College Council Highlights - October 12, 2017

Humber College Council (HCC) held its second meeting of the 2017-18 academic year on Thursday, October 12th at the Lakeshore 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.

Bargaining Update

Gina Antonacci [Associate Vice-President, Academic] and Lori Diduch [Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness] presented a bargaining update.

Christa Hinds [Manager, HR Client Services and Academic Relations] and Gina Antonacci have been working closely with the Union over the last few weeks in regards to contingency and work stoppage planning. In the event of a work stoppage, all post-secondary courses and continuing education activity will be stopped. It is likely that a few select offsite activities will continue such as athletic events. There are concerns that some students are not aware of the potential work stoppage so there will be ambassadors at the North and Lakeshore campuses on October 16^th to provide strike information to students. Student questions can be referred to the Dean of Students via email.

It was also noted that the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and technologies will continue to be provided during a work stoppage. A hotline will be set up with those who feel uncomfortable crossing the picket line. All public transportation will not use the bus loop, but rather stop on Humber College Blvd.

Office 365

Steve Camacho [Director, Technology Services, ITS] presented on the implementation of Office 365.

Office 365 is a suite of cloud-based software services from Microsoft. It is not software that you install but rather is a service we subscribe to that works with existing software. Office 365 is complementary to the Office Suite of products such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Other products include e-mail, calendaring, OneDrive and Office Online. Office 365 is hosted by Microsoft in Canada.

There are numerous organizational benefits, including: the capacity to grow without additional licensing costs, monthly updates and releases, increased storage, infrastructure managed by Microsoft, and improved disaster recovery.

Over 600 employees have migrated to Office 365 with plans to finish migration for all staff by early 2018.

Enrolment Report and Enrollment Planning

Gina Antonacci, Barb Riach [Registrar, Office of the Registrar] and Kelly O’Neill [Dean, Program Planning, Development and Renewal] provided an enrolment report and noted the SEM process informs the five year enrolment plan.

Enrolment Update:

Barb Riach noted that the spring/summer semester had an audited enrolment of 4,961, which exceeded the  target of 4,589. The projected audit for fall 2017 is expected to be 26,290, which will exceed the budget target of 25,971. An audit will run November 1^st and will help inform the budget model. It is expected that Humber will meet the budget target established in annual enrolment planning for winter 2018. Over the next week, the Registrar’s Office will begin to receive applications for fall 2018.

Highlights:

• Large growth in certificate programs and technical programs. Many of those students will continue at Humber after completing a certificate
• Growth in fully online programs
• Increase in online courses—these are often the first sections that fill
• Over 400 students were awarded block-transfer and advanced standing into a diploma program based on their previous education
• 1,400 students received recognition for 2,785 courses completed at other domestic and international postsecondary institutions.

There was a significant increase across the board in international students. It was noted international students are condensing studies to meet work permit and residency requirements and are often completing in 75% of normal completion time.

Program Planning, Development & Renewal would like HCC members to have more participation in the program planning process and can send feedback/suggestions to pprd@humber.ca.

The next meeting of College Council will be held Thursday, December 7th at the 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

Humber Galleries welcomes Danica Evering to the newly created role of Education Officer. Over the coming months, she will learn about and engage with Humber’s communities to reach students, faculty, staff, neighbours, and the broader field of contemporary Canadian art. 

Danica is an artist, researcher, and curator. Through writing, sound composition, and artistic programming, her work thinks through difficulty and belonging, reaching out intentionally, and complicating narratives. She brings her experience with responsive education and experimental projects to foster unexpected connections between people, art, and ideas. She is a part of the editorial team of Publication Studio Guelph, a sibling studio of an international publishing network that attends to the social lives of books, and a board member of Kazoo! Fest, a new music and art festival and year-round music series. 

Previous to this, she worked for almost four years at Musagetes, an international philanthropic organization dedicated to connecting art to multiple communities. Her work at Musagetes drew connections between art projects, communities, and the local context of mid-sized cities as she developed creative strategies and responsive programming virtually and in person. She is in the final stages of obtaining her Master of Arts, Media Studies at Concordia University, Montréal, where her thesis investigates how artists and organizations critically approach outreach.

