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Board of Governors |
| Minutes - Meeting 391 |
DRAFT BOARD OF GOVERNORS MINUTES OF MEETING NUMBER THREE HUNDRED NINETY-ONE OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF ALGONQUIN COLLEGE, WHICH WAS HELD ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2003 AT 5:00 P.M. IN THE ROSSER BOARD ROOM, "C" BUILDING, WOODROFFE CAMPUS Present: Mr. Mike Keller, Chair
Regrets: Mr. Ric Cameron
Vice Presidents seated at the table:
Resource Personnel and Observers:
Brenda McCutcheon The Chair called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m. and welcomed all in attendance to the first meeting of the 2003-04 academic year. 03-42 QUORUM While waiting for one more Governor to arrive to achieve quorum, Mr. Keller noted the difficulty the Board has experienced over the past several months in achieving quorum. The College's new By-laws state that twelve of the seventeen Governors constitute quorum. If achieving quorum continues to be an issue, the Board may have to change the way in which it operates by delegating more responsibility to the Executive Committee or by meeting less frequently. The Chair encouraged Governors to review the current list of meeting dates and try to keep their calendars clear on those dates. Mr. Keller invited suggestions as to how this issue could be resolved. The question was asked if votes could be cast by proxy? The Chair replied that the suggestion would be investigated and a report brought back at the October meeting.
The Chair attended the ACAATO workshop for Incoming and Ongoing Board Chairs which was held in Toronto on August 19th and 20th. The major topic of discussion was single voice advocacy by the college system: picking two or three priorities for your college and sticking to them; telling your college's story over and over again in the community; showcasing your college's successes in the community. The other major topic was improved postsecondary transferability between colleges and universities; the Committee of Presidents has been charged with developing an agreement by June 2004. Mr. Keller thanked Governors Bhindi, Kirkpatrick, Wallace and Westeinde for bringing greetings from the Board to the Ottawa area June Convocation ceremonies. In August, Governors received an invitation to the Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley Convocation Ceremony to be held in Pembroke at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 27th. Members were encouraged to attend if they had the opportunity, especially if they had not attended a Valley Convocation - the feeling of pride in the room is incredible. Invitations were on the table to the Ottawa area Fall Convocation ceremony to be held on Monday, October 27th. The Chair will bring greetings from the Board to this ceremony. Members were requested to advise the Board Office as soon as possible if they wished to attend. Mr. Keller introduced new Governors Mr. Bryce Bell, Mr. Mubasher Saifi and Mr. Wayne Wilson, adding that he hoped they enjoyed their sojourn on the Board. System-wide Governor Orientation workshops hosted by ACAATO will be held in October - November. The Program is designed to orient new Governors to this challenging role, its responsibilities and to the full range of governance issues facing the colleges. The workshops will be held in five locations across the province: Tuesday, October 21 in Toronto at Centennial College; Wednesday, October 22nd in Sudbury at Cambrian College; Monday, November 10th in Sarnia at Lambton College and Saturday, November 15th in Toronto at the ACAATO office. While the workshops are designed primarily for new Governors, all Governors are welcome to attend. New Governors have been provided with an information package. Mr. Wilson has advised that he will attend the November 15th session. Governors interested in attending one of these sessions were requested to advise the Board Office by September 25th. At the October Board meeting, a number of Board policies will be brought forward to be amended to reflect current practice or rescinded if no longer applicable. The following items were on the table:
Quorum having been achieved, the regular agenda was resumed. 03-44 CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATION None declared. 03-45 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING RESOLUTION MOVED AND SECONDED - Kirkpatrick and Westeinde that the minutes of the meeting held on May 12, 2003 be adopted as circulated. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 03-46 BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES None.
The President reported on the following:
The Chair extended the Board's congratulations on the impressive KPI results.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Executive Committee met on June 24th when the following topics were discussed:
INVESTMENT RESULTS - ENDOWMENT FUND Mr. Hamilton observed that under the new Charter requirements, colleges are obliged to report annually on their endowment funds. Members had in their dossiers, a report on the Endowment Fund as of March 31, 2003. Mr. Hamilton explained that the largest share of the Endowment Fund comes from the proceeds of the Bursary Golf Tournament, approximately $60,000 annually. Withdrawals are limited to 4% of the Fund balance. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2003, the performance net return is down $113,136 or -7.13%; the benchmark for similar funds is -11.61%. In the case of Canadian equity, the College's Endowment Fund was down 14.44% while the TSE was down 17.6%. Managers of the College's Fund outperformed the market indices. Many university endowment funds have declined by 20-22% over the same period. Mr. Hamilton advised that the performance of the Endowment Fund has improved since March 31st of this year. FIRST QUARTER OVERVIEW Mr. Hamilton led members through the first quarter results which were distributed at the meeting. The 2003-04 budget has been adjusted downward by $274,202 as result of the following:
The 2003-04 budget approved by the Board in April contained a $1.5 m
special contingency fund which remains intact at this point. The College has
recently received confirmation of its grants for the 2003 -04 academic year.
