Wednesday 10 May 2017

Acting Deans in the Faculties of Business Administration and Education announced

2017-18 budget letter, detailed information on tuition levels now available

Academic Unit Review site visits wrap up

2017-18 URLeading Information Session

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Tuesday 11 April 2017

Update on deanships in Business Administration and Education

Bulletin readers will know that two of the University's Deans are leaving for new appointments in other provinces. Dr Jennifer Tupper has been appointed Dean of Education at her alma mater, the University of Alberta, while Dr Andrew Gaudes has been appointed Dean of the Goodman School of Business at Brock University in St Catharines. Both appointments are effective 1 July.

Both Andrew and Jennifer will be missed when they leave our campus. Both have worked with faculty, staff, and students to move their Faculties forward at a time of great change on campus and in the province of Saskatchewan. A fuller tribute to both academic leaders will appear in the Bulletin later this spring.

A consultation process for an Acting Dean of Education is under way; details are available here. A consultation for an Acting Dean of Business is being planned in the next few weeks; details will be published when available. National searches for full-term Deans of both Faculties, with a target date for appointment of summer 2018, will be under way shortly.

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Update on Academic Unit Reviews

The site visit season is now in full swing, with Geography and Environmental Studies having its visit on 23-24 March, and the Faculty of Education on 10-11 April. Upcoming site visits include those for Computer Science on 17-18 April, Biology on 27-28 April, and the University Library on 8-9 May.

Details of these reviews including the names of the external reviewers and documentation including unit self-studies are available here. That page also provides archived material from last year's Academic Unit Reviews.

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Teaching colloquium with Elizabeth Barkley

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Monday 20 March 2017

Dr Tupper appointed Dean of Education at the University of Alberta

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AVP International wins award

Livia Castellanos, the University’s AVP International and Chief International Officer, has been honoured with the Education Award by the Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Regina. The award was presented at the Institute’s annual Friendship Dinner and Award ceremony on 16 March.

“I am truly honoured and humbled by this award,” says Castellanos. “Our success at UR International is only made possible thanks to the dedication of our incredibly hard working team as well as the unwavering support from our campus community.”

Castellanos was described by members of the Institute as having an “exceptional and ever-growing record of achievements in the international education sector.” Castellanos’ mentorship and guidance have helped develop a number of strong leaders in international education, inspiring them to follow in her footsteps. Castellanos was also credited with encouraging students to bring “aspects of their cultures into the classroom and campus."

A lawyer by training, Castellanos was born and raised in Mexico. She arrived in Canada as an exchange student in the late nineties. Her experience in the field of international education now spans nearly two decades. She has been at UR International since 2010. Since then, enrolment of international students has grown significantly to around 2,000 or about 14 percent of the student population.

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Guelph provost decries underrepresentation of women in university leadership

Writing in the Ottawa Citizen, University of Guelph Provost Charlotte Yates notes the underrepresentation of women in senior university positions. She argues that universities “need to hire more women …. We need to see more women promoted to leadership roles, and we need to see them maintain and advance in those positions.”

Yates cites a recent study showing that, between 2011 and 2016, the majority of Canadian decanal appointments went to men. “Among the 42 per cent that went to women,” writes Yates, “reappointment rates were less than 30 per cent. Men were reappointed at a rate upward of 72 per cent.”

Yates’ article can be found here.

At the University of Regina, women constitute nearly 62% of the student body, 45.39% of the academic staff member complement, and 40% of Deans’ Council.

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Dean of Engineering and Applied Science leads research team looking at small reactors

Dr Esam Hussein, professor and Dean of Engineering and Applied Science, is leading a multidisciplinary research team in an investigation of small modular nuclear reactors. The research will be done by 14 faculty and graduate students in disciplines including geology, geography, engineering, transportation, and law.

The new research effort complements work being undertaken by the Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

The research is funded by a $1.1M grant from the Fedoruk Centre.

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Bad Blood: Globe and Mail calls it “triumphant”

In a lengthy Globe and Mail article, reviewer J Kelly Nestruck describes the opening night of Bad Blood at the University of Regina as “triumphant.”

Alumnus Joey Tremblay has created “not a critique of health care systems, but an examination of these institutions’ relationships to empathy and healing.”

According to Nestruck, “Tremblay developed the work as the first Michele Sereda artist-in-residence at the University of Regina – and eventually partnered with the theatre department to create its first production.”

