Report: UTM Campus Council - January 25, 2022

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA CAMPUS COUNCIL REPORT NUMBER 51 OF THE CAMPUS COUNCIL

JANUARY 25, 2022
 

To the Governing Council, University of Toronto

Your Council reports that it held a meeting on January 25, 2022 at 4:10 p.m. via a Virtual Meeting Room, with the following members present:

Present:
Samra Zafar (Chair), Shashi Kant (Vice-Chair), Alexandra Gillespie (Vice-President & Principal), Hassaan Basit, Dario Di Censo, Rafael Chiuzi, Ivana Di Millo, Robert Gerlai, Shelley Hawrychuk, Sanja Hinic-Frlog, Livon Mamiza, Jay Nirula, Gerard Otiniano, Laura Taylor, Ziyaad Vahed, Ron Wener, Kathleen Yu

Non-Voting Assessors:
Rhonda McEwen (Vice-Principal Academic & Dean), Susan Senese (Interim Chief Administrative Officer), Mark Overton (Assistant Principal, Student Services & Dean of Student Affairs)

Regrets:
Sultan Akif, Harvey Botting, Ann Curran, Laura Cocuzzi, Imre Gams, Maggie Ku, Evan Silva

In Attendance:
Christine Burke (Assistant Vice President, University Planning, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships), Brian De Cunha (Acting Director, Student Housing & Residence Life), Megan Evans (Manager, Parking Services), Monika Farrell (Assistant Director, Planning & Design), Vicky Jezierski (Director, Hospitality & Retail Operations), Brian Kennedy (Assistant Director, Residence Finance), Amanda Luongo (Acting Assistant Director, Residence Life), Antonia Lo (Assistant Director, Student Services & Ancillaries), Lorretta Neebar (Registrar & Director of Enrolment Management), Chad Nuttall (Assistant Dean, Students and International Initiatives), Andrea de Vito (Assistant Director, Hospitality and Retail Operations)

Secretariat:
Cindy Ferencz Hammond (Assistant Secretary of the Governing Council)

1. Chair’s Remarks
   
   The Chair welcomed members and guests to the meeting and provided an update on the governance elections. She noted that the nominations for the Governing Council, including UTM governance bodies, closed on January 21, 2021. All positions on UTM governance bodies had been filled, except for two graduate student seats and one undergraduate student seat, which would be re-opened on January 26, 2022. The voting period would begin on Monday, February 7, 2021, for the following elections: Undergraduate Student constituency of the Campus Council, and the Teaching Staff and the Administrative Staff constituencies of the Campus Affairs Committee. For questions about the elections, he directed members to Ms Ferencz Hammond, Deputy Returning Officer of the Governing Council, who will also be presenting an Information Session for Candidates in these elections on January 27, 2022.
    
2. The Mystery of Mount Woodham: UTM Anthropology’s field and lab work on the puzzling site (for information)
   
   At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Michael Brand, Trevor Orchard, Lab Technician, and senior students, Kiara Kim, and Yunfei Lin, all from the Department of Anthropology shared a video presentation (https://youtu.be/LHgCtub8rFY) about an anthropology summer field school course, which has been ongoing for several years at the North end of the campus. Third-year students have been exploring the land around Lislehurst to try to find the site of its sister mansion, Mount Woodham, disassembled in part to add onto Lislehurst.
    
3. Report of the Vice-President & Principal
   
   Professor Gillespie began her report by providing a brief update on the progress of UTM’s first-ever Strategic Framework. She noted that the consultation period had been extended for another month and that the document would be submitted for governance consideration to the Council’s April 2022 meeting. In the meantime, UTM continued to work on the values that formed the basis of the draft document: truth, openness, and reciprocity, especially with respect to its relations with Indigenous peoples.
   
   Providing a pandemic related update, Professor Gillespie reported that UTM’s senior team had held several townhalls on the topic recently, updating and receiving feedback from the entire UTM community. She explained that based on scientific evidence and advice from experts, such as Dr.
   
   David Fisman, and following conversations with Dr. Lawrence Loh, Medical Officer of Health for the Region in Peel, UTM would be increasing its on-campus activity, starting on February 7, 2022. This approach matched the advice that was emerging from the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore; from the Co-Chair of Ontario’s Science Table, Dr. Steini Brown; and from Professors at the Dalla Lana School for Public Health, at the University.
   
