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A belated Happy New Year to everyone. I trust that your term is going well so far. I wanted to take a few moments to provide you with some information and updates.
1.Welcome to Gloria Davis who is the new Executive Assistant for the Dean’s Office. She is joining us from Brock International. Gloria started January 27th and is a great addition to our FAHS team and we are very fortunate to have her share her talents and expertise with us. Welcome Gloria!
2. With Gloria’s arrival comes the departure of Margaret Bernat. This is the second time that Marg has filled in during a transition in Executive Assistants for the Dean’s Office. A big thanks to Marg for filling in over the past 2 months and for helping me with the transition to Interim Dean.
3. The Deans and various Vice-Presidents met for 3.5 days to discuss Program Review submissions for Administrative programs housed within respective Faculties. A big thanks to the various FAHS staff and chairs who completed their respective program reviews. A similar process for non-academic units was also held by various Administrative directors and Vice-Presidents. The review of all Academic programs is being facilitated by a special Senate committee. It is anticipated that the President’s Task Force will be meeting shortly to discuss the outcomes of the Administrative Program Review. Please consult the Program Review webpage: http://www.brocku.ca/program-review/ for further updates.
4. We have received the official 2013 headcount for our Faculty. Overall, we have 3304 Faculty of Applied Health Science majors. This is a 7% increase from 2012. Here is a link to the University’s headcount that provides an overview across the University and by Faculty: http://www.brocku.ca/finance/faculty-and-staff/institutional-analysis/reports/2013-14/Fall_Enrolment_2013. Obviously, the good news is that FAHS continues to be a flagship Faculty and a place where students want to come with an overall increase of 21% over the past 5 yrs. However, we still remain one of the leanest Faculties on campus with the lowest operating budget of any Faculty according to the 2013/14 Budget Report. In a recent meeting with Professor Ana Sanchez, she told me about her “Dollar Store Lab” where all
the materials used during one of her labs were purchased from the Dollar Store. While I applaud her creativity and ingenuity (and appreciate her financial stewardship during these challenging fiscal times), my hope is that through the Program Prioritization process, our Faculty will receive the appropriate resources we need to support the tremendous work that each of you do each day.
5. The preliminary application data has been released by the Ontario University Application Centre: http://www.ouac.on.ca/uapp_january/ for 2014 enrolments. Overall, there are currently about 3,000 less applications to Ontario Universities compared to last year. For our Faculty, although the number of total 101 applications is down 2.6%, the number of applicants who list an FAHS program as their first choice has gone up 4.5% compared to last year. So overall, a very good situation for FAHS going into 2014 and again, a testament to the rising reputation of our Faculty and the efforts of all of you who have contributed to the recruitment efforts over the past year.
6. A reminder that nominations are now being accepted for the Faculty of Applied Health Science Excellence in Teaching Award. Nominations are due to the Dean’s office by February 15th. http://www.brocku.ca/pedagogical-innovation/awards-grants/faculty-awards--excellence
7. We have set up a FAHS Communications folder in your BrockBox: https://your.brocku.ca/files/. This folder contains various reports, etc that will help you stay up-to-date and have the information you need to make informed decisions. The folder is currently populated with various external and internal reports. If you come across a report or interesting article that you’d like to share with staff and faculty members, please feel free to email it to: deanfahs@brock.ca and we will upload it to the BrockBox.
8. You may be interested in an update to Brock’s videoconferencing capabilities. Brock is using LifeSize ClearSea for secure and private videoconferencing. You can download the software onto various devices (laptop, desktop, smartphone, tablet) to conduct videoconferences. You can invite up to 20 users at a time and you can also record the videoconference. This has tremendous potential for meetings, grad defences, lecture capturing, research interviews, etc. You can visit: http://brockconnect.brocku.ca/clearsea/.
9. The 616th Senate Meeting was held on January 15th. Here is a link to the report: https://brocku.ca/webfm_send/29853. Some of the decisions that impact FAHS directly are: 1) New articulation agreement between Niagara College and the Department of Kinesiology’s Physical Education and Kinesiology programs; and 2) the appointment of Professor Dan Malleck from the Department of Health Sciences to the Information Technology and Infrastructure Committee. You may also be interested in reading the President’s report this month which highlights some of the financial challenges we all face as an institution: https://brocku.ca/webfm_send/29728
10. To ring in the New Year, you may be interested in an article published this month in the Globe and Mail that identifies five education stories to watch for in 2014. Not a particularly “cheery” outlook, but none the less, these are definitely some of the hot topics we are all facing this year: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/five-education-stories-to-watch-in-2013/article16113892/
11. Speaking of the media, President Lightstone recently published an Op-Ed in the Globe and Mail entitled: Universities are “partners and catalysts,” not ivory towers. In the article, President Lightstone discusses the importance of Universities being a key catalyst and partner within our communities. From a Faculty perspective, the President’s Op-Ed captured much of what we do as a Faculty and is consistent with our vision of helping make our communities a healthier place to live. Here is the link to the article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/instead-of-ivory-tower-a-place-in-the-neighbourhood/article16169887/
12. A reminder that proposals to support various teaching and learning initiatives are due to the Dean's Office on Jan. 31. Please refer to last months Faculty Insider for the details.
Link to: Faculty Insider 2013 | Vol. 4
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