The operating grant is $600,000 lower than budgeted based on past
performance. The KPI grant is $350,000 less than anticipated. This will
result in a $1 million adjustment for Q2. On the positive side, revenues
from tuition fees are on target. Questions for clarification included:
QUALITY FUND At the request of the President, Mr. Nick Papadolias, who was acting for Mrs. Hanson, took members through the Quality Plan for the College. The Ministry has dedicated $60 million in quality funding for colleges this year. The funding is allocated in the same way as the general purpose operating grant and Algonquin's share is $4.3 of $4.5 million as the Ministry is holding back 5% for exceptional growth contingencies. Colleges must supply the Ministry with a plan stating how they are going to use this funding to make a difference for students; there are strict guidelines as to what qualifies for the Quality Fund. The College has reviewed its plan with the Students' Association and they have endorsed the directions taken. This quality funding is supposed to be a five year plan with funding increasing each year up to $100 million in the fifth year. There are four categories for funding and the College submitted proposals for three. In the category "Investment in Educational Resources", Algonquin has proposed improvements to the Resource Centres at Woodroffe and Pembroke Campuses, update laboratory equipment to enable programs to teach to industry standards, enhance the reliability of telecommunications equipment, and convert a further 20 classrooms to multimedia/e-classrooms. Under the category "Investment in Student Services and Student Retention", Algonquin has proposed a number of items to improve retention such as a Student Support Lab for math and English tutoring, improvements to Counselling services, additional tutoring services, and employment preparation services. Under the category "Investment in New Programs or Existing Program Development", the College will develop new programs in the field of animal care, medical lab, physiotherapy, and meat inspection; the curriculum of existing programs will be updated; and the number of hybrid courses will be increased. In each category, the College had to explain how these plans would improve services to students. Mr. Hamilton added that, as with the recent SuperBuild funding, the government is flowing the money in two stages: part in October and the remainder in January. STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE The President reminded Governors that approximately a year ago, the Board had approved the development of a new Strategic Plan for the College. Over the past year, the College has developed a new Vision, four Mission Statements and sixteen overarching goals. Members had in their dossiers a copy of the President's address to staff in August which outlined the initiatives to be undertaken this year. All Administrators have signed performance contracts for this year which include their actions for ensuring that the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan are achieved. Colleges are required to post on their web sites the actions they will be undertaking this year to achieve the first 20% of the Strategic Plan; at the end of the year, the colleges must report on what they have achieved and if an action was not successful, why not. Everyone in the College is working towards the success of the Plan and its four missions: quality, client service, financial stability and enabling technology. To date, the Plan has received positive comments from staff and students. Progress reports will be brought to the Board throughout the year. 03-49 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY REPORT Governor Mawani congratulated the School of Health and Community Studies on having 67 of 68 students pass the provincial Registered Nursing exam despite the SARS outbreak. Governor Westeinde noted the continued shortage in skilled construction labour and wondered why the Construction Carpentry Techniques program was being cancelled. Mr. Papadolias replied that the one year Construction Carpentry Techniques program was being cancelled and replaced by the two year Building Construction Technician program. The College has experienced an increase in enrolment in all Trades programs this fall and is moving to offer more programs in line with what industry and students want and phasing out those which no longer meet industry needs. Advisory Committees provide program content advice to the College on changes in their areas. The President noted that each year the College turns away students as it does not have the capacity to take every student who applies for a particular program. 75% of applications are for the top 25 programs. The College can not flood the market with graduates in a particular field as many may not find jobs and that will impact on the KPI results. In other instances, increasing enrolment in a particular program might require the construction of another specialized lab; the Dental Hygiene program is a good example of that. Annually, the College receives approximately 30,000 applications for 7,000 seats. Many students do not get into their program of choice. The complete written Management Summary is attached as Appendix "A" to these minutes. 