   To that end, most of UTM’s courses that moved online on January 10, 2022, and that were originally scheduled for in-person delivery, would resume in person delivery on February 7, 2022. Employees who were currently working remotely, and who had not yet established an approved alternative work arrangement (AWA) would return to their positions on campus on the same date. Professor Gillespie noted that these plans meant that UTM could again fulfill its governance responsibilities for accredited in-person instruction. The campus was ready for this increase in on-campus presence by continuing to implement effective public health measures: classrooms met or exceeded the ideal standards for ventilation and air exchange; policies emphasized the importance of indoor masking, with well-fitted masks; and that the community maximized their vaccine coverage.
   
   The Vice-President & Principal continued her report by sharing news about three projects that exemplified the ways in which UTM embraced the power of place and community. The first was that UTM would host a community workshop on cross-cultural connections in knowledge transmission, focused on the use of birchbark as a writing surface, both before and after the popularization of paper.
   
   The project was a collaborative one between faculty in the Departments of Historical Studies and Geography, Geomatics, and the Environment, including experts on religious and ecological practice over time and would nurture relevant connections with our Indigenous partners, including with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. The project would also enable participation from UTM students, led by Sana Hashim, a refugee who escaped Afghanistan last year and who now works in Professor Gillespie’s laboratory. The second project involved UTM’s ongoing work to enact the recommendations of U of T’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism with the creation of an operational team charged with supporting the commitments’ implementation across campus. The third project involved UTM’s work in the recently launched advancement campaign, Defy Gravity, which would pursue fundraising and alumni engagement opportunities to support the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry, the Robotics Cluster and U of T’s Robotics Institute, the Centre for Urban Environments, among many others.
   
   During discussion, the role of UTM’s place and contributions to provide connections and expertise within the surrounding community was emphasized.
    
4. Enrolment Update
   
   The Chair invited Ms Lorretta Neebar, Registrar and Director of Enrolment Management to present. Ms Neebar referred to her PowerPoint presentation and discussed current overall enrolment and total headcount, with new, incoming students at 4473 for the fall of 2021 and returning students at 11675 for the same time period. She noted that UTM’s intake was somewhat higher than expected and what the campus had received over the last couple of years, while returning students were similar in numbers to recent years. With respect to overall enrollment, UTM had 4384 international and 11764 domestic students, which included Canadian citizens and permanent residents. With respect to new intake, these numbers were 1660 and 2813 respectively and Ms Neebar noted that there was a higher- than-expected uptake in international offers of admission, which has meant UTM’s international student numbers were higher than what UTM had experienced in the last several years. Ms Neebar reported that predicting enrolment trends during the pandemic has been very difficult. However, she noted that UTM was among the first to decide to be conducting predominantly remote learning in the fall, which likely had some bearing on international students deciding to study at UTM. Ms Neebar also noted that UTM had many successful virtual events, including a very popular virtual campus tour.
   
   Ms Neebar then discussed the new intake’s country of citizenship, admission averages, which had increased from the previous year, and age and gender distribution. She noted that UTM normally saw a much higher percentage of Ontario secondary school applicants in the overall applicant pool, but this year, UTM had an increase in applications from foreign secondary school students, going up from last year by approximately 7%. The remainder of the presentation focused on new intake by program and admission noting that UTM was now seeing Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics form the largest part of the new intake of the campus. She noted that her office, as part of the Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean, would be focusing on strategic enrolment management and that an update about that project would be forthcoming at future governance meetings.
   
   Ms Neebar concluded her presentation by reporting that numbers for November convocation were slightly down, a predictable outcome for a virtual ceremony. Speaking to the cumulative graduation rate, Ms Neebar noted that UTM had again made progress in bettering these rates through outreach programs to increase retention.
   
   In response to a member’s question regarding domestic enrolment, Ms Neebar explained that there was a Province-wide struggle in recent years to meet domestic intake targets, and that this was partly due to a smaller domestic population in the 17 to 25 age range. She further noted that with immigration and with this population increasing particularly in the Peel Region, the hope was that the domestic pool would increase over the next five to 10 years.
   
   In response to a member’s question about the kinds of measures in place to support the increased number of international students, it was noted that UTM was embarking on a strategic enrolment management project and reviewing how to best support these students. Professor Gillespie also noted that a cross portfolio working group had also been established to support international students.
    
