Faculty Council Meeting - Friday, September 17, 2021; Deadline for Agenda Items-Friday, September 10 at 3:00 pm

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES COUNCIL
MINUTES

Friday, May 14th, 2021
A meeting of the Faculty Council was held on Friday, May 14th, 2021 at 10:00 am via Zoom.

1.
Approval of Agenda
It was moved by L. Chambers and seconded by J. Jarman that the revised agenda be approved.
        Carried.

2.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of the minutes from April 9th, 2021.
        The minutes were accepted as circulated.
        
3.
Business Arising from the Minutes
None.

4.
Calendar Changes
None.

5.
Department/School Reports.
i)  English
D. Ivison gave an update from the Council of Ontario Universities with regard to the upcoming academic year.  News from the sector showed that universities were all over the place on how courses would be offered in the fall.  He noted that Queen’s was offering 100% F2F classes and other universities offering 25% in person, some mostly online, and others from 25% to 50% in person.  He noted that some universities were planning to offer 100% in person classes for first year students while other were asking for 100% online courses for the same group.  There does not seem to be any kind of centralized coordination although some universities did have ad hoc committees to deal with these issues.

Universities are encouraging students to move to the city for their winter classes which will be F2F with smaller classes, in person labs and seminars.  While there was no consistency among the twenty universities that are part of COU, all are promoting some kind of hybrid classes.  Questions regarding social distancing, masks, room capacities, and tech support to name a few, still remain.  All this uncertainty makes for great levels of stress among faculty.

B. Birmingham thanked D. Ivison for his update and told everyone to do what works best for their particular programs, their faculty and their students.

6.
Dean’s Report.
May 14th Report, 2021
Fall Delivery:
•    We have no real guidance from the Province yet.
•    COU is sending a letter to the provincial government asking for clarification.
•    The sector all over the place.
•    Lakehead: It is unlikely for full f2f delivery in fall if distancing guidelines remain in place—hoping for 50%.
•    I trust and support departments to make decisions that work for their faculty, their students, and their pedagogies.
•    Chairs/Director, please talk with your faculty about the delivery options shared on Thursday.
Action items:
•    Send Sue and me, by Tuesday, the names of folks interested in technology packs for hybrid classrooms.
•    Please update changes to timetable, by May 19th, make NO changes at this time, if that best suits your program.
•    Please contact me by phone, or we can take a walk, if you want to talk about this individually, or let me know if you need me to come to a faculty meeting.  I am glad to do this.

Budget news:
Sessional (Contract Lecturer) Budget
Contract Lecturer requests:
•    Contract lecturer budget is just about the same as last year with a slight increase.
•    Requests are up this coming year ,over our allotted contract lecturer budget.
•    CEDL funding requests are up slightly over last year.

Overall Budget News
General Budget info:
•    You may now spend $250 of your budgets without asking the provost or me for approval!
•    Sue and I go through our 2020/2021 budget reconciliation next month. We will update chairs/director surrounding anything interesting.
•    Action item: Please get carry forward requests (for encumbered funds) to Sue and me by end of month.

International budget:
•    Expect to have this restored earlier than last year.
•    We do want sections filled, and I will ask chairs/director to closely monitor and check in every 2-3 weeks during the summer on low enrolled courses.

Budget committee is working with:
•    Guidelines for low enrollments (cancelling for fall and winter—we will bring these items to chairs/director)

Return to campus:
•    Action item: Sue will reach out by end of month to ask about those already approved for instruction to be on campus; We need to update dates and times by June 1st.
•    We will try to roll forward those already approved where possible.
•    A one-pager has been sent to chairs/director on return to campus during lockdown procedures.

Thank you:
Thank you all for all your work this year as we managed to pull together through a very hard year.  You have been on the front lines with our students, and I could not have asked for better colleagues.  We have come together this year to have discussions and solve real problems.  I can’t wait to see you all in person to say thank you!

