RRUFA 2015 AGM & April Monthly Meeting Minutes
May 11, 2015
LIC Centre for Dialogue
Present:
| Niels Agger-Gupta | ✔ | Geoff Archer | ✔ | Jo Axe | Brian Belcher | ✔ | |
| Geoffrey Bird | ✔ | David Black | ✔ | Judith Blanchette | Tony Boydell | ✔ | |
| Connie Carter | Elizabeth Childs | ✔ | Kenneth Christie | ✔ | Robin Cox | ||
| Ann Dale | Audrey Dallimore | Matt Dodd | Juana Du | ✔ | |||
| Catherine Etmanski | Lois Fearon | Joshua Guilar | Doug Hamilton | ||||
| Brigitte Harris | ✔ | Ingrid Kajzer-Mitchell | Julia Jahanzoosi | Frances Jorgensen | |||
| Richard Kool | ✔ | Charles Krusekopf | ✔ | Zhenyi Li | Ron Lindstrom | ||
| Leslie King | ✔ | Chris Ling | ✔ | Will Low | Eva Malisius | ||
| Kathleen Manion | Virginia McKendry | ✔ | Will Meredith | Robert Mittelman | |||
| Jonathan Moran | ✔ | Jessica Mussell | ✔ | Mickie Noble | Eileen Piggot-Irvine | ✔ | |
| Terry Power | Siomonn Pulla | ✔ | Michael Real | Carolin Rekar Munro | |||
| Chaseten Remillard | Wendy Rowe | ✔ | Erich Schellhammer | ✔ | Bernard Schissel | ||
| Jean Slick | Marilyn Taylor | Eugene Thomlinson | ✔ | Mike Thompson | |||
| Phillip Vannini | George Veletsianos | Hassan Wafai | Jennifer Walinga | ||||
| Rebecca Wilson Mah | Michael Young | Amy Zidulka |
(Present: 26 of 59 total Active Members)
CONTENTS:
- May Monthly Meeting called to order at 12: 10pm (President Kenneth Christie) 2
- Approval of March minutes:…………………………………………………………… 2
- New Business:……………………………………………………………………………. 2
3.1 Pedro Marquez coming at 1PM to talk on Internationalization; Steve Grundy coming in June. If faculty would like to see other speakers at RRUFA monthly meetings they should contact Ken……….. 2
3.2 Federal Election All-Candidates Forum……………………………………………………………….. 2
- Old Business:………………………………………………………………………………. 2
4.1. Memorial Garden for Paz Buttedahl…………………………………………………………………….. 2
4.2 CAUT Meeting: (Ken)……………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
4.3. RRUFA involvement in RRU 75th Anniversary Celebrations (Ken, David, & Rick). 3
4.4 UNBC Strike (Ken)……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
- Regular Reports:…………………………………………………………………………. 3
5.1 Bargaining: (Wendy)……………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
5.2 Board of Governors: (Charles)…………………………………………………………………………….. 4
5.3 Academic Council: (Rick)……………………………………………………………………………………… 6
5.4 CUFA-BC: (Ken)………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
5.5 Website: (Will)…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
5.6 Social: (The “Two Geoffs”)………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
5.7 Grievance Report: (David)………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
5.8 Health & Safety: (Rick)………………………………………………………………………………………… 7
- Other Business:………………………………………………………………………….. 7
- Adjournment:……………………………………………………………………………. 11
1. May Monthly Meeting called to order at 12: 10pm (President Kenneth Christie)
2. Approval of March minutes:
Moved by Rick – seconded by Eugene.
All in favour.
3. New Business:
3.1 Pedro Marquez,
Is coming at 1PM to talk on Internationalization; Steve Grundy is coming in June. If faculty would like to see other speakers at RRUFA monthly meetings they should contact Ken.
3.2 Federal Election All-Candidates Forum
Rick: suggested an all-candidates forum in advance of the October federal election. Key focus would be the topic of higher education and each candidate’s perspectives and party positions on this topic.
Committee is now struck to organize this for July?
Committee members: Rick; Ken; David; Charles.
David: Could create an all-candidates meeting from 1-2PM for the Esquimalt/Juan de Fuca constituency as part of RRUFA meeting (or separate).
4. Old Business:
4.1. Memorial Garden for Paz Buttedahl
Ken: Allan took a long time to respond to Ken’s email about the RRUFA offer. Resources for the garden are to be developed from Grounds – Paul Allison is the key person. Someone needs to operationalize this. [who? Roberta Mason?]
