Academic Council met for the fifth time this semester on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at the North Campus. Here are the highlights of the meeting:
Student Services
Shelley Charles, Aboriginal Elder/Manager, and Jonathon Araujo, Aboriginal Liaison Officer, gave members of Council an update on the exciting work being done by Aboriginal Student Services at Humber. Currently, there are approximately 400-450 Aboriginal students enrolled at Humber College. The Aboriginal Student Centre facilitates their transition to both Humber and Toronto, through providing personal, academic, cultural, and financial support. Humber’s Aboriginal Student Services is unique in the GTA, due to a number of initiatives:
- Humber is the only college in the GTA that participates in outreach to First Nations communities, visiting forty communities across Ontario
- Humber is the only Ontario institution to offer an Indigenous Knowledge Certificate
- Humber Library Services provides an Aboriginal Resource library guide, which is the first in the Ontario college system
- For more information, please visit www.humber.ca/aboriginal/
Community Outreach
A team from the Department of Community Outreach and Workforce Development informed the Council about the many ways in which Humber works in partnership with schools, community agencies and government to offer a broad range of programs and services to assist aboriginal peoples, newcomers, job seekers, and youth, including:
- Pre-entry advising, occupation-specific language training, and bridging programs for internationally trained immigrants
- Humber Community Employment Services, which offers free services to job seekers in five locations across the GTA
- Camp Choice, a three day residential education camp for elementary students to discover career options and experience college life. An Aboriginal Camp Choice is also offered.
Technical Services
Scott Briggs presented an update on Humber’s Acceptable Use Policy for Technical Services. All students, employees, suppliers, and guests of Humber are required to adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy at all times when using any of Humber’s technical services, either on campus or remotely. Examples of services covered by the policy include Humber’s data network, desktops, wireless network, Blackboard, email, telephones, printers/copiers, and laptops.
HR Services
Nancy Simms, Jodie Glean, and Jessica Bowen gave an enlightening presentation on the Centre for Human Rights, Equity, and Diversity. Its mandate is to ensure that diversity and equity are instilled as values throughout Humber’s inclusive culture. Its services include: education on human rights, equity, and diversity; early intervention into human rights related concerns and investigations; coordination of the employment equity program; and coordination of AODA initiatives. For more information, please visit hrs.humber.ca/diversity.
Academic News
The Business School is offering an Ontario Learn Certificate in Leadership. This is a six-course online certificate, offered through Ontario Learn, which exposes students to leadership concepts and approaches that allow them to be more effective in their present positions and to advance professionally.
The School of Applied Technology is offering an Ontario Learn Certificate in Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems. This is an eight-course online certificate, offered through Ontario Learn, which provides students with the ability to automate map production and to integrate earth imagery with other data to solve geographic problems.
Strategic Planning and Institutional Analysis
Ruth MacKay and Amy Kaufman gave a presentation on Humber’s Annual Report. They provided an overview of Humber’s results and accomplishments during the fourth year of implementing the strategies outlined in the Strategic Plan, and highlighted some key accomplishments of Humber students, staff and faculty over the past year.
Ruth MacKay and Patricia Van Horne provided an update on the KPI results. Humber is ranked first in the GTA for the capstone question “Overall your program is giving you knowledge and skills that would be useful in your future career.” As in previous years, each academic school is provided with an executive summary that assesses the school’s performance in each key area. A new update is that the results now also indicate which areas are correlated with student satisfaction, which allows schools to focus on the questions that have the greatest impact on student success and retention.
For more information on any topic, or to give me feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact email me directly.
The Department of English would like to bid a very fond farewell to Lucy Valentino. Lucy began teaching at Humber in 2005 and has served as coordinator of English at the Lakeshore campus since 2009. She joined Humber after a long and successful career at Centennial College where she began as a professor in the School of English and Liberal Studies and was later appointed Chair and then Acting Dean of the school. 
The Department of English would like to bid a very fond farewell to Stella Eyles who will be retiring this year. Stella began teaching at Humber in 1983. Her early experiences in Academic Upgrading and the Communications laboratory, coupled with her previous years of teaching at the secondary school level, set the stage for her career-long interest in remedial writing and helping students gain the language skills necessary for college and career success. 