The full text of Nestruck’s laudatory review is available here.

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Academic unit reviews: update

The first of the 2016-17 site visits takes place this week, with external reviewers Dirk de Boer (University of Saskatchewan), Wayne Forsythe (Ryerson University), and Theresa Garvin (University of Alberta) visiting the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. Stephen Bend of the Department of Geology will assist the external reviewers.

Geography’s review webpage, with the unit’s self-study, is available here.

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Tuesday 7 March 2017

Tuesday 7 February 2017

New Associate Registrar joins University of Regina

 

Our Registrar, Jim D'Arcy, has announced the appointment of Barb Elich as Associate Registrar, Operations. Ms Elich has over 17 years in leadership roles, most recently as Registrar of Briercrest College. She is an active member of the Western Association of Registrars of Universities and Colleges in Canada, having been the member at large for Saskatchewan since 2011. She holds an MA degree.

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Update: budget preparations for 2017-18

University funding: an interesting development in the United States

Monday 23 January 2017

Update on senior searches

Readers of the Bulletin will have seen recent announcements on campus and in print media of the appointment of Dr Douglas Farenick to a five-year term as Dean of Science effective 1 July 2017.

Doug is currently Acting Dean of Science, and continues a distinguished career as a professor of mathematics specializing in functional analysis, linear algebra, and applications to quantum information theory. More information on Dr Farenick is available here, and a record of updates to campus on the search process remains available here.

The search process for a full-term Director of La Cité universitaire francophone continues. Updates are available here.

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Hill students again win School of the Year at JDC West

University of Regina students in the Hill School of Business won “School of the Year” honours at the recent JDC West competition in Edmonton.

Hill teams have now placed in the top three as School of the Year nine times in the twelve years the competition has been held – more than any other university. Competitor institutions include, among others, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Saskatchewan.

The Hill team, coached by Randy Linton, also placed first in the categories of finance, international business, volunteer hours (a total of 3,377, and $25,000 raised for Hopes Home Charity), participation, and social. Their successes are testimony not only to their talent and hard work, but also to the excellent education, mentorship, and support provided by the Hill School and the University as a whole.

More information is available here.

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Shifting campus demographics: how many women, and how many men?

Curious about the proportions of women and men on our campus?

In the Fall 2016 term, the University undergraduate population was 61.4% female. The percentage of the graduate population who are female was 58%. At the three federated colleges, the female undergraduate population was 79.2% at First Nations University, 66.5% at Luther, and 58.1% at Campion.

Turning to the Faculties of the University, the female undergraduate population ranged from 91% in Nursing and 89% in Social Work to 17.6% in Engineering and Applied Science. The table below provides complete data in a 6-year time series.

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Why do students choose the University of Regina?

Bulletin readers will find a wealth of information about students’ reasons for choosing the University of Regina, and their reactions to the institution they have chosen, on the First-Year Student Survey Results webpage prepared by the Office of Resource Planning and posted here.

The following very brief summary is taken from the 2016 CUSC (Canadian University Survey Consortium) survey of factors influencing first-year students in their choice of a university. A fuller report is available here.

Nationally, 76% of students applied to a university other than the one they are currently attending. On average, they applied to about two other universities. Although only 45% of first-year students at the University of Regina said they applied to more than one university, the proportion has been increasing over the years, from 19% in 2004 to 28% in 2007 and 32% in 2013.

Although many students applied elsewhere, 85% of University of Regina first-year students said they are attending their first choice university, compared to 81% nationally and 76% at comparable universities. The table below shows the results:

First-year students rated 18 aspects concerning the importance of selecting their university. When the aspects were ranked by the proportion of who answered important or very important, students across Canada were most likely to say that their university has the program they wanted to take (87%) followed by their university’s academic reputation (72%) and the city/town it’s in (65%).

University of Regina students were more likely to say that their university has the program they wanted to take (79%) followed by I wanted to live close to home (67%) and the city/town it’s in (62%). All results are shown in the following table:

Students were presented with the same list of 18 aspects and asked to select the reason that was most important for selecting their university. On the national level, students said that their university has the program they wanted to take (33%), but also wanting to live close to home (16%) and their program had a work experience program (12%) were important. For University of Regina students the most important reason in choosing the university was because they wanted to live close to home (36%). This proportion is more than double that reported by students nationally (16%) and at comparable universities (15%). The second most important reason for University of Regina students was because it has the program I want to take (26%), compared to nationally (33%) and at comparable universities (32%):

*In previous years the option was: Specific career related program

Why do some Regina-area high school graduates choose other universities?