4.2 CAUT Meeting: (Ken)
Ken: Canadian Association of University Teachers meeting. Fast meeting with speakers David Schindler (U of Alberta) and Jim Stanford (CBC columnist and Chief Economist with UniFor – a merger between the United Auto Workers and the Communication, Energy, and Paper workers, and author of Economics for Everyone ).
Funding to higher education is getting cut everywhere – and appears to be an attack on science.
Bill 100 in Nova Scotia – the “Higher Education Accountability and Sustainability Act – suspending collective bargaining. CAUT is considering censuring all the Nova Scotian universities about this.
Also heard from new CAUT President, Robin Vose, and Executive Director, David Robinson.
4.3. RRUFA involvement in RRU 75th Anniversary Celebrations (Ken, David, & Rick)
Rick: A group of BSc. Students was doing a study on RRU campus as a classroom. Study going on now.
Ken: sent an email that RRUFA would like to be part of this. The LEGS Committee (RRU 75th LEarning from Gardens and Spaces Committee) will start with volunteers: David, Rick, Elizabeth, Will, Jessica, & Niels.
Committee will meet in July.
4.4 UNBC Strike (Ken)
Ken: Kudos from Tom Felan(?) about RRUFA’s flying pickets to support the UNBC strike… UVic sent none. David, Rick and Michael went up – they said it made a difference!
5. Regular Reports:
5.1 Bargaining: (Wendy)
Wendy: working on getting all new articles into the CA document, and revised versions of old articles; we were just completing formatting job, and reviewing to ensure accuracy… Wendy just received the draft compiled document last Friday (May 7). We are close to a finished CA report, that everyone will receive. David has been coordinating the production of a purple cover. (Mauve?)
Wendy: we are now reconstituting the Joint Committee On Administering the Agreement (JCOAA) with Administration. … We will be dealing with some issues where there was an understanding and language of CA not clear. We will resolve some with new MoAs; others will just continue previous practice…
Research & Scholarship Committee has already convened and already has a first batch of 8 or 9 applications for the RSL. May 1 was application date. Not all 6 months; some 3 months.
Ken: Who would have thought this time last year that we would be reviewing applications for research leave.
Wendy: last year Mary [VP-Research Mary Bernard] said there wasn’t any hope of research leave… We won because we were clear but also because there were many people at the Exec level advocating for this… They really helped make it possible.
Ken: I have received a lot of comments on how positive the bargaining went from Steve and others in the university. They think we are now a model of labour relations compared with all the other guys – like UNBC!
Rick: I think the first lesson (for future bargaining teams) is, “Don’t bring in outside bargaining agents!” Having to look at each other on a daily basis – is really much more conducive to more sane interactions.
Wendy: Both deans were at the table – this was a critical factor!
RIck: at UNBC deans were at the table, and there was outside person at the table so the deans were not able to commit to anything.
5.2 Board of Governors: (Charles)
Charles: Charles is now on President’s 75th Gala event Committee. This is the culminating event they are having.
The Sunset Ceremony (April 25) was a nice event and tied things together to the RR Military College days. They asked about who had ever taught at RR? Steve and just a few others. This made me think that RRUFA should sponsor a faculty reception for all faculty who have ever taught at RRU during the 75th Gala week in October.
The October event is meant to be a fundraising gala at the castle – The event will be in the Castle and in the Quarterdeck and cost $200 per plate. There will be tables of 8 for this event and the RRU Board has agreed to match the first $75,000 raised… Charles’ role is to see how faculty could participate in that. There will be a launch event on June 7 downtown.
RRUFA will sponsor a table for the event – cost of $1600, which would then be doubled, with $3200 to go specifically for scholarships… RRUFA does need to be present at this event… There will also be an auction of items to support scholarships… If you have ideas for things that could go up for auction – for money going to scholarships.
Ken: This is a good idea – RRUFA should support table – we can pick members by hat..
Motion: that RRUFA sponsor a table at the October 17 RRU 75th Anniversary Gala, ($1600) and that there will be a draw to select faculty to attend on RRUFA’s behalf.
Moved: Wendy and 2nd: Siomonn
All approved.
Charles: Other items: approve audited statements of RRU;
Item before Board is the New Contract with Study Group: There is new legal language in this contract: We take over all the academic programming. SG takes over admissions to Year 1; we have progression requirements… SG begins to make $ by recruiting for us… They have aspirational targets that SG is supposed to meet. Not only in on-campus programs but also in blended programs. This may be a challenge for some international students. We need to think more about what that means for all of our students. How will we support students?
