College Council Highlights: December 2015

Humber College Council held its final meeting of the Fall semester on Thursday, December 3, at the North Campus. In the interest of keeping the Humber community informed about upcoming events, new initiatives, and important issues, I will be continuing to report the highlights of the monthly meetings.  For more information on any topic, or to give me feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact me directly at lisa.salem-wiseman@humber.ca.

Humber Gives Campaign

Guillermo Acosta and Steve Bellamy, co-chairs of this year’s Humber Gives campaign, spoke to Council about the opportunities for funding student awards and scholarships through this campaign, which began on December 1.

Last year, there were 240 donors from the Humber community (an 18% participation rate). The goal is to increase participation this year, so that more students can receive much-needed support and encouragement. Council heard from Cassandra Lewitski, a student in the Protection, Security and Investigation program and a recent recipient of the School of Social and Community Services Outstanding Achievement Award. It was inspiring to hear how receiving this award has bolstered her confidence in herself and her career path.

Donations can be made through payroll deductions and/or one-time gifts, and donors can choose to direct the funds to a particular school, program, scholarship, or award. For more information, or to donate, please visit humber.ca/giving

e-Learning: Addressing HCC Comments

Eileen DeCourcy, Associate Vice President, Teaching and Learning, and Mark Ihnat, Director, e-Learning, visited Council to address the feedback provided to the President after their e-Learning update in the spring. Many of the concerns raised by Council involved Blackboard access, training, support, and features. Their presentation included the following information:

• The three-week window during which faculty have access to a course prior to the start date is in place to prevent a large overlap in semester data in Banner. Also, since faculty course assignments are frequently revised leading up to the start of semester, limiting access to the three-week window decreases the risk of faculty losing their Blackboard sites. Faculty are encouraged to create content in a development site, and then move the content to the live site just before classes begin. The Instructional Support Studios are available to assist with course migration.
• A program-by-program evaluation of Blackboard minimum presence standards is currently underway. 
• The impact and risks associated with the enabling of publisher e-content in Blackboard are being explored, and discussions are ongoing about how using publisher e-content would fit into the Digital Learning Strategy. In the meantime, Humber’s Libraries offer a significant collection of digital e-content.
• There were 3800 faculty-Studio interactions last year, as well as over 200 Blackboard workshops. Blackboard help resources are continually updated and there are currently more than 60 help documents and more than 20 help videos available. The Blackboard Gold Master site has also been launched as a publicly accessible resource for all faculty.
• If a new Learning Management System were to be explored in the future, the plan would involve faculty, staff, and students.

Academic Planning Update

Laurie Rancourt, Senior Vice President Academic, introduced the new interactive Academic Planning website, which will be released shortly. This website is intended as a space for the Humber community to share ideas of academic importance, and includes a blog, as well as an area for questions, suggestions, and ideas.

A new College Council Academic Plan Task Force has been formed, made up of fifteen people from different groups across the college, with representation from all eight academic schools. The group will meet for the first time in January, after the release of the Draft Academic Plan.

2016-17 Integrated Business Planning Process

Corrine Johnston Director, Strategic Planning and Institutional Analysis, provided Council with an overview of the business planning process.

Spring 2015:                the executive team identified high-level priorities for 2016/2017.

Summer 2015:             strategic and operational initiatives were developed at the school and department level

Fall 2015:                    the executive triaged the proposed initiatives, and reviewed them for integration, risk, feasibility, interdependencies, and institutional impact. The Executive Advisory Council provided detailed input on the proposed initiatives.

Winter 2016:                the executive will review all proposed initiatives and the draft business plan will be presented to HCC in mid-January

Spring 2016:                finally, the Business Plan will be presented to the Board of Governors and to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

New and continuing priorities for the 2016/17 Business Plan include the following:  

• Academic Plan implementation:
  • Centres of Innovation
  • Humber Online
  • Academic pathways
• Strategic Enrolment Management
  • Marketing/recruitment/retention strategy
  • Integrated advising
• Infrastructure
  • Technology (enterprise systems)
  • Space (campus development plan, wayfinding, backfill, renovations)
• Employee Engagement
• Human Resources Management System
• Humber’s 50th Anniversary
• Brand study and review

As it does every year, College Council’s December meeting ended with a fundraiser for Ernestine’s Shelter, a shelter for women and children leaving violent home situations. Many items were donated, and a raffle was held to raise funds.

In keeping with Council’s mandate to report back to the President on key items, members of Council met in small working groups to discuss the evening’s presentations and to make notes that will be brought to the President.

The next meeting of Humber College Council will be held on January 14, at the North Campus.