Danica’s contact information:
danica.evering@humber.ca
416.675.6622 x79378

About Humber Galleries:

The Galleries are a pair of engagement points for Humber students, faculty, community members, and neighbours: North Space (North Campus) and L Space (Lakeshore Campus). Humber’s polytechnic model is the “third way” between the university and the trade college; it blends the creation of new knowledge and the solving of real world problems. Because we are located within Humber College’s polytechnic environment, Humber Galleries is a space where contemporary art and polytechnic learning come together and influence each other. Humber’s core values of creativity, innovation, problem-solving, adaptability, and collaboration guide our mandate.  

Humber Galleries is an accessible venue. For additional information, contact alissa.firth-eagland@humber.ca, visit humbergalleries.ca, or find @humbergalleries on social media. 

Humber Galleries are situated on the traditional territories of the Ojibwe Anishinabe people in Adobigok, meaning “Place of the Alders” in the Ojibwe language. This region currently encompasses several First Nation communities including families from the Otter, Turtle, and Amik (Beaver) clans.

In Canada, November 11, Remembrance Day, is also referred to as Poppy Day or Armistice Day. The same day in the US is Veterans Day. In the Netherlands, Remembrance Day is May 4. In Australia and New Zealand the day of the same significance is ANZAC day, which is celebrated on April 25.

Despite different names, dates and times in different countries, what these days have in common is the desire to remember and pay tribute to the men and women who have served their country in war, conflict and peace.

On Remembrance Day in Canada, on the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we all take two minutes from our busy schedules to keep silence. It’s our personal, respectful remembrance for the thousands of heroes who have lost their lives in wars and peacekeeping missions.  

Remembrance Day is more than a single day to remember. It is an acknowledgement of, and thanks to, all soldiers and civilians who have risked their lives in war zones, fought in unimaginable conditions and lived every moment wondering if it would be their last.

That realization was brought home to me this summer when I took a trip to Malta. In Valletta, the capital, there is the Commonwealth Memorial for the 2,700 airmen who lost their lives in World War II.

As I walked up to the monument, I found the name I came to see: Ian Alister Colquhoun, my uncle, for whom I am named. He entered the New Zealand Air Force, then trained in NZ and in Winnipeg with the Royal Canadian Airforce. He was then seconded to the Royal British Airforce to join the fighting in Europe in the early stages of World War II, based in Gibraltar, flying Wellington Bombers.

An experienced navigator and pilot with more than 700 hours of flying, his plane was shot down by a German submarine near Sicily. He and the pilot were killed and the other four airmen parachuted out and were picked up by a merchant ship. He was just 24 years old.

Many of you will have similar stories to tell – many sad stories of those who didn’t return and many happier ones of those who did. For me, visiting that memorial in Malta brought home the realization that neither myself, nor my children have had to experience or endure the horrible emotions of war.

It was sobering and sad to sit in front of my uncle’s name. I asked the same question my grandparents must have asked themselves after losing a son at war: for what?

For me, now more than ever, Remembrance Day means more than simply remembering those who have defended us from territorial invasion. On a fundamental level, their bravery has ultimately defended our Canadian values of freedom, democracy and human rights, and has made our country a safer place for those rights to exist.

The two minutes of silence we observe is a mere sliver of time when every minute of every day we are the grateful inheritors of freedom, independence, tolerance, peace and honour.

Let us never forget.

Alister Mathieson

The School of Health Sciences is proud to announce receipt of a Learning Resources Network (LERN) international award for a recent Continuing Education marketing campaign. The campaign, which highlighted pathways, student success stories, and key department personnel, was spearheaded by Alexander Vesia and resulted in a 12 per cent increase in enrolment and a 20 per cent increase in revenue. Congratulations to Alexander, Nazlin Hirji (CE Director), and the entire team on their success.

Jason Powell
Dean, School of Health Sciences