Reliable data on this issue are difficult to gather. High school leavers who choose to attend the University of Saskatchewan, out-of-province universities, or indeed American schools do so for a variety of reasons:

• academic and athletic scholarships
• increasingly vigorous and attractive recruiting in the Regina area by other institutions
• parental influence, including “legacy” pressure on children to attend the university from which their parents graduated
• desire to detach from parental home and community
• influence of siblings, teachers, guidance counselors, and community members
• the pull of personal relationships
• perceived prestige and profile of other institutions or cities
• availability of programs elsewhere.

In 2011, the University surveyed approximately 700 students who had been admitted but had not registered. Unsurprisingly, the response rate, at 12%, was low. Of those responding, nearly 50% had high school averages of 85% or more, making them highly mobile. Of those planning to stay in Saskatchewan, 79% planned to attend the University of Saskatchewan, and 16% planned to attend SaskPolytechnic (then SIAST).

UBC was the top out-of-province university of choice, followed by Dalhousie, Lethbridge, and Brandon.

Four key factors or perceptions were identified as having influenced students’ decisions to attend another institution. In descending order, they are:

1. Location
2. Program
3. Funding
4. Reputation

Among the changes the University of Regina could have made to attract their registrations, these students identified the following factors, again in descending order:

1. Nothing
2. Offer a (larger) entrance scholarship
3. Offer a program of interest
4. Make the offer earlier
5. Be in a better location

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Student sues Oxford for “appallingly bad” teaching

The Guardian recently carried an article about an Oxford graduate who is suing the university for what he characterizes as “appallingly bad and boring tuition” in modern history.

The Guardian reports that Faiz Siddiqui is suing “the chancellor, masters and scholars of Oxford University” because his second-class degree “denied him the chance of becoming a high-flying commercial barrister.” The lawsuit claims damages of one million pounds (CAN $1.65M).

For its part, Oxford University admits that its teaching in the area of modern Asian history was compromised because “four of the seven faculty staff were on sabbatical” when Siddiqui took the course.

The Guardian article is available online here.

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Friday 6 January 2017

A very happy New Year

TD Days for TAs

The Centre for Teaching and Learning is pleased to offer Teaching Development (TD) Days for teaching assistants on 24-26 January 2017. All workshops will be held on the first floor of the Archer Library in the Regina/Wascana Rooms (LY 107.32/107.33).

To obtain the TD Days certificate, participants are required to complete 5 workshops: two required (R) workshops, one workshop from Group (A), one workshop from Group (B), and one of your choice from either Group (A) or Group (B). Please make the choices according to TA duties and personal interest.

For more information and to register, please click here.

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Update: Colloquium on Teaching

Sustainability update: print optimization

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Tuesday 29 November 2016

Copyright update

University of Regina Copyright Officers Christina Winter and Brad Doerksen have prepared a summary of the state of copyright and academic communities. University Librarian Brett Waytuck reviewed this information with Executive of Council on 23 November.

In preparation for a mandatory review of the Copyright Act in 2017, Universities Canada and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries have been meeting with members of Parliament to advocate for the retention of the fair dealing exception and educational exceptions introduced in 2012. There has been some signaling from the current government that the 2017 review may focus more on administrative concerns than substantive changes – potentially due to several pending trade agreements.

Access Copyright (a copyright collective representing authors and publishers of literary works in English-speaking Canada) has submitted multiple copyright tariff applications to the Copyright Board, covering 2011-2013 and 2014-2017. The Copyright Board’s decisions on these tariffs are still pending, and it is not clear what impact any possible outcome may have for the University.

In 2013, Access Copyright filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against York University. A similar suit was filed in 2014 against Laval University by Copibec (the literary copyright collective in Québec). Phase One of the York University suit was completed in June, 2016 but no decision has yet been handed down. Once again, it is not yet clear what impact (if any) the outcome of these suits will have on other Canadian universities.

In 2012, AUCC (now Universities Canada) negotiated a Model License with Access Copyright which the University adhered to until 31 August 2016. The decision not to continue a licensing relationship with Access Copyright was made by the University administration after input from our copyright specialists and legal counsel. The decision to operate without a license was due to several factors including library licensed resources, amendments to the Copyright Act, various judicial decisions, and the growing availability of open access resources. The decision aligns the University with the vast majority of postsecondary institutions in English-speaking Canada.

