Faculty Council Meeting - Friday, December 6, 2024: Deadline for Agenda Items: November 29/2024

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL

MINUTES

 Friday, November 15, 2024
 A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, November 15, 2024, at 10:00 am via Zoom.

1.
Approval of Agenda
 
It was moved by and seconded by A. Guttman and L. Chambers that the agenda be approved.
        Carried.
2.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of the minutes from October 11, 2024.  (A. Guttman; I. Lemée)
The minutes were accepted as presented.
        
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
None.

4.
Calendar Change Requests

i) English
It was moved by A. Guttman and seconded by K. Burnett that the following calendar change request for English be approved.
2024-S0C-8705:  Course Deletion ENGL 4113
        Carried.

It was moved by K. Burnett and seconded by D. Mackinnon that the following calendar change request for English be approved.
2024-S0C-8709:  New Course ENGL 3022 (cross listed with INDI 3012)
        Carried.

ii)  Gender and Women’s Studies
It was moved by L. Chambers and seconded by K. Burnett that the following calendar change requests for Gender and Women’s Studies be approved.
2024-SOC-7385:  Course Cross-list UG Department of Gender and Women's Studies (FREN-3603)
2024-SOC-8696:  Course-New-UG-Gender and Women’s Studies-3rd year Methods course
2024-SOC-8698:  Course-Discontinuing-UG-Gender and Women’s Studies-WOME 3133, 3310 & 4113
        Carried.

This calendar change request was relegated back to user for revisions,
2024-SOC-8700:  Course-Modification-UG-Gender and Women’s Studies-Title change for WOME 2711,
3355, 3356 & 4214

iii) Interdisciplinary Studies
It was moved by A. den Otter and seconded by D. Krupp that the following calendar change requests for Interdisciplinary Studies be approved.
2024-S0C-8704:  Courses-Modifications-UG-CRIM-Changes to CRIM 3355 title
2024-S0C-8708:  Discontinuation of MDST 3133/ WOME 3133
        Carried.

iv)  Languages
It was moved by S. Jacoba and seconded by Lemée, that the following calendar change request for Languages be approved.
2024-S0C-8733:  Elementary Oral French
        Carried.

v)  Social Justice Studies Program
2024-SOC-8702:  Course-Discontinuing- GR-Social Justice Studies-SOCJ 5113/ WOME 4113
It was moved by K. Burnett and seconded by D. Mackinnon that the following calendar change request for the Social Justice Studies Program be approved.
        Carried.

This calendar change request for the Social Justice Studies Program was relegated back to the user for
revisions.
2024-SOC-8703:  Course-Modification-GR-Social Justice Studies-SOCJ 5214/ WOME 4214

vi)  Sociology
It was moved by I. Lemée and seconded by E. Chugunov that the following calendar change request for Sociology be approved.
        Carried.

    5.1
Department/School Requests.
None.

5.2
Department/School Reports.
None.

6.
Dean’s Report.
November 15, 2024
Unavailable

7.
Assistant Deans’ Report
i). Dr. Jennifer Jarman – Orillia Campus
Glenda.   Our Dean visited Orillia and we had many topics and meetings planned. Unfortunately, she became sick almost immediately, spent a day in her hotel in bed, then went to Emergency at Orillia’s Soldier’s Hospital where she spent the remainder of her stay.  She has since been transferred to Thunder Bay and is at home on sick leave till January.  For the Assistant Deans, this has had several consequences: 1. None of the planned meetings in Orillia occurred, particularly not with VP External Mike den Haan, which was a meeting to discuss fund-raising, particularly for research chairs.  Other important planning meetings with respect to various Orillia matters also did not occur.  2. Both Tony and I have now had a month-long stint as Acting Dean added to our workloads, which we are happily willing to do, but it is rather startling.

SMA4 planning.  Heather Morrison (Institutional Planning) had asked the Deans for a second round of submissions re: SMA4 planning since she was not happy with the inputs that were given by deans in the first round.  With one day to produce this, I went through the Faculty website looking at curriculum changes for the past few years and I tried to make as many positive statements as I could about departments.  The main focus asked for was to try to identify places where there was the potential for 2% growth, as that is what is needed to keep pace with inflation.  Tony then added his thoughts and we sent that in, but haven’t heard anything more about it.  Maybe if Tony went to the Dean’s Council this week he can update us in his report and let us know if more SMA4 input will be needed, so we can prepare a little more thoroughly in future.

