Report Number 51 Of The UTM Academic Affairs Committee
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
To the UTM Campus Council,
University of Toronto Mississauga,
Your UTM Academic Affairs Committee reports that it held a meeting in the Council Chamber, Room 3130, W. G. Davis building on September 19, 2023 with the following members present:
PRESENT: Laura Taylor (in the Chair), Rosa Hong (Vice-Chair), Alexandra Gillespie (Vice-President & Principal), Nick Rule (Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean), Andreas Bendlin (Vice-Dean, Academic Experience), Tracey Bowen (Vice-Dean, Teaching & Learning), Kent Moore (Vice-Principal Research), Cesar Mejia (Interim Registrar), Barend Beekhuizen, Steven Bernstein, Randy Besco, Brett Beston, Ilia Binder, Elizabeth Blake, Shauna Brail, Laura Brown, Jill Caskey, Craig Chambers, Boris Chrubasik, Rosa Ciantar, Michael deBraga, Wenchao Du, Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Paula Hannaford, Ehab James, Justin Kafle, John Paul Lotesto, Latonya Ludford, Michael Nixon, Andreas Park, Andrew Petersen, Christoph Richter, Dany Savard, Sarah Sharma, Jaimal Thind, Ben Tsang, Jonathan Weisberg, Weiguo Zhang.
REGRETS: Varouj Aivazian, Salvatore Bancheri, Brett Beston, Osama Abdalla, Margarida Duarte, Tyler Evans Tokaryk, Tracey Galloway, Phillip Goodman, Sarah Hillewaert, Tanjim Hossain, Aliyah Mancini, Anthony Makwanda, Danielle McLean, Leigh Revers, Maira Rizwan, Gurpreet Rattan, Lindsay Schoenbohm, Adriano Senatore, Jumi Shin, Meghan Sutherland, Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi.
NON-VOTING ASSESSORS: Ajay Rao (Vice-Dean Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs), Yen Du (Manager, Academic Programs, Reviews & Quality Assurance), Mark Overton (Dean of Student Affairs).
SECRETARIAT: Cindy Ferencz-Hammond
IN ATTENDANCE: Renu Kanga Fonseca (Interim Assistant Dean, Office of the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean)
OPEN SESSION
- Chair’s Remarks
The Chair welcomed members, introduced voting and non-voting assessors and provided a brief orientation to the committee’s mandate, expected items of business and members’ responsibilities.
- Portfolio Overview and Priorities of Presidential Assessors for 2023-24
At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Nicholas Rule, Vice-Principal Academic & Dean (VPA&D) and Professor Tracey Bowen, Vice-Dean Teaching and Learning, presented overviews of their respective offices. Their presentations outlined organizational structures and priorities for the 2023-24 academic year.
Regarding the Organizational structure of the VPA&D, Professor Rule noted that mirroring the existing role at UTSC, he has re-introduced the position of Assistant Dean, who functioned as the most senior member of the staff managing all operations and the office of the VPA&D. This position was facilitating, implementing, and coordinating the academic priorities and directions established by the team as well as implementing short and long term academic, financial, and space plans for the units within the team's portfolio. The position also oversaw strategic management of budgets, academic human resource matters, academic programs, and all aspects of academic change. While a search was ongoing, in the interim, the position was filled by Renu Kanga Fonseca. Professor Rule noted that his priorities for 2023-24 included creating the next UTM Academic Plan for 2024-2029, designing a campus strategic enrolment management plan, planning for graduate expansion and supports, and working towards the goal of embracing UTM’s place and strengthening its identity. Finally, he provided an enrolment overview of registered students, both domestic and international, dated as of September 8, 2023.
Next, Professor Bowen discussed her key goals for the year, which included providing comprehensive support for 14 UTQAP external reviews of existing programs and units, a rollout of the Foundational Writing Skills Initiative and Numeracy Skills Initiative through the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP), as well as plans to review and renew curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The latter included developing a strategic plan for online learning at UTM.
In response to a member’s question about how the curriculum review and approval process could be more streamlined and sped up, the Vice-President & Principal explained that as noted in the past, this was not something under the University’s control but rather through the quality assurance process, which ensured that the University operated in conformity with the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) for the Province of Ontario. However, she added that UTM was looking at technological approaches to speeding up the process of curriculum review.
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Minor Modifications: Undergraduate Curriculum Changes
At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Bowen reported that proposed undergraduate curriculum changes represented the proposed changes from the May 2023 meetings of the Decanal Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum Committees for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences. The Humanities Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum Committee report proposed changes to 14 programs and 68 courses. Of these course changes, academic units in the Humanities were introducing 15 new courses in 2024-2025 along with 53 course modifications. Changes proposed in the Sciences Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum Committee report included 11 program changes along with 39 course changes, of which 7 were new courses and 32 were modifications to existing courses. In the Social Sciences report, 7 program changes were proposed along with 63 course changes (16 new courses; 46 course modifications; and 1 course retirement). Professor Bowen noted that these proposed changes reflected important modifications to maintain the quality, currency, and rigour of courses and programs.
Members had no questions.
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, 2024.
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UTM Graduate Divisional Curriculum Committee Terms of Reference
At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Ajay Rao, Vice-Dean Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs, explained that the Divisional Graduate Curriculum Committee was an advisory committee of the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean. Its function was to review proposals for minor modifications to existing graduate programs; to advise the Curriculum Committee Chair and Vice-Principal Academic & Dean on the content, quality, and feasibility of proposed curricular changes; and to recommend proposed changes move forward for approval by the UTM Academic Affairs Committee. There were minor changes to the terms of reference of the Committee, mainly centered around membership. One of the changes was that the Committee would be chaired by the Vice-Dean, Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs.
Members had no questions.
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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.
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Reports of the Presidential Assessors
There were no reports.
CONSENT AGENDA
On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried
YOUR COMMITTEE APPROVED
THAT the consent agenda be adopted and that Item 7, the Report of the Previous Meeting, be approved.
- Report of the Previous Meeting: Report Number 50 – May 10, 2023
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Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
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Date of the Next Meeting – Wednesday, October 18, 2023
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Other Business
The Chair extended an invitation to all members of the Committee to a reception celebrating the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the UTM Campus Council and its Committees.More information would be forthcoming through an invitation to members.
The meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
September 27, 2023