Faculty Council Meeting - March 8, 2024: Deadline for Agenda Items: March 1 at 4:30 pm

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL
MINUTES
Friday, February 9, 2024
A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, February 9, 2024, at 10:00 am via Zoom.

Guest Speakers:
Dr. Jula Hughes:  Dean, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law
Ms. Anya Scheibmayr:  Student Services Advisor, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law

A. Scheibmayr and J. Hughes discussed the recommendation letters used for student admissions to the Law Program, and how students in our SS&H programs can better prepare for applying to the Law program at Lakehead after graduation.  A. Scheibmayr shared a PowerPoint presentation with everyone which included the following:  Academic Record; LSAT Scores; Personal Statement; Autobiographical Sketch, and Reference Letters/Checkbox Questions

Please click “here” to view the presentation “Bora Laskin Faculty of Law - Admissions Criteria:  A Holistic Approach.
1.
Approval of Agenda
It was moved by and seconded by C. Sanders and A. den Otter that the revised agenda be approved.
        Carried.

2.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of the minutes from January 5, 2024.  (E. Chugunov and seconded by A. den Otter)
The minutes were accepted as presented.
        
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
i)  Update RE:  Graduate Studies Committee
G. Bonifacio stated that this Committee is composed of P. Das, B. Parker, R. Warburton, J. Roth, and K. Burnett.  This committee will be responsible for the adjudication of the Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS) in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.

 4.
Calendar Changes
    None,

    5.1
Department/School Requests.
There were no requests at this time.

5.2
Department/School Reports.
i) Political Science:
It was moved by A. Guttman and seconded by C. Sanders that Mr. Adam Schenk be renewed as External
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science for a four-year term.
    Carried.

    ii)  Gender and Women’s Studies
    It was moved by T. Rollo and seconded by L. Chambers that Dr. Naanan Afua Jumah be appointed as External Adjunct Professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies for a four-year term. (Please note that this request was amended from Internal to External as per the Senate policy that was updated May 23, 2023.)
    Carried.

6.
    Dean’s Report.
February 9, 2024.
G. Bonifacio congratulated the following faculty members on their successful applications for Tenure and Renewal.
S. Olutola - English:  Renewal
B. Maiangwa - Political Science:  Renewal
L. Potvin - Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism: Tenure & simultaneous promotion to Associate Professor

G. Bonifacio congratulated the following faculty members on their successful applications for Merit.
L. Chambers - Gender and Women’s Studies
M. Flegel - English
R. McVeigh - Interdisciplinary Studies
S. Olutola - English
L. Potvin - Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism

Update:
The Social Sciences and Humanities Graduate Speaker series will take place on February 23 and March 25, 2024.  More information will follow shortly.

We will be setting up a trust fund for our Faculty entitled, “The Student Engagement Fund.”  This fund will be used for, but is not limited to:  Conference and registration fees; program activities; travel for research and other scholarly activities, and community work.  S. Viitala will be submitting the paperwork shortly.

A reminder for those who have not completed the AODA training should do so.  It is mandatory for all new employees as well as those already on staff.

OHRE:  Programs with the most assessments registered with SAS were mentioned.

Deans were asked to share their budget presentations with the Executive Budget Committee for the 2024/2025 academic year.

G. Bonifacio shared a PowerPoint presentation with faculty council members with the highlights listed below:
Paradigm Shift:  Ways of Thinking and Doing, Wholistic Approach and Inter-faculty Integrated Planning.

