Report: UTM Academic Affairs Committee - January 11, 2023

Report Number 48 Of The Academic Affairs Committee

JANUARY 11, 2023

To the Campus Council,

University of Toronto Mississauga

Your Committee reports that it held a meeting on January 11, 2023 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), Tracey Bowen (Vice-Dean, Teaching & Learning), Kent Moore (Vice-Principal, Research), Barend Beekhuizen, Andreas Bendlin, Steven Bernstein, Randy Besco, Brett Beston, Mahmoud Bitar, Elizabeth Blake, Tracey Bowen, Laura Brown, Craig Chambers, Rosa Ciantar, Ruth Childs, Michael deBraga, Uday Dhingra, Margarida Duarte, Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Tracey Galloway, Philip Goodman, Monika Havelka, Shelley Hawrychuk, Tanjim Hossain, Shashi Kant,  Anoosha Keshav, Danielle McLean, Asif Mohammed, Lorretta Neebar, Michael Nixon, Andreas Park,  Marleen Rozemond, Christoph Richter, Adriano Senatore, Jaimal Thind, Soo Min Toh, Jonathan Weisberg, Ron Wener, Weiguo Zhang

Non-Voting Assessors:

Yen Du (Manager, Academic Programs, Reviews & Quality Assurance), Mark Overton (Dean of Student Affairs), Ajay Rao (Vice-Dean Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs)

Regrets:

Varouj Aivazian, Salvatore Bancheri, Osama Abdalla, Asma Behery, Ilia Binder, Jill Caskey, Nawal Faisal, Sarah Hillewaert, Rayan Hobeika, Tong Lam, Ciska Luwawu, Andrea Olive, Esteban Parra, Leigh Revers, Lindsay Schoenbohm, Jumi Shin, Hana Tariq, Sarah Sharma, Meghan Sutherland, Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi

In Attendance:

Marc Dryer (Associate Dean, Academic Programs), Andrea Urie (Assistant Dean, Student Wellness, Support & Success)

Secretariat:

Cindy Ferencz-Hammond

1. Chair’s Remarks

   
   The Chair welcomed members to the third meeting of the Committee and provided reminders about the elections and nominations process for membership on governance bodies.  She encouraged those eligible to consider submitting a nomination form to serve on the relevant bodies and directed them to Cindy Ferencz-Hammond, Deputy Returning Officer for more information about the elections.
    

2. Student Wellbeing post Pandemic
   
   The Chair invited Andrea Urie, Assistant Dean, Student Wellness, Support & Success to present.
   
   During her presentation, she shared the following insights:

• Student achievement and well-being were directly influenced by student engagement in curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities, leading to reported feelings of increased motivation, a sense of satisfaction and meaning in their university experience.
• The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education systems across the world, cutting off in-person engagement and upon re-opening, and the return to in person learning and engagement, measures such as physical distancing, isolation and movement restrictions further impeded the ability of students, faculty and staff to engage as before.
• Navigating online learning and hybrid learning, while trying to create environments of engagement had been both challenging and exciting.
• Observations from the portfolio on how students responded during the pandemic and post pandemic included:
  • during the pandemic many students had limited access to health care for regular primary care needs, sexual health needs and medication management needs.
  • since returning to campus, UTM had seen an increase in health appointments in its Health & Counselling Centre (HCC).
  • While an increase in mental health appointments was expected, there has also been a pressing need for primary care health appointments, addressing issues such as sexual health needs, medication management, accessibility registrations, and general health practitioner concerns.
  • Students who participated in counseling and mental health appointments were expressing feelings of isolation, lack of social connection and lack of engagement.
  • During the pandemic, students with disabilities accessed technologies that otherwise were not available pre-pandemic and managed their disabilities in environments in which they had less change and a greater sense of control.
  • Upon their return to campus, UTM has seen an increase in registrations for academic accommodations, with accessibility services, particularly for mental illness as the primary accommodation need.There was also a dramatic increase in disability symptoms and difficulties returning to in-person learning, especially with respect to crisis or behavioral management needs.
  • U of T ensured that students were connected with partners who could provide service to international students, since unless a student was residing in Ontario, many professionals associated with the university could not provide service.
  • Domestic students who did take advantage of the resources available to them in health centers also had challenges such as finding quiet confidential spaces in order to engage in their counseling sessions.
  • Since the return to campus, UTM has seen a slightly higher number of concerns related to student behavior, which may be attributed to the virtual environment being very different than an in-person environment and the somewhat more curt or inappropriate way in which interactions through technology may have been conducted.
  • Social behaviors needed to be re-learned following two years of isolation and interactions primarily through technology.
• In response to these observations, the HCC created a variety of health supports, including the ability to easily accessing vaccinations, increased peer engagement, weekly wellness opportunities to support learning and success and welcoming back the annual in person resource and activity fair, Be Well UTM, which engaged students and service providers throughout Peel and Halton regions.
• With respect to Accessibility Services the focus has been to ease the transition to returning to in person learning through peer mentoring learning communities and continuing to advocate and support students who required technology as part of their academic accommodations.
• Staff were also working closely with faculty to support students.
• Learning opportunities for faculty and staff, who were often frontline, had been developed and would continue to be offered.
• The HCC also offered same day appointments and one at a time sessions to assist students in identifying the most pressing need and providing them with resources and strategies for effective coping and management.
• The range of offerings included peer support to professional support programs in nutrition mindfulness, activity, and general care.
• The HCC launched an online referral consultation form for UTM staff and faculty; upon receipt of the referral, the team worked closely with department chairs, faculty, and staff to navigate the challenges and to ensure that appropriate resources and support were provided.
• The team also worked to ensure that support was provided to the faculty and staff members who were seeking this consultation.
  
