Hi Applied Arts,

This update has been a long-time coming. I have no excuse. It’s the result of chronic, debilitating procrastination. Let’s see if we can’t get this blog back on track!

Faculty Attendance at Convocation

If you haven’t already, please consider attending Convocation on May 23, 2019 to support our graduates as they cross the stage and celebrate with their families and friends. This year, there will be just one ceremony, from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. Keep in mind that if you are planning to attend and wish to sit on stage, you must be gowned. I believe you need to contact Nicole Lacroix to order gowns if you do not have your own.

From PMPs to Faculty Development

For many years now, we have had a Performance Management Planning process that, although qualitatively better than the Performance Evaluation process that was in place when I was first hired in 2006, definitely needs a facelift. Janet Welch would like to see us move in a different direction, particularly when it comes to faculty development. Nothing firm has been set in place, but to round out 2018-19, we are going to pilot a reflective component. In short, faculty will be asked to write a short (1 page max.) reflection on the year that was, highlighting 3 domains in particular: teaching, institutional service and, if it was a requirement as part of workload, research/scholarly activity. We can discuss this in more detail at school meetings, but I want everyone to start thinking about it as we near the final quarter of the fiscal year.

Spring/Summer Planning

The spring/summer term is not that far away. Faculty, as your plans for the spring/summer begin to firm up, please keep your chair and admin assistant in the loop about your availability and, ideally, coordinate any requests for vacation leave with faculty in your program area, to help ensure we have faculty available throughout the spring/summer to meet with students. On the same topic, Janet Welch has asked that we document more clearly what we are using spring/summer at-work hours for. We’ll be running courses in the spring/summer term, but I or the chairs will likely be connecting with you to note other duties being attended to: e.g., course prep for the following academic year, extensive course revision or new course development, committee work, conference and articulation travel, etc. I know Janet is particularly keen to document new curriculum development across the institution.

Full-Year Forecasting

As I’ve mentioned in a few meetings and emails already, we are now finished our Full-Year Forecasting process (thank you, Carolyn!). From this point to June 30, we need to adhere closely to the spending projections we have provided to Finance. If new opportunities come up that were not accounted for in the forecast, they will need to be weighed against forecasted expenses and prioritized within our targets.

In-Year Funding Requests

I have asked Finance for an update on the status of the pot of money the College recoups from vacant positions and reallocates to in-year capital and special project requests. I have heard through the grapevine that this fund is already fully expensed, but I want to make sure that’s the case, so I’m not giving you inaccurate information. And on the topic of inaccurate information, one correction regarding capital and special project requests: The dollar threshold for these requests is $5,000, not $50,000 as I mistakenly reported at a recent ASD meeting. The $50k figure relates to proposals for third-party funding. If any unit in the division intends to apply for funds exceeding $50k, the proposal needs to be reviewed and approved by the Finance Administration Committee.

New Courses for the Community Education and Employment Support Program

A big shout out to Faith Whiting, as well as Susan Glynn-Morris and Catherine Bradbury, for all their hard work over the past few months on the development of the new courses for the Community Education and Employment Support (CEES) program. The courses passed a key milestone earlier this week when Deans’ Council reviewed them and recommended they proceed to Academic Council in March for final approval.

Incredible Applied Arts Students/Alumni

Some more shout outs, this time to a current Social Work student and a Practical Nurse grad: Ira Mamis, a 3rd-year BSW student, is representing Yukon this week at the UN Youth Assembly in New York City; and Steve Tapp, a PN grad, was just awarded a Deputy Minister’s Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of his “compassionate and innovative approaches to working with our most vulnerable community members.” Huge congratulations to both!

YNTEP Students @ WestCAST

And even more shout outs to our students: next week, a group of 8 YC education students will be presenting at the Western Canadian Association for Student Teaching (WestCAST) conference, being hosted by UCalgary’s Werklund School of Education. We wish them all the best!

Visit from USask Folks

Earlier this week, we hosted Murray Fulton and Emmy Neuls, from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at USask. We had some great conversations about grad pathways for our Indigenous Governance students, specifically into their soon-to-be online Master’s in Public Administration and their Master’s in Governance and Entrepreneurship in Northern and Indigenous Areas (GENI). The GENI program is a joint degree with University of Tromso, the Arctic University of Norway.

I think that’s all for now—although I’m sure I’ve missed something. I encourage you to take in some sessions being organized by the Teaching and Learning Lab during Reading Week. And of course, get out and enjoy Rendezvous!

Take care,

Andrew