03-50 INFORMATION ITEMS The following items have been received and are available from the Board Office upon request: July 25, 2003 CAAT RCA Pension Plan - Audited Financial Statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2002. Directives 2003-D-1 Premium rate adjustment for Academic Staff - Long Term Disability May 21, 2003 Approval to offer Interior Decorating, 2 years, 4 semesters, effective September 2003 May 30, 2003 Ministry Decisions on College Program Proposals for April 2003. The following from Algonquin: Approval to offer Construction Carpentry - Advanced Housing, 2 years, 4 semesters, effective September 2003 May 30, 2003 Applied Degrees Policy Directives May 30, 2003 New In-School (Off-the-Job) Curriculum Standard for Construction and Maintenance Electrician 309A, effective September 2003 June 10, 2003 Approval to offer Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training, 3 semesters, effective September 2003 July 15, 2003 Modifications to the terms and conditions of the original Ministerial consent (February 27, 2003) to advertise and offer a Bachelor of Applied Technology (Photonics) for a five year period. This letter and attachments constitute the Minister's revised letter of consent. July 16, 2003 Ministerial consent to advertise and offer a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Interior Design) for a five year period August 26, 2003 Approval to modify the Electronics Engineering Technician - Telecommunications program by changing the title to Electronics Engineering Technician effective September 2003 03-51 OTHER BUSINESS There being no other items of business, the Board moved In Camera at 5:50 p.m. to discuss a business opportunity and adjourned for the evening at 6:04 p.m. APPENDIX "A" MANAGEMENT SUMMARY REPORT VICE PRESIDENT ACADEMIC NEW PROGRAMS/INITIATIVES
The following programs were suspended for the Fall intake and decisions will be made as to whether or not they will be offered again in the future:
The following programs have been canceled:
SCHOOL/INSTITUTE/SECTOR UPDATES School of Business School of Health & Community Studies The Restorative Dental Hygiene program was subject to a program review by the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario this past July. The report was excellent with no recommendations for change. Staff were praised for their work and student feedback reported to the accreditation team was very positive. School of Media and Design Police and Public Safety Institute Algonquin College Heritage Institute CURRICULUM / PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The second annual "Tools for Teaching Program" was offered to faculty developing hybrid online courses for the 2003/2004 academic year. Over 80 faculty registered for the sessions which were delivered May 22 to June 6, 2003 on the Woodroffe and Pembroke campuses. During Spring, twenty-two workshops were offered on a college-wide basis with over 350 registrations. Feedback from participants was positive. Twenty newly hired faculty attended a four day orientation to teaching at Algonquin from August 5 to 8. Twenty-seven faculty hired during the 2002-2003 year and one experienced professor participated in the regional Focus on Learning Program at Queens University in Kingston from August 11 to 15. In addition, five Algonquin teachers served as facilitators and one member led a workshop. All these teachers indicated that this was a valuable learning experience for them as well. Despite an unexpected change in facility (due to delays in construction at St. Lawrence College) and the Ontario blackout, participant feedback was very positive. This year we launched the new mentor program for newly hired full-time teachers. Teachers were matched with experienced faculty who had been identified by Deans to serve as mentor/guides for new faculty. Mentors were trained in June and twenty-three matches were made. A session to provide an opportunity for each mentor pair to meet was held on Tuesday, August 19. A one day orientation for part-time teachers was developed based on feedback received from the pilot workshop developed last year. This session was offered three times - once in Pembroke and twice in Ottawa. A total of forty-three teachers attended. A fourth session is being planned at Woodroffe on Friday, August 29 for any part-time teachers who may have been unable to attend the earlier workshops. In collaboration with faculty in the On-line Learning Centre, ten college-wide workshops were offered during the week of August 18. STUDENT ACTIVITY COMMUNITY ACTIVITY AWARDS DONATIONS VICE-PRESIDENT, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION COLLEGE ANCILLARY SERVICES FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES Network Infrastructure PHYSICAL RESOURCES Stage 1 includes the redesign of the existing Sheet Metal Shop for a new Biology Lab, offices and e-classrooms and other various renovations. Stage 2 involves the Trades Building, and Stage 3 would entail a C Building infill or a major renovation to A Building. Residence, Phase III Students began to move in to the Residence complex on the weekend of August 23, 2003. 2003 Parking Program The project is in progress. Maintenance and Operations REGISTRAR'S OFFICE Registration Statistics Continuing Education Registrations: With respect to Continuing Education registrations for the 2003 Spring Term, as of August 22, registrations stood at 12,403 as compared to 11,311 at the same time last year. This year's registrations to August 22 represent 95.9% of the projection for the Spring Term. As of August 22, C.E. registrations for the 2003 Fall Term stood at 7,912 or 42.5% of projection. Registration in C.E. Fall courses continues throughout the term. Convocation (Ottawa Schools) A proposal has been prepared and submitted to the President's Executive Committee regarding a proposed change in venue for the Spring 2004 Convocation Ceremonies. VICE PRESIDENT STUDENT LIFE AND HUMAN RESOURCES STUDENT SERVICES Marilyn Stratton-Zimmer, Director of Student Services, hosted the Coordinating Committee on Student Services (CCSS) Annual General Meeting which was held from June 15 - 19th in the New Advanced Technology Building. CCSS members from many Ontario colleges stayed in the Residence and attended meetings and social events including the Art King Award Banquet held in the Restaurant International. Marilyn was this year's recipient of the Art King Award. Anne Kalil, Student Affairs and Orientation Officer, organized the first phase of Orientation, Campus Preview, which was held the week prior to classes. Students received their student handbook (the Instaguide), Student I.D. cards, and were taken on a customized tour of the college. They were warmly welcomed by College officials, student leaders and representatives from the various schools and departments who informed them of the critical things they need to know to be well prepared for the start of the term. Each year, this headstart