College Council Highlights: January 11, 2018
Humber College Council (HCC) held its fourth meeting of the 2017-18 academic year on Thursday, January 11, 2018 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 denise.rooney@humber.ca and bhupinder.singhmalhotra@humber.ca.
Chris Whitaker Remarks
Chris Whitaker, President of Humber College opened the formal proceedings with introductory comments. He mentioned several Humber newsworthy accomplishments including Lakeshore Campus receiving Fairtrade status, the retiree’s dinner and the upcoming career milestone awards.
Chris noted that the date has been set for the Faculty strike award and that the college is in strike recovery mode and working hard to support each other. The college is currently preparing the operating budget for the next fiscal year keeping in mind the new funding formula. As well, with the introduction of Bill 148 the college is still determining the impact and costs to the budget.
School of Media Studies & Information Technology
Guillermo Acosta, Dean, School of Media Studies and Information Technology, provided an informational update on the breadth of programming, facilities and initiatives the school offers.
Highlights included:
- Thirty-six programs in the School of Media Studies (SMSIT) including: certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas and degrees.
- The school has developed multiple common platforms and semesters which allow students the flexibility and options to change programs. This past year 28 students successfully switched from one program within the school to another. The school believes this will help with retention rates as students have better options and flexibility.
- The Usability Lab is a unique Humber designed State of the Art lab available for students, staff and industry to understand usability testing at a high level. The studies performed in the lab are collaborative and help users solve design problems and study user experience. It was noted that Humber’s usability lab was designed by Humber, in consultation with IBM and BlackBerry and is one of a kind in Canada.
- The school has developed a free open source program in accessible design and accessible media. The program can be found at humber.ca/makingaccessiblemedia. This course is module based and takes 15 hours to complete. To date over 400 students have received their certificate of completion. The accessible media study module is an opportunity for all staff and students at Humber, but it is a requirement for some staff and students in the SMSIT.
What’s next for the school?
- Areas of interest and development include: virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive design, e-sports, usability, user experience and accessibility.
Humber Libraries
Cynthia Mckeich, Director, Humber Libraries and Alexandra Ross, Advisor - Library Special Projects provided an informational update to College Council on “Where we’ve been and where we’re going”.
Highlights included:
The Library Top 5
- Library Spaces – High demand spaces that suit a variety of studying styles, with five service desks across three campuses. There were over 690,000 student visits in 2016/2017. The group study rooms were booked 25,800 times.
- Services – Research help is available in person, by appointment or online through AskON (library.humber.ca). 450 Information Literacy classes were taught last year with both faculty and students reporting that 88% believed they did better on an assignment after having taken the library class. The copyright team investigates questions and provides guidance for faculty, staff and students.
- Resources – 70% of collection is electronic, with access to over 2.4 million ebooks, 72,000 journals, 34,000 streaming videos, 108 databases.
- Library team – the entire team focuses on supporting student success. The team includes faculty, support staff and administration.
- Student Engagement and Outreach – Therapy dog Percy visits weekly at the North Campus, 2 Little Free Libraries at Lakeshore, Recess stress buster event, Food for Fines program, monetary fines are donated to student bursaries.
New in the Library
- Cynthia Mckeich officially joined the Library team as Director in August 2017.
- Technology lending has increased with the addition of 30 laptops, phone chargers, portable plugs, and calculators.
- Website was redesigned and launched in September 2017.
- Employee Engagement Pulse Survey – 96% of staff feel valued for the work they do.
Future Plans
- Departmental Operational Review tabled winter 2017 is shaping how the Library is moving forward.
- Plans to develop a shared vision and mission for Humber Libraries.
- Collaboration and partnership with Academic Schools, Information Technology and Facilities Management on different initiatives.
Academic Calendar
Gina Antonacci, Associate Vice-President, Academic and Barb Riach, Registrar, Office of the Registrar provided an update on the 2018/2019 Academic Calendar.
Highlights included:
- The College will close for Winter break on Friday, December 21, 2018 at 6 p.m. The College will reopen Tuesday January 2, 2019.
- There are various end dates for programs because Humber runs 13, 14 and 15 week semesters.
- Ongoing discussions with IGNITE, faculty and staff to finalize Fall Reading Days dates.
Ernestine’s Shelter and Raffle
Amy Azzopardi from the School of Health Sciences coordinated with various schools to organize a fundraising raffle which raised $515.00 for Ernestine’s Shelter through ticket sales to council members. As well many departments and schools donated supplies and gift cards to support the shelter.
The next meeting of College Council will be held Thursday, February 8, 2018 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