Report: UTM Academic Affairs Committee - September 12, 2022

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COUNCIL CHAMBER, ROOM 3130, W.G. DAVIS BLDG

REPORT NUMBER 46 OF THE ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

September  12, 2022

To the Campus Council, University of Toronto Mississauga

 Your Committee reports that it held a meeting on September 12, 2022 at 3:10 p.m. in Room 3130, W.G. Davis Building.

Present:
Laura Taylor (Chair), Sanja Hinic-Frlog (Vice-Chair), Alexandra Gillespie (Vice-President & Principal), Amrita Daniere (Interim Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean), Barend Beekhuizen, Andreas Bendlin, Steven Bernstein, Randy Besco, Brett Beston, Ilia Binder, Mahmoud Bitar, Tracey Bowen, Laura Brown, Jill Caskey, Craig Chambers, Ruth Childs, Michael deBraga, Margarida Duarte, Monika Havelka,  Shelley Hawrychuk, Rayan Hobeika, Tanjim Hossain,  Shashi Kant, Helen Kula, Danielle McLean, Asif Mohammed, Lorretta Neebar, Andreas Park,  Adriano Senatore, Jumi Shin, Hana Tariq,  Jaimal Thind, Soo Min Toh, Jonathan Weisberg, Ron Wener, Weiguo Zhang

Non-Voting Assessors:
Yen Du (Manager Academic Programs, Reviews & Quality Assurance), Tracey Bowen (Vice-Dean, Teaching & Learning), Mark Overton (Dean of Student Affairs), Ajay Rao (Vice-Dean Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs)

Regrets:
Rosa Ciantar, Varouj Aivazian, Uday Dhingra, Nawal Faisal, Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Tracey Galloway, Philip Goodman, Sarah Hillewaert, Anoosha Keshav, Tong Lam, Ciskas Luwawu, Michael Nixon, Gurpreet Rattan, Leigh Revers, Christoph Richter, Lindsay Schoenbohm, Sarah Sharma, Meghan Sutherland, Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi

In Attendance: Len Brooks (Director, PAC, MFAcc, Professor, Department of Management, IMI), Saima Zulqarnain, Program and Business Development Manager, IMIx Executive Programs)

Secretariat:
Cindy Ferencz-Hammond


  1. Chair’s Remarks
    The Chair welcomed members to the first meeting of the Academic Affairs Committee for the 2022-23 academic year. She introduced the Committee’s Presidential Assessors and new members, pointed members to the AAC’s orientation overview video and provided reminders about meeting procedures.
     
  2. Office of the Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean: Portfolio Overview and Priorities for 2022-23
    At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Amrita Daniere, Interim Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean, and Professor Tracey Bowen, Vice-Dean, Teaching & Learning, provided overviews of their portfolios and their priorities for 2022-23.
    Professor Daniere provided an overview of the structure of the Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean. She then summarized her office’s priorities for the 2022-23 year, which included the following:
    • Creating Self-Study Report and overseeing UTM’s Provostial Review;
    • Improving access to Sustainability/Climate Change education at UTM;
    • Unpacking Retention Patterns at UTM and Creating new Retention Strategies; and
    • Minimize Impact of Budget Concerns on the Academic Plan (current and future),

     Finally, Professor Daniere gave a snapshot of UTM’s fall enrollment.  UTM currently had close to 2700 domestic first year students and close to 800 new international students for total of just under 3500 first year students.  With respect to returning students, UTM had approximately 8000 domestic students and 3500 international students for a total of approximately 11,500 and a total headcount of over 15,000 students.

    During discussion of Professor Daniere’s report, the following points were made:

    • The six-year graduation rate was approximately 70%;
    • To improve the graduation rate, UTM was planning on making significant investments towards academic advising.  Plans included a dedicated advising unit and, potentially, mandatory advising for all first year students;
    • The required writing course, which was now available to 50% of first-year undergraduates, would help with community building.
    • Departmental advising played a major role once students were admitted to a program; 
    • The plan was for the development of a community of practice with common skills and competencies among advisors;
    • The Office of the Vice-President & Principal would be overseeing the resourcing and integration of all the various existing advising services in different units.

    The Chair called on Professor Bowen, Vice-Dean Teaching & Learning to present her portfolio.
    Professor Bowen reported that a key priority for her portfolio for the coming year was to provide comprehensive support for the University of Toronto Quality Assurance Process (
    UTQAP) external reviews of existing programs and units.  Her office would also focus on the rollout of the Foundation Writing Skills Initiative and Numeracy Skills Initiative and provide support to the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP) in the planning and implementation for Writing Skills (Phase Four) and Numeracy Skills (Phase Two). 

