 |
Board of Governors |
| Minutes - Meeting 392 |
DRAFT BOARD OF GOVERNORS MINUTES OF MEETING NUMBER THREE HUNDRED NINETY-TWO OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF ALGONQUIN COLLEGE, WHICH WAS HELD ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2003 AT 5:00 P.M. IN THE ROSSER BOARD ROOM, "C" BUILDING, WOODROFFE CAMPUS Present: Mr. Mike Keller, Chair
Regrets: Mrs. Nurjehan Mawani Vice Presidents seated at the table:
Resource Personnel and Observers:
Brenda McCutcheon The Chair called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and welcomed all in attendance. 03-53 CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATION None declared.
Governor Wilson asked for an update on the environmental assessment undertaken at the Lees Avenue Campus. Mr. Hamilton replied that the most recent environmental assessment was conducted for financial reasons. The parties interested in buying the property were having trouble in borrowing money and one of the requirements was a recent environmental assessment. The assessment came back quite clean. A number of test wells were drilled which the College has had filled. The only cautionary note came in the form of recommendation that workers digging or mowing the lawn should wear gloves. The Rideau Campus is built on the site of an old city dump. Governor Wallace, noting that the Board is now receiving reports on the College's endowment funds, wondered if there were a formal investment policy. Mr. Hamilton replied in the affirmative, adding that the investment policy has been approved by the Board. With regard to a follow-up question on the percentage of equities in the endowment fund, Mr. Hamilton indicated that this information had been part of the report presented to the Board in September. Also included were the results of the various funds against standard benchmarks. Governor Wallace wondered if monies from the Quality Fund could be used for renovations to the Pembroke Campus. The President responded that the Quality Fund can not be used for capital expenditures. The College is still in talks with both the provincial and local governments regarding the Pembroke Campus. Referring to the First Quarter Review, Governor Wilson asked how ACERRA had performed at the end of the first quarter. Mr. Hamilton advised that ACERRA's contribution is budgeted at zero for the year. Whatever profit is realized at the end of the year will be applied against the following year. This is to eliminate any fluctuations from the market. ACERRA was actually at break even at the end of the first quarter and is anticipated to show a profit of $.25 million at year end. However, this amount is not included in the current year's actuals. Members were advised that an error in the nomenclature of two new programs had been corrected in Appendix A of the September minutes. RESOLUTION that the minutes of the meeting held on September 8, 2003 be adopted as amended. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 03-54 BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES Members had in their dossiers an overview of an Executive Committee teleconference where options were discussed for addressing the difficulty of achieving quorum at Board meetings. The Chair invited members' comments.
It was agreed to revisit the requirement for the Executive Committee to meet in camera when acting on behalf of the Board. For the moment, Governors were willing to try participating by teleconference when it is not possible to attend a Board meeting in person to see if this action will help to resolve the issue of quorum.
03-56 DECISION ITEMS AND REPORTS BUSINESS PLAN The President advised that under the new College Charter, colleges are required to develop business plans and make them accessible to the general public either by posting them on the college's web site or by hard copy. Members had in their dossiers the written version of the College's Business Plan. Mr. Ric Thoms, Director, Marketing, was asked to provide an overview of the web version. Mr. Thoms drew Governors attention to the College's home page (www.algonquincollege.com) and the button "About Us". When this button is clicked a pop-up menu appears including one called Strategic Plan, which is also a Charter requirement. Clicking on Strategic Plan, brings up a menu which includes Business Plan. Mr. Thoms took members through both the Strategic Plan and Business Plan on the web, illustrating how both documents are inter-linked. The President continued that colleges are required to report publically, in accordance with the Minister's Binding Policy Directive, by June 30th on the anticipated outcomes contained in each plan on an annual basis. Internally, this will be done in August of each year at the President's Breakfast. Colleges must indicate where they achieved as well as where they did not; where outcomes were not achieved, reasons why must be provided. Appendix C of the Business Plan outlines the key operational outcomes across all the College which correspond to the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan. Members were unanimous in their support for the document as presented. RESOLUTION that the Board of Governors approve the Business Plan as presented and forward it to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
The President advised that the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which was passed in 2001, requires boards to publically declare by September 2003 what they planned to do to improve opportunities for disabled persons. These plans were to be posted on college web sites by September 30, 2003. Mr. Warburton continued that the College's Accessibility Policy is posted marked draft pending Board Approval as there was a significant fine involved in not posting on time. The aim of the Act is to enable disabled persons to participate more fully in the life of the province. Algonquin established an Accessibility Working Group with cross-College representation. The Working Group documented what had been achieved in the past as well as identified what will be accomplished in the years ahead. There is no stipulation as to what must be done, only that something must be done to exceed the baseline measures. There is also no funding provided to achieve the objectives of the Act. The Accessibility Working Group will monitor the Plan and work with College personnel to achieve the outcomes set out therein. It is worth noting that Algonquin is already compliant in many ways with the Act. On October 7th, the Disabled Persons Community Resources wrote to advise that the College has been selected to receive the Richard St. Pierre Accessibility Award for its efforts in making its building