To assist the university community in the transition to an environment without an Access Copyright license, in the Fall semester the library implemented Ares Reserves, a new copyright service. To date, 965 items have been submitted to the Copyright Officers as part of this service. Permissions have been required for 1.14% of the items, and these have been secured at a cost of $845 USD. Faculty and instructors should also be aware that securing permissions can take up to 6-8 weeks.

The Copyright Officers have attended meetings of all Faculties to introduce the Ares reserves service and discuss the changes in the copyright environment at the University. They will also continue to provide workshops in the Centre for Teaching and Learning on a regular basis, and are also available for individual consultations where required.

If you have questions or concerns, please write to copyright@uregina.ca. General information on copyright at the University can be found here.

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More on the future of academic libraries

"I don't think we need to save libraries," says Chris Bourg, director of libraries for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "but I do think we might need libraries to save us."

Her remark, reported by Carl Straumsheim in a recent Inside Higher Ed piece, came in the context of a major MIT report on academic libraries as "open global platforms" that are accessible to all. The report identifies four pillars on which libraries should focus.

Straumsheim's article is available here. The full text of the MIT report is available here.

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Initial U-Pass figures encouraging

Yesterday's Leader-Post contained an article by Craig Baird on the U-Pass program recently introduced by the Students' Union and the City of Regina.

Year-over-year transit ridership by students is up 93%, according to City figures.

Baird's article is available here.

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Payroll

A reminder from Glendon Rolston, director of payroll services, that we have 14 monthly payrolls remaining before the mandated change to a bi-weekly payroll in January 2018.

Human Resources will be sending out several communications in the intervening months with further details on bi-weekly payroll.

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Tuesday 22 November 2016

Update on senior searches

Candidates for the position of Dean of Science will be on campus over the next few weeks. Details are available here.

The search for a full-term Director of La Cité universitaire francophone continues. Details are available here.

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Library works with partners to provide extended hours during final examination period

University Librarian Brett Waytuck and his team are working with Facilities Management, Security, and Student Affairs officials to provide extended hours in the Archer Library during final examinations.

Details of these extended hours are subject to change; updates will be posted here.

At the moment, the following changes are being considered:

• The Library will remain open until 2 a.m. from 7 December to 18 December
• Access will be to the main floor only, with 400 available seats on that floor
• As part of the lead-up promotion, information about parking in the vicinity of the library will be provided
• Security will investigate the possibility of allowing access to the Ad/Hum and Language Institute buildings after 11 p.m. for students utilizing nearby parking or returning to residences - There will not be access to other buildings after 11 p.m.
• Student Affairs will investigate extended hours at The Grind
• The Library is working with Student Affairs to utilize their Community Assistants pool to monitor the front door, refill paper trays and perform seating counts.

Again, these arrangements are subject to confirmation nearer the beginning of finals. Please consult the Library's webpage for accurate and up-to-date information.

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International students celebrate

As posted to the University's homepage yesterday, the Diwali (Festival of Light) celebration on Saturday evening was a great success, with more than 600 students, faculty, staff, and members of the community in attendance. Co-hosts Hibba Shahid and Mandeep Dhillon did a superb job of introducing performers and entertaining the audience.

Several days ago, a group of international students, together with Haroon Chaudry and members of the staff at UR International, visited the Legislature and met with the Minister of Advanced Education and the Premier. The photographs show the students with Minister Eyre and seated at the cabinet table.

    


Finally, at yesterday morning's opening of International Education Week, Engineering student Ryan Liu, who comes from China, spoke of his decision to attend the University of Regina. You can hear his remarks at 8'20" of this video. They provide an interesting contrast to some of the concerns expressed in Sunday's CBC Radio report on international students in Canada.

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Sustainability corner

It's estimated that if all of us shut down our PCs each night before leaving work, we could realize savings of 30-40% of the power consumption on campus attributed to these machines.

The average desktop PC wastes nearly half the power it consumes. It is estimated that there are over 3,500 PCs on campus.

Total expenditures on electricity for the campus as a whole during the 2016-17 budget year are estimated at $5.25 million.

