Hi Applied Arts,

Hard to believe the end of October and, with it, Hallowe’en are already upon us. For those who haven’t seen the posters, the Hallowe’en theme at the College this year is Heroes and Villains. Participation isn’t mandatory, but last year’s Harry Potter theme was a hoot, so don’t shy away from dressing up as your favourite superhero or supervillain if the mood takes you. I know folks in Academic and Skill Development have something special in the works–can’t wait to see what they come up with. If you’re keen to work all day in a costume but are out of ideas, you’re welcome to join me in dressing up as Agent Smith from the Matrix films. I thought it’d be funny if there were a bunch of Agent Smiths appearing in the hallways throughout the day, as per the second and third films in the series–but no pressure!

Final Exam Schedule Development

Instructors, if you haven’t done so yet, please take a few moments to provide your input on the draft exam schedule. An Excel spreadsheet was circulated this past week (talk to your chair or admin assistant if you haven’t received a link to it). Data collected from the file will be fed into our Event Management System. I’m already aware of a few glitches in the process, which we figured would happen given it’s a first attempt at exam scheduling in this way. If you have questions about the process, don’t hesitate to send them my way.

Budget Development

Thank you to Carolyn Kauth for keeping us all on track with development of the 2019-20 budget. We are a herd of cats, no doubt, but she has done her usual excellent shepherding work. Still a lot of data entry to do, but we should have everything sorted out in time for our budget presentation to the President and VPs in late November.

SALT Replaced by Dean’s Council

Earlier this month, the Senior Academic Leadership Team (SALT) was replaced by Dean’s Council, composed of Janet Welch (VPA&SS), myself (dean, Applied Arts), Margaret Dumkee (dean, Applied Science and Management), Wally Rude (registrar and dean of Enrolment), Davida Wood (director, FNI), Katie Tuck (manager, IT), and David Burke (manager, Teaching and Learning Lab). Dean’s Council meetings will be open to observers, like Academic Council meetings.

Forest Preschool

YC has been approached by the Rivers to Ridges program about a potential partnership on a forest preschool. A small group of College folks—myself, Brooke Alsbury, Catherine Bradbury, Harry Borlase, and Colleen Wirth—met to discuss their proposal three weeks ago, after which Brooke and I met with Erin Nicolardi and Emily Payne from RTR (only to be interrupted by a fire alarm!). We’re still a long way from a partnership, but the idea has potential, particularly if it gives students in Early Learning and Child Care the opportunity to put the theory they learn in our program into practice.

Yukon University Branding

Erica Bourdon, Amanda Graham and I had the pleasure of spending a good part of Oct. 26 in the Boardroom as part of a facilitated session on the Yukon University brand. It’s not an easy thing summing up what makes—and will continue to make—this organization the special place that it is. But I think we made a great deal of head way. The consultants now take our input, work their magic, and circle back to us in a month or two.

Annual Practical Nurse Intakes

We still have some pieces of paper to sign, but we’re now planning towards an additional intake into the Practical Nurse program in 2019-20. We’ve been trying for a few years to gently persuade YG that more PN graduates is a good thing– and they’ve come through for us. The cohort size will remain the same (16), and we will continue to reserve seats for self-identified Yukon First Nation applicants.

New Name: Community Education and Employment Support Program (CEES)

The program of many names! It’s been referred to variously as the “ETO” program, the Education Support program, and the Community Education and Training program. After further deliberation, it’s now the Community Education and Employment Support program. This one stays. Faith Whiting, the program coordinator, is hard at work on the program’s new courses, as we look forward to a January 2019 launch.

Take care,

Andrew