Faculty Council Meeting

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL

MINUTES

 April 22, 2016

Presentation:

S. Browne from Institutional Planning and Analysis gave a presentation on the 2015 CUSC Survey of Graduating Undergraduate Students.

A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, April 22^rd, 2016 at 10:00 am in ATAC Board Room 3004/OA 2005.

1.

Approval of Agenda

It was moved by M. Beaulieu and seconded by I. Lemée that the agenda be approved.

Carried.

2.

Election of Chair and Vice-Chair of Faculty Council

M. Stevenson will continue on as the Chair of Faculty Council for the 2016/2017 academic year.

3.

Approval of Minutes

It was moved by A. Guttman and seconded by I. Lemée that the minutes from March 3, 2016 be approved.

Carried.

3.

Business Arising from the Minutes

None.

4.

Dean’s Report

Faculty Council Dean’s Report

Friday, April 22, 2016

ICR Committee Update

The ICR Committee is approaching the end of the first phase of the committee’s mandate to solicit and approve courses for a minimum of 18 hours of content that speaks to an indigenous perspective across all disciplines. The committee will be meeting one last time before the end of this academic year, and will likely meet on an ad hoc basis throughout the next academic year to approve new courses or to modify courses previously approved by the committee.

Website Development

By now, you will have received an email from Spencer Ranta, Director of Web Development Services. The purpose of the email was to engage Departments and Schools in an exercise currently underway to refresh, and in some cases, reconfigure information on the LU website about program offerings and departmental profiles. As you the web development team is aware, a vast majority of visitors to our website are prospective students seeking information about our programs. Spencer’s team is working to standardize program information across all units in an attempt to make this information easier to access, and separate it out from the information about academic units in the faculties. I would encourage you to engage directly with Spencer with your comments and content about programs in order that we might have this information up before the fall recruitment cycle begins.

Annual Reports

Just a reminder that faculty Annual Reports are due into the Dean’s office no later than May 31. You will want to be aware of a modification that was made to the report for the 2015/16 year which should be made available in an electronic format in the next week. Specifically, the language around the submission of reporting of responses to the subset of questions extracted from student satisfaction surveys has been clarified and more closely aligned to the Collective Agreement. As the Dean’s review of faculty Annual Reports is linked to the merit process, all Deans are asked to be very sure that Annual Reports received have been verified for completeness according to the Collective Agreement in an attempt to avoid issues with reports submitted for merit.

Reminder Re: Teaching Assignments

Just a reminder to Chairs/Director, please, that all teaching assignments be submitted to my office by the end of next week. I will be reviewing assignments and following up with individual Chairs/Director with questions.

AVP Research and Innovation Taskforce Re: Improving Research Capacity on the Orillia Campus

In the fall, the Interim Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation, struck a task force committee with a mandate to review research activities on the Orillia campus, and to come up with recommendations with a goal to improve research capacity in Orillia. The committee has met three times over the year with much of the discussion occurring around three main topics: availability of research facilities, undergraduate and graduate research engagement, and time release for research activities. The committee will likely wrap up its work sometime in the early fall, with a set of recommendations for the consideration of the VP Research and Innovation and the Provost moving forward.

Enrollment Numbers

At the time of the latest report from the Registrar's Office dated April 7, the application numbers looked slightly better than expected, with an overall increase to the University of 3.67% or 264 applications over last year. This number reflects a 6.03% increase to the Thunder Bay applications, and a disappointing 5.18% decrease, or a loss of 91 applications, to the Orillia Campus.

Travel

I will be absent from campus until Friday, April 29, traveling from Orillia to Toronto on Sunday to attend the ONCAT conference.

5.

Assistant Dean’s Report

A. Guttman informed everyone to watch for changes to our Faculty website.  She mentioned that if anyone has any upcoming events to be sure to send them to S. Viitala to upload to the website. 

A. Guttman mentioned that their was good attendance at the research events in March.  There was also an article in the Walleye.

The Orillia banner is now finished and will be delivered to the Orillia Campus in time for convocation.  A. Guttman stated that she is currently working on the next Faculty Newsletter.  She has also started the recruitment inserts for next year and will be contacting all departments/school. 

She also mentioned that there will be approximately 17 Global Studies students here next year from Japan. 

6.

Departmental/School Reports

i)  English

It was moved by A. Guttman and seconded by M. Beaulieu that the following calendar change request be approved:  2016-SOC-5696.

Carried.

ii)  Outdoor Recreation

It was moved by W. Curthoys and seconded by M. Beaulieu that the following calendar change request be approved:   2016-SOC-5698

Carried.

7.

Other Business

i) Undergraduate Research Internships

D. Jobin-Bevans described the Undergraduate Research Internship proposal in some detail.  He noted that we would need to develop guidelines and process for future years, but for this year it would have to be done on a more ad-hoc basis. It was decided that we should proceed with awarding internships in the Summer 2016.  There was discussion of how many weeks was appropriate given the amount ($4,000). The consensus was that 250 hours might be appropriate, but that D. Jobin-Bevans should consult with the Research Office and Human Resources to determine the appropriate number of hours.
He indicated that he envisioned the program being for third year students heading into fourth year.

ii) Accelerated Degrees

D. Jobin-Bevans reminded Chairs/Director to reply to his email about the Faculty of Education's proposal for accelerated Concurrent Education degrees.  The consensus was that the proposed model, which condenses the academic program but leaves the BEd as a two-year program, was far from ideal from a pedagogical and resource perspective. The reliance upon overload is unfeasible for some programs, and concerns were expressed about the stress placed upon students being forced to overload. Concern was also raised about the fact that SSH programs had not been involved in discussions to develop this accelerated degree.

iii) Review of the Student Code

D. Jobin-Bevans reminded everyone that the Student Code is currently being reviewed, and that he is leading the review of the academic dishonesty section of the Code. He encouraged members to provide him with feedback related to the current Code.

8. Next Faculty Council Meeting:  Friday, May 13, 2016 at 10:00 am.

9.

Adjournment

It was moved by B. Vernier and seconded by K. Holmes that the meeting be adjourned.

  Carried.

ATTENDANCE

Thunder Bay Campus

D. Ivison

I. Lemée

A. Guttman

G. Colton

D. McPherson

R. Maundrell

B. Vernier

M. Beaulieu

P. Cain

W. Curthoys

Orillia Campus

D. Jobin-Bevans

B. Visser

L. Fiddick

C. Lousley

REGRETS

M. Stevenson