Senate Report for November 2010

Thanks to everyone for your input about what changes and improvements you would like to see at our school. You told me that you would like to be regularly updated about progress that has been made regarding the following issues, so here is the first report:

1)      Creation of a minor in management option for engineers:

The first order of business was to find out the current status of this initiative. Dr. Cheng was originally pushing very heavily to create this option for us, so I got in touch with him to get up to date on the present time situation. You can see his reply here. In a nutshell, the former Dean of Management who attempted to create the option is no longer holding this position and a new degree for a Masters in Management was created instead.

However, due to the popularity of the original idea amongst engineering students, I believe that if we show there is still a significant amount of support for creating a minor in management option for engineers, we could possibly convince the university to reconsider the initiative. Here is what I would like to do:

a) Put together an information blurb about the specifics of what a minor in management would involve exactly with a survey, which I will ask all engineering students to fill out, so as to find out how many of us would actually enroll in such a program.

b) Assuming there is a substantial student base that would enroll in the program; summarize the data so this can be shown statistically.

c) Provide the survey results to the Dean of Management, Director of Engineering, Dr. Cheng, Dr. Tannant, and other senior administrators that would be able to influence the creation of this option for us.

d) Attempt to garner support from the above individuals for creating the Minor in Management option for engineers by contacting them personally.

e) Attempt to have the above individuals start the process for creating this program, and if that does not occur then resort to bringing forward a motion in Senate mandating that they reconsider the initiative.

2)      Student study space, including after-hours.

This is a huge issue for all of us. A library extension is being planned (I will let you know the exact date it is supposed to be completed once I find out). However, this is obviously not going to resolve the problem for us on an immediate basis. I have thought of some ideas that will alleviate the problem, and have put together a proposal (a copy of the proposal is included here) and have submitted it to the Academic Space Committee.

Some of you may be aware that the Academic Space Committee has been extremely unresponsive to student requests in the past. The fact of the matter is that we, as students, are not alone in being ignored by the committee (it is questionable as to if this committee even meets regularly, and many faculty members are suffering from similar problems as us relating to space). The Senate Agenda Committee will be requesting that a review of their processes be conducted. Our concerns as students will be included in this request.

Otherwise, I will persist in raising the issue at every opportunity.

3)      Access to engineering text books, equipment and other resources outside of regularly scheduled class and lab hours.

As soon as possible I plan to put together a list of which text books are required corresponding to the engineering curriculum, which of these are available in our own library, how many copies of each are stocked, and how often they are borrowed. I will then recommend how many of which text books should be purchased and added to the Okanagan library collection (based on student input and use trends).

Most of you have probably been told that the engineering building is scheduled to be opened by June/July of 2011.

4)      Availability of scholarships, including equality of scholarship opportunity for out-of-province students.

Many of you have raised the point that out-of-province students do not have equal opportunity for scholarships (or any opportunity) as compared to BC residents. I have a lot of information to gather to really get to know what the scenario is, so I can figure out what can be done to improve things. I’ll keep you updated. The good news is that now that we are accredited, UBC Okanagan should be included as an eligible school on more scholarships.

5)      Transfer agreements with other colleges and universities.

This is a new issue to me, so I will need to begin the process of finding out more about it as well.

If you are interested in the details of Senate discussions, policy changes that have occurred, etc., you can find minutes from Senate meetings at http://www.senate.ubc.ca/okanagan/minutes.cfm.

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