College Council Highlights: December 2016

Humber College Council (HCC) held its fourth meeting of the 2016-17 academic year on Thursday, December 8 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 jean.o’donnell@humber.ca.

Roundtable

  • Council members expressed concern about the timing of registration for the winter semester (November 22 at 2 p.m.) and the difficulties faced by students and faculty. This concern will be brought to the attention of the Registrar’s Office and ITS for comment/explanation. 

President’s Update

  • C. Whitaker thanked HCC members for their work on the council outside of their regular roles, and welcomed everyone to attend the 2nd annual Executive Team holiday open house on December 16 (LRC 6th floor beginning at 2 p.m.). It was also noted that 2017 will be very busy with the following initiatives:
    • Two construction projects beginning in the new year: the Centre for Technology & Innovation and the North Campus parking deck.
    • Consultation and development of the 2018-2023 Strategic Plan. Cross-institutional consultations will begin in fall 2017, with many opportunities for participation.    
    • A new funding formula released by the Ministry.
    • The next Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) with the ministry which demonstrates our strengths and areas of differentiation. 

2017 KPI Process

  • C. Johnston, Director of Strategic Planning and Institutional Analysis (SPIA), provided an overview of our Key Performance Indicators (KPI), which are ministry mandated and must be completed annually. KPIs are important for performance assessment, accountability, and for measuring whether we are meeting our overall goals. The following details were included:
    • Deans and associate deans have been contacted to select courses; the next phase will be the recruitment and training of volunteers.
    • Humber surveys more students than any other college in Ontario. Last year we surveyed over 650 classes over a two week period. 
    • A KPI working group has been established to look at refreshing the student engagement process and promote the importance of KPIs.  Student focus groups indicate that more social media interaction, survey outcomes and appreciation events would be useful. 
  • Suggestions were welcomed, and it was noted that an appreciation event at Carrier Drive would be beneficial.

50th Anniversary Celebrations

  • O. Lalka, Director of Marketing, provided an overview of the activities and initiatives to take place in 2017 to celebrate Humber and the college system’s 50th anniversary. Branding to celebrate this milestone will include a logo, a 50th anniversary website (humber50.ca) as well as street and campus banners. Events will include 50 memorable moments (with each academic school featured for one month), a world of arts festival, official commemorative ceremony, speaker series, alumni day/reunion, and a ‘friends of Humber’ appreciation breakfast. All of these initiatives and events will be shared through the Communique, Humber TV, student newsletters and Humber Today. In addition to Humber events, Colleges Ontario will also be offering system-wide activities, including a $15,000 student award and a touring bus that will be at Humber on October 16, 2017.

Humber Gives Campaign

  • A. Cassiani and A. Marchese presented on the Humber Gives Campaign. This important initiative grows in popularity every year, but still only 14% of administrative staff, 12% of faculty and 3% of support staff donate. There are many more students looking for support than there are scholarships to offer. Gifts can be designated to any of the eight schools, the Board of Governors scholarship, other existing awards/scholarships, or in honour of someone. In recognition for our donors’ generosity, Gratitude Hall has officially opened at North Campus. For more information, please visit humber.ca/giving

Accommodations

  • G. Antonacci and J. McMillen presented on behalf of the Accommodations Task Force. It was noted that there is a tremendous amount of passion and concern around the issue of accommodations, which includes but is not limited to: processes that exist but need to be reinforced; a lack of understanding; and training needs. While the Accessible Learning Services department is tasked with providing actual support to students and faculty, the Accommodations Task Force looks at larger systemic issues related to accommodations. Analysis by the Task force will include:
    • How Humber can best support students in a holistic manner, with the aim to support the student’s human rights as well as the integrity of their learning outcomes together.
    • Providing accessible learning platforms in online learning courses.
    • Appropriate staff supports.
    • The development of a reasonable approach to course material design that is accessible and decreases the number of students requiring accommodations.

Revised Terms of Reference

  • R. Handler provided an overview of the revisions made to HCC’s Terms of Reference (ToR). The ToR provides information on the purpose and structure of HCC, which is reviewed every two years. The majority of revisions were to Council representative titles and the HCC sub-committees list. The revised terms of reference were approved as presented and will be posted on the HCC website.   

The next meeting of College Council will be held on Thursday, January 12 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