Award Recipients

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has consistently put in extra effort and been called upon to ensure that the Humber community is informed of the ongoing and frequent changes in public health and government direction, impacts on the college and operational decisions. Andrew, Emily, and Mike exhibited professionalism and brought calm to chaos throughout the pandemic. Many senior leaders relied on their expertise over the last year.
The team was responsible for all the Return to Campus materials that helped prepare staff and faculty for a new way of working or returning to campus with health and safety protocols in place. Throughout the pandemic, the Communications management team has taken on the reactive work stemming from the ongoing changes, while also remaining focused on proactive and strategic efforts and priorities.

Mike provided ongoing communications support for many Indigenous Education & Engagement events and initiatives. Mike and Andrew continue to support many strategic initiatives including communications for Work-Integrated Learning, the Centres of Innovation, and the Flexible Registration Project.

The Communications management team has continued to ensure that students are informed of changes to learning formats and program delivery, new health and safety measures, and the latest public health and government information. The team has also continued its regular and recurring work through internal storytelling on Humber Today and social media, media relations, and supporting events and initiatives key to the student experience.

Over the last year, Emily and Andrew responded to interview requests from Humber Journalism students and Andrew was a frequent guest speaker for public relations classes. Andrew and Emily also provided sector leadership by presenting the team’s work at the annual Marketing and Communications for Post-Secondary conferences in October and May. Andrew also hosted the May conference.

Since March 2020, many of the initiatives and events have become much more communications-driven or focused. There have also been several new initiatives and reimagining of key events like Convocation or Open House that the team has led or supported.

With the move to virtual town halls, Communications developed a new coordinated schedule designed to provide information on key initiatives and operations and align with other opportunities for employee engagements. The team has created resources and provided expertise to help other areas plan and execute these kinds of virtual events.

The team worked with CHRED to develop executive and institutional statements in support of anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, the impact of COVID-19 in India on the college’s South Asian community, among many others. Mike has contributed to the EDI Taskforce communications as well.

The team also supported Faculties, programs, and individuals that were subject to community and media criticism, often working long hours, evenings, and weekends to protect Humber’s people and reputation.

Andrew also contributed significantly to the Real Estate Education Program by providing communications leadership as the program transitioned to fully online delivery as a result of the pandemic and college closure in March 2020. Andrew was helpful and integral in supporting and providing issues management and crisis communications counsel many times over the last year, as the program addressed issues related to COVID updates, online proctoring, and learner engagement, among others.

This dynamic threesome was responsible for the inaugural, “Beyond Covid-19: Global Systems Gap Challenge”. They conceived of and designed the project, marshalled a tremendous amount of support from both inside Humber and with academic partners around the world, then implemented and ran the challenge themselves.

They have demonstrated extra effort, dedication, and commitment to our mission, goals, values, and strategic directions. Despite the massive complexity and myriad of challenges that arose as a result of the pandemic, the Global Education and Academic Partnerships team designed, built, and implemented a world-class, innovative, strategic project that impacted the lives of hundreds of students and dozens of Humber faculty and staff members.

The team has provided efficient and effective services, in spite of increasing demands, to support student learning. The challenge was accomplished by the three-person Global Education and Academic Partnerships team with the support of departmental colleagues in IT, Customer Service, and Marketing.

By providing quality services with scarce resources, they have gained the respect and credibility with the Humber/the University of Guelph-Humber community. The project provided a unique internationalization opportunity to dozens of Humber faculty and staff members at no direct cost to Humber.

In March of 2020, the changes that were the result of COVID-19 had a significant impact on Humber as a community. Drastic measures were needed to assist students, faculty, and staff to ensure the successful transition to remote work, teaching, and learning.

Within days the team rallied to provide not only enhanced but also brand new services to ensure that students, faculty, and staff had the tools and support they needed to be successful, proving how high their level of commitment and dedication is to serving students, faculty, and staff.

Considering this same team was facing the very same challenges that the community was experiencing themselves but continued to ensure that others had the support they needed, is nothing short of amazing.

The list of enhancements and new services is extensive, among them are Virtual Coaching, Long Term Laptop Loans, Student Internet, and virtual Events, that clearly demonstrate the lengths the team is willing to go to ensure the success of our students, faculty, and staff.

Virtual Coaching is an enhanced version of our in-person group sessions that we previously offered. As the college transitioned to remote work, teaching, and learning, there were several gaps that showed up in what people knew, needed to know and what they were comfortable with. The areas that the coaches provide training on is a constantly evolving list of topics. This requires the team to constantly be learning new thing while supporting the existing systems. This is a tailored, individual service that has been identified as “providing exceptional support for clients”.

It was immediately apparent that without access to the computer labs onsite that many students would be at a disadvantage or unable to complete their courses. Working with our Seneca partner who also needed laptops, the team was not only able to rent over 600 laptops within a few days, but they were also able to drive cost down! However, over the course of the year laptops were purchased from a vendor and swapped out with the rentals to guarantee they work for our students and are going to last. The team worked hard to ensure that the right program was designed and implemented to be as efficient as possible. The current program can support 900 students.

The one thing that is required to do online learning is internet. Not all students have access to this for several reasons. The team had to develop a quick, sustainable, and cost-effective solution for this. Working with our cellphone provider, they were able to develop a service that had internet to students within 2 days of them asking for help.

Events are an opportunity to ensure that the community can hear about current situations, get information, and ask questions. As a result of the pandemic, it was even more important to ensure that everyone had access to these. The events team had to quickly find the right solutions for all the different types of events that had to move online. Each one has its unique challenges and requires a creative solution.