Year 1 and 2 – for us the numbers are big: but for SG this is not big in the large scheme of things: They will bring in 200 to 400 students over 4 years…
We can opt out if SG does not meet targets. The market for SG is everywhere globally, except for the US and India, or places where we have existing relationships. The opt-out is if SG is not meeting its targets, and we don’t see the students and we don’t think this is going well. There is a risk that SG has such a large role in international recruitment for RRU. SG will be playing our international recruitment role.
Question: Is SG paid per applicant or per actual registrant? SG could refer a whole lot of people who do not meet our admissions criteria. Our programs are English-language based and lack of English skills could seriously handicap students… Takes a lot of effort on the part of faculty who don’t have language skills.
Charles: I believe this is per paid per registrant in the programs.
SG is continuing in the Pre-Masters Program (PMP), RRU taking over academic content, but where SG continues to do English language upgrading. This has so far involved MGM students, who are working on their admission requirements, and how they identify students. Two terms; English language only, and an academic and English upgrading term.
Ken: Steve has said admission requirements have been tightened – they have been looking at the English components…
Eugene: Required international English language testing system (IELTS) scores have been bumped up (6.5 with no sub-score less than 6.0)… We have had students at BA and MA level for a while.
Ken: Connie Carter was liaison to International Centre before she left.
[Perhaps RRUFA needs a new liaison?]
Virginia: Because we are cohort-based, English ability in students affects our cohorts, too, who want to help and it is easy to over-burden these students…
Ken: I received a call from Carol Sandhu in MAIS, about two Ecuadorian students that Allan brought in, here now (taking MA-Global Leadership residency) but also about potentially receiving more students from Ecuador. They will need to have clear pre-requisites; Allan tells me we are bringing in a whole lot more Ecuadorian students. This is something we can not just leave to our Program Associates to assess.
Virginia: this would be like bringing in a party of 50 to a restaurant without telling the Executive Chef who has not been able to shop that morning.
Charles: we do need to know about adjudications – but class equivalencies are not always evident… You cannot ask students to take another course if they meet what you have stated in your admission requirements. I don’t think many of us are experts in equivalencies in Nigerian universities… We need to have additional information.
Charles: We have just had a new student member join the Board; other members were just recently re-appointed. Charles’ term is over in about 18 months. No one is rotating off in the near future. Provincial Government – simply appoints people who have been recommended. They no longer ask for nominations or suggestions from the Board. There are few appointed people on the board with any connections to RRU.
5.3 Academic Council: (Rick)
Rick: AC members were given the 2015-16 academic portfolio plan and asked to approve it. We raised process questions about how AC deals with planning. Instead of “approving” we passed a motion to receive the VP-A’s plan – and then raised questions about this process for the VP-A for the next AC meeting. The Plan had good elements, and all schools were represented; there was a good synthesis of teaching and research – but since AC had nothing to do with developing this, we could not approve.
Steve sent out the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQO) report: Learning Outcomes Assessment: A Practitioner’s Handbook. In response, Rick sent out the article, Taylorism and the logic of learning outcomes (Stoller, 2015) that takes a critical perspective on learning outcomes. A slightly different approach is: A Radical Critique of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Movement (Bennet & Brady, 2012)… More dialogue on learning outcomes is in our future. Rick will have a conversation with Steve about the Skein Fund (worth about $80K) to support learning and teaching matters. in about a week – where could this learning outcomes conversation could go…
Registrarial Issues: how many angels can dance on head of a pin? The Registrar was interested in “Double-dipping and bundling.” We all became interested that students could get credit for same course in multiple programs and, since this was seen to be problematic by the university (rather than as a means of offering routes to success to students) and will be coming back to AC by Peter Dueck.
5.4 CUFA-BC: (Ken)
Ken: we are hiring an assistant at CUFA-BC – this is a part-time job in Vancouver.
5.5 Website: (Will)
(Not here)
5.6 Social: (The “Two Geoffs”)
Geoff A: Ken made him “Prom Queen” – this time his nomination for Social Committee has stuck… We have not tried going out and doing something recently.
Ken wants to get the party started.
There will be a faculty event Tues May 26 – at Peacock Billiards (downtown Victoria) – 2-6 people at a table. Geoff to send out notice of this event.
