Faculty Council Meeting - CHANGE OF DATE: Friday, March 5, 2021: Deadline for Agenda Items - Friday, February 26/2021 at 4:00 pm

 FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL

MINUTES

 Friday, February 12th, 2021
 
A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, February 12th, 2021 at 10:00 am via Zoom.

Presentation:    Mr. Don Eldridge – Postsecondary Coordinator – Seven Generations Educational Institute, Fort Frances.  
D. Eldridge gave an overview of the Fort Frances campus and how it works with Lakehead University to offer courses through its satellite campus.  They also work with and offer courses at their satellite campus in Sioux Lookout.  They are one of nine Aboriginal institutes in Ontario.  Through various articulation agreements, they can bring courses to students at other colleges and universities such as Canadore College, Cambrian College and Queen’s University.  They offer five courses which are used for the BA General and the BA Indigenous Learning.  Students can also use courses from Lakehead as well to work toward their degree, and currently have thirty students enrolled and growing. Most are older students and some are non-Indigenous.  Students apply to him and then the applications are sent to Lakehead admissions register the same way as others. D. Eldridge would like to expand the course offerings there and would welcome suggestions for new course offerings from our Faculty.  The relationship between Seven Generations and Lakehead has evolved over the last while with more interaction with R. Robson, K. Burnett and B. Birmingham.  He is open to any course suggestions that would fit their degrees.  He also mentioned that this experience gives his students the chance to experience what it is like to take a university course.  Courses are quite condensed and offered over the course of several weekends.  D. Eldridge suggested that if anyone is interested in potentially offering a course there, they should contact him directly.  S. Viitala will distribute his contact information to all Chairs/Director.  He thanked Council for the chance to speak about the programs.

1.
Approval of Agenda
It was moved by A. den Otter and seconded by I. Lemée that the agenda be approved.
        Carried.

2.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of the minutes from January 8th, 2021.
        The minutes were accepted as circulated.
        
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
None.

4.
Calendar Changes
I)  Languages:
It was moved by I. Lemée and seconded by D. Ivison that following calendar changes for Languages be approved.
(2021-SOC-7595):  Discontinue FREN 2211
(2021-SOC-7386):  Cross list French 3603 (Type E course) with Women's Studies 3603
        Carried.

5.
Department/School Reports.
i)  Sociology
T. Puddephatt mentioned that one of the graduate students from Sociology, Karine Malenfant, who has been involved in researching autism, got a job at McGill to continue her studies/research.  

B. Birmingham mentioned that Mike Poirier, a Philosophy student, received a 99% on his LSAT’s.  He is also a basketball player for Lakehead.

6.
Dean’s Report.
February 12th Report, 2021

Timetable
The timetable is looking good so far and is moving along well as most departments/school enter the information for their courses for the upcoming academic year.  Thanks to all those who worked so hard to enter their information using the new program called Data Capture Utility, (DCU),

Posting for Fall/Winter Courses
Chairs/Director were notified to go ahead and advertise for their courses for the upcoming 2021/2022 academic year.  Every posting must contain the wording “subject to budgetary approval.”  Contracts will not be offered to those courses that are “turned off” on the timetable.  This year, all contracts will be sent out earlier to allow time for those teaching to gain access to D2L sites to set up their spring/summer courses as well as those for fall/winter.  Although there has been no word on the budget for the coming year at present, we should know by mid-May.

Interdisciplinary Studies
The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies underwent their cyclical review this week.  Congratulations to all those members for all their hard work on the process.  A lot of time was put into the documents as well as three days of Zoom meetings.  Thank you to all.!

Graduate Coordinators
After a recent meeting with Trish Nagorski and Allison Whatley-Doucet from Graduate Studies, it was noted that there has been some misinformation regarding the awarding of assistantships to international graduate students in our Faculty.  Moving forward, it is hoped that more positions will be funded.  It was noted that our numbers were less this year, and that we need to find out what the distribution of graduate allocations is.

7.
Other Business:
i)  Proposed Revisions to University Regulations Withdrawal.
A. Tarsitano recently brought forward proposed changes to the University regulations regarding late withdrawals.  There was a general discussion as to how these changes might affect students and the following were noted:  
•    Chairs/director are not involved in these late withdrawals.  It was noted that it would be nice to be able to speak with the student before they make their final decision to provide possible other options.
•    Students may not be aware of the petition process which, as some suggested, could be made easier so they have a better understanding of how to proceed.
D. Ivison stated that there was concern about dropping courses after academic dishonesty decisions as the record would be erased from their transcripts.  There should be a process, perhaps automated, that allows the record to remain after a decision has been made even if the course is dropped.
R. Maundrell stated that he will gather feedback in the next few weeks in order to report to SAC on March 12, 2021.  He also mentioned that A. Tarsitano will be polling students with regard to the proposed changes.
M. Stevenson stated that we should reach out to her and invite her to our next Council meeting.  As SAC meets on March 12, it was suggested that our next meeting could be held on March 5, 2021 in order to express our concerns.

8.
Honour Code Discussion.
B. Birmingham stated that there has been a significant rise in academic dishonesty during the past fall term, sometimes involving large numbers of students and their respective Deans. She suggested that we need to help students understand that cheating will not benefit them in any way.  This can be done by using a positive approach to these situations rather than punishing them.  The “revised” process would be treated as a learning or restorative experience, perhaps through the introduction of an honour code.  This might be used in some way to try to change the culture which surrounds academic dishonesty.  M. Stevenson provided examples of honour codes which are currently used in some universities in the United States.  He provided five examples from various schools for the faculty to review.  It was mentioned that it might be a good idea to try to instill a sense of value and community with the students in each department/school.  The question was raised about how this honour code would affect the current Student Code of Conduct already in place across all faculties.  Can we, as a faculty, do this separately from the rest of the University?  Further discussion ensued.
From our last meeting, it was noted that having a code for our faculty would help students feel a part of something and hopefully create respect for their degree, fellow students, instructors, and Lakehead University as a whole.  They would have standards to follow and/or strive for, and this would hopefully lead to greater engagement with their peers as well as their professors.  
M. Stevenson said that there were many good ideas that we could work with and explore further.   He suggested that we could revamp our individual or shared approaches around the topic of cheating and its consequences.  Faculty members were asked to consider a few options and come back with their proposals at our meeting in March.

9.
Next Faculty Council Meeting:  Friday, March 12th, 2021 at 10:00 am via Zoom.

10.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:43 am.  

ATTENDANCE
Thunder Bay Campus
R. Maundrell
S. Jobbitt
K. Holmes
D. Ivison
B. Birmingham
L. Chambers
A. Carastathis
I. Lemée
C. Sanders
G. Colton
L. Potvin
R. Warburton
B. Vernier
P. Cain
B. Parker
T. Puddephatt
L. Primavesi
S. Viitala

Orillia Campus
M. Stevenson
A. den Otter
A. Saulnier

Regrets:
T. Potter
R. Robson