location accessible to persons with disabilities. The President added that one of the major issues is making washrooms accessible to all. While the College is retro-fitting washrooms as quickly as possible, there is a significant capital cost associated with the renovations so they can not be done all at once. The door into the Cafeteria in D Building will be the next project to be retro-fitted to be accessible. Mr. Gillett recommended the Plan to Governors. Mr. Warburton advised that Governor McIntyre had just indicated his willingness to join the Accessibility Working Group. The President added that while accessibility is an issue, it is not as large as the unfunded maintenance which amounts to something like $1 billion for the system. It was noted that the College's new buildings are well above the standards for accessibility. Algonquin will also move classroom locations to accommodate disabled students. RESOLUTION that the Board of Governors approve the College Accessibility Policy to comply with the Ontarians with Disabilities Act as presented. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY BOARD POLICIES FOR AMENDMENT The President reminded members that in the spring the Board's by-laws had been updated to comply with new College Charter. The Rules of Order for meetings and some Board policies now require amendment to comply with these By-laws. In response to a question as to why membership on the Audit Committee had been changed, the President explained that membership on the Audit Committee had been changed from three external members and one internal member plus the Chair of the Board and the President as a non voting member to four external members plus the Chair and President as above on the recommendation of the College's auditors, post Enron as well as by the College's lawyers. It was asked if Board Policy F6, Retirement at age 65 also applied to Governors. The President responded that the issue has never been raised before but he was of the opinion that it would not apply. The government has not said that it applies. At the moment, age of retirement is an internal college matter; half of the colleges have moved away from fixed retirement dates. The new provincial government may make changes to this policy and the College will wait until it is known what the government will do before taking unilateral action. The issue of retirement age will be brought back to the Board in the new year for general discussion. With reference to Board Policy F8, Employment and Education for Equity Groups, the question was asked how does the College measure employment for equity groups if it is not allowed to collect numbers. Mr. Warburton replied that the College stopped collecting data in the early 90's as voluntary participation in early surveys was not great. The College does recognize that metrics are difficult to provide. RESOLUTION that the Board of Governors approve the amendments to the Rules of Order and Board Policies as presented. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY UPDATE ON RECENT PROGRAM SUSPENSIONS Given the recent articles on the cancellation of the Sheet Metal program in the press, the President asked Mrs. Hanson, Vice President Academic, to provide a comparison of post secondary and apprenticeship programs. Members had in their dossiers a summary of how apprenticeship programs work. Mrs. Hanson explained that apprenticeship programs are different from post secondary programs which are brought to the Board for approval. Apprenticeship programs are offered under the jurisdiction of the employer - only 10% of the training is delivered at the College; the rest is provided on-site. Apprenticeship programs are a tripartite agreement between the College, the employer and the Ministry. The College provides the in-house training, the employer supports or sponsors the student to take this training and the Ministry identifies the training agents to provide the training. Each year in November-December, the Apprenticeship Branch of the Ministry sits down with the colleges and negotiates the training rate for the upcoming year. This guarantees the College a minimum number of seats and lets the College know how much money it will receive for the training. The College also indicates the maximum number of apprentices it can accept which is usually predicated on the size of the lab. Over the last few years the number of seats has eroded from 20 -25 to 10 - 12 per year. Algonquin does not market apprenticeship programs; that is done by the Apprenticeship Branch. Apprentices do not register with the College but with the Apprenticeship Branch. Students can determine where they will take their training; they may come to Algonquin for the first session, but go to a different location for sessions two and three. The curriculum is set by the Ministry and the College delivers to their standards. With respect to the two programs recently cancelled: Precision Metal Fabrication and Sheet Metal Worker, the College has encountered a reduction in interest by students for a number of years. In the past year, expenses have exceeded revenues by $40,000. Since both programs use the same facilities, only offering one program makes it extremely difficult for that program to meet its required contribution. Both programs have been failing for the past 4-5 years despite the best efforts of Mr. Tapp and staff to find ways to increase enrolment. The College did reach an agreement with local industry to sponsor 20 students but unfortunately, industry could not deliver on this promise. In the fall of 2001, the College commissioned a report looking at Eastern Ontario and the demand for all apprenticeship programs. The report came back that demand for both Precision Metal Fabrication and Sheet Metal Worker was either flat or declining and the recommendation was to get out of both programs. In light of the fact that these programs were losing $40,000 and the Board's direction that programs are not to be subsidized, it was decided to cancel these programs. Comments/questions included:
The President continued that every indication is that there will be a massive shortage of skilled workers in the trades within a few years, yet no level of government has been to tackle the issue. In addition, this past year the Ministry initiated a charge of $400 every time an apprentice comes back to school which has made it more difficult to attract apprenticeship training. The College recommended to the Ministry that an Eastern Ontario Trades Centre be established for all apprentice and trades programming but as yet no response has been received. It is evident that industry needs to speak to government before anything will be done.
