Hi Applied Arts,
My apologies that this update is a little late to your inboxes. It’s been a crazy busy month.
Here’s some news from across the Division and College (if you prefer the blog version, here is the link:
CAQC Degree-Level Site Visit
Campus Alberta Quality Council has asked the College for possible site visit dates between late-November and mid-December. We have sent them three options and are waiting to hear back. Pursuant to the site visit, Michael Kulachkosky, Lacia Kinnear, Victoria Castillo and I have been frantically planning mock site visits with Dr. Ron Bond, the consultant who has been helping us navigate through the external QA process since spring 2016. Ron will be here early next week (Oct. 2 & 3) to do some generalized site visit training with College folks. Then, he will return to do a complete “mock” site visit on Nov. 14 & 15. Some of you might have already received meeting invites for sessions. As part of our preparations, we have also put together an Update to the Program Review of the Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Governance that was submitted to CAQC last December. Site visit participants will have access to both documents, but even if you’re not involved in the site visit, you’re welcome to read either. Just let me know you want a copy, and I can send an electronic version your way.
School Councils
This academic year, we will be piloting “School Council” meetings in Applied Arts. They’re going to be bumpy I’m sure, but the School Council concept will hopefully give us a chance to delve into curriculum and/or policy in a way that update meetings don’t allow for. Once spring 2018 rolls around, I’ll be looking for feedback on how the experiment went, so we can make adjustments going forward.
Interim VP, Academic and Student Services
Our interim VPA&SS will be Karen Harker. For more info on Karen, please see the messages Karen Barnes sent around on Sept. 27. Karen Harker will be here for a short visit from Oct. 11 to 13, and she starts work officially on Oct. 25.
New MyYC
At our last Applied Arts admin team meeting, we took a first stab at mapping out the division’s presence in the new MyYC (intranet). The new MyYC is accessible via Office365 and effectively replaces several databases we’ve been using for a long time. Some units have already begun populating their landing pages and subfolders. We’re not rushing this: We want to make sure that the layout and organization of our part of it works well for those who will end up using it most.
Meetings with Program Coordinators & “Riffin’ with Richardson”
I’ve already begun regular meetings with program coordinators, as one of a few new staff engagement activities this year. These meetings are not intended to make extra work for anyone, nor interfere in the working relationship between coordinators and chairs. Rather, they give me a chance to hear good news stories from across the division, which I can share via platforms such as Twitter or communicate up the chain of command. They will also help move forward long-range strategic goals that have specific, program-level activities tied to them. Also in the area of staff engagement, next week will see the first of many Riffin’ with Richardson sessions (congrats to Hiedi Cuppage for winning the naming contest!). These are not meetings; they’ll be coffee/tea breaks, quick lunches, phone or Skype chats, or short walks outside—totally nonchalant, to reference another name submission. Given the size of the division, I figure I’ll have “riffed” with all of you sometime by 2020!
Innovation Commons Renovation
Just a heads up that Erin Johnston has sent out an update via email, with photo included. Progress is (finally) being made!
Take care,
Andrew