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Thursday 10 November 2016

Special Edition: 2016 CUSC Survey Overall satisfaction (Report 6 of 6)

The Office of Resource Planning is publishing on its website a series of short reports on the results of the 2016 CUSC survey of first-year undergraduate students. The last of six reports is now available. It examines the overall university experience of first-year students who completed the survey. Here are some highlights:

• At the University of Regina, 88% of first-year students are satisfied with their decision to attend this university, including 13% who are very satisfied.

• U of R students are more likely to say that their university experiences fell short (16%), rather than exceeded their expectations (11%).

• At the national level, 95% of first-year students would recommend their university to others, compared to 92% at University of Regina.

• At the University of Regina, 85% of first-year students plan to come back to this university next year, compared to 92% at comparable universities.

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Thursday 3 November 2016

Special Edition: 2016 CUSC Survey Use and Satisfaction with Services (Report 5 of 6)

The Office of Resource Planning is publishing on its website (http://www.uregina.ca/orp/surveys/cusc/first-year.html)  a series of short reports on the results of the 2016 CUSC survey of first-year undergraduate students. The fifth of six reports is now available. It explores the use and satisfaction with general facilities and services of first-year students who completed the survey. Here are some highlights:

• Services most commonly used by U of R students include on-campus bookstores (77%), parking (59%), food services (57%), and library electronic resources (57%).

• For U of R students, the three areas among general facilities and services with the lowest rating of satisfaction are parking (53%), university residences (68%), and food services (84%).

• U of R students are more likely to use academic advising (49%), compared to students nationally (38%) and at comparable universities (36%).

• At the University of Regina, satisfaction is higher for most services, especially career counseling (100%), and services for international students (100%).

The sixth and last report on the survey results will explore such topics as satisfaction with the decision to attend this university, the likeliness to recommend this university to others, and their intention to return to this university.

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Tuesday 1 November 2016

United Way update: mid-campaign report

Bill Bonner and Devon Anderson write:

"We are about one halfway through the campaign and about 60% of the way to our goal of raising $105,000 for the United Way. Thank you to everyone for your support so far. If you plan to donate and have not done so yet, please get on it (and thank you)!  If you are on the fence please consider that the focus of the campaign is on improving the reading skills of children and, as a result, their futures. It is a great cause, "All that kids can be" and any and all donations will help.

There have been a number of United Way Fund raising activities across campus to date.

The first was a bake sale put on by students from the Campion College Student Union. An open Cheesecake Cafe was put on last week by the Student Success Centre that was so popular that it sold out in 17 minutes. That is a sure sign of interest to anyone else considering something similar.

Internally the Library is running a Baby Photo Contest. Library colleagues submit their own baby photos and guess sheets available for $2 each.  The person who pens the guess sheet with the most correct answers splits the pot with the United Way.  The Library is also having an internal talent/craft/”nice” used good silent auction on November 3 followed by a cupcake sale. Information Services had an internal Chili Cook Off on Monday.  And continuing the chili theme, The Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS) is also having an internal chili event, raising funds for the United Way.

If anyone has events planned please let us know.  If they are public, we can let others know about them.  If they are internal they may give others ideas and will give everyone a sense of our collective interest in and commitment to supporting the United Way and our community.

Finally the top 8 areas and canvassers so far (over 30% area participation rates):

• Executive Offices: Constance Hammermeister
• Physics:  Dr Nikolay Kolev
• Business Administration: Dr Gina Grandy
• CCE: Georgia Morgan
• Student Success Centre: Naomi Deren
• Politics and International Studies: Joan Kaytor
• History: Doreen Thompson
• Financial Services: Minako Boyachek

Keep up the good work!"

Thursday 27 October 2016

Special Edition: 2016 CUSC Survey Expectations, Educational Experience and Goal Development (Report 4 of 6)

The Office of Resource Planning is publishing on its website (http://www.uregina.ca/orp/surveys/cusc/first-year.html) a series of short reports on the results of the 2016 CUSC survey of first-year undergraduate students. The fourth of six reports is now available. It explores the expectations and experience as well as the educational experiences and goal development of first-year students who completed the survey. Here are some highlights:

• University of Regina first-year students are more likely to have a specific career in mind (47%), compared to their peers at the national level (31%) and at comparable universities (28%).

• Almost 7 in 10 first-year students at the national level said they had selected their major or discipline, compared to almost 8 at the University of Regina and at comparable universities.