•    Ten must-have work skills from Indeed.com:  Link:  https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/workplace-skills
•    Internal challenges and opportunities:  enhance cross-faculty collaborations, SSH integral to the growth of other faculties, change the view of “service courses” to “required courses” for degree completion; impact ability to grow own programs.
•    Neglected Growth:  Northern Studies and Religious Studies
•    External challenges:  Domestic Enrollment; Towards domestic enrollment recovery
•    Indigenous students, local students (Thunder Bay and area; Simcoe County and area), Provincial students (both northern and southern Ontario), and national students outside of Ontario.
•    Indigenous Communities:  increase enrollment in this area, do more to build relationships with communities
•    LU/SSH E-campus:  virtual academy, online programs (both graduate and undergraduate) and target global populations
•    Transdisciplinary programs:  across faculties, NORT/Asian Program; MA to Ph.D. in global studies
•    “NO Drop-out at LU”:  have fall-back programs
•    Continuing SSH Education Program:  modular learning and certificates
•    Domestic Recruitment Potentials
•    Retention:  Experience Matters:  institutionalized program-based coop placement and internships; student research assistantships, grants; career planning; leadership training; SSH trust fund to support student engagement (SEF)
•    Recognition is Retention:  Student Awards:  academic, research and community engagement

7.
Other Business.
Announcements:

i)  English
A. Guttman stated that on February 6, 2024, Jenny Roth read from her unpublished novel, Farwalker.  Thanks to Jenny for sharing her work, and thanks to all those who attended.  

A. Guttman announced "Webbed Attachments: Psychedelic Lessons from the Multiverse": 2024 McLeod Lecture.  This online event will take place on Thursday, February 29, 2024, from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm.  Dr. Ramzi Fawaz will explore how the animated feature film Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its 2023 sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, present the multiverse as a distinctly psychedelic figure for conceiving differences as an endless web of relations across multiple dimensions rather than rigidly formed identities barred from communion by structural inequality.

Dr. Ramzi Fawaz is a Romnes Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of two monographs, The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (2016) and Queer Forms (2022), both published by NYU Press. In 2016, The New Mutants won the ASAP Book Prize.
As this is a webinar, please see the following link to register:  https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OuX3lB1QRLCRa1uzhtYD5Q#/re...
(Sponsored by the Departments of English / Department of Gender and Women's Studies.)

ii)
A. den Otter announced that The Media Showcase will be on March 7 from 4-7:00.  The theme this year is "Sandbox," highlighting playful creativity.  There will be podcasts and poster presentations in person from 4-5:30, and then the big screen presentations will be both in person and via Zoom from 5:30-7.  I'm attaching a poster and here is the Zoom invitation:  
You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 
When: Mar 7, 2024 05:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwpdeGsrjkvGt3MTDIgnTZAaBq29... 
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

iii)  Music
E. Chugunov announced that the next LUMINA Concert will take place on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 12:30 pm in the Jean McNulty Recital Hall.  This event will feature Dino Pepe on Saxophone and Sean Kim on Piano.

He also mentioned the following events:
New Music North:  2023-2024 CMC Ontario Concert series featuring CMC Ontario Associate Composers. It will take place on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 12:30 pm in the Jean McNulty Recital Hall.
Sound Reflections Concert:  Department of Music students and faculty will perform experimental compositions based on intuition, reflection, and discovery. This collective engagement leads to a curiously unpredictable soundscape.  This event will take place on Thursday, February 29, 2024 from 3:00 pm to 3:45 pm in the Jean McNulty Recital Hall and it is part of the LU Research and Innovation Week activities.  More information can be found at:  https://www.lakeheadu.ca/ri

8.
Next Faculty Council Meeting:  
The next Faculty Council Meeting will be on March 8, 2024, at 10:00 am via Zoom.  

9.
Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 11:44 am.  (A. Guttman)

ATTENDANCE
Thunder Bay Campus
A. Carastathis
D. Ivison
I. Lemée
L. Potvin
C. Sanders
S. Shahsahabi
G. Bonifacio
B. Parker
A. Guttman
L. Chambers
E. Chugunov
D. Hayes
T. Rollo
B. Vernier
S. Viitala - recording

Orillia Campus
P. Das
A. den Otter
V. Hébert
R. McVeigh
M. Stevenson

Regrets:
L. Forbes
R. Warburton