Humber College Council held its first meeting of the winter semester on Thursday, January14, at the North campus. As the Communications Liaison for Council, I will be reporting the highlights of the monthly meetings in order to keep the Humber community informed about upcoming events, new initiatives, and important issues. For more information on any topic, or to give me feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact me at lisa.salem-wiseman@humber.ca.

Bookstore Update

Paul Iskander, Director, Campus Services and Jeff Snook, Manager, Humber Bookstore, provided Council with an update on recent developments at the Bookstore. Since Jeff joined Humber in August, new initiatives include:

• Establishing pop-up stores at Carrier and Orangeville campuses, as well as at North campus residence
• Improving communication and building new relationships with Athletics, Radio Humber, HSF, and academic schools
• Introducing price matching (students receive gift cards for the price difference)
• Expanding print, rental, and digital offerings
• Modifying the return policy and the timing for returns

Moving forward, the Bookstore will continue to revise its processes and reach out to the Humber community. In addition, it will continue to work towards implementing Follett Discover, a tool that integrates into Blackboard and allows faculty to search and adopt textbooks online.

For more information, please visit: http://www.bkstr.com/humberitstore/home

New Programs

Offered by the School of Hospitality, Recreation, and Tourism, the new Graduate Certificate in Sport Business Management is a complement to the school’s successful three-year Sport Management Advanced Diploma, providing opportunities for students who already have a diploma or degree. The program fits into one of the priority areas identified in the 2014 Strategic Mandate Agreement – Health and Wellness. This one-year graduate certificate prepares students to work within the sports industry, with particular emphasis on management. Students will develop knowledge and skills in areas such as: the structure of the Canadian sport industry, marketing, sales, sponsorship, economics and finance, event planning and management, and business management skills. Graduates will be well prepared to work in many fields, including professional sports, amateur sports, sporting goods, sports facilities, college and university sport, sport communication, sporting event management, and sport marketing.

Two new programs offered by the School of Creative and Performing Arts represent the School’s expansion of its credentials to include graduate certificate pathways for diploma and degree holders. Both programs are fully online and are aligned with the 2014 Strategic Mandate Agreement, which lists media, arts, and business as priorities. Humber College’s two-semester, fully online Graduate Certificate in Music Composition will provide students with the unique opportunity to specialize in music composition, something lacking in undergraduate music programs across the country, due to their necessary emphasis on performance. With focused composition content at the graduate level, this program is intended for graduates of diploma or degree programs from varied music arts programs. This program will build on the strengths of Humber’s existing music programs and will create a new pathway for diploma and degree holders. It is responsive to the changing needs of the music industry, particularly in the Toronto area; many jobs in the music industry either combine composition with performance or are entirely composition-based. This includes music composition for television, video, and game production.

Humber College’s two-semester, fully online Graduate Certificate in Comedy Writing will provide students with the opportunity to develop their comedic writing across different forms, styles, and genres of humour, through the refinement of writing skills. Intended for graduates of diploma or degree programs from various disciplines, this program will be unique in Ontario and is responsive to the changing needs of the comedy industry, particularly the recent growth in internet-based print humour. Recent publications aimed at supporting careers in comedic writing speak of the importance of subject knowledge, understanding of industry and skilled writing across multiple styles. This program aims to address all of these areas of graduate competencies. Students will gain a practical understanding of the comedic writing and print humour industries through engagement with industry professionals, as well as with faculty.

Classroom Management and Humber’s Code of Student Conduct

Corinna Fitzgerald, Director, Student Life Programs, Lara Hof, Manager, Office of Student Conduct, and Shaun Carson, Manager, Campus Life and Student Conduct visited Council to talk about Humber’s new Code of Student Conduct. The Code of Student Conduct, launched in September 2015, includes elements specifically related to classroom behavior.

The Code of Student Conduct provides a framework to resolve issues of student conduct when initial attempts at resolution do not succeed. However, in nonviolent situations that may arise in the classroom, it is important to begin with a conversation. This includes naming the behavior, identifying the impact of the behavior on both the community and the individual, and acknowledging the need for the behavior to stop. Further steps might include issuing a verbal or written warning, or asking the student to leave the classroom, or calling Security to de-escalate the situation.

If this does not resolve the issue, the Office of Student Conduct provides consultations to collect the facts and reach the most appropriate resolution for the situation. The Office of Student Conduct works with the academic schools, the Department of Public Safety and the Centre for Student Wellness and Accessibility.  During 2014-2015, 194 students were involved with the Office of Student Conduct (across all campuses) for formal and informal processes. 

For more information, including a link to the Code of Student Conduct, please visit: http://www.humber.ca/knowthecode/

Marketing and Communications

Andrew Leopold, Director, Communications, and Olga Lalka, Director, Marketing, provided Council with an update on Marketing and Communications, The main responsibilities of Marketing and Communications are to: co-lead (with the Registrar’s Office) Marketing, Recruitment and Conversion planning within the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) framework; maintain, build, and protect Humber’s reputation as a leader in postsecondary/polytechnic education; and consistently and creatively communicate and market Humber’s polytechnic vision and identity.

• Marketing and Communications is made up of three main areas:
  • Advertising, Branding, and Publications
  • Including the Humber brand and visual identity, web, print, and outdoor advertising, viewbooks and course calendars, and brand research

• Web and Digital Marketing
  • Including humber.ca, web design and development, and consultation

• Public Relations, Media, and Communications
  • Including media relations, video and multimedia, Humber Today (newsroom, web, print), internal communications (HTV, Communique), executive support, writing and editing services, publications, and event support

In 2015, Marketing and Communications supported over 50 project requests from various schools and departments, produced over 400 media stories, over 150 Humber Today stories and videos, and posted Humber success stories on social media, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

For more information, please visit: http://www.humber.ca/brand/

In keeping with Council’s 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, February 11, at the North Campus.