• U of R students say that academic challenges such as time to put into their coursework and how academically demanding their courses are, along with cost-related aspects such as cost of going to university, are more or much more than expected.

• U of R students are more likely to say that making friends and getting involved in campus social activities are more or much more difficult than expected.

• At this early point in their university studies, students at the national level seem to be equally likely to want to apply to a professional program (29%) as graduate school (34%). University of Regina students are less interested in graduate studies.

Future weekly reports on the survey results will examine such topics as use and satisfaction with general facilities and services.

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Thursday 20 October 2016

Special Edition: 2016 CUSC Survey Orientation, Registration and Transition to University (Report 3 of 6)

Special Edition: 2016 CUSC Survey Factors Influencing University Decisions (Report 2 of 6)

Completed in Spring 2016, the 2016 CUSC First-Year Student Survey focused on undergraduate university students who started university during the 2015-16 academic year. The survey was distributed to almost 58,000 students at 34 universities across Canada. In total, 14,886 students from across Canada completed the survey, including 657 from the University of Regina.

The Office of Resource Planning, as in past years, is publishing on its website (http://www.uregina.ca/orp/surveys/cusc/first-year.html) a series of reports examining the results of the survey. These reports contain U of R data and data from the national responses and those from universities most comparable to the U of R.

The second report examines students' motivations and factors influencing their decision to attend university, their application behaviour and their main reasons for selecting their particular university. Here are some highlights:

Friday 7 October 2016

Special Edition: 2016 CUSC Survey of First-Year Students (Report 1 of 6)

Completed in Spring 2016, the 2016 CUSC First-Year Student Survey focused on undergraduate university students who started university during the 2015-16 academic year. The survey was distributed to almost 58,000 students at 34 universities across Canada. In total, 14,886 students from across Canada completed the survey, including 657 from the University of Regina.

The Office of Resource Planning, as in past years, is publishing on its website a series of reports examining the results of the survey. These reports contain U of R data and data from the national responses and those from universities most comparable to the U of R.

Now available on the website is a short summary report and the first report in the series of six that explores the demographic profile, living arrangements and current employment of first-year students who completed the survey.

Here are some highlights from the demographic report:

• Far fewer University of Regina students self-report being a member of a visible minority (19%) compared to students nationally (40%) and from comparable universities (46%).

• The proportion of U of R students who reported a disability increased from 7% in 2013 to 21% in 2016. Almost 80% of the increase is attributed to mental health problems.

• Among those not living on campus, 21% of University of Regina students said they would choose to live on campus if given the opportunity.

• University of Regina students (40%) are more likely to be employed while studying than students nationally (34%) and much more likely than at comparable universities (29%).

Future reports on the survey results will appear on a weekly basis and will examine such topics as factors influencing students' choice of university, their orientation and registration experience, their transition to university life, and their satisfaction with their university experience.

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Tuesday 4 October 2016

Rethinking transfer credit

As President Timmons mentioned at Executive of Council last week, the University is looking at several areas in which it can improve its processes, especially as they affect students. One of these is transfer credit, currently a cumbersome and often time-consuming process.

Registrar Jim D'Arcy is working on a draft policy for the consideration by collegial bodies including Executive of Council. The core idea behind the new policy is that the University of Regina will guarantee the award of transfer credit for courses deemed to be at the university level from all institutions. What follows is an outline of that draft. It will be brought to Executive of Council for information, discussion, and revision prior to a vote later this year or early in 2017. Among the considerations underlying these draft proposals is a clear recognition that transfer credit can no longer be considered a “bad thing” or a loss of revenue to the institution. Transfer students who meet minimum eligibility requirements do well in their programs and persevere to completion. They deserve our full consideration, and they help to fill existing capacity in upper-year courses.

Transfer Credit Eligibility

Transfer credit will be awarded for all successfully completed courses that are determined to be at the university level from eligible institutions. Awarded transfer credit will be applied to a student’s program only if:

• the student meets the minimum transfer GPA of the faculty/department/academic unit which is determined through the consideration of all postsecondary courses completed;
• the transfer course meets the minimum grade requirement of the faculty/department/academic unit; and
• the transfer course fits the published regulations of the student’s program. 

Specific Course Transfer

Eligible transfer credit will be awarded for specific courses whenever possible.  When a course does not have a sufficient match to specific course content at the U of R, it will be awarded at the appropriate level with an XX designation.  Application of the awarded transfer credit to a student’s program must meet the criteria for application of the transfer credit as stated above.