Governor Wilson noted that difficulties with apprenticeship training is not isolated to Ottawa; it is an issue across the country. He added that the College does not market apprenticeship programs to employers, high school students and the general public. Thus, these programs die by default. The mandate of post secondary institutions is not directly related to apprenticeship training. The fact that there is no federal/provincial agreement may be a contributing factor. The new Ontario government may move to address this lack. There is a lack of leadership at all levels as apprenticeship training is regarded as a hot potato. Governor Wilson offered an amendment to the recommendation that the Board receive this report: that the Board receive the report and direct staff to report back in November on measures that can be taken for Algonquin College to commit to be the Eastern Ontario Centre of Excellence for Apprenticeship Training. The President advised that the new liberal government will make some announcements regarding apprenticeship training but it is unlikely to do so before November. It would be premature for the College to take a position without knowing what the government is prepared to do. In addition, the Board approved a motion in 2002 that program subsidization is not to exceed $2 million by the 2004/05 fiscal year. Creating a Centre of Excellence would cost a considerable sum of money. While the Administration can not come back with a report by November, it could come back with a report in a timely fashion following the release of information from the new Liberal government. RESOLUTION that the Board of Governors receive this report and direct staff to report back in a timely fashion on measures that can be taken for Algonquin College to commit to be the Eastern Ontario Centre of Excellence for Apprenticeship Training. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Governor Westeinde offered to work with the College to ascertain if there were ways that the private sector can help with this initiative.
The Fall General Assembly meeting for Board Chairs and Presidents will be held in Toronto tomorrow. The President will attend. Topics to be discussed include: CAAT Pension Plan Update, Collective Bargaining Update, ACAATO Priorities 2003/04, College Week Update November 3rd to 7th Update, College Compensation and Appointments Council (CCAC) and Human Resources Management Steering Committee (HRMSC) Update on Bargaining, Governors Orientation Program Update and Provincial Funding Ask and Strategies. System-wide Governor Orientation workshops hosted by ACAATO will be held in October-November. Governors Bell, Saifi and Wilson will attend the Governor Orientation Workshop to be held in Toronto on November 15th. The Wybourn Award is a College Award presented to a student leader to recognize outstanding contribution to the promotion and upholding of student rights at Algonquin College. This year's winner is Governor Mubasher Saifi. The Award will be presented at the Gala Awards Evening on October 25th. Governors Bhindi, Cameron, Georgopoulos, McIntyre and Wilson will also be in attendance. Monday, November 10th is the date of the next Board meeting; it is also the date of the municipal elections. Governors in attendance agreed that they could attend a Board meeting this evening. The October issue of Governors' Update included an invitation to attend the 2004 ACAATO Conference to be held in Kingston on February 22nd and 23rd. As is the practice, the Board will send five delegates. In the event that more than five Governors wish to attend, preference will be given to those Governors who have not attended a previous ACAATO Conference. Governors were requested to advise the Board Office as soon as possible if they wished to attend. The picture of Board members, which hangs outside the Rosser Board Room, has been updated to reflect the current membership. The following items were on the table:
The President reported on the following:
Governor Bhindi commended the President for the coffee break meetings with staff as it gives them the opportunity to speak one on one with him. 03-59 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY REPORT Members expressed their support for having alumni speak at Convocation. The complete written Management Report is attached as Appendix "A" to these minutes. 03-60 INFORMATION ITEMS The following items have been received and are available from the Board Office upon request: September 11, 2003 Minutes of CAAT Pension Plan Sponsors' Committee meetings of February 4, 2003; April 1, 2003; May 27, 2003; June 24, 2003 Minutes of CAAT Pension Plan Trustees' meetings of February 5, 2003; June 26, 2003 Directives September 5, 2003 Ministry Decisions on College Program Proposals for June 2003. The following from Algonquin: Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training, Approved, 3 semesters September 18, 2003 Ministry Decisions on College Program Proposals for August 2003. The following for Algonquin: Approval to change the title of Electronics Engineering Technician - Telecommunications, 2 years, 4 semesters to Electronics Engineering Technician September 17, 2003 Letter from the Ministry granting consent to Algonquin College and Niagara College to offer a Bachelor of Applied Technology (Photonics) for five years beginning August 25, 2003 September 24, 2003 Letter from the Ministry granting consent to Algonquin College to offer a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Interior Design) for five years beginning August 7, 2003 October 2, 2003 Approval to change the title of Electronics Engineering Technology - Telecommunications, 3 years, 6 semesters to Electronics Engineering Technology. 03-61 OTHER BUSINESS There being no other business the Board moved In Camera at 6:20 to discuss a number of business and personnel issues and adjourned for the evening at 7:25 p.m.