program has attracted more and more incoming students. The second phase of Orientation was held during the first week of class and included activities such as Pizza Day, musical entertainment, the Residence Welcome BBQ, a Haunted Walk tour in downtown Ottawa, a Dance Party at Miller's Crossing and ended with an evening with the Ottawa Renegades football team. Anne Kalil also organized the first ever Parents' Preview session for the parents of new students under the age of 21. Over 300 parents received information on the College and their services available to their children. Representatives from each school were also on hand to answer any questions they had. Counselling Services Centre for Students with Disabilities FINANCIAL AID Substantial slowdowns in service from the Student Support Branch of the Ministry were also experienced by all Financial Aid offices across the province after the massive hydro failure on August 14th. The Student Support Branch was considered to be not an essential service by the government and were shut down between August 14th and the 25th. HUMAN RESOURCES While we suspended our lunch and learn series for the summer we will begin those again in the second half of September. On August 5th we hosted an orientation session for new faculty. Those who attended seemed to appreciate the session as evidenced by positive evaluations. It was found that 6.25% had participated in a session of this kind before and that 68.75% had been part-time teachers at Algonquin. The creation of a computer workstation in the HR lobby is viewed as a positive improvement that will provide for a more comprehensive service both for internal and external clients. The addition of a scanner also assists applicants to apply on line which facilitates the dissemination of information to managers and reduces the use of paper. In addition, it is used as an educational tool for clients who may not be familiar with all the services that are available to them on line. The internal web site saw many enhancements over the summer months. The Employment Opportunities site is working well on the internal site. The new EAPlus link is operational and is providing a variety of different information about the EAP benefit. Under the Forms link - there have been 11 staffing forms posted for the College community use. Statistics: Total Number of Retirements/Resignations - 44 Total Number of LTD/STD - There are currently 66 active files (35 academic, 28 support and 3 administrative) while 4 cases are pending. Number of Pension Estimates completed - 38 Number of WSIB claims - 6 in June, 2 in July and 0 to date in August Modified Workloads - 16 active STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION CENTRE A new initiative for student academic support is starting this week. Jeff Ross, a part time professor at the College, will be providing new International students with individualized help in tackling their first course assignments. Jeff will be at the Centre every Wednesday from 4 to 7p.m. to help our students cope with the set-up, the research requirements, and the structure of this crucial first assignment so that it can meet the expectations of their professors. We will also continue the academic support we are giving to the International students by once again offering the International Transitions general education elective. Although offered mainly on-line, the course also gives the students 5 one-on-one meetings. Tom Norton, the former president of the ACCC and an acknowledged authority on International Education is providing the Centre with his consulting services to help develop a business plan designed to contribute to the College vision of being Canada's leading College and support the 2003-2008 Strategic Plan. Specific actions related to the structure of the Centre, its support of students, its linkages with the academic schools and its marketing initiatives will be articulated. The Centre will play a key role in expanding the international student community and in supporting the College's financial stability. The Centre has worked with Concepts and Services, a Trinidad and Tobago based consulting firm in submitting a proposal for the delivery of a training program in the use of modern educational technology and multimedia to secondary school teachers in Trinidad and Tobago. The submission is for a component of a multi-million dollar fund set up by the Inter-American Development Bank to support the Ministry of Education as it modernizes its educational system. Negotiations are also under way with Empirico Consulting Group for a joint venture to deliver an ESL program in the campus of Hubei Polytechnic University in Wuhan, China. This is a small-scale project which carries small risks but which also offers no financial benefits in its first year. The benefits would lie in a potential increase in students who have received this ESL training and who may want to come here into post-secondary programs. On August 28 we will be hosting a visit of education officers from the Technical Education Department of the Malaysian Ministry of Education. The visitors are in Canada to study the techniques of developing vocational curriculum. Their special interests are in the areas of hospitality and media. Presentations on curriculum development and tours of the schools of Hospitality and Tourism, and Media and Design have been arranged. While a long-range strategic marketing plan is being developed, some immediate marketing activities have already been committed to and will soon be underway. These include overseas visits to participate in CEC Educational Fairs and to engage the services of recruitment agents. The visits which will start late in September are as follows:
MARKETING
PUBLIC RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT Public Relations Corporate Events Alumni Communications Fundraising A Beth Perrin Memorial Fund has been established and will be administered through the Plant Some Roots Endowment Fund. Media Relations
The College received a total of 30 media hits during this reporting period.
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