Faculty Council Meeting - Thursday, December 5, 2019 - Deadline for Agenda Items - Thursday, November 28/2019

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL
MINUTES
November 15th, 2019
 
A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, November 15th, 2019 at 10:00 am in ATAC Board Room 5036 / Orillia 3007 – Teleconference/PolyCom/videoconferencing.

Presentation:
Mr. Joel Symons, Manager of Student Conduct and Case Management, gave a presentation on the New Code of Student Conduct.  A lengthy discussion followed the PowerPoint presentation.

1.
Approval of Agenda
It was moved by I. Lemée and seconded by J. Roth that the revised agenda be approved.
        Carried.

2.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of minutes from October 11th, 2019.
        The minutes were reviewed and accepted.  
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
None.

4.
Dean’s Report
November 15th, 2019
1.    There is now a meal card at coffee kiosk in Orillia for those who would like to get something before our Faculty Council meetings.
2.    Research and Innovation week at the mall—please do this. End of February.  I would love to see every Thunder Bay department participate in this event.
3.    I will be in Orillia next week.
4.    I shall be meeting all Chairs/Director about scheduling.  I will talk with you about last year’s numbers, available FCEs, etc.
5.    Holiday party? Maybe in January 2020.

5.
Assistant Deans’ Report
J. Roth:  Assistant Dean’s Report - Thunder Bay Campus (November 15th, 2019)
The conference I attended was very informative and provided a lot of information with regard to managing enrolment and SEM.

L. Fiddick:  Assistant Dean’s Report from Orillia (November 15th, 2019)
I’m currently working on three projects: a support group for first generation students, the development of international transfer programs, and exploring the potential for framing Interdisciplinary Studies concentrations as meta-majors.
1)    First Gen Support Group – Simcoe county has one of the lowest percentages of university graduates in the province, so a lot of the students at the Orillia campus are first generation students. The Orillia campus also doesn’t have as many student supports as the Thunder Bay campus does and many of the supports that are available are not particularly designed to meet the specific needs of first gen students. For example, first gen students do not necessarily face academic challenges. More often the challenges often revolve around the university culture – how things are done -- but also a lack of support / understanding from family members. For example, first gen students who are struggling are more likely to be encouraged by family members to drop out and seek employment instead. To address this need I’m working on putting together a support group with Orillia faculty members who themselves were first gen students. The group might have informal meeting with first gen students to answer questions that they have about how things are done – e.g., how to apply to grad school; how best to position themselves, study-wise to prepare for grad school, etc. – and share common experiences. Students attending such meetings might then be recruited to act as mentors in their later years of study for incoming first gen students.

2)    International Transfer Programs – Following on feedback from the deputy provost, there are two ways that departments might consider setting up international transfer programs. The first and easiest is to create an equivalency table that spells out which courses at a foreign institution are equivalent to those in the departments’ programs so that students from that institution can easily transfer credits on entering the department’s programs. This not need either Senate or ministry approval, but the department should work with the International Office to develop a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions. The second option, which does require Senate approval, but not ministry approval, is to design a pathway program with a prescribe set of courses at the foreign institution, then the last two years at Lakehead. No ministry approval would be required if the transfer is into a degree that already exists. If you are proposing to establish a degree that doesn’t already exist, then that is a different matter. The two-two option is the preferred method if there is a significant number of transfer students (more on this to follow).

3)    IS Meta-Majors – Georgia State University, a historically Black university in the US has historically had a problem with student retention and graduation. At least one of the problems is that students don’t know what they want to study, so they drift somewhat aimlessly from program to program, taking courses without much rhyme or reason. To address this, GSU introduced meta-majors and with some changes to scheduling formed freshman learning communities, within which students tend to see the same classmates again and again. The meta-majors don’t require students to pick a specific major from the beginning. Instead, they pick a general area of study, like social sciences, STEM, or business. The meta-majors thereby guide students in a general area that they are interested in, without forcing them to make a specific choice. The meta-majors are also designed to be very forgiving to indecision – i.e., students can explore somewhat without being put off track by taking courses that don’t contribute towards graduation. On the scheduling side, the freshman learning communities enable students to develop friendships with their classmates and peer supports that help them to get through the programs. The end result of these innovations is that GSU’s retention and graduate rates have increased substantially, as have student’s grades. Consequently several other universities and colleges in the US have started to implement the same changes.

