia campus. An important pandemic planning meeting had taken place on May 31^st. She said that information on the Academic Plan would be mailed out over the next 3 to 4 week.

The Vice-President replied to inquiries on various aspects of the faculty hiring for Orillia.

13. Report of NOSM

No one was present to deliver a report on behalf of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. The President indicated that it would be helpful to have a good turnout for the unveiling of the donor wall for the West campus this coming Wednesday at 5:45 p.m.

14. Report of the Secretary of Senate

M. Shaw reported that the Alumni Association would be advertizing and providing application forms for graduates who wanted larger parchments to replace those distributed at Convocation. As a condition for receiving larger parchments, students would have either to return their current parchments to the Registrar's Office or aver that they had lost them. Once the condition had been met, the Registrar's Office would pass the application on to the Graphics department for processing. The Alumni Association would deal with framing and distribution and would charge a fee for their services.

M. Shaw summarized the main issues in making the University FIPPA compliant and the process for actually implementing this compliance: he proposed to set up a committee that would establish policy and assign tasks.

He responded to Senators' concerns about the application process for large parchments and how FIPPA would affect communication with students by e-mail.

The President asked if the Registrar's Office had considered requiring notarization of claims that parchments had been lost. M. Shaw replied that this had not been the practice of the Office of the Registrar but would be looked into.

When the President asked whether a convocation ceremony in November could be held, M. Shaw replied that, in view of the fact that only a few hundred students currently graduated in November, the costs in preparation and expense would far outweigh the benefits of holding the extra ceremony.

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Moved (P. Allingham/L. Di Matteo) that the Meeting be adjourned. Carried. The Meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

With the assistance of Margaret Anderson gratefully acknowledged,

Millo L.G. Shaw

Secretary of Senate