Faculty Meeting Friday, February 17, 2006

A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, January 13, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. in the ATAC Board Room 5035.

 

 

It was moved by M. MacLean and seconded by J. Leggatt that the agenda be approved.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

 

It was moved by J. Leggatt and G. Siddall that the Minutes of November 11th be approved.

 

                                                                                    Carried.                                                              

There was none.

 

i)          Fall Term Grade Submissions

This term the grading process was different.   Grades were to be verified before there was any release to students.  Marks were sent by e-mail from instructors to chairs and then on to the Registrar's office. Generally things worked well.  However, a minor problem occurred when the chair was also the instructor.  This will be rectified by the next round of grade submissions. The goal was to ensure that students received their grades before the holiday break so that decisions regarding their program could be made. 

 

Any issues with grade submissions should be brought forward to the Dean who will discuss them with the Enrolment Management Committee.

 

ii)         Cross-Listed Courses

Women's Studies will bring forward a proposal at the next Council meeting to eliminate cross-listed courses.  It is hoped that this can be put into place before the end of March. The major problems with cross-listed courses are:   determining who is actually responsible for them; where to send students; whether these courses are primary or secondary and how to count the course enrolment.  Women's Studies has taken on the task to forward a motion to eliminate cross-listed courses.  It is hoped that this will spark a debate at Senate.  This is not a controversial issue in our Faculty, but it may be so in other areas. 

 

iii)         Orillia

The grand opening in Orillia was attended by K. Fedderson, L. Hayes and L. Lovett-Doust.  Lakehead University was well received in Orillia and meetings have taken place with high school guidance counsellors, the Orillia city council as well as community members.  The grand opening saw 250 people participating and all were excited about the prospect of having a satellite of Lakehead University stationed in their Heritage Building.  As of January 11^th, there have been 116 high school applicants and of those, 39 have indicated Lakehead as a first choice.   It is unlikely that there will be 250 students registered in the program. It is expected that there could be 150 applicants and AEC has based the Orillia budget on this figure. 

 

A SS&H Orillia Committee is being established.  To date, H. Smith and D. West have volunteered their services.  The Committee still needs one representative from the Humanities and another representative from the Social Sciences to sit on the Committee.  The term for the Committee is until September, 2006.  K. Fedderson requested that faculty interested in serving contact him. 

 

It is expected that the Orillia groups from SS&H and the Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies will form a Steering Committee for the Orillia initiative.  Requests for departmental participation should be forthcoming by the end of the month.  Departments will maintain total authority.  The number of Orillia secondments between the two faculties is four.   There is a tentative plan with regard to curriculum and staffing   A discussion followed.  It was noted that departments who have colleagues chosen to serve in Orillia will be guaranteed term appointments to replace them.  The length of the terms has not yet been finalized.

 

iv)        Budget  2006/07

AEC announced in the fall that it would not fund any full-time tenure track appointments. Instead, two-year term replacements would be put into place for those faculty members who resign or retire from the University.  Two such positions have been approved for the faculty--one in Psychology and the other in Visual Arts.  Certain areas within the faculty have critical needs for full-time replacement positions such as Psychology who offers a Ph.D. program.

 

A revised budget will be submitted to deal with staffing courses for next fall.  This budget will address both part-time staffing and enhancements to supplies consumables.  Preliminary requests from chairs have been placed on a spread sheet and will be sent to the Vice-President (Academic) along with a written justification.  Those who have not provided their input, need to do so today. There will be a meeting with the Vice-President (Academic) on Thursday of next week to discuss these requests.   

 

Previously, it was hoped that sessional money could be moved into the base budgets of departments. It was also hoped that that course costs up to $10 per student could be provided.  However, it is uncertain what will happen currently.  An update will be provided at the end of the month. 

 

vi)        Academic Plan

K. Fedderson thanked departments for submitting their academic plans.  These plans have been bound and forwarded to the Vice-President (Academic).  The Senate Academic Committee will now deal with the Academic Plan and discussions should be completed by the end of April.  The Academic Plan will play a critical role in determining whether or not academic units will receive additional positions.