These innovations might also be implemented in Orillia. The IS major is also very forgiving to students as it allows them to explore different disciplines without setting them back for doing so. In part this is because the IS major is requires fewer courses in each of two disciplines, but also because the IS major has no required courses within a discipline, beyond year requirements. In other words, there is no requirement that students take specific classes. However, this has also meant that students in the IS major often take an incoherent collection of courses. The IS major concentrations were introduced to address this problem, at least in part. They were meant to encourage students to pursue a coherent stream of courses, while still providing them with opportunity to explore the stream across several related disciplines.  In other words, the IS concentrations function very similarly to meta-majors in guiding students towards a coherent cluster of courses within a flexible and forgiving program. The problem IS has faced with its concentrations is that students do not tend to enroll in them (which is not a problem because the concentrations have solved other problems as well). However, if we recognize that the concentrations are similar to meta-majors, then we might encourage more students to enroll in them by drawing their attention to the benefits of meta-majors in terms of graduation and academic performance. This might, however, also require some scheduling adjustments to build complementary freshman learning communities. This would not likely translate well to the programs in Thunder Bay, but it seems well suited to the sort of programs offered in Orillia.

6.
Calendar Changes

i)    History
It was moved by S. Jobbitt and seconded by R. Maundrell that the following calendar change for History be approved.
2019-SOC-7108:  MA History Program Regulations
        Carried.

ii)    Languages:
It was moved by I. Lemée and seconded by J. Roth that the following calendar changes for Languages be approved.
2019-SOC-7079:  Course Modification-UG-Languages-Change to French 2101
2019-SOC-7119:  Specify the title to reflect what is being taught
        Carried.

iii)    Music:
It was moved by E. Chugonov and seconded by G. Colton that the following calendar change for Music be approved as amended.
2019-SOC-7117:  New Music Appreciation course
        Carried.

iv)    Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism:
It was moved by M. Johnston and seconded by R. Maundrell that the following calendar changes for Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism be approved.
2019-SOC-7010:  Course changes in HBOR transfer program
2019-SOC-7067:  Discontinuation of Outdoor Recreation 4920
2019-SOC-7068: New course Outdoor Recreation
2019-SOC-7082:  Program Modifications-UG-Outdoor Recreation
2019-SOC-7083:  Program Modifications-UG-Outdoor Recreation w/ Fac of Science
2019-SOC-7084:  Program Modifications-UG-Outdoor Recreation w/ Fac of Education
2019-SOC-7100:  Change to BOR4 program.
        Carried.

v)    Women’s Studies:
It was moved by L. Chambers and seconded by S. Jobbitt that the following calendar changes for Women’s Studies be approved.
2019-SOC-6949:  New course-UG-Women's Studies
2019-SOC-7107:  New Course-GR-Women's Studies
        Carried.

7.
Departmental/School Reports
i)  Indigenous Learning
It was moved by K. Burnett and seconded by S. Jobbitt that Dr. Angie Wong be appointed as an External Adjunct Professor for the Department of Indigenous Learning for a four-year term.
        Carried.

8.
Other Business

 i) Scheduling
D. Ivison stated that 20-25% of courses are to be offered at night commencing the academic year 2020/2021.  He stated his concern about the process as it does not require Senate approval nor was there any consultation with Faculty.  B. Birmingham stated that our Faculty was already at 21% for this academic year and stated that she was also unaware that this was mandated.  J. Roth stated that she had reached out to the Register and N. Maronese but has not yet had a reply.  A brief discussion followed.

9.
Next Faculty Council Meeting:  Thursday, December 5th, 2019:  ATAC 3004 / OA 3041; 10:00 am to noon.

10.
Adjournment
 The meeting was adjourned at 12 noon.  

ATTENDANCE
 
Thunder Bay Campus
R. Maundrell
K. Holmes
S. Jobbitt
K. Burnett
L. Chambers
D. Ivison
B. Birmingham
E. Chugunov
M. Stevenson
T. Puddephatt
S. Jacoba
J. Roth
G. Colton
M. Johnston
I. Lemée


Orillia Campus
A. den Otter
L. Fiddick
J. Jarman

REGRETS
A. Saulnier