  To conclude her presentation, Ms Urie expressed her gratitude to the many faculty and staff who were committed to student well-being and resilience.She specifically acknowledged the work of Dr. Erin Kraftcheck, Medical Director of the HCC and Elizabeth Martin, Director of Accessibility Services, who provided invaluable leadership in this regard.
  
  A member commented that they had observed a lack of critical social skills in the students that had spent much of their High School and early University studies in an online learning environment. Ms Urie concurred and noted that her team was focusing some of its work with faculty and staff on tips and techniques to help students during this transition period.An example of this was delaying group work requirement until later in the term.Her team was also working with students with respect to civility and building skills around working in teams and interactions.
   

3. Enrolment Update
   
   
   The Chair invited Lorretta Neebar, Registrar and Director of Enrolment Management, to give a presentation on enrolment.
   
   Ms Neebar included the following points during her presentation:

• Enrolment targets were not met this year for new intake
• Just over 30% of UTM students are international.
• Insights about new intake included:
  • since 2020, experienced big fluctuations in enrollment as a result of the pandemic, and yield continued to be difficult to predict.
  • There were 3400 new students this year and UTM fell short of targets by about 100 domestic and about 400 international students.
  • This decrease was not due to decreased demand.
  • Significant delays in visa processes likely impacted the ability for some students to study in Canada and at UofT.
  • UTM consciously gave out fewer offers considering the over enrolment last year, particularly in international high schools and in high demand programs.
  • Focus had been on reducing pressure in areas where UTM was oversubscribed like computer science, life sciences, forensic science and commerce and management.
  • Experiencing uncertainty and an unexpectedly reduced number of students in the domestic international pool, who come to UTM from a Canadian high school, typically in Ontario.
  • Students were applying to more and more institutions globally.
  • UTM drew from a diverse pool of international students by country.
  • Admission averages had increased significantly, with an average of 89%.
  • Dean’s list and UTM’s graduation rates continued to rise.
  • Dramatic increase in the number of students who accepted UTM’s offer who were eligible for scholarships.
  • Increase in those who qualified for high impact international scholarships.
  • With respect to new intake by admission stream, returned to a proportion experienced pre pandemic, with computer sciences, mathematics, and statistics not at the top.
• The Office of the Registrar was working very closely with several partners on campus and through the tri-campus system to analyze address and continue to correct the recent major fluctuations.
• November 2022 saw 492 graduates, and June we saw a record number of graduating students at 2458.
• Graduation rates at the four-, five- and six-year mark had increased by a few percentages each year.
  
  During discussion, the following points were raised:
• That improving the efficiency with which financial payments were handled for international students, could improve enrollment and retention; that this was a challenge due to regulatory structures, but that the issue had already been identified and work was being undertaken to address it centrally.
• With respect to the shortfall in target enrollment, while reducing the pressure in high demand programs, UTM did not get a high enough yield in the areas for which it made offers. A member noted that this negatively affected some departments who were prepared to take in more students.
• Enrolment targets are developed through an iterative and intricate process, working in conjunction with the Office of the Provost and with Planning & Budget to arrive at acceptable student to faculty ratios, a problem that UTM had been trying to address for several years.
• More detailed data on graduation rates can be provided to departments that were looking to analyze them and provide feedback to external reviewers.
• Admission averages had been rising throughout UofT, except for a few faculties, where these were already considered high.
• The system UTM had been using for admissions was developed in 2003 and did not properly provide for changing admission categories, which has had detrimental effects on data and predictability; central and UTM groups on strategic enrollment management were already working to address this.

