Humber College Council held its ninth meeting of the 2019-20 academic year on Thursday, May 9 at the North Campus. To ensure the Humber community is informed of upcoming events, new initiatives and important issues, College Council reports the highlights of its monthly meetings. For more information or to provide comments on the highlights, please contact lydia.boyko@humber.ca.

Roundtable

• Nancey Adamson, HR Manager, Education and Training Solutions, noted that nominations for the President’s Awards are due May 24, 2019 and are open to employees of Humber and the University of Guelph-Humber. Categories include faculty, support staff, administrative service, sustainability, research, and a new category, internationalization.

Aboriginal Resource Centre (ARC)

• Five members of Humber’s ARC provided an overview of their initiatives involving Humber communities.
  • Regina Hartwick, Manager, ARC, discussed the Indigenous Cultural Markers at the Lakeshore Campus, which represent the coming together of many peoples over many generations. The Indigenous marker at the Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation describes the Anishinaabe path of life and the Seven Stages of Life. For Humber’s Culture Days in the fall, the ARC is planning an event showcasing the markers.
  • Quazance Boissoneau, Aboriginal Liaison Officer, described her work with regional Powwows and community gatherings, and with athletes at the Indigenous Games. Quazance also works with the Aboriginal Post-Secondary Information Program and the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund to recruit students. She mentioned that Humber runs the only media program south of Sudbury that brings information to the northern communities.
  • Kaitlin Phillips, Aboriginal Student Support Advisor, described student success and wellness, indicating that the ARC is a home away from home for students. Her work includes the Annual Indigenous Awards Gala and Aboriginal student movie nights.
  • Kevin Vose-Landivar, Coordinator, explained Fit-Nish (short form for Anishnaabe), a program series intended to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle for ARC students and staff. The series includes events such as snow tubing and rock climbing, and introducing transit systems such as the TTC for students to learn about the city.
  • Lorralene Whiteye, Indigenous Outreach Coordinator, described her work with Humber’s Culture Days, including a focus on traditional teachings, medicine walks and beading, and gives students an opportunity to practice their culture. She also spoke about the Indigenous Knowledge Gathering, which brings together students from other colleges and community members and gives them a platform to discuss current events affecting their communities.

Centres of Innovation (COI)

• Gina Antonacci, Associate Vice President, Academic, discussed the multi-disciplinary network approach to the COIs, which are intended to be “innovation catalysts, solving real-world problems, developing new applications and preparing students to drive progress in an era of unprecedented change.” The COI network is supported by six academic faculties with expertise in more than 180 program areas; the Applied Research & Innovation Department; and applied skills and corporate training. As open-access spaces, the COIs are intended to provide opportunities and support for experiential learning, international initiatives, government/industry relations activities, program advisory committee work, and fundraising/advancement.

Digital Campus Plan

• Scott Briggs, Chief Information Officer, provided an update on Humber’s Digital Campus Plan, anchored in seven “guiding principles”:
  • Digital first, but not digital always.
  • Digital approaches will be natural.
  • Digital is for everyone at Humber.
  • Digital will create new capabilities, be innovative and involve taking risk.
  • Digital will provide experiential opportunities.
  • Digital will advance accessible education.
  • Digital will require responsible stewardship of resources.
• The digital plan has four objectives:
  • to transform the learning experience for students;
  • to enhance and to support innovation across the Humber community;
  • to reach new learners and to increase access to education; and
  • to work “smarter” by making data work harder.
• Specific strategies and tools responding to the objectives feature a new digital wayfinding app at the North Campus, including accessible routes, coming this fall; a “next-generation “ Learning Management System; extending Humber Office 365 to students; developing a “digital electronic identity” for students through a “one-generation ‘Onecard’”; digital fluency coaching for faculty and staff; incorporating digital fluency into hiring practices; and aligning digital fluency to Institutional Learning Outcomes. 

Proposed Graduate Certificate:  Advertising – Art Direction

• Guillermo Acosta, Senior Dean, Faculty of Media and Creative Arts, and Bob Richardson, Associate Dean, presented details of a proposed new program that aligns with other programs in the advertising cluster, including transmedia and design, and with the Centre for Entrepreneurship through its integration with the Faculty’s internal creative agency, BuildingF.
  • The program is expected to be of interest to advertising and marketing graduates and professionals with an interdisciplinary background, including current advertising art directors to upgrade knowledge, graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, university communication and fine arts majors.
  • Subject focus will include branding, problem solving and fear of failure, storytelling and portfolio building.

Community Outreach & Workforce Development (COWD)

• Geraldine Babcock, Director, COWD, provided an overview of COWD, noting that its mandate is to support access to post-secondary education, training and the workforce for the “under-represented” populations, including Indigenous Peoples, newcomers, women and racialized individuals.
• Nivedita Lane, Manager, Community & Partnership Development, reinforced the cooperative aspects of COWD’s community outreach.
  • The team has 75 employees who serve five community employment locations in the GTA (Brampton, North Etobicoke, Central Etobicoke, St. Clair and Lansdowne, and Jane and Wilson).
  • They work with more than 40 government, industry and community bodies, and 360 employer partners.
  • More than 3,000 individuals have benefited from access to post-secondary education initiatives through COWD.
  • COWD has generated close to one million dollars ($900,000) in net profit for Humber.
  • Faculty and staff are encouraged to contact Babcock with suggestions for collaboration with COWD (geraldine.babcock@humber.ca ).

CiCan Update

• Lisa Anketell, Program Development Consultant, and Risha Toney, Admissions Officer, reported on their attendance at the Colleges and Institutes Canada (CiCAN) conference held in Niagara Falls on May 5-7, 2019. Under the theme “Inclusion: A Recipe for Success,” the conference was organized into six streams, including a focus on entrepreneurial approaches to education and going global. A common thematic thread was Indigenous education and applied research and innovation.

Retreat and Elections Update

• Departing and new College Council members will be recognized at the retreat on May 30, 2019 at the Lakeshore Campus. 

The next meeting of College Council will be held on Thursday, May 30 at the Lakeshore Campus. For meeting highlights, supporting materials, or opportunities to provide comments, please visit the College Council website.