Humber College Council held its second meeting of the Fall semester on Thursday, October 15 at the Lakeshore 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.

Lakeshore Campus Update
Wanda Buote, Principal, Lakeshore Campus, presented an update of recent and planned activity at the Lakeshore Campus:

• The Lakeshore Campus is integrated within the surrounding community and regularly participates in community events. This year, student interns ran events for Doors Open Toronto, the Pan Am Games, and Culture Days.
• This fall, the Lakeshore Campus welcomed 3,959 new and 5,162 returning students, including a high percentage of degree and graduate certificate students.
• New programs offered at the Lakeshore Campus this Fall include Graduate Certificates in Addictions and Mental Health, and Professional Writing and Communications, a Bachelor of Digital Communication, and an Art Foundations Certificate.
• Current and planned capital projects include the Welcome Centre, the Fitness Centre, the Centre for Entrepreneurship, expected to open in Summer 2016, and the Humber Art Commons, which opened in September and will feature four studios, gallery space, and office space to support the Art Foundations and Visual and Digital Arts programs.

Employee Engagement Committee – Draft Recommendations
Ray Dyck, Laurie Falvo, Jane Leaver, and Nancey Adamson presented early draft recommendations of each of the three task force groups of the Employee Engagement Committee. The task force groups correspond to each of the three key engagement topics identified in the Employee Engagement Survey administered in November 2014. After examining leading practices both within Humber and at other institutions, the draft recommendations include:

Communications Task Force

• Implement standard communication training for all employees, including mandatory module training for all new employees, templates for departmental newsletters, and access to templates with marketing brand standards
• Create a shared Humber calendar, automatically deployed to all employees, which will include the academic calendar, HR calendar, and calendar of significant student events, both school-specific and college-wide
• Encourage more informal interaction between senior administration and staff, including increased participation of senior administration at lectures, inclusion of a senior administration update section in the communiqué, the establishment of an Effective Communication Award, and the creation of more town halls and lunch-and-learns

Recognition Task Force

• Conduct a needs assessment to help improve on our current recognition practices
• Revise Humber’s recognition program, including creating a webpage outlining Humber’s formal recognition program
• Allocate resources for both formal and informal recognition at both the corporate and departmental levels.

Change Management Task Force

• As part of the business planning process, establish the requirement to identify, for each key initiative, what is changing for whom and when, and what impact this change will have
• As part of the project governance process, develop a change management scorecard and require each key initiative to develop a change plan and provide a monthly scorecard
• Establish a Change Management Office (CMO) with a mandate to implement change management standards, support strategic planning and project governance change activities, and support training and project execution as needed
• Develop and deliver related training to all project leaders and teams as required. Implement the methodology and change roles on key initiatives, and provide support via the Change Management Office, depending upon the size and impact of the project
• Develop and deliver foundational change management/resilience training to employees

Academic Plan Update
Humber’s Senior Vice President Academic, Laurie Rancourt, provided an update on the development of Humber’s Academic Plan.

A survey was administered June 10-18, 2015, and a total of 433 responses were received (57% faculty, 23% admin, 20% support staff), with all schools and divisions represented. The open-ended questions prompted comments from over 280 individuals, indicating that respondents are looking for more opportunities for dialogue and discussion.

The priorities of the evolving academic plan align with those of Humber’s 2013-18 Strategic Plan, and include the following goals:

Strengthening our Polytechnic Identity

• Focusing on research and innovation, strengthening internal pathways between credentials, and establishing Centres of Innovation (COI) in areas including innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and indigenous knowledge.

Focus on Teaching and Learning Excellence

• Focusing on teaching and learning practices that are relevant to the 21^st century student, incorporating flexible learning strategies, and teaching essential skills and critical thinking

Maximizing the Impact of Partnerships

• Focusing on Program Advisory Committees and other relevant committees

Next steps include establishing an interactive website, consulting with individual departments and schools, and holding open college-wide consultation sessions on the following dates:

• preliminary - October 26 and 28, 2015
• post-draft - December 2,  3 and 4, 2015
• post-implementation - February 17 and 18, 2016

In addition, College Council will be establishing an Academic Plan Task Force, tasked with providing feedback and advice to the Vice President Academic on issues related to the articulation and implementation of Humber’s 2016-2021 Academic Plan.

Please send comments and questions to academicplan@humber.ca

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, November 12, 2015 at the North Campus.