APPENDIX "A" MANAGEMENT SUMMARY REPORT VICE PRESIDENT ACADEMIC ELEARNING As well, the Student Support Lab is now operational with four desktop computers and a range of reading, writing and core math tutorial software. The availability of this lab is being promoted to students and staff and appointments for assistance have increased. Blackboard (software and hardware) has performed well due in part to a significant hardware update, direct Blackboard consulting prior to the term to help us optimize the systems and ITS support. As of September 5, 2003, there were 7,299 students registered in courses offering through the OntarioLearn consortium. 30.62% of the enrolment are in courses being hosted by Algonquin College. An additional 300 registrations have been received in non-OntarioLearn online courses. SCHOOL/INSTITUTE/SECTOR UPDATES School of Health & Community Studies School of Media and Design Police and Public Safety Institute RETENTION INITIATIVES COMMUNITY ACTIVITY On September 19, 2003 at the Pembroke Campus, the Police Foundations' Political Science class organized and hosted an all-candidates debate for candidates running in the provincial election for the Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke riding. At the Woodroffe Campus, students of Journalism, Broadcasting TV, Public Relations and Radio programs assisted in the staging of an all-candidates forum featuring candidates from the Ottawa West - Nepean riding on September 24, 2003. These events offered a great opportunity for the students and staff to participate and raise questions on the issues and to interact with the local candidates and the community during the election period. DONATIONS The School of Media and Design Continuing Education department has received over $8,000 worth of music and audio equipment from local sponsors who have expressed their support for the new Music and Audio courses. VICE-PRESIDENT, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION COLLEGE ANCILLARY SERVICES The Technology Fair held on September 17 was extremely successful and was well attended by students and faculty. Media coverage included several pieces by CHRO and one interview by CBC. Residence Operation FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES Office of the Director INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES Network Infrastructure The project to replace the Nortel telephone system with Cisco equipment has begun. The new e-mail anti-spam and anti-virus system has proven to be most effective. PHYSICAL RESOURCES Residence, Phase III The Residence is occupied and the Convenience Store is operational. The target date for full completion is now the end of October. Maintenance and Operations REGISTRAR'S OFFICE Registration Statistics Continuing Education Registrations: With regard to the ongoing Continuing Education registrations for the 2003 Fall Term, as of September 19, registrations stood at 15,451 or 83.0% of projection. Registration via our online service continues to grow - to date this term, 23% of Continuing Education registrations have been via the web. Convocation (Ottawa Schools) VICE-PRESIDENT STUDENT LIFE AND HUMAN RESOURCES FINANCIAL AID Financial Aid added an Information Computer in the hallway outside of their office for the first four weeks of classes. Many positive comments were received from students about this service. The total number of OSAP applications received by the Financial Aid Office is up dramatically from the same period in 2002 (August 2003 - 3286; August 2002 - 2331: an increase of 955). DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, STUDENT
AFFAIRS AND ORIENTATION The Resident Advisors (the thirteen students who run the student life program in the residence) received the first of several training sessions on September 13th at the Residence Advisors Workshop and Training Session. They had already received their basic training with Campus Living Centres in August. Students received training from Marc Duval of Counselling Services on Suicide Risk Assessment and Crisis Intervention. The Welcome Reception and Information Session for all new full-time and new part-time faculty was held on September 15th. This session provided information on all services offered by Student Services as well as Financial Aid and the Students' Association. It ended with a tour of the service areas. All new class representatives were invited to the Class Representative/Program Council Orientation Session on September 29th. Students received a warm welcome from the President and training on Program Councils and their responsibilities as class representatives. Students also received information on all services offered by the Students' Association as well as Student Services. College Deans then led the students in mock Program Council sessions to help prepare them for their roles on their individual Program Councils. Health Services Health Services now has three full-time nurses and two physicians working every day. The newest physician is Dr. Elizabeth Barrett. An increasing