 

v)         BA-HBA/BED Degree Proposal

The concurrent degree proposal will be brought forward for discussion at the Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee next Friday at 2:30 p.m.  It is important that all chairs whose departments offer concurrent degrees attend this meeting as this is a highly controversial issue.  Chairs are welcome at this meeting, even though they are not officially invited.  The Faculty of Education does not support this proposal and has threatened to withdraw all their concurrent programs.  However, there is still a lot of room to negotiate and discuss at SUSC.  K. Fedderson and the Dean of Education will meet prior to the SUSC meeting. 

 

K. Fedderson will send out a reader-friendly synopsis of the proposal to chairs.  The complete proposal can be found in the Faculty Council website under the September meeting (doc. 5).  Chairs will be notified of the room where SUSC will meet on Friday.

 

V. Smith agreed to act as Council Chair while B. Strang spoke to the following motion.

i)          Calendar Changes - History Department

 

It was moved by B. Strang and seconded by H. Smith that the History calendar changes be approved.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

B. Strang resumed the role of Chair.

 

ii)         Calendar Changes - Music Department

 

It was moved by A. Carastathis and seconded by H. Smith that the changes for proposal #1 be approved.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

It was moved by A. Carastathis and seconded by S. Stone that the housekeeping changes for proposal #2 be approved.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

iii)         Calendar Change - Native Access

Connie Hartviksen, the Interim Coordinator for Native Access, spoke to the proposed calendar changes.  She noted that changes were made to the wording so that they would be more acceptable to adult learners.  She also informed Council that there was an ongoing search for the Counsellor position in Native Access.

 

An ambiguity was noted with the title change from "Native Access" to "General Access".   A discussion followed.

 

It was moved by C. Hartviksen and seconded by E. Epp that the course titles General Access 1191 and General Access 1192 change to University Transition I and University Transition II to allow for specialistic changes to the course descriptions.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

 

iv)        Calendar Changes - Psychology Department

 

It was moved by G. Hayman and seconded by M. Wesner that the Psychology calendar changes as well as those replicated in the concurrent education programs be approved with the proviso that the Psychology concurrent changes are approved by the Faculty of Education

.

                                                                                    Carried.

v)         Calendar Changes - Sociology Department

a)         Proposal for a Ph.D. in Sociology

 

It was moved by S. Stone and seconded by P. Wakewich that the proposal for a PhD in Sociology be approved in principal.

 

A lengthy discussion followed which led to the following three motions.

 

It was moved by R. Berg and seconded by S. Stone to call the question.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

                                                                                  (10 in favour,1 opposed).

 

It was moved by S. Stone and seconded by P. Wakewich that the proposal for a Ph.D. be approved in principal with the following changes:

 

p. 15   

"Admission"

 - 2^nd sentence - delete "applicants without a graduate degree" and add "candidate with a degree".

 

p. 16 

 "Program Requirements:"

- 1^st sentence - after "will take" delete "approximately" and add "at least".

 

p. 17

"Budgetary Implications"

- 1^st sentence - delete "space" and add "capacity";

-2^nd paragraph - 1st sentence - delete the apostrophe from "it's" and delete "every year".

                                                                                    Defeated.

                                                                                 (6 in favour, 8 opposed).

 

It was moved by T. Dunk and seconded by S. Stone that Council support the principal that the Sociology Department pursue a Ph.D. program

 

                                                                                    Carried.

b)         Sociology Calendar Changes

 

It was moved by T. Dunk and seconded by S. Stone that the Sociology calendar changes be with the following changes:

 

i           inclusion of prerequisites for 3309 and 3401

ii           an addition noting "no budgetary implications."

 

                                                                                    Carried.

It was moved by G. Hayman and seconded by H. Smith that Drs. Mary Donaghy, Steven Donaghy, Paul Johnston and Scott Sellick be approved as Adjunct Professors of Psychology for a three-year term.

 

                                                                                    Carried.

 

i           Faculty of Graduate Studies Council - Membership

 

K. Fedderson called for volunteers to serve on the newly formed Faculty of Graduate Studies Council.  He asked that nominations be sent to him by e-mail. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

           

 

R. Berg

T. Dunk

A. Den Otter

L. Di Matteo

E. Epp

G. Hayman

D. Ivison

D. Jobin-Bevans

K. Fedderson

C. Hartviksen

J. Leggatt

M. MacLean

G. Munro

A. Nabarra

C. Parkes

G. Siddall

H. Smith

V. Smith

B. Strang

B. Stolar

S.D. Stone

P. Wakewich

R. Warburton

M. Wesner

 

G. Colton

R. Farrell