5. Operating Plans: UTM Service Ancillaries for 2022-23
   
   The Chair invited Susan Senese, Interim Chief Administrative Officer, to introduce the item.
   
   Ms Senese thanked the directors of the ancillary departments for being flexible and being able to adjust their operations during the pandemic. She then invited Ms Antonia Lo, Assistant Director, Student Services & Ancillaries to discuss the financial standing of the ancillaries.
   
   In her presentation, Ms Lo expanded on the following points:

• Addressing the Service Ancillary Review Guidelines (SARG), she pointed out that Student Housing and Residence Life and Hospitality Services would meet the first three SARG objectives and that Parking Services would not be able to meet any of these objectives as it was forecasting to have an unrestricted deficit balance at the end of the 2022-23 budget year due to the effects of the pandemic;
• Referring to the statement of reserves, she noted that for the Residence operations, the 2020-21 actuals included a net operating loss before transfers of $2.6 million due to the loss in revenues largely from restrictions on international travel in response to the pandemic.
• The $4.8 million transferred into the Residence ancillary represented funds from the UTM operating budget for the new residence construction project.
• In the current year's forecasts, the ancillary anticipated the positive net operating results of $473,000 and for the 2022-23 budget, it was anticipating a $1.5 million net operating loss, which was primarily the result of the cost of a significant renovation of an existing residence facility.
• Regarding Hospitality Services, the 2020-21 actuals included a net operating loss of $1.8 million due to the closure of the campus during the summer months a significant reduction of on campus population for the entire academic year and a reduction of food services offered to comply with public health guidelines.
• The forecast for the ancillary is an anticipated loss although not as large as the previous year; for the 2022-23 budget, the ancillary was planning to return to between 75 to 90% of pre pandemic levels of revenues and projecting a net operating loss of $99,000.
• Despite the significant negative financial impact due to the pandemic the construction reserves allowed for ongoing investments in the upkeep of existing operations and in sustainability projects going forward.
• For Parking Services the 2020-21 actuals included a $2 million net operating loss before transfers as a result of a significant decline in demand for parking on campus due to the shift to work from home and hybrid learning arrangements.
• In the current year, the ancillary was anticipating another significant loss of $1.5 million despite the return to some on campus activities in the fall term as parking demand was still significantly reduced.
• Details were provided of revenues, expenditures and the capital budgets for each of the ancillaries, summarized in schedule 5.
• For Residences, the 2022-23 budget was primarily comprised of project costs for the new residence building and furniture for the newly renovated McLuhan Court.
• For Hospitality services, 2022-23 budget included the cost of construction and equipment for a food service outlet in the W. G. Davis Building
• For Parking, the 2022-23 budget represented the cost of the virtual permit software and a new vehicle.
• A list of the groups that had been involved in the consultative processes for the ancillaries prior to the operating plans being submitted to this Committee and their meeting dates was provided.
  
  The presentation was continued by Mr. Brian de Cunha, Acting Director, Student Housing & Residence Life, who highlighted the key components, and noted that the number one priority for the ancillary was renewing existing housing spaces in order to provide all students with renovated spaces. He pointed to the proposed increase in rates, which had been endorsed by the Student Housing Advisory Committee. Mr. de Cunha explained that the ancillary had used competitors in the community and other institutions to arrive at its rates and pointed out that the McLuhan Court residence had the highest proposed increase, which was due to its renovation.
  
  The presentation was continued by Ms Vicky Jezierski, Director of Hospitality & Retail Services. She reported that the completed ancillary budget was based on an inflation rate which was predicted at 2.1% at the time, but that the latest report in December of 2021 suggested that this number would between 5 and 7%. She noted however, that the ancillary was proposing a 3% price increase, both in its cash price increases as well as its meal plan increases. Ms Jezierski explained that there was an increase in Flex or the taxable portion of a meal plan, as requested by residence students to support an increase in spending on taxable items. Moving to Parking Services, Ms Jezierski noted the proposed increase of 3% for all permit types and no proposed increase in pay and display rates. She noted that next year, the parking ancillary would be focusing on implementing a plate recognition system to aid in the accurate management and sale of permits and moving to virtual permits, which would provide real-time information about parking usage.
  
  There were no questions from members.
  
