College Council Highlights: March 9, 2017

Humber College Council (HCC) held its seventh meeting of the 2016-17 academic year on Thursday, March 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 feedback on the highlights, please contact denise.rooney@humber.ca or bhupinder.singhmalhotra@humber.ca.

Membership Updates, Elections

R. Handler, Vice Chair of College Council, provided a membership and elections update. Members are being notified of their term status and a call for nominations will be posted in the Communiqué by March 31. Nominations will close by April 13 and if necessary, elections will be held May 1-3. Results will be made available at the May 11 HCC meeting.

CICan 2017

R. Handler announced that the 2017 CiCan (Colleges & Institutes Canada) Conference is scheduled for April 30 to May 2. The theme for this year’s conference, held in Ottawa, is ‘Celebrating the 150th Anniversary’. Each year, the Humber Executive Team sponsors 2 members of College Council to attend.

Members were encouraged to visit the website to learn more about the conference and apply using the application form located at each table. A copy of the application form will be send by email to all members. Application deadline is March 31^st.

Information Technology Services (ITS) Update

S. Briggs, CIO, provided an ITS update in four key areas.

Guest Wireless – In August 2016, based on customer feedback and in order to improve efficiency, ITS launched guest wireless services that have allowed seamless access to Wi-Fi to all potential users coming to a Humber campus without making any prior arrangements. Users encompass prospective students, guest speakers, alumni and community members.

Online Print Credits – As a result of student feedback, changes were made last fall to replace the former print credit purchasing system to an easy online print credit purchase system available 24/7. The new system permits students to purchase print credits using debit, credit or PayPal.

Changes in Support Centre Model – In August 2016, changes were made to the Tier 1 client support model in order to improve timeliness and access to ITS support services. When clients call 8888 or from a classroom they are directed to a Canadian, third-party off-site business that processes all queries. This off-site provider also manages emails and web chat. S. Briggs confirmed that calls from classrooms and computer labs are the highest priority. ITS is tracking data, including the speed of answering calls and resolutions. A survey is randomly sent to clients for their feedback, which in turn helps ITS to improve service.

Academic Desktop Virtualization – Desktop virtualization is software technology that separates the desktop environment and associated application software from the physical computer. The software is delivered across a network from a data centre and, therefore, is not tied down to a lab or computer. As a pilot project, F112 (The Business School lab) has been using this technology since December 2015, as well as some sections of open labs and the Open Learning Centre. Benefits include:

• Increased student access to Humber licensed academic software. Currently, there are about 300 different titles for academic delivery. This technology allows students and faculty to connect to this platform by using their own laptop, and/or tablet on campus or off campus, as long as there is an Internet connection.
• Space required for the hardware is low and there is better utilization of the software license (i.e., currently we may license a software for a 40-station lab, when only 20-stations are needed).
• Online students will have better access to Humber-licensed software required for their courses.
• Sustainability: there will be considerable reduction in e-waste and power usage.
• This technology will enable schools and departments to make faster changes to software during the academic year, with minimal service disruption.

However, this technology has some limitations. It is not suitable for software that requires high processing power such as 3D animation and video. As well, there may be software licensing and compatibility issues.

Items to consider for the implementation plan include: software complexity, academic program alignment, organizational readiness and the hardware cycle

Future College Council ITS items to be discussed include:

• Humber Cloud Strategy
• Plans for 2017/18

Fiscal 2017-18, Business Plan, Risk and Budget

Presenters: S. Puri, T. Fattore, C. Johnston

R. Dhaliwal, Senior Vice President, Planning and Corporate Services and CFO, introduced the presenters and briefly discussed the Fiscal 2017-2018 Business Plan being presented to the Board of Directors on March 28.^. As well, she discussed how Humber is continuously improving the integrated planning process.

C. Johnston, Director, Strategic Planning and Institutional Analysis, provided an update on the 2017/18  Business Plan. New initiatives are based around Humber’s three pillars and foundations of the Strategic Plan:

1. Strengthening our polytechnic identity
2. Maximizing partnerships
3. Teaching and learning excellence

Other priorities have also been identified including: talent management strategy, awards and recognition programs, expansion of physical capacity through infrastructure projects, review of business requirements for disaster recovery and development of Humber’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan.

T. Fattore, Associate Vice President Administrative Services, provided an update on the different processes in place with respect to Integrated Risk Management (IRM). The six top risks identified for IRM in the current year are: enrolment planning, recruitment competition, IT disaster recovery, change management, labour relations and brand reputation.

S. Puri, Director, Financial Services and Planning, provided an update on the 2017/18 budget. He confirmed that Humber’s enrolment trend has grown over the past five years and has plans to increase enrolment by 2.5 per cent in the upcoming academic year. The budget is a projection that is based on the following assumptions: enrolment, grants, tuition and other fees, salary and benefit costs. Also factored in are other costs such as the partnership with University of Guelph-Humber, administration fees, strategic investments, Enterprise system requirements and Banner upgrades.

The total revenue projection for 2017/18 is $412.5 million and $403.0 million for expenses. Although total revenues are increasing, expenditures are climbing at a faster pace.

The budget will be presented for approval at the Board of Governors meeting on March 28.

The next meeting of College Council will be held Thursday, April 6 at North Campus. For meeting highlights, supporting materials, or opportunities to provide feedback please visit the College Council website at: humber.ca/wearehumber/staff/committees/college-council

Testing Services will be closing early or opening late on the following dates listed below.  Please keep these dates in mind when submitting tests and exams to Testing Services at oth Lakeshore and North. 

Testing Services will be closed all day on Friday June 16th for staff training.

Should you require further information, please contact Leah Barclay, Manager Testing & Intergrated Services at x4696.

View Paikin’s Talk on his New Biography of Former Premier Bill Davis.

On March 2^nd, Humber College was very pleased to host the first event of our 50^th Anniversary celebration year with Steve Paikin – award-winning journalist, author and host of TVO’s The Agenda.

Held at the new Centre for Entrepreneurship at Lakeshore Campus, the informative afternoon was a great start to our 50^th Anniversary as it featured Steve’s new book “Bill Davis: Nation Builder and Not So Bland After All.” Paikin’s work is the first major biography of former Premier Davis and chronicles his visionary accomplishments as nation builder and especially his founding of Ontario’s college system. 

As a special gift to Humber, Steve has kindly offered his new book for sale at $50, with $10 from each purchase going to support Humber’s 50^th Anniversary Scholarship Fund!

A limited number of the Bill Davis books are still available for sale. If you’d like to reserve your copy, and to support the 50^th Anniversary Scholarship Fund, please contact Sophia Reid at the Advancement and Alumni Office at 416.673.0152.

On Saturday, March 25, 2017 The Business School hosted the 2^nd annual Ontario Colleges Accounting Case Competition at Lakeshore campus. Twenty-two teams from 13 colleges competed in the daylong event. Teams were put to the test as they prepared a case for presentation in only two hours. Over 25 CPAs judged the competition.

This year’s winners are:

• 1^st place – St. Lawrence College
• 2^nd place – St. Clair College
• 3^rd place – St. Clair College

It was a great day and all that participated found it to be an enjoyable and educational experience.