Thank you for your ongoing commitment and leadership during these challenging times.

We continue to be proud of the way the University of Guelph-Humber (UGH) community has come together to support our students and each other.

We know that you are receiving many questions from students about plans for fall semester program delivery and on-campus services and operations.

UGH is working with both the University of Guelph and Humber College as it develops its fall program delivery plans. We are anticipating more teaching and student life activity on campus as of September, but the nature of course delivery and activities is still being determined. We are monitoring how the vaccine rollout is proceeding as well as changes to government and public health guidelines that would affect current physical distancing or class size cap requirements.

While UGH faculty and staff begin to prepare this spring for Fall 2021 program delivery, we are moving forward with the recruitment of a new Vice-Provost to lead the University of Guelph-Humber. We had originally hoped to start recruiting for this critical role last fall and are pleased we are now able to begin this process.

We expect recruitment to start in June after U of G’s names its new Provost and they begin in the role. George Bragues has graciously agreed to continue to act as Guelph-Humber’s interim Vice-Provost until end of the year. We thank George for his efforts and commitment during the past year.

We have also started recruiting a new Head of Finance and Administration. Brenda Whiteside will continue as interim Director of Administration and Student Services until the end of June and support the transition of this new hire.

We have accomplished so much togetherduring the past year and supported our students in many different ways. We will keep you updated on plans for Fall 2021 and on these recruitment activities during the coming months.

Warm regards,

After more than 10 years managing both the Office of the President and the Humber Board of Governors, Deborah Green will be retiring in September 2021. After a successful career as an executive assistant to CEOs in many sectors, Deborah came to Humber in 2009 as EA to the VP Administration & CFO. One year later, she was asked to become the executive assistant to President John Davies. Deborah has worked with me since 2012, becoming Director of the Office of the President and the Board of Governors in 2016.

Deborah’s high standards, dedication and professionalism established her as a role model and mentor to many. Her positive and friendly demeanour contributed to a supportive and collaborative work environment reflective of Humber’s values.

Please join me in congratulating Deborah and wishing her well as she leaves to spend more time with family and friends.

The Director of the Office of the President position will be posted in the coming days.

Chris Whitaker
President, CEO Humber I.T.A.L

Planner is like a project management software that allows you to organize your tasks, assign them to team members, and track the progress in real time. Best of all, you already have access to Planner at humber.ca/microsoft365 (you may need to click ‘other apps’ if you do not see it). You can pin Planner in a Microsoft Team for convenient access.

To learn more about getting started with Planner, sign up for a 1:1 coaching session.

Learn the basics of a variety of Microsoft 365 apps and WebEx by signing up to 1:1 Virtual Coaching at its.humber.ca/coaching.

The Orientation Team within Student Success and Engagement (SSE) has been working hard to continue to develop an innovative and responsive online product that will support and inform our students for the Summer 2021 term. We wanted to reach out to members of the Humber Community to provide important updates and information regarding Summer Orientation 2021. Below is a summary of what Summer Orientation 2021 will look like. Please note Summer Orientation will be fully online.

• Monday, April 12 we will launch Online Orientation:
  • Orientation Website: A hub/resource for new students, including our pre-recorded video workshops, digital swag, links to The Open Learning Centre and other key information (including those returning to campus). To view our current Winter 2021 website, please visit this link.
  • Our Welcome Video that highlights student voices and the strength in our equity and diversity at Humber will be featured on our website, along with being directly emailed to new students.
• Monday, May 3 we will host an “Orientation Mix & Mingle”:
  • A virtual event where new students can meet their Senior Orientation Leaders and move throughout various rooms that will have activities such as virtual games, a cooking class, music and chat and questions and answers room.
• Tuesday, May 4 to Wednesday, May 5 we will host Academic Orientation:
  • Meet Your Faculty Sessions: All new students will receive direct links to their session prior, as well as a reminder. Each Meet Your Faculty Session will be conducted through Blackboard Collaborate. The Orientation Team will provide all students and faculty with a Blackboard Collaborate link to use for their session, a PowerPoint template with Humber’s Land Acknowledgement, suggested learning outcomes and key student services information (optional for faculty to use), two Orientation Volunteers to introduce the session and take attendance as well as some best practice/Blackboard guidelines for Faculty to run their session. Similar to Winter, our team will host a “Lost and Found Room” for all faculty, staff and students to access during the three days should there be any questions or wayfinding concerns.
  • Note: All Faculty will be contacted shortly with more details pertaining to confirming Summer 2021 MYF sessions.
• Monday, May 10 to Friday, July 16 Orientation will offer students a Summer Calendar of Events:
  • This will be in collaboration with campus partners and include great interactive social media contests. In the Winter 2021 semester, the team delivered 25 successful events where new students were able to connect with new peers, and Humber staff and students, and we look forward to continuing this method of reaching our students virtually by way of intentional new student collaborative programming.

We appreciate everyone’s support as we roll out our Summer 2021 Orientation, should your students have any direct questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Kimberly Daniels (she/her), Coordinator Orientation & Student Life Programs (kimberly.daniels@humber.ca ) or Christina Alcena (she/her), Manager, Equity & Student Life (christina.alcena@humber.ca) directly.