Summary of Senate Meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 21/09

If a student falls ill, and IFF (if and ONLY if) they display “influenza-like illness” symptoms, they are to stay home and are NOT required to bring a doctor’s note for their absence. The legitimacy of their illness will be check on, however. UBC is actually thinking of moving to an online ‘registration’ system for all illness notification, which would be implemented sometime in the future.

UBC will be partnering with the University of Alberta to host the 2010 G8-G20 University Summit. This will actually consist of two events, one for university presidents and faculty (held in Vancouver), and a student summit in Banff. There are event planning opportunities available to only two students, system-wide. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING TO PLAN THIS EVENT, CONTACT THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT ASAP!!! Interested students must be 4th year or grads.

UBC fell in the Times ranking from 34th to 40th. The general opinion is that sister institutions have been artificially inflating their student/faculty ratios by including clinical and sessional instructors as full-time faculty members. UBC does not participate actively in this ranking.

There were some more blurbs about the latest version of UBC’s strategic plan, “Place and Promise.” Also, President Toope expounded on UBC’s levels of international engagement, which he feels is lacking.

The Deputy-Vice Chancellor announced that a director will be hired for Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies (IGS) to help develop policy; Dr. Daniel Keyes will fill this position until a new director is appointed in June 2010.

The composition and quorum for some Senate committees were shifted. It has been decided that the Dean of Graduate Studies will be signing parchments along with the President and Registrar. Student mobility is ‘improving’; there will be a written report at the next meeting of the Senate. The new Pushor-Mitchell prize of $10,000 for an exceptional 4th year student of the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Science was formally passed by Senate. At steady-state, P-M will be donating $40,000 per year for this scholarship, though it is unclear how it will be awarded.

New policy on discipline for non-academic student misconduct has been posted here. Look it up, it may apply to you!

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Summary of Today’s Senate Meeting

-The Board of Governors approved the School of Engineering’s May curriculum proposals (obviously, as many of those courses are being offered right now).

-The UBC Faculty of Medicine is now officially province-wide via partnerships between UBC-Van, UVic, UNBC, and UBCO.
-The FoM is responsible for undergraduate schooling (Doctor of Medicine), post graduate schooling (residency training), and continuing professional development.
-There will be 32 medical students on our campus by January 2012, which translates into 128 when we reach steady state in 2014.
****President Toope confirmed that all degrees read ‘UBC’ and don’t specify location. I’m not sure if he meant only those in the FoM, but that’s positive news either way.*****

-The Grad Studies issues remain unresolved and will be addressed in the near future. (Everywhere else in the country, Grad Studies are set up as a Faculty, whereas ours was set up as a College. Colleges are not defined in the University Act, which means that our College of Graduate Studies has no power and nobody’s sure who’s responsible for what. Every year there’s the recurring issue of ‘Who Signs The Parchments????’ This topic is the subject of heated debate every time it comes up.)

-The School of Engineering’s latest curriculum proposal (pretty much all grad courses) was approved by Senate and now will go to the Board of Governors for final approval.

-Three new awards were approved by the Senate (none for engineering).

-A change in the language surrounding Leaves of Absence was approved for the Calendar.

-Results of the preliminary enrolment report were presented:
-This year we have 6125 students enrolled (5727 undergrads and 398 grads) compared to 5120 undergrads and 295 grads last year.
-45% of the student body is male, 54% is female, and apparently 1% got lost somewhere along the way.
-45 of 6125 students are aboriginal.
-UBCO’s entrance average has gone up this year; on the books it is 75%, but in practice this year it was ~82%.
-In engineering, we now have students transferring IN to our program for 2nd year from Vancouver.
-In general, students are taking more courses per semester now.
-President Toope is concerned about our retention rates at both campuses.

If you would like to know more, please visit the Senate webpage (link below) or contact me at senate-at-ubcoengineers.com.
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School of Engineering faculty representatives on the UBCO Senate:

Dr. Tyseer Aboulnasr, Dean of Applied Science (Dean of Faculty)
Dr. Homayoun Najjaran (Representative of the Joint Faculties)
Ms. Laura Patterson (Representative of the Joint Faculties)
Dr. Yannacopoulos (Representative of the Joint Faculties)

Dr. Julian Cheng (Representative of the Faculty of Applied Science)
Dr. Gordon Lovegrove (Representative of the Faculty of Applied Science)

For more information about the UBC-Okanagan Senate, please visit the UBCO Senate webpage.

The next UBCO Senate meeting will be Wednesday, October 21st, 2009. Senate meetings are always held on Wednesdays, from 3:30 – 5:30 pm in LIB 317.

If you have any questions or concerns that you would like brought to Senate, please contact senate – at – ubcoengineers.com