REPORT NUMBER 65 OF THE
UTSC CAMPUS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2025
To the UTSC Campus Council,
University of Toronto,
Your Committee reports that it held a meeting in the Humanities Building, UTSC Campus on October 15, 2025 with the following members present:
PRESENT: Brian Harrington (Chair), Dorinda So (Vice-Chair), Linda Johnston (Vice-President & Principal, UTSC), Andrew Arifuzzaman, Karin Ruhlandt, Tim Tang, Sukaina Abbas, Iaroslav Abramov*, Syed Ahmed, Tiffany Castell*, Sandra Daga, Kyle Danielson*, Inaaya Imran*, Elaine Khoo, Annie Kostadinova, Pravina Robert Prince, Shennel Simpson*,
*remote attendance
REGRETS: Aarthi Ashok, Folakunmi Awofisayo, Jirociny Consalas, Maria de Chavez, Mark Fitzpatrick, Jason Glover, Sylvia Mittler, Tanzina Mohson, Stephanie Perpick, Shennel Simpson, Monica Sok, Hoorik Yeghiazarian
SECRETARIAT: Miranda Edwards (Secretary), Amanda Grant (Governance Coordinator)
OPEN SESSION
- Chair’s Remarks
The Chair welcomed members and guests to the Cycle 2 meeting.
He noted that the Committee had begun the governance year with four vacant seats. A by-election was held from September 15 to October 3, 2025 where one seat was filled. Three seats (2 teaching staff seats and 1 graduate student seat) remained vacant. The Chair welcomed the Committee’s new student member who won the by-election for her constituency. - Status Report on UTSC Campus Strategic Priorities.
Mr. Andrew Arifuzzaman, Chief Administrative and Strategy Officer, reported on the five main strategic priorities for the current year.
The first priority was transitioning to an activity-based budget model for academic units. This would provide greater control and predictability for Chairs, vest control more directly with budget holders, and incentivize innovation and entrepreneurial thinking within departments in order to justify budget allocations. Future budget allocations would provide incentives for initiatives that would generate new revenues or lead to savings in operating costs. UTSC revenue generation and operating costs would remain decentralized, flexible, and transparent to all departments. Budget resource allocation processes, reporting, and record keeping would be simply, timely, and overseen by experts. Mr. Arifuzzaman stressed that the UTSC budget process should reflect campus values, while balancing those values with the nuances of campus resources and the need for quality academic standards.
The second priority was addressing the decline in international student enrollment. Mr. Arifuzzaman noted that UTSC had recently been successful in meeting domestic enrolment targets for the first time in many years. He noted the challenges that the decline in international student enrolment posed to the University’s budget and highlighted the need for creativity in finding new sources of revenue, such as the new Certificate in Health Sciences program.
The third priority was building out programming related to the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH). Academic leaders were focused on meeting strong enrolment demand, developing new programs and pathways, and strengthening academic and campus life supports that were tailored to health sciences programs.
The fourth priority was the operationalization of new facilities. Mr. Arifuzzaman described the planned operationalization of the new Myron and Bernard Garron Health Sciences Complex, that would house SAMIH and bring together three faculties (medicine, nursing, and pharmacy) into one centralized location that would offer specialized technological supports and services. He also described the pending opening of the new Retail & Parking Commons, the new campus bookstore, the Toronto Zoo Conservation Campus, and Indigenous House. He noted that UTSC was currently recruiting a new Director to oversee Indigenous House operations as well as additional support staff, and was currently planning the grand opening activities and events.
The fifth priority was implementation of three strategic initiatives: Culture of Care, Healthy Campus, and Inspiring Inclusive Excellence. Mr. Arifuzzaman noted the interconnectedness of these three initiatives which would allow the campus’ strategic plans and goals to flourish and thrive.
Members discussed the decline in international student enrolment in the context of recruitment, geopolitics, and government visa policies. -
Annual Report: Community Partnerships and Engagement, 2025
The Chair invited Kimberley Tull, Director, Community & Learning Partnerships and Access Pathways; Marisa Silver, Team Lead, Community Partnerships and Engagement; and Celeste Ceres, Communications Officer for Community Partnerships and Engagement to deliver the presentation for this item.
Ms Tull began by noting that her team’s work was rooted in its East End location and culture. Community Partnerships and Engagement (CPE) was inclusive of diverse voices and stories, honouring African and Indigenous knowledge systems and grounded in social justice. She noted that CPE’s work was integral to advancing campus values and the campus strategic plan. Ms Tull described the CPE team’s composition and key roles, highlighting the fact that her office had recently moved to the Office of the Principal and was now reporting to Principal Johnston. This shift was based on the recommendations of an administrative review of the CPE portfolio. Following another recommendation, the CPE office was currently preparing an action plan to define the breadth and scope of its future work.
Ms Tull reported that CPE had facilitated over 80 connections bridged between campus and the community since January 2025. Consultations included topics such as UTSC’s sustainable development goals, transdisciplinary knowledge co-production, communities of practice, the campus curriculum review, and consultations and collaborations with community offices in other post-secondary institutions. CPE also hosted over 22 events since January 2025, including workshops and outreach. Ms Tull also informed the Committee that one of CPE’s key priorities was helping community partners access campus spaces. She noted that many community-based organizations were facing fiscal challenges and could benefit from the facilities and resources on UTSC campus.