    Professor Bowen noted that work related to undergraduate curriculum review and renewal would include the development and implementation of a new process for permanent online-by-design proposals and a review of current combined degree programs.  Graduate curriculum review and renewal would include exploration of new graduate program opportunities at UTM.  She noted that the portfolio of the Associate Dean, Academic Programs, Professor Marc Dryer, would provide continued support toward development of academic change proposals such as new programs, major modifications, certificates, and program closures and the development of a new proposal process to streamline and increase efficiencies.  The portfolio of the Associate Dean, Pedagogical Development & Scholarship, Professor Andrew Petersen, would be working with the Teaching and Learning Collaboration (TLC) in coordinating academic resources and looking at feedback on teaching related grants.

    In response to a member’s question about when all students would be able to take advantage of the writing courses, Professor Bowen noted that this kind of large undertaking would require a gradual rollout, but that the goal was to ensure that every UTM undergraduate student was able to take these courses. 

  1. Minor Modification: Undergraduate Curriculum Changes, UTM
    The Chair invited Professor Bowen, Vice-Dean, Teaching & Learning, to present.

    Professor Bowen reported that the Humanities Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum Committee report summarizes changes made to 3 programs and 21 courses, with the introduction of eight new courses, along with two course modifications and two course retirements. Changes proposed in the Sciences Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum included 22 program changes along with 29 course changes, of which one was a new course and the other 28 were modifications to existing courses. In the Social Sciences, seven program changes were proposed along with 52 course changes (19 new courses; 15 course modifications; and 18 course retirements). The 19 new course proposals were exclusively from the Department of Political Science as part of their unit-wide curriculum renewal project that resulted in many full year (Y) courses being retired in favour of new half-credit (H) courses.

    There were no questions from members.

    On motion duly made, seconded and carried,

    YOUR COMMITTEE RESOLVED,

    THAT the proposed Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences undergraduate curriculum changes at UTM, as detailed in the respective curriculum reports, be approved, effective September 1, 2023. 
  2. Academic Unit Name Change: Centre for South Asian Civilizations (CSAC), EDU:C, UTM (for approval)
    The Chair invited Professor Ajay Rao, Associate Professor, Historical Studies; Vice-Dean Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs to present the item.

    Professor Rao reported that the proposed new name reflected a focus on global humanities and was much more contemporary in nature. He explained that the proposal to rename the unit to the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities reflected the variety of intellectual approaches covered therein and the Centre’s focus on humanism, critical practice, and the study of South Asian communities and added that the proposed change was supported throughout wide consultation.

    Members had no questions.

    On motion duly made, seconded and carried,

    YOUR COMMITTEE RESOLVED,

    THAT the name of the Centre for South Asian Civilizations (CSAC), EDU:C, UTM be changed to Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities, effective October 1, 2022.
     
  3. Update on UTM Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations
    Professor Bowen provided an update on recent changes made to UTM’s Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations, presented for information to the Committee.  She explained that the changes focused on adding more explicit references to equity, diversity and inclusion in the language of the document in both the goals and the outcomes.  She encouraged members to review the document.
  4. Reports of the Presidential Assessors
    The Chair invited Professor Amrita Daniere to introduce the item, which was presented for information to the Committee.  Professor Daniere noted that the Institute for Management & Innovation (IMI) introduced a series of courses geared towards professional staff and called on Professor Brooks to expand on the current offering. 

    Professor Brooks explained that IMIx, the Institute’s branch for executive education and programing aimed to further IMI’s mission through a series of professional courses that sought to connect UTM to the broader community and offer various ways for professionals to continue their education.  He noted that IMIx was introducing a new certificate of completion that focused on the effective management of people.

    It was noted that the IMIx Effective Management of People Certificate of Completion was designed to enhance the effectiveness of new managers or those transitioning to a managerial role by purposefully provoking insightful discussion and simulating the managerial environment to offer opportunities for practice. It would be part of the existing roster of seven IMIx certificates.  Taught by Professor Rafael Chiuzi, the offering would incorporate the four pillars of leadership, managing change, career management and wellness.

    CONSENT AGENDA

    On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried

    YOUR COMMITTEE APPROVED

    THAT the consent agenda be adopted and that Item 8, the Report of the Previous Meeting, be approved.
     
  5.  Calendar of Business
    The Chair reminded members that the Committee’s Calendar of Business represented the expected items of business for governance consideration for the year and noted that it would be updated regularly on the Committee’s website.
     
  6. Report of the Previous Meeting
    Report number 45, dated May 9, 2022, was approved.
     
  7. Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
     
  8. Date of Next Meeting – October 17, 2022, at 2:10 p.m.
    The Chair reminded members that the next meeting of the Committee was scheduled for October 17, 2022.
     
  9. Other Business
    There was no other business.

The meeting adjourned at 4:07 p.m.

September 19, 2022