Transfer Credit Appeals

Appeals on transfer credit award, denial, and/or application can be made to the Registrar. The student must submit a rationale as to why the transfer credit should be considered for review. Courses that have not been successfully completed, do not meet the minimum grade requirement of the academic area, or have been completed at an institution deemed not be eligible will not be considered for review.

The Registrar will coordinate a review of the transfer credit appeal with the following individuals:

• The Dean of the Faculty or the Director of the Department/Academic Unit
• The Department Head or Chair of the Department
• One faculty member from the subject area of appeal

The Registrar will Chair the review.  Decisions of the review committee are final.

Among the system and process adjustments that will be required are these:

Implementation of the Banner Transfer Credit Module & Banner Workflow

• Implementation of the transfer credit module will allow for the upfront entry of PS transcripts. The transfer credit module returns all precedent decisions on transfer. This will facilitate centralized transfer credit and the collection of information required to make transfer credit decisions.  This can easily interface with Banner Workflow.
• Implementation of Banner Workflow processes will provide for the ability for transfer credit recommendations of a centralized sources to be sent electronically for transfer credit decision making. For example, if the transfer credit is eligible and can be applied to a student program, it would simply require the answer of a question with “yes” and the transfer credit is applied.

Adjustments to UR DOCS Workflows

Adjustments to the current workflows will be necessary to complement implementation of the Banner transfer credit module and Banner workflows.


Process and philosophy considerations:

• The upfront entry of PS transcript data will be necessary.  This will require an investment or redeployment of resources.  A process review will determine what that requirement is.System adjustments will be necessary.  This will also require an investment of resources to implement and maintain.
• What will be sent from the centralized source will become a transfer credit proposal.  All courses that have existing TC decisions will be sent as recommendations for transfer, and the central source will be required to collect, scan, and send course outlines to the appropriate academic area for those courses that do not have decisions.
• New decisions on a specific discipline need to be made by the academic unit responsible for that discipline.  The workflow should be adjusted to take that into consideration.

Finally, triangulation (considering transfer credit decisions already made by other institutions) has the potential for creating further efficiencies. It would be a competitive advantage for the University of Regina to state it will recognize transfer credit decisions from other institutions.

Readers of Deans' Council Bulletin are invited to respond to these draft thoughts directly to the Registrar at james.darcy@uregina.ca. As noted above, a full consultative and collegial approvals process will be undertaken prior to implementation of changes to transfer credit policies.

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College Avenue renewal: CCE update

• Director's Office

• Student & Instructor Services (Credit)

• Career & Professional Development (Credit & Non-credit)

• Flexible Learning Division

• Conservatory Creative Preschool

• Assistant Director

• Student Services (Non-credit)

• Conservatory of Performing Arts

• Lifelong Learning Centre

• Central Marketing

• Central Business Services

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Tuesday 27 September 2016

Academic unit reviews 2016-17

Planning is underway for the 2016-17 set of Academic Unit Reviews. Site visits have been planned as follow (dates subject to change):

• 20-24 March 2017 --  Department of Geography and Environmental Studies

• 10-14 April 2017 -- Faculty of Education

• 17-21 April 2017 -- Department of Computer Science

• 24-28 April 2017 -- Department of Biology

• 8-12 May 2017 -- University Library

• 15-19 May 2017 - Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research

Information about Academic Unit Reviews is available here.

The policy governing Academic Unit Reviews is available here. It includes the timeline for the review process, which begins in October each year. Full information about recent reviews, including self-study documents and external reviewers' reports, is available from the left-hand menu here.

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United Way -- faculty and academic administrative canvassers needed

Bill Bonner and Devon Anderson, co-chairs of the University's United Way campaign, spoke at last week's Deans' Council meeting.

They wrote yesterday as follows:

Thank you for your attention at the Deans' Council meeting on 21 September. We appreciate your commitment to help solicit canvassers, including faculty members. That will make a huge difference.

We need your help in two areas.

Canvassers try and replace themselves but they are not always successful. We are without any canvassers in the following areas: Computer Science, English, Geology, Cité universitaire francophone, Student Counselling, MAP Dean's Office, Theatre, Music, Physics, and Sociology.

We are still looking for area faculty canvassers. We appreciate that for some reason faulty have not been involved as canvassers, at least in the recent past. To that end we asked a faculty member who has and continues to canvass, to offer a few words on the experience.