4. Major Modification: New Freestanding Minor in Global Leadership, UTM
   
   At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Tracey Bowen, Vice-Dean, Teaching and Learning noted how pleased she was that this proposal was coming forward and called on Professor Marc Dryer, Associate Dean, Academic Programs, to provide details on the proposal.
   
   Professor Dryer reported that the Department of Language Studies was proposing to introduce a new Freestanding Minor in Global Leadership, effective September 1, 2023. The proposed minor program would be part of a tri-campus initiative to develop students’ collaborative global leadership skills and capacity to critique what is global leadership and how this concept was understood and challenged in diverse disciplines and global cultures. The Minor integrated theory and practice and provided a forum for students to engage across disciplines and geographical contexts.
   
   Professor Dryer explained the unique structure of the program, with five participating units.  The Minor included core courses strategically delivered by five units across all three U of T campuses, featuring interdivisional student experiences, community engagement, and completion of a globally partnered capstone project.  At UTM, the program would be housed in the Department of Language Studies, at UTSC, in the Department of Management and at the St. George Campus, in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education. He explained that each year, the minors would admit 100 students, with 25 students from UTM, 25 from UTSC and 50 in total from the three St. George units.  
   
   Professor Dryer concluded his presentation by noting that the proposal aligned with the UTM Academic Plan where developing global citizenship was outlined as a major emphasis and thanked all of those involved in the development of the proposal.
   
   In response to a member’s comment about the program being housed in the Department of Language Studies, instead of the Department of Management as was the case at the UTSC, Professor Dryer explained that each participating division developed the proposed program according to their unique offerings and at UTM, Language Studies emerged as the department most interested in building on its existing offerings to provide leadership in this area.  Based on further discussion, the Interim Vice-Principal Academic & Dean noted that the selection of elective courses for the proposed program was quite broad and there would be further opportunities for participation by other UTM departments in the future.  The Department of Language Studies offered courses that focused on Global Leadership and Citizenship and therefore was a good fit with the proposed Minor. In addition, it was noted that although there was no significant involvement by the Department of Management, the electives listed for the new Minor included at least one Management course on the subject.  The description of the GLM was clear and comprehensive as to the structure of the minor, the location of the program’s administration and all courses offered.
   
   On motion duly made, seconded, and carried,
   
   YOUR COMMITTEE RESOLVED,

         THAT the new freestanding Minor in Global Leadership, in the department of Language Studies, as detailed in the proposal dated January 2, 2023,           be approved effective September 1, 2023.

5. Minor Modification: Undergraduate Curriculum Changes: Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences, UTM
   
   
   At the invitation of the Chair, Professor Bowen described the proposed undergraduate curriculum changes for Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences.
   
   Professor Bowen referred members to the detailed curriculum reports provided in the documentation. She noted that the curriculum reports were comprised of minor modifications to existing undergraduate programs and were intended to have significant positive effects on a cumulative basis and would come into effect during the 2023-2024 academic year.  She reported that the Humanities report proposed changes in 19 programs, with 82 course changes introducing 13 new courses, 64 course modifications and 5 course retirements.  The Sciences curriculum report proposed 35 program changes, along with 100 course changes of which nine were new courses, 85 were modifications to existing courses and six were retired courses.  The Social Sciences curriculum report proposed 35 program changes, along with 155 course changes including 23 new courses, 118 course modifications and 14 course retirements.
   
   Professor Bowen provided some examples of the proposed exciting new courses which were being proposed.
   
   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.

CONSENT AGENDA

On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried

YOUR COMMITTEE APPROVED

THAT the consent agenda be adopted and that Item 6, the Report of the Previous Meeting, be approved.

6. Report of the Previous Meeting, Report number 47, October 17, 2022.
    
7. Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
    

8. Date of Next Meeting – February 9, 2023, at 3:10 p.m.
   The Chair reminded members that the next meeting of the Committee was scheduled for February 9, 2023, at 3:10 p.m.
    

9. Other Business
   There was no other business.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

January 16, 2023