number of students are needing Immunization Forms processed. The hospitals are now requiring blood tests to prove immunity to chicken pox for all nursing and paramedic student placements. This requires testing of all the third year students in addition to the first year students. Thanks to the dedicated nursing staff, Health Services is keeping up with the increased volume of work. The influenza vaccine campaign will start late in October. The cost of the vaccine is covered by the government. Health Promotion activities are growing rapidly. We have hired two students to assist a nurse to prepare and deliver a wide variety of interactive displays. The students add their viewpoint to give the promotions insight and immediacy. A Professional Development activity on September 25th was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company for both nurses and physicians. Three specialists presented talks on contraceptives and eating disorders. This dinner meeting was held in the International Restaurant. Employment Services Employers recruiting on-campus in October will include: The Canadian Forces and Mosaic Marketing. Employment Services will continue to offer services one evening per week, Tuesday evenings from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The Graduate Employment Report for 2001-2002 was published and distributed near the end of August 2003 showing that 89% of our graduates are employed. Recently, Employment Services staff visited the Vanier Community Services Centre to investigate a new program concept called the "Practice Firm Program". The program gives job seekers a hands-on opportunity to acquire real job experience related to their field of study. Occupational areas include: Human Resources, Office Administration, Information Technology, Communications/Marketing, Finance/Accounting, Graphic Design, and Translation/Editing. Counselling Services Peer Tutoring continues to be a very popular service with approximately 125 tutors, 300 tutees and 800 sessions conducted to date. Comparison of activity in the Test Centre saw a drop of approximately 1500 candidates tested for Fall '03 over Fall '02. This is attributed to the decision of the Police Foundations and of the Computer Technology programs to discontinue Program Eligibility testing. Centre for Students with
Disabilities HUMAN RESOURCES Since our last report, many efforts have been made at improving communication with our faculty union through the provision of more timely and accurate information. Regular communication with the local President, both verbally and through e-mail, has helped improve the situation. Pension Statements have been distributed to all participating members of CAAT and four of our personnel who deal with Pension and Benefits attended the one day CAAT administrators Conference as well as the Sun Life conference in Toronto. These are great opportunities for our staff to get the very latest in information and improve their knowledge base for the benefit of the College's employees. STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION CENTRE Strategic initiatives for the fall term include the following:
The Centre hosted several International delegations of educators and government officials during their visits to Canada. These visits are usually geared to investigating the college system and its programming with a view to establishing educational linkages. During the month of September, delegations from Chile, Denmark, and the Cayman Islands were given general presentations on the College, specific reviews of some programs as well as tours of the facilities. The delegation from the Cayman Islands was lead by the Minister of Education of the Islands as well as the President of the Islands' Community College. Mr. Gillett met the delegation and had an informative and lengthy discussion with the Minister. Mike Adamyk, who was in India in September visited the Manav Rachna Education Society (MRES) in Faridabad to follow up the progress of the two-year Mechanical Technician Toolmaking program implemented by Algonquin College. The program had a successful start and led to a request by Manav Rachna for a similar program in Hotel Management and Tourism. During Mike's visit, the MOU for this second program was signed. The Society wishes to follow these successful endeavours by agreements to start three more Algonquin programs in India. These are programs in Advertising, Interior Design, and Enterprise Networking Specialist. Wayne Lewrey represented the Centre at a CIDA-sponsored session in Toronto to review CIDA's new priorities and the countries chosen to receive CIDA funding support. MARKETING
PUBLIC RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT Public Relations
Government Relations
Community Relations
Alumni
Annual Giving
Communications
Events
Media Relations The following are the major Algonquin College news stories appearing in the media from August 25 to September 29, 2003.
The College received 26 media hits during this period and 123 media hits since April 1, 2003.
|