College Council had its third meeting of the fall semester on Thursday, November 13, 2014, at the North campus. In the interest of keeping the Humber community informed about upcoming events, new initiatives, and important issues, I will be continuing to report the highlights of the monthly meetings. For more information on any topic, or to give me feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact me directly, at lisa.salem-wiseman@humber.ca
A Candyland Christmas: Humber Staff and Children’s Christmas Party
On Saturday, November 29 from 8:30 am – 11:30 am, the L Building at the Lakeshore Campus will be transformed into four levels of Candyland for the annual Humber Staff and Children’s Christmas Party. The event is organized by students from the Public Relations Postgraduate program as part of their Event Management course, and is sponsored by the President’s Office with support from the Faculty and Support Staff Unions. Highlights will include cookie decorating, a chocolate fountain, a candy bar, balloon animals, a bouncy castle, ball hockey, and of course, a visit with Santa himself (including an age-appropriate gift).
Tickets are $6 for children and $8 for adults, and can be purchased at the North and Lakeshore Campus Bookstores or at candylandchristmas.eventbrite.ca
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Human Resources Update
Kathy Cowan-Sahadath, Director, HR Services, informed Council that Humber College has embarked on a strategic initiative to renew our human resource platform. The new Human Resource Management System (HRMS) will provide a common platform that will serve as the central source of information across the college. Current HR activities at Humber entail significant manual documentation, multiple sources of data, and multiple systems that present a challenge when it comes to meeting future needs. The new HRMS will replace existing systems with a single, standardized solution that will act as a facilitator of Humber’s HR strategy and overall strategic plan through the delivery of more efficient and streamlined business processes.
The request for proposals for Humber’s new HRMS was issued in September, the deadline for vendor submissions was October, and Humber is currently conducting demonstrations and reference checks, and evaluating pricing. The contract will be signed in December 2014 and the anticipated start date is January 2015. Change management is an important part of the process, as Humber prepares for a new HRMS. This includes building capacity and capabilities for the future, sharing best practices for work-life balance, and communicating with stakeholders throughout the process.
New Programs
Members of council learned about three proposed post-graduate certificate programs. These offerings support Humber’s commitment to providing a wide range of pathways for students. All three of these certificates will provide opportunities for further studies to students currently enrolled in degree or diploma programs.
Although Humber is recognized both nationally and internationally as having one of the best undergraduate music programs in North America, we do not currently offer any graduate programs in music. The new three semester post-graduate certificate in Creative Music Business, offered by the School of Creative and Performing Arts, will create pathways for Humber students who want to pursue a career in music business or production. This new program will prepare students to work in any number of non-performance areas of the music industry, including music production, distribution, contracts, marketing, promotions and sales, fundraising, and artist management. As in Humber’s highly successful Creative Book Publishing program, the first two semesters of the proposed program will be delivered in a condensed format from April to August, followed by a fall semester placement. This alternative format has the advantage of allowing immediate entrance after completion of an undergraduate degree or diploma program, thereby supporting pathways for students.
Humber’s current Strategic Plan includes a commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship. While these values are embedded in the curriculum of many programs at Humber, the two- semester post-graduate certificate in Entrepreneurship and New Enterprise Management, to be offered by the Business School, is Humber’s first program wholly dedicated to entrepreneurship. The program will provide students with the core skills that they need to develop, start and/or manage a new enterprise or lead within a small or medium sized enterprise (SME), and will address all main functional management areas from an SME perspective, including research, marketing, legal and financial aspects of business. A culminating placement will connect students with employers and the capstone project will enable students to develop a comprehensive business plan for a new business enterprise. This program offering, in conjunction with the Centre for Entrepreneurship (opening Fall 2015), will provide students with an important destination for entrepreneurial innovation.
Humber College’s three semester post-graduate certificate in Post-Production, offered by the School of Media Studies and Information Technology, will give students a measured blend of technological skills, creative and critical abilities, and thorough knowledge of industry practice and organization. The proposed program will be the only graduate level program in post-production in the Ontario college system. The intensive focus on post-production during the year of study allows students to become highly specialized, but also provides them with a foundational understanding of digital technologies, so they emerge prepared for work in a constantly changing industry that requires ongoing adaptability. The program will successfully prepare students to enter the workforce as post-production professionals in picture editing, sound editing and mixing, visual effects and the burgeoning field of multi-media content and digital assets delivery and management.
Update on Humber’s Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM) Framework
Humber College is using administrative data to inform student success strategies that will shape future enrolment and support for student success. Chantal Joy, Director, Advising & Student Academic Support, and Jelena Dukic, Coordinator, Assessment & Analysis shared some data with members of CouncilIn order to focus on the risk factors that have the biggest impact on the greatest number of students, the data was collected from students in diploma, advanced diploma, and degree programs, which accounts for 85% of the student body. Data sources used include the HELP Survey and the KPI Student Satisfaction Survey, as well as external sources such as OCAS and OSAP.
The information shared included the following:
- there is a statistically significant correlation between program retention and the answers to KPI questions 26 (The OVERALL quality of the learning experiences in this program) and 51 (You know at least one person you can rely on for useful information (e.g., teacher, counsellor, other staff, student).
- respondents to the HELP survey have statistically significantly higher program retention than non-respondents
- The identified risk groups include but are not limited to: students who have an admission GPA below 80%, students who applied between April and September, students who are under 21 years of age, students who spend five hours or less a week studying, students who identify themselves as having poor time management skills, and students who do not participate in orientation.
The information that is being gathered will help Humber to develop targeted institution-wide retention strategies.
In keeping with Council’s new mandate to report back to the President on key items, members of Council met in small working groups to discuss the evening’s presentations and to make notes that will be brought to the President. The next meeting of College Council will be held on Thursday, December 4, 2014 at the North Campus.