Teaching Kits:
The Technology Services Centre is proposing kits that include an auto-tracking USB camera, desk tripod, high-quality wireless microphone system, laptop (Mac or PC) and if required, a document camera.  The purpose of this kit is to enable instructors an easy method to capture an asynchronous lecture or provide a synchronous bimodal class while teaching in the University’s classrooms.  This kit may also be utilized remotely, but its primary purpose is to extend in-class instructions to remote asynchronous or synchronous learners.
The equipment will effectively capture video and visually follow the instructor. The mic system will provide the best audio quality for the instructor. The kit may be connected to any existing classroom AV system to share presentations and application information.  Should the instructor wish, the laptop could even be connected to the existing audio system in the r to enable students at a distance the opportunity to be heard in the classroom space. However, the audio system is not capable of effectively capturing the students in the classroom. The wireless microphone system may also act as a backup recording device for audio. All the accessories that connect to the laptop are USB devices which may be useful in applications outside of Zoom.

 Links to the accessories below:
•    Obsbot Tiny Auto tracking camera
•    Wireless Go II Wireless Microphone System
•    IPEVO V4K Portable Document Camera (optional)
•    
 Recommended Laptops:
•    HP ENVY 15-ep0010ca 4k
•    MacBook Pro 13” M1 (AC-3)
•    MacBook Pro 16” Intel i7 (AC-3)
•    
Depending upon the laptop selected, a Portable USB-C Dock may be required to provide enough ports for all the devices.  Existing laptops may be utilized but the ability to support 3 USB devices simultaneously may be taxing on older devices.

7.
Other Business:
i)  Continuation of Zoom for Faculty Council Meetings.
V. Hébert brought forward a motion to support the continuation of using Zoom for our Faculty Council meetings as well as all Senate business.  A discussion was held and the following points of support for this motion were noted:
•    Meetings before the use of Zoom were challenging using the current videoconferencing and teleconferencing.
•    Speakers could not be identified; the sound quality was poor and not everyone could see PowerPoint presentations.
•    Zoom has been transformative; faculty on both campuses now feel engaged and integrated with their colleagues.
•    Attendance at Faculty Council has increased significantly since the use of Zoom and we have no trouble making quorum as we have in the past.
•    Orillia Campus and Thunder Bay campus have really come together this past year due to the use of this technology.

MOVED that the Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty Council conducts its future meetings in a fully remote, synchronous format through electronic platforms such as Zoom, and that a formal request be made to the Lakehead University Secretariat to similarly conduct all Senate meetings—including Senate committee meetings—in a fully remote, synchronous on-line format.
Moved by V. Hébert and seconded by S. Jobbitt.
        Carried.

ii)  Provost’s Task Force – Orillia.
M. Stevenson mentioned the contents of the recently released report of the Provost Working Group on Orillia Academic Governance Structure and indicated that it contained few concrete recommendations beyond the creation of a new Orillia Academic Committee.  The 2013 report of the Provost Task Force on Academic Structure and Governance had been a transformational document revising the administration of programs on the Orillia campus, but the 2021 report would likely not have the same impact.

8.
Next Faculty Council Meeting:  TBA:  September, 2021 via Zoom.

M. Stevenson stated that as our Council does not have to approve any calendar changes before July 1, 2021, there was no need for the tentative meeting scheduled for June.

M. Stevenson thanked all the Council members for their support throughout the year.  He also welcomed the incoming Chair, Dr. Monica Flegel, Department of English and the incoming Vice-Chair, Dr. Valerie Hébert, Departments of History and Interdisciplinary Studies.

9.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:55 am.  

ATTENDANCE
Thunder Bay Campus
R. Maundrell
D. West
K. Holmes
D. Ivison
B. Birmingham
L. Chambers
A. Carastathis
I. Lemée
C. Sanders
G. Colton
L. Potvin
B. Vernier
B. Parker
L. Forbes
E. Chugunov
T. Puddephatt
L. Primavesi
R. Robson
S. Jobbitt
R. Warburton
J. Leggatt
S. Viitala

Orillia Campus
M. Stevenson
J. Jarman
A. den Otter
L. Fiddick
V. Hébert

Regrets:
A. Saulnier