Faculty Council Meeting

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL

MINUTES

 March 23^rd, 2015

Approved

A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, March 23^rd, 2015 at 9:30 am in ATAC Board Room 3004/OA 2006.

1.

Approval of Agenda

 It was moved by J. Roth and seconded by R. Martin that the agenda be approved.

 Carried.

 2.

Approval of the Minutes

 It was moved by J. Roth and seconded by R. Martin that the minutes of February 6^th, 2015 be approved as amended.

 Carried.

 3.

Business Arising from Minutes

  None.

 4.

Dean’s Report

 Dean’s Report to Faculty Council Meeting – Friday, March 23, 2015

CRC Chair Tier II

The search for a new CRC Chair Tier II ramps up this week with two candidate interviews, Dr Claire Battershill visiting on Wednesday and Dr. Tanasescu visiting on Friday. Both public presentations are at 2.00, and all faculty are encouraged to attend and present feedback to the Committee.

Reading Week – Oxford

This past reading week, I traveled with five students from the choral program to the UK visiting Oxford and London. While at Oxford the students toured the music manuscript collection at Christ Church, and sang an evening service in the Cathedral. In addition to acting as tour guide, I presented a public talk on my ongoing research in the Christ Church Music Library on the Litany attributed to Thomas Tallis.

Research & Innovation Week

My sincere appreciation goes out to all faculty members who participated in this year’s Research and Innovation Week. As you know, our faculty sponsored a visit and Keynote Talk by Dr. Antonia Maioni, which was insightful and well received. I also had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Brent Herbert-Copley, Vice-President, Research Programs, SSHRC. During this meeting I presented concerns about support for Social Science research, and in particular Humanities based research activities. While the number of applications to the SSHRC have increased, he assured me that the success rate (about 22%) has remained constant. When asked about support for course release from the council, he made it very clear that this would not be an option anytime soon.

Budget Process – Strategic Hires

A draft of the 2015/16 Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities budget has been released with no new information t report on this front. I can report to Council that the VP Academic has been able to secure 2 possibly 3 Strategic Hires across the institution and the one of these hires has just been confirmed for the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies on Orillia. This new hire brings the total of confirmed hires in our faculty to 6 and an additional hire for the CRC Chair position.

Orillia Travel

At the end of last week, I traveled to Orillia to meet with colleagues on that campus and attended a meeting with the faculty in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at which the VP Academic was in attendance. I also attended the opening of the Lakehead Research Centre for Sustainable Communities (RCSC) and would like to extend congratulations to Dr. Serajul Islam and his fellow member colleagues for an important first on the Lakehead Orilla campus.

5.

Assistant Dean’s Report

 Assistant Dean’s Report – March 2015

Our Faculty was well represented during Research and Innovation Week. Beginning on Saturday, the Departments of Languages and Visual Arts participated in the interactive display at the Intercity Shopping Centre in Thunder Bay. Isabelle Lemee ran the language lab, and the work of Mavourneen Trainor and visual arts students was featured. There was a lot of interest in seeing “artists at work,” and some students sold their paintings as a result. Many thanks to Isabelle, Moe, the students, and Roly Martin for participating and making the event a success.

On Monday morning, our Faculty hosted an informal breakfast session with Dr. Antonia Maioni to discuss issues and questions specific to SSHRC researchers. It was a lively discussion with 18 faculty members attending (on both campuses through videoconferencing). Many thanks to Michael Stevenson for taking care of the details for the event in the Orillia campus.

Dr. Maioni, in her role as President of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, officially opened the ceremonies, and gave the keynote address over lunch later on Monday. The lunch was well attended. She spoke about the value of research in the Social Sciences and Humanities, which is an important message to the university community as well as to the community at large.

On Tuesday, our Faculty hosted an event celebrating innovation in the arts featuring the Lakehead University Chamber Choir, conducted by our Acting Dean, Dean Jobin-Bevans, and the work of choreographers Edgar Zendejas and Hari Krishnan. The event was well attended by students, faculty, and community members, and during their stay Edgar and Hari also offered four workshops to local dance studios.

All of these events were co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation.

On Wednesday, the Undergraduate Research Conference took place at the Agora and Senate Chambers in the Thunder Bay campus. It was a successful conference, with participants in the poster and oral categories peer-evaluating and voting for their favourites from each Faculty. The winners from our Faculty were Sarah Shruiff, from ORPT, in the poster category, and Andrea Nahachewsky, from English, in the oral category. The winners attended a lunch with the President, the VP (Research and Innovation), and members of the organizing committee.

6.

Departmental/School Reports

i)  Sociology: It was moved by T. Puddephatt and seconded by J. Roth that the calendar changes for Sociology be approved.  (2014-SOC-4535 and 2014-SOC 4536). 

  Carried.

ii)  Music: It was moved by G. Colton and seconded by T. Dufresne that the calendar changes for Music be approved.  (2015-SOC-4926 and 2015-SOC-4297).

  Carried.

 7.

Other Business

i)  Budget Update:  D. Jobin-Bevans stated that the budget for our Faculty was in its final draft.  If any of the chairs/director would like to meet with him to discuss their own budgets, they can contact him to do so.  He also stated that if anyone still has money in their own budgets, to please use it for anything the department/school might need.  The fiscal year ends April 30^th, 2015.

ii)  Loading Sheets for 2015/2016 Academic Year:  This year, A. Tarsitano will be releasing the loading sheets to the Dean’s for review.  The resources must match the courses offered.  Courses with historically low enrolment and caps will be looked at.

iii)  Homecoming Event - October 2015:  D. Jobin-Bevans asked people to think about what events could be added to the homecoming events already scheduled.  Homecoming weekend will be October 2^nd to the 4^th, 2015.

8.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 10:05 am moved by J. Roth and M. Stevenson.

  Carried.

ATTENDANCE

Thunder Bay Campus

T. Puddephatt

D. Ivison

D. McPherson

D. Jobin-Bevans

B. Stolar

T. Dufresne

J. Roth

R. Martin

B. Vernier

G. Colton

Orillia Campus

A. den Otter

M. Stevenson

L. Fiddick

REGRETS

R. Koster

I. Lemée