5.7 Grievance Report: (David)
(no news – things seem to be quiet)
5.8 Health & Safety: (Rick)
(Nothing to report)
6. Other Business:
Special Guest: Dr. Pedro Marquez, VP of Global Business & Marketing.
Ken: Introduction of Pedro in new position.
Pedro Marquez: this could easily take an hour… I have been in position now for 10 months and am happy to share my vision of the future.
Pedro stepped into position June 1, 2014 after Cyndi’s departure… Happy to be asked and to step up and assist… He had the motivation to help… He decided to apply for the permanent position once expectations were clear and the position divided into two.
Pedro: (He) Tries not to rock the boat too much. He needed to do some analysis – he interviewed all stakeholders for about 2 months… Reviewed tons of files. With some files – he was surprized by Cyndi… His report for the Executive was 9 hours and was divided into three meetings. Some recommendations to the Executive were implemented; some still waiting; some were deemed not appropriate. He identified: pace, scope and speed of internationalization and grow too rapid; the strategy attempted to accomplish too much without full alignment with the RRU TLM and RRU mandate… Pedro wanted to make sure we were clear about mandate and strategic plan nof just the BoG.
The Marketing Unit had duplications of functions, not ideal – He did not make a judgment but compared basic document – the International Policy 2010 adopted by the Board, and a Strategic Plan 2012, when we had some experience to draw from. We were then able to develop and use Guidelines…
Pedro was thrilled by the opportunity of doing this work… The selection process – gave him an opportunity to do this for next 5 years. Allan decided the full portfolio was too complex for one person to do a good job and asked this be separated into two. As a result, Catherine Howard is now in charge of Communications, Community Relations, Advancement, & Alumni Relations.
Among the components of the portfolio Pedro then had, he thought that internationalization would be #1. But, this was incorrect. He made domestic enrollment is actually #1; Business development is #2; internationalization is priority #3… Emphasis should be on domestic market…
Will discuss each one: 1. Domestic Marketing and Domestic Inrollment; 2. Business Development; and 3 Internationalization.
- Domestic Marketing, and Domestic Enrollment: Our principles are critical: everything we do has to be in close alignment with our “special sauce,” the Learning & Teaching Model. Any opportunities or international partners that knock on our door that are not in alignment with those things, it should be easy to say, ‘no.’ So I have now asked the Global Advancement office to do a bit of due diligence to find out about the other party before we respond. If the offer fits, then we can move forward; but we need to see what the other party is actually doing, what are they good at, what are they looking forward. And if we are strategically interested, then we can move forward. Same thing with renewal of partnerships.
- To follow the new initiative concept template and to draw on what we have learned.
- To concentrate on quality first and then quantity; diversity is a key word;
- Everything we do in collaboration with academic areas…
- Deans and school directors need to be involved from the beginning and engaged… We have not started any initiative without an academic champion.
- No replication – put into Steve’s core portfolio.
- 2. Marketing – Catherine’s shop is running fast and independently. They did a Google Glass initiative and increased traffic thorugh website – but not conversion rate… We have a problem with conversion rates. A conversion task force created – Charles part of that, as is Lois. Produced 16 recommendations – 9 already implemented…
I have asked Catherine to build closer ties to academic areas… Some programs have new materials – and marketing tactics more effective. Not all of them.
Asking Catherine to be more effective in working in academic areas – but they are content areas… I am asking academic areas to realize that Catherine is the marketing expert. Faculty are content experts but need to let Catherine do what she is expert in. Not entirely happy with what has happened to date… Asking us to spend our time and resources more efficiently, smarter…
As part of efficiency – Shelley Languille – our ambassador to DND and police – She did a fantastic job. But these efforts were not aligned to other areas – her responsibilities transferred to Marketing –I have asked her to concentrate on 4 sectors: DND; Energy, Health, and the Provincial government, so we come up with specific tactics for those sectors. Just started three months ago.
- Business Development: Made case to executive to form proposal for a Business Development office in RRU. We don’t scan environment methodologically; we need people who do this full time.
- Each time we receive a proposal – we need due diligence – success on basis of personal choices; rather than due diligence; we pursued some we should not have; others we should have but not done due diligence. 5 year reviews – need to do process externally – we have skin in the game… It is difficult to do when you have your own interests. This business development department could help us crunch numbers to give us information.
