Academic Council met on March 15, 2012 at the North Campus. Here are the highlights of the meeting:
Professional Development Opportunities
Paul Corey and Chris Irwin announced the third annual LAS conference, “The Culture Factor,” to be held September 28-29, 2012. As with the two previous conferences, the goal is to bring Humber faculty and staff together around a common topic for academic discussion, building relationships across the various schools at Humber. In addition, for the first time, other Ontario colleges will be invited to participate. This year’s keynote speaker will be Governor General’s Award-winning author Marq de Villiers, whose most recent book is Our Way Out: First Principles for a Post-Apocalyptic World. His talk, “Culture and the Economy,” will take place on Friday, September 28 at 4 p.m., followed by a day of faculty presentations on Saturday. The call for papers will be appearing regularly in the Communiqué, and the conference planning committee encourages faculty from all academic schools to submit proposals and/or plan to attend. Proposals for individual papers, panels or workshops should be approximately 250-500 words in length and include a description of all presentation requirements (AV, etc.). Please email proposals to LASConference@humber.ca by Friday, May 18. For more information, please contact Paul Corey or Chris Irwin.
Academic News
Elaine Popp, Barb Riach, and Ann Dean provided an update on the approval process for degree breadth courses. To date, the Degree Breadth Approval Committee has received fifty-seven breadth course submissions, and is currently evaluating submissions to ensure compliance with the PEQAB (Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board) requirements. Breadth courses are divided into upper and lower levels, and are classified into three categories: Society, Culture and Commerce; Arts and Humanities; and Science and Technology. Since January, the committee has approved twenty different courses, with thirty-seven still under review, and has selected a number of courses to offer for Fall 2012. Currently, the committee is continuing to review courses for Winter 2012.
Student Success and Engagement
Jen McMillen, Director of Student Access, Wellness, and Development, informed Council about the new Student Support and Intervention Procedures, designed to support students who are exhibiting behaviours that may be harmful and/or threatening to themselves, others, the educational process, or the Humber community in general. Development of the procedures was initiated early in 2011, and an advisory committee was struck, including representation from a variety of areas across Humber. The committee has been working to ensure that there is a policy in place that facilitates our intervention in situations having significant impact on the individual and/or community. The policy establishes three different levels of concerning behaviour, and outlines appropriate responses for each, in the interest of fostering a community of care at Humber. The proposed process will allow the college to act when someone is not well enough to be in school and will also provide the student a pathway to return to Humber when they are healthy.
In the interest of keeping the Humber community informed of new initiatives at the college, I’ll be reporting on the highlights of the monthly Academic Council meetings. For more information on any topic, or to give feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact Lisa Salem-Wiesman directly.