“When I was approached to serve as a canvasser last year, despite the importance of the cause, I have to admit I was a bit reluctant for two reasons. One, my life is already fairly full and I wasn’t sure I could manage another ‘service’ role. Second, I wasn’t interested in ‘door to door’ canvassing and any sort of direct or aggressive pitching. I couldn’t really have been more wrong in those assumptions. The time commitment is very minimal and essentially only occurs over the month of October. The requirements involve informing colleagues about the cause, that a form has been placed in their mailboxes and to return the form to me whether they intend to give or not. I also send an email from time to time to all staff to update them on our total contributions to date.  Many people identify with the cause and thus the cause ‘sells’ itself. I am doing it again this year because it is such a painless service role that makes a significant impact on the community around us.”

The task is relatively small, to provide the opportunity to contribute (peer to peer so it gets some consideration) and provide feedback. We need your help to solicit faculty. Through the sum total of a series of small efforts we can make a significant contribution to the development and delivery of local programs focused on enhancing childhood literacy and education.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Devon Anderson and Bill Bonner

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Open Textbooks presentation at E of C this week

At Executive of Council this week, Bruce Walsh, Director of UR Press, will make a brief presentation on the Press's Open Textbooks program. Information on that program is available here.

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University of Vermont medical school does away with traditional lectures

The 7 September edition of the Bulletin (see below) pointed readers to a brief THES article by Petra Hauptfeld-Göllner on changing approaches to university teaching.

The 26 September edition of Inside Higher Ed contains a lengthier piece by Carl Straumsheim detailing major teaching changes under way at the University of Vermont's medical school. "Over the next several years," Straumsheim writes, the medical school will "remove all lecture courses, replacing them with videos students watch on their own time .... students will meet in 'active learning' classrooms, led by faculty members, working with their classmates in small groups."

The announcement from the University of Vermont "marks the first time a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges has declared it will abolish lectures across all its programs."

Straumsheim's article is available here.

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Tuesday 20 September 2016

Spring/Summer 2016: enrolments and credit hours

Spring/Summer 2016 headcounts continued the pattern of growth established in recent years. More students are registering for Spring/Summer courses; academic units, in partnership with the Centre for Continuing Education, are working to respond to student demand for courses from May through August. The continuing growth in international student numbers (see page 3) also contributes to Spring/Summer enrolment and credit hour growth.

In the following table, total headcounts and credit hours include undergraduate and graduate students across the campus system, including federated colleges.

2016 Spring-Summer counts were made on 23 August. The figures show a 9.5% increase in headcount since 2014, and an 11.5% increase in credit hours taught over the same period.

Spring/Summer headcounts and credit hours: full campus system, 2014—present

Areas of particularly notable credit hour growth in Spring/Summer were Engineering (up 45.6% since 2014), Nursing (up 39.3%), and Media, Art, and Performance (up 32%).
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Overview of Fall term headcount enrolments: 2008—present

The 2016 figure is as of Monday 19 September. As today is the last day to drop courses without penalty, that figure will decline. Nonetheless, we are projecting a final headcount enrolment of 14,550—14,650 for the September 2016 term.



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Fall 2016: admissions and registrations

Fall 2016: enrolments and credit hours

Fall 2016 registered student numbers and credit hours are both up for the eighth consecutive year. In the context of a declining Saskatchewan high-school graduating cohort, this increase is evidence that (1) the University of Regina is the first choice of an increasing number of students in Saskatchewan (2) out-of-province advertising and recruitment have paid off, especially in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario (3) the strategic approach to international recruitment and retention by UR International continues to generate strong international enrolments and retention in an increasingly competitive national context (4) graduate enrolments continue to grow, demonstrating the attractiveness of newer degree offerings such as the Master of Health Administration degree and the increasing attractiveness of research-based graduate degrees, as well as increased financial support of students registered in these programs.

Target headcount enrolment for Fall 2016 was 14,500 students, an increase of roughly 1% over the previous historical high point achieved in September 2015.

As of 19 September 2016, actual headcount was 14,989, an increase of 3.8% over the same point in term last year. As noted above, this total will decline prior to the next reporting date as students drop courses.

Areas of notable credit hour growth after some years of decline are Media, Art, and Performance (up 10.2% year over year) and Arts (up 3.3%). FNUniv has