AACRAO conference. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGIATE REGISTRARS AND ADMISSIONS OFFICERS.  I attended a 4 day conference in Boston as the Orillia rep, along with a team of 8 people (7 of whom were from Thunder Bay).  It was a new type of conference for me, but I found it had a mixture of college and university administrators and deans involved with the management of student admissions, campus development.  I went to a number of sessions about trends in enrolment, and strategies of all types – I particularly focused on those about retention.

The timing of this conference was that we were there on American election day. There were 1,000 delegates, the vast majority of whom would have been Democrat voters and I can report how gutted many delegates were by the results.  Some, particularly from the southern states, had spoken about deputations by state legislators to find out how much funding universities were giving to EDI initiatives so as to cut university budgets by that amount, fears of deportation of students, the plan to cut the federal dept of education completely, and Trump’s plan to tax existing university endowments and build an “American Academy” were all under discussion.   

My own takeaways from this conference:  1.  Austerity backdrop:  students shifting to “Just enough, just-in-time” - meaning that students are opting for shorter and shorter programs and credentials – and dropping out when they get the job they were looking for – this has implications for “experiential learning” and the timing of “internships” if educational institutions are to see people complete their degrees.  2.  Splintering of the student market into several types: 1. Students who want a full-on in-person campus experience; 2. Students holding multiple jobs (right up the college-university spectrum and even including the Ivy League institutions including Harvard) who cannot afford “campus life” and have a clear focus on just the coursework – they need barriers dropped, non-traditional scheduling, and more online programming; 3. Adult learners without high school degrees and proliferation of programs aimed at simultaneous programs that involve high school/college/university accreditation.
Finally, I was struck by the extremely detailed, data-driven presentations about the student experience from application to alumni.

Fall Open House Orillia:  On Saturday we welcomed 413 guests onto campus, an increase of 33% from last year. Of those that attended 160 were future students (YOY increase of 28%!).   Good buzz and those faculty that represented their disciplines seemed happy with their experience given that we weren’t just sitting around, as has happened in the past, but busy talking with interested and mostly enthusiastic students and parents.   More interest in History than I’ve ever seen before, but also strong interest in English, Criminology, and Media, Film, and Communication Studies.  Many uncertain students and parents got enthusiastic about Interdisciplinary Studies, although the program, with its 16 disciplines usually has to be explained to them before they realize what a great option it is.   The importance of being a local option for those who want career options without leaving their homes was mentioned many times especially by parents in this cash-strapped time.

Awards.  The Research Chair awards are on hold until it is clear that we have the $16,000 a year needed to support them.  I have had email exchanges with Andy Dean to try to clarify Glenda’s plans, but he is only supplying $5,000 for one year, which is not enough for even one release.  Hopefully, I will have more positive information for the December meeting.  In the meantime, I suggest people concentrate on getting Research theme areas for CRC chairs in to Andy.

ii)  Dr. Tony Puddephatt – Thunder Bay Campus
Dr. Puddephatt thanked people for their feedback on the 4 year HBA general degree, he is working on changes and will try to return it for next meeting. He also thanked people for participating in the Global Studies graduate program consultation -- our faculty consultation was useful, the wider university consultation is pushed back into the new year, for when Dean Glenda Bonifacio returns. Dr. Puddephatt explained that Dr. Bonifacio is away on medical leave, with Dr. Puddephatt serving as acting Dean for the month of November, with Dr. Jarman taking over as acting Dean in December. Dr. Puddephatt thanked Susan Viitala and Jennifer Jarman for their support during this time. Updates about this situation will be shared as soon as more information becomes available.

8.
Other Business.
None.

9.
Next Faculty Council Meeting:  
The next Faculty Council meeting with be held in Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 10:00 am via Zoom.

10.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 pm.  (A, den Otter)

ATTENDANCE

Thunder Bay Campus
K. Burnett
L. Chambers
J. Chisholm
E. Chugunov
A. Guttman
D. Hannah
D. Hayes
S. Jacoba
S. Jobbitt
I. Lemée
B. Maiangwa
T. Puddephatt
C. Sanders
B. Vernier
R. Warburton

S. Viitala - recording

Orillia Campus
D. Akca
P. Das
A. den Otter
J. Jarman
S. Jeppesen
D. Krupp
D. Mackinnon

Regrets
B. Birmingham
L. Forbes
D. Hannah
B. Parker
S. Shahsahabi