  On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried YOUR COUNCIL APPROVED
  
  THAT Subject to Confirmation by the Executive Committee,
  
  THAT, the proposed 2022-23 Operating Plans and Budgets for the UTM Service Ancillaries, as summarized in Schedule 1, the service ancillary capital budgets as summarized in Schedule 5, and the rates and fees in Schedule 6, as recommended by Susan Senese, Interim Chief Administrative Officer, in the proposal dated December 3, 2021, be approved, effective May 1, 2022.
   

6. UTM Master Plan
   
   The Chair invited Ms Susan Senese, Interim CAO, to introduce the item. Ms Senese invited Ms Christine Burke, Assistant Vice-President, University Planning, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships to speak to the master planning process as it related the recently approved Capital Planning and Capital Projects Policy. Ms Burke noted that the Policy stressed the importance of master plans which set the stage for capital projects on each of the three campuses. She explained that a master plan was a critically important framework document to guide future development and the evolution of a campus in a holistic and comprehensive manner. The overall vision, guiding principles and design framework of a master plan became the launchpad for how new capital projects both of the built form and public realm initiatives were envisaged and developed over the next 10 plus years. She noted that over the course of the development of this master plan, a significant amount of consultation had taken place, including from the University's own Design Review Committee (DRC), which was comprised of both internal and external highly respected design professionals. The DRC reviewed the master plan three times, to provide the right balance of flexibility and specific guidance to meet the needs of UTM’s evolving campus.
   
   Ms Senese continued the presentation by noting that the previous master plan was developed in June of 2011. The new UTM Master Plan’s development began in November of 2019 as a joint venture between University Planning and in 2020, the hiring of Brook McIlroy, who were selected to lead the project along with a team of consultants, including transportation, ecological servicing and storm water management experts, and heritage and sustainability experts. Ms Senese stated that the resulting document and plan provided UTM with a broad and flexible framework and overarching vision to guide future development decisions while supporting UTM’s academic mission. She called on Ms Monika Farrell, Assistant Director, Planning and Design in the Facilities Management and Planning Department, who had been a key part of the team supporting this master plan process to present the detailed plan.
   
   Ms Farrell began her presentation by explaining that the UTM Master Plan identified a series of principles and organized them around the three common themes of Sustainability, Connection and Vitality.  These series of principles included the following:

• Campus ecology identifying different environmental categories within the campus, based on the significance and natural features of each area.
• Cultural heritage landscape within the City of Mississauga.
• Transportation - informed by the transportation report.
• Open Space Framework demonstrated how future campus development and revitalization initiatives could better integrate and enhance the natural landscape and the design of the public realm.
• Urban Design Framework established key ideas and recommendations to improve the public realm and urban design of the campus as it redeveloped over time.
• Systems of the Plan – Land & Water: The UTM Campus was bounded by the Credit River to the north, east and south. The Riparian Ribbon was an entire water-based linkage that started from the north end of Outer Circle Road and moved south through the campus.
• Ecology: The Forest Threshold consisted of mature trees that framed the campus along Mississauga Road. The Riparian Ribbon network would create a curated nature walk through the campus and contained a series of natural wetlands and stormwater management ponds.
• Connections: An expanded circulation network would improve mobility throughout the campus with new connections and streetscape revitalization. Streets and connections should be lined by trees as feasible to create ‘fingers of green’ throughout the campus.
• Open Spaces: An enhanced network of open spaces would create diverse outdoor space opportunities for active and passive uses.
• Placemaking: Campus spaces should weave Indigenous narratives of sustainability, stewardship, and land-based learning through design elements that reflected Indigenous imagery, languages, and views.
• Wayfinding and Identity: Wayfinding markers and interpretive signage should be incorporated along primary and secondary campus routes. Campus entryways should be reinforced with gateway signage and installations, paving and landscaping to enhance the sense of arrival and to improve the legibility of the campus frontage.
• Built Form Infill: UTM contained numerous opportunities for future development within the 15-year time horizon of the Master Plan to the year 2036. The Master Plan reflected a holistic and comprehensive approach to campus planning, that considered the future potential and provided recommendations for the 15-year time horizon of the Plan and beyond to address space needs.
• Campus Master Plan Concept: The Master Plan proposes a campus identification system that consists of a precinct code and site number. Future development sites were represented in red, open space in green and sites in planning or design phase, or under construction are in blue.
• Potential Land Uses for Development Sites / Priorities for Phasing: Most of the immediate future development potential and academic uses were anticipated on lands within the Campus Core and Forest precincts. The ancillary and long-term development potential was along the outer edge of Outer Circle Road and Mississauga Road in the Campus Southwest and Campus South precincts, as well as CE-2.
  