Ms Tull highlighted a cornerstone CPE program – “A Day in the Life”, an immersive day-long program where youths from equity-deserving groups were invited to visit UTSC and encouraged to see university education as an achievable pathway. Over the last two years, the event was held fourteen times and welcomed over 200 students, collaborating with groups such as BGC East Scarborough, Visions of Science, Black Esteem, as well as targeted local schools. This past year, CPE received $23,000 in grant founding from the RSM Foundation to expand this program.
Ms Ceres reviewed CPE’s Annual Report, titled “With Care”, and noted key highlights, including an analysis of best practices in aligning community voices with institutional priorities such as research, access, and engagement. The report’s three main themes were (1) “Research as Resistance” – exploring the role of scholarship as a catalyst for social change; (2) “Pathways to Access” – initiatives which paved the way for historically marginalized communities to feel a sense of belonging at UTSC; (3) “Care” – the principle of intentional, meaningful engagements with the community and ongoing efforts to transform limiting structures and rebalance power dynamics. - Introductions & Reports of the Presidential Assessors
Karin Ruhlandt, Vice-Principal Academic & Dean
Professor Ruhlandt provided an orientation overview of her portfolio’s organization, key roles and functions.
She provided an enrollment update, noting that UTSC currently had a total of 15,000 students, which was the highest number in campus history. Of the 15,000, about 11,000 were domestic students and about 4,000 were international students. The campus currently had about 420 faculty members, 19 librarians, and 351 administrative staff. The Fall 2025 enrolment target was 4,331. There was a significant shortfall of international student enrolment but domestic enrolment targets were met. Professor Ruhlandt said that the decline in international student enrolment was now expected to be a continuing trend as a result of geopolitics and Canadian visa regulations. She noted that applications from India had dropped 70% and that applications from China had also significantly dropped. She stated that diversification of recruitment efforts across many countries would be required, but that it would be difficult to match previous years’ application numbers from those large countries.
Professor Ruhlandt noted that the Life Sciences and Health Certificate programs were the campus’ current largest growth area. The campus’ biology labs were growing significantly and the campus needed to hire more technicians and teaching assistants to meet demand. In other fields, Professor Ruhladnt reported that the Department of Management enrolled a record number of students this year, exceeding 600 new students. She also noted that social sciences and humanities departments, which had recently experienced enrolment declines, had increased back to previous average levels this year. She noted this was a result of targeted enrolment efforts by the campus leadership, which had been concerned to see these previous declines. Professor Ruhlandt said that the social sciences and humanities were a great strength of UTSC and she wanted to see these programs grow and thrive. She noted that the trend away from these subjects was consistent internationally and reflected changing values and perspectives, but that her office wanted to counter any negative assumptions about these subjects, while highlighting career paths and educational benefits.
Members discussed international student recruitment diversification, the role of scholarships, student support systems, and tuition levels.
Tim Tang, Dean, Student Experience & Wellbeing
Dean Tang informed the Committee that Fall orientation had now wrapped up. He noted that student life was thriving. This year, there were over 230 recognized campus student groups, with that number expected to increase to 300 by the end of term.
The campus had recently hosted a “Get Involved” fair with 746 student participants. The Health & Wellness Centre recently hosted a “We’re Not Strangers” event to facilitate meaningful connections between students in an effort to combat feelings of loneliness, disconnection, and isolation. A “Black Student Link-Up” event had over 200 student participants and the international student barbeque event had over 500 student participants. Other notable recent events and initiatives included the Truth and Reconciliation “Reflection Wall’ where students could leave personal messages, the Graduate & Professional School Fair, and the “Beyond the Brain” healthy campus event.
Dean Tang highlighted his office’s support for international students, including immigration advising services. He reported that 1,256 students had attended immigration advising appointments since the start of the academic year – a 4.8% increase from the same period in the previous year. He noted that the University was pleased to have a 90% approval rating for its students’ study permit applications.
Dean Tang noted that his office was currently engaging on a new tri-campus faith leaders model – with changes being made to better reflect how the University engaged with faith leaders and interfaith education on campus. His office was working on establishing a team of faith leader partners to provide co-curricular programming, community engagement, and activities. Work on this initiative was ongoing and further updates would be provided in the future.
In response to Dean Tang’s report, members discussed challenges for international students, including feelings of loneliness and isolation and difficulties with English as a Second Language (ESL). Dean Karin Ruhlandt noted that, in 2024, for the first time, UTSC was offering its own ESL courses, rather than offering them through the School of Continuing Studies (SCS). She noted that UTSC’s ESL courses were being offered at a higher quality and lower cost than those offered by SCS.
Andrew Arifuzzaman, Chief Administrative and Strategy Officer
Mr. Arifuzzaman stated he had no report to make but invited questions from members.
In response to a question, Mr. Arifuzzaman noted that public funding constraints continued to pose a significant challenge and that the University continued to prioritize communications with the provincial government on this issue. - Report of the Previous Meeting – Report Number 64 (September 10, 2025)
The Committee voted to approve the report of the previous meeting. -
Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
There was no business arising from the report of the previous meeting. - Date of Next Meeting – Tuesday, January 27, 2026
The Chair confirmed that the next meeting would take place on January 27, 2026. - Other Business
Members had no items of other business.
The meeting adjourned at 2:30 p.m.
October 16, 2025