Hot off the press! The 7^th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is now available. Copies of the manual are available at the North and Lakeshore libraries.

Highlights of the 7^th edition include:

• Guidelines for writing without bias surrounding age, disability, gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and intersectionality.
• Student-focused resources such as sample papers and annotated bibliography guidelines.
• Information surrounding ethical writing, including plagiarism and academic integrity.
• Updated reference examples for information sources including websites and social media.

Humber Libraries and the Math and Writing Centre are working together to develop new support materials for faculty, staff and students, including an update to the APA in Minutes video series. Both departments expect to transition to the 7^th edition APA Style in time for the Spring 2020 semester. Please stay tuned for updates.

A range of APA 6^th resources are currently available on the Library’s website.

The Math and Writing Centre offers students drop-in tutoring support for both writing and citation.

LRC Building Closure
​Sunday, November 10, 2019
7 a.m. to 7:30 am

No entry to any floor of the North Campus LRC during the power service shutdown.

Alternate study spaces are available at:

• E-link Lab D160
• E-link Lab H205

Access these labs through D Building entrance on the north side, by Tim Hortons.

For more information or if you have questions, please contact Daniel Alonzo at daniel.alonzo@humber.ca.

The Humber College Council (HCC) held its second meeting of the 2019-2020 academic year on Thursday October 10, 2019 at the Lakeshore Campus. To ensure the Humber community is informed of upcoming events, new initiatives, and important issues, the College Council reports the highlights of its meetings. For more information or to provide feedback on these highlights, please contact risha.toney@humber.ca.

Roundtable

Gina Catenazzo [Teaching and Learning] noted that the Educational Technology Committee (ETC) is offering FREE Virtual Lunch and Learn Webinars facilitated by professors from different colleges. Upcoming topics include “Designing Presentations and Online Lessons with the Brain in Mind” and “Launching a Domain of One’s Own Project”. For more information and to register, visit edtechontario.ca.

Summary: September meeting and introduction to the new format

Risa Handler [Chair, HCC] noted that HCC Executive and Humber’s Executive team reviewed feedback from the September meeting, and several changes to the meeting format will be adopted going forward. Some of these changes include materials and presenter questions will be circulated before each meeting, increased time during meetings for discussion and feedback and the meeting time has been reduced by one hour.

Academic Policy review

Gina Antonacci [Associate Vice-President, Academic] noted that it is the role of the Office of the Vice-President, Academic to review and amend existing academic policies and create new policies when required. There is a consultative process when reviewing and creating policies; HCC’s role is to provide valuable cross-sectional feedback.

Mid-term and final grade submission policy

G. Antonacci noted that there are changes to the current policy (dated 2013) in regards to requirements for mid-term grades, as well as responsibilities of Academic Staff and the Registrar’s Office. Midterm grades are not calculated in the official grade point average (GPA) and do not appear on the student’s official transcript. The goal is to contribute to student success by providing students with a realistic idea of their performance to date, which is important for our retention strategy

Retention and disposal of student work

G. Antonacci noted that this is a new policy and the intent of this policy is to ensure that staff understand what student work must be retained, how long the work should be retained for, how to warrant that the retention of work ensures protection of the individual’s right to privacy regarding personal and academic information. There is a requirement for a number of accredited programs to retain student work. This policy guides how long students work must be kept for and in what manner it is retained.

Program advisory committee policy

G. Antonacci noted this policy is a revision to the previous version dated 2013, and that the changes are related to holding a central event per year, as well as a formal orientation process, and providing an annual report to the Board of Governors (BoG). Program Advisory Committees (PACs) are subcommittees of the BoG.

Next steps: G. Antonacci will bring forward HCC’s feedback to the next Academic Framework Committee (AFC) meeting and will return to provide updates following the AFC meeting.

Humber’s Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILO’s)

Lara McInnis [Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Innovative Learning] provided an update of Humber’s ILO’s framework and noted that the initiative is part of the Career Ready Citizens pillar in Humber’s Strategic Plan. There have been many stakeholder consultations with HCC, students, industry and community partners. The framework will officially launch in March 2020.

L. McInnis noted next steps for fall 2019 that include: conducting a field placement assessment of the ILO’s in the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts; creation of an Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce and Sustainability faculty group; work with the Teaching & Learning team to embed the ILO’s in curriculum through the course outline system; and mapping the ILOs during program and course review.

Next steps: L. McInnis will review feedback provided by HCC and look to implement suggestions as the ILO team moves towards the launch and implementation of the ILOs. There will be a call for proposals for the ILO launch event scheduled for March 2020.

Engaging with the 2019-2024 Sustainability Plan

Lindsay Walker [Associate Director, Capital Development and Facilities Management] stated that HCC was consulted prior to the development of the Sustainability Plan, came back in April, and is now returning to share the completed plan.

Highlights of work of the Office of Sustainability include: events to promote sustainability; Integrated Energy Master Plan; 15% reduction in energy use since 2015; 28% reduction in water per student since 2018; and 5% absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 2015.

Next steps: L. Walker to review responses with a view to providing updates at a future meeting.

Debrief of new format

R. Handler opened the conversation of how the first meeting went using the new format. This feedback included: continue to email highlights to HCC members; provide a Word version of all materials in addition to PDFs; provide a digital option for providing feedback; and provide a version of the meeting package specific to the members and constituents.

The next meeting of the College Council will be held on Thursday November 7, 2019 at the North Campus. For meeting highlights, supporting materials, and opportunities to provide feedback please visit the College Council website.

Help us promote it!

At Humber, student success and retention are institutional priorities; understanding our students is essential to provide focus for student success initiatives. Every year, 3 in 4 incoming students successfully complete their first year. However, 1 in 4 leave the college within the first year. It is imperative that Humber is able to identify students at risk of attrition and initiate timely interventions.

The Humber Student Success Survey (HSSS) is one means of identifying students at risk. The survey is administered each year to students in all semesters after the fall midterm exams. The four purposes of the survey are:

1. To understand our diverse student population in terms of sociodemographic and other factors (e.g., culture and ethnicity, sexual identity, disabilities) so that we can assess the extent to which we are meeting their needs;
2. To understand students’ academic and career goals and the extent to which we are meeting them;
3. To identify students who may be at risk of attrition; and
4. To gain a broad understanding of students’ support needs to allow for service planning and resource allocation.

This year, all students will receive their personal survey through email between November 1 and 15.

Please help us to ensure a strong response to this survey by encouraging students in all years and programs to complete the Humber Student Satisfaction Survey (HSSS) so that we can continue to make a positive impact in their success!