  Ms Farrell explained that the phasing strategy presented one approach to campus development, but could over time reflect evolving priorities, funding, and the need to accommodate impacts of individual projects. She then expanded on some of the key UTM Campus Master Plan proposals, as follows:
• Identification of potential future development sites;
• Creation of a landmark building and plaza adjacent to Student Centre on the existing Academic Annex site, framing Kaneff building and creating a campus gateway strategically aligned with heavy pedestrian connection via serpentine bridge from bus drop off;
• Redevelopment and extension of Middle Road to become a formalized east-west pedestrian connection through the Campus Core;
• Creation of a flexible outdoor campus commons - The Campus Core (Campus green);
• Reinforcement of the Riparian Ribbon as a pedestrian connection through the campus that links existing ponds, wetlands, and natural areas through a series of pedestrian pathways and boardwalks;
• Creation of an Academic Quad and Cultural Commons within the Campus Core to build out the campus’ open space network;
• Expansion and consolidation of an athletic uses on the existing South Field to create an athletics hub;
• Establishment of ‘shared streets’ along Residence Road and portions of Outer Circle Road to improve the public realm and the pedestrian experience; and
• Incorporation of a new cycle track and cycling infrastructure.
  
  Ms Farrell concluded her presentation by showing an architectural rendering representing the full potential scope range of the UTM Master Plan as well as a 3D view.
  
  In response to a member’s question, the Interim CAO noted that sustainability and ecology was at the forefront of the Master Plan and that with respect to flooding and flood zones, these considerations were built into the planning and development for each capital project. Professor Gillespie added that questions of climate resiliency and climate adaptation were woven into UTM’s existing sustainability plans and pointed to the work of Credit Valley Conservation, whose work paid particular attention to flooding and fire risks.
  
  On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried YOUR COUNCIL RECOMMENDED THAT, the UTM Master Plan, dated November 18, 2021, be approved in principle.
   

7. Reports of the Presidential Assessors
   
   The Chair invited Mr. Mark Overton, Dean of Student Affairs & Assistant Principal, Student Services to provide members with an update of items being considered by Council at its next meeting. Mr.
   
   Overton noted that at the next meeting, he would be bringing forward the advice of UTM’s Quality Service to Students committee (QSS), which provided student governments with opportunities whether to support proposed increases to non-academic incidental fees that partially or fully funded student services, such as the Health & Counselling Centre, the Recreation, Athletics and Wellness Centre, the intercampus Shuttle Service, the Career Centre, the International Education Centre, the Centre for Student Engagement, and others. He explained that these consultation processes included multiple open advisory groups convened by each services’ directors and managers on what they offered and their impacts, what’s proposed for the coming year, and any related changes in fees.
   
   He showed a summary of the proposed fees to be brought forward at the next Council meeting, which was maintaining Health Services, and Athletics & Recreation fees at their existing levels, and slightly increasing the Student Services Fee bundle, but below eligibility based on the University’s indexes for what might be reasonable. At the next meeting, he would share QSS votes that were occurring in the next two weeks as well as highlights from these services’ management reports, detailed budgets, and insights from the chair of the QSS committee on her insights.

CONSENT AGENDA

On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried

YOUR COUNCIL APPROVED

THAT the consent agenda be adopted and that Item 10 - Report of the Previous Meeting, be approved.

8. Report on Capital Projects – as at November 30, 2021
    
9. Reports for Information
   1. Report 51 of the Agenda Committee (January 17, 2021)
   2. Report 50 of the Campus Affairs Committee (January 10, 2022)
   3. Report 43 of the Academic Affairs Committee (January 13, 2022)
       
10. Report of the Previous Meeting: Report 50 – November 16, 2021 The report of the pervious meeting was approved.
     
11. Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
     
12. Date of Next Meeting – Tuesday, March 8, 2022 at 4:10 p.m.
     
13. Other Business
    
    There was no Other Business.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:55 p.m.

January 28, 2022