- Internationalization: we have pursued exciting projects and also pursued others not aligned to what we do… We have reviewed partnerships and renegotiated or stopped when not aligned with what we want to do…. I want to establish relationships with full-fledged universities who are aligned with us… We have stopped some affiliates – Example is Long University in Sweden. SG – we were halfway through contract – we wanted to review and introduce some changes. It took us 8 months negotiation… long and complex… contract has now gone to board; not perfect contract; but it is time to move on… objective take stronger control of academic quality. We now get a better balance of shared revenue – for resources; better definition of how many students by when… Greater accountability for them to deliver. SG plays larger role in international recruitment… They are becoming our ‘exclusive’ partner for recruitment… Rather than a service provider, we have crafted a document making them a responsible partner…. not prescriptive contract; allows for review…
Point we need to stop and move forward; now execution – where rubber hits road. Excluded India (for 2 years); and all anglophone markets… Indian market developed for 2 years – we have a better reputation directly. … Business to bring students for ESL; Over the next six months we are doing a formal analysis of pursuing the US market – with Australia and New Zealand down the road…
Separated domestic from international admissions – everything folded under Peter under Steve…
Marketing – Until recently Global Advancement was doing international marketing; I have asked Cathering to do this as well. Not a lot of resources; just enough at a slower pace… All students will come to same place and Kayla has resources…
I was making a list of international projects – we stopped at 17 projects…
Like in baseball, if you hit 1 of 3 pitches, you make to World Series… If 4 become a reality we will be happy… Down road, internationalize way to go – every student – should have opportunity for international experience. I would be happy to see in every school an international program… expand international rep.
International strategy has four components:
The first one is helping domestic students achieve strong international perspective. In some programs we have introduced Global thinking as a learning outcome…
Second, we want to attract more international students. Right now we have about 600. We do not want a whole lot more through internationalization. We want to take in 750-800 students; better students who want to be here;
Third, we want to Improve overseas presence of RRU; we have ended our relationship with our affiliates. We are now building better relationships with better partners.
Fourth, International contract training. Tasha Welch is doing a fantastic job there. We have revised some of the programs/contracts we were doing there, so they are in alignment with our teaching and learning model.
Ken: thanks, Pedro – Questions?
Charles: Question came up as to whether the commission for SG is based on admitted students vs. applicants?
Pedro: Admitted students. Commission is based on revenue that we get. They get a commission only for years 1 and 2; not year 3 and 4…
Charles: what does ‘exclusive’ mean?
Pedro: SG does not want us to find another partner like them to recruit…
now we are partner with SG We will be doing the marketing through Catherine.
Q: Student with Cdn passport and address is domestic (ours); if international student in Canada – Commission goes to SG (theirs)…
Wendy: what happens when faculty work internationally?
Pedro: the issue is not that faculty not involve; it is that we are more effective.
Rick: who takes money for graduate students from SG? What does this do to school budget?
Pedro: nothing – Let me paint a picture. I went to Mexico City for recruitment last year. There were 4 booths right next to each other.; RRU Camosun, UVic, SD62, SG agent; all had same pictures of whales, downtown, etc… It was ridiculous. Twenty metres away, Australia had one booth; and person from Quantas… We have been competing with ourselves… Our agents saying different things to the same students… What we are saying now is that we are going to do what we are good at… They (SG) are now responsible for delivering… want students by particular time planning – If they don’t deliver, they are accountable. Helps us do better planning.
Rick: What would have made a contract with SG perfect?…
Pedro: would love a contract where we could tell them what to do. Eg: Admissions to year 1. The agreement gives them authority to admit to Year 1 as long as student meets criteria…
5 things I want to keep a close eye on: 1. how will it work?; 2. quality of students: 3. proficiency in English; 4. diverse enough students; and 5. contracts speak about a conflict resolution. I want us to have a conflict and solve it according to the language of the contract to make sure it works…
Q: good students – no problems – just could not meet criteria. What checks and balances so we don’t get students where something still missing?
Pedro – We need to do a better job; we need to attract right student… not how beautiful Victoria is… but on how they will learn. Expectation management from the beginning: not pictures of whales – but what they will go through…
We at RRU could be better prepared to serve a multicultural community… we need to adjust to them as appropriate… New Director of Global Advancement will be hired in next three months. Better multicultural training… Courses and teaching styles need to adjust to the bigger reality… bigger headaches…
Ken: thank you for coming and giving us a talk.
[Round of applause for Pedro!]
7. Adjournment:
Move to adjourn: 1:35 pm.
(WHO Moved?]
Recorder: Niels Agger-Gupta
And thanks to Rick for recording last part of meeting (Niels was teaching at 1:30).