NEW DATE: Faculty Council Meeting - Friday, October 11, 2019 - Deadline for Agenda Items - Friday, October 4, /2019

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL
MINUTES
September 12, 2019

 A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 10:00 am in ATAC Board Room 5036 / Orillia 3041 – Teleconference/PolyCom/videoconferencing.  

M. Stevenson, Chair of Faculty Council, welcomed everyone to the meeting followed by a round of introductions.  
Introduction of New Faculty
L. Chambers introduced Dr. Jessica Jurgutis, a new faculty member in the Departments of Indigenous Learning and Women’s Studies and the Social Justice Program.  Dr. Jurgutis is on a three-year term appointment.

1.
Approval of Agenda
 
It was moved by J. Jarman and seconded by G. Colton that the agenda be approved.
        Carried.

2.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of minutes from Thursday, May 2, 2019.
        The minutes were reviewed and accepted.  
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
None.
4.
Dean’s Report

L. Fiddick:  Assistant Dean’s Report - Orillia Campus (Sept. 12, 2019)
Enrollments are up in Orillia. On last year’s Nov. 1 census date, there were 570 SSH students in Orillia. This year’s number is 672, an 18% increase. Half of this increase is due to an uptake in the concurrent education programs. Last year there were 133 concurrent education students. This year there are 192, a 44% increase.

Numbers are also up across all year levels. The incoming cohort increased from 197 to 220, a 12% increase. Second year students increased from 148 to 203, a 37% increase. Third year is up from 147 to 155, and fourth year is up from 70 to 94. (If these numbers don’t seem to square with those reported above, that’s because they don’t take into account the few students in their 5th year of study).

I am continuing to help with the advising of students on the Orillia campus, though there have been few requests from first year students for advising. Likewise, there have been almost no requests for advising on IS’s concentration programs. These remain under-enrolled, but they continue to give coherence to IS’s programs even without students officially enrolled in the concentrations. Given that the concentrations impose no additional financial burden on the department, their under-enrollment poses little concern. One of the things that I would like to accomplish as assistant dean is promoting the concentrations, especially as a means of differentiating our programs from those found elsewhere. The Environment in Politics and Culture and Human Nature concentrations in particular are unique in Canada, as best I can determine. If anyone has any suggestions for promoting the distinctiveness of these and the faculty’s other programs as a means of recruiting students, I’d appreciate your sharing them with me. I’d also appreciate it if faculty passed along any information they might have regarding student retention. Have any students mentioned they or their fellow students leaving or considering leaving Lakehead for elsewhere, dropping out, etc.? In particular, have they mentioned their reasons for doing so? Any information along these lines, even if anecdotal, would be appreciated.


J. Roth:  Assistant Dean’s Report - Thunder Bay Campus (Sept. 12, 2019)

1.  SEM meeting:  2 pieces:
Retention:  our Faculty has lowest retention rates across the board, and specific concerns with Orillia first to second year last year (dropped from 84% to 73%).  Jen will be digging into numbers to establish a Faculty Retention Task Force, hopefully developing a faculty-wide retention strategy / model.
Differentiation:  what makes LU programs – and the University – different from other universities.  Student enrolment is an ongoing concern, and not meeting the SEM targets will have follow-on repercussions in terms of funding.

2.  Numbers:
Thunder Bay:  Down 11 students from last year (to 948 from 959):  there is no clear trend where we’re losing or gaining students.  Some programs are up in one program stream, but down in others, for example.  
Orillia:  See report from L. Fiddick – Assistant Dean.

3. Funding Sources:
Funding sources will be available from the Dean’s office and is open to feedback and ideas: watch for an email calling for interested people to sit on the Adjudication Committee.  Committee members would ideally have experience sitting on evaluation Committees like PTR or Merit, where they have to work with the Collective Agreement and evaluation metrics.

Travel Funds:
It was suggested that travel funds be available for all those who are members of the bargaining unit.

Retention:
There was some discussion with regard to retention issues for the Faculty.  J. Roth is in the process of developing a faculty-wide plan to address the problem of retention.  She asked that if anyone has ideas/suggestions, to email her directly.

Small Research Grants:
It was expressed by some faculty members that these funds should not be restricted to those with SSHRC or other funding sources.  Newer faculty members who have not yet achieved SSHRC funding should be encouraged to apply. 

Course Releases:
It was suggested that no one faculty member get a course repeatedly; although it was stated that in certain situations, one might have to depending on what it was for.  These releases should be used to help as many faculty members as possible with the process being transparent and equitable.  There was discussion regarding the teaching focused positions and how the might also apply for the course releases.

5.
Calendar Changes
i)    English:
It was moved by A. den Otter and seconded by J. Jarman that the following calendar change for English be approved.
(2019-SOC-6972 A – HBA English transfer from Con. College Film Production Diploma)
        Carried.

ii)    Languages:
It was moved by S. Jacoba and seconded by G. Colton that the following calendar changes for Languages be approved.
(2018-SOC-6657:  Courses Modifications - UG- Languages - French for Beginners. Changes of specification)
(2019-SOC-7034:  Deletion of Lab Hour)
(2019-SOC-7035:  Precisions about the course)
        Carried.

The following calendar changes for Languages were deferred to the next Faculty Council meeting:

2019-SOC-7037:  Discontinuing Module (French 4533.
2019-SOC-7038:  Discontinuing Module (French 3815.
2019-SOC-7039:  Discontinuing Module (French 4517.
2019-SOC-7040:  Discontinuing Module (French3835.
2019-SOC-7042:  Discontinuing this Module (French 4515.
2019-SOC-7043:  Discontinuing this Module (French 2611.

iii)    Outdoor Recreation:
It was moved by M. Johnston and seconded by L. Chambers that the following calendar changes for Outdoor Recreation be approved.
(2019-SOC-7010:  Course changes in HBOR transfer program)
(2019-SOC-7014:  MES-NBRT no longer being offered)
        Carried.
6.
Departmental/School Reports

i)  Women’s Studies
L Chambers stated that her department was very happy to have Dr. Jurgutis as a member of their department.  She also stated that the “brown bag” series will be held again throughout the year which will include a talk from B. Birmingham.

ii)  Music

G. Colton reminded everyone that the Lumina Concert Series will be starting again with a performance by E. Chugunov on Tuesday, October 1, 2019.

iii)  Interdisciplinary Studies

J. Jarman announced that A. den Otter was the new Coordinator for Media Studies replacing S. Jeppesen.

6.
Other Business
None.

7.
Next Faculty Council Meeting:   (Revised date to be announced to accommodate reading week.)

8.
Adjournment
 
The meeting was adjourned at 10:57 am.  

ATTENDANCE
 
Thunder Bay Campus
T. Puddephatt
R. Maundrell
K. Holmes
M. Johnston
S. Jobbitt
G. Colton
S. Jacoba
K. Burnett
L. Chambers
J. Roth

Orillia Campus
A. den Otter
M. Stevenson
A. Saulnier
J. Jarman

REGRETS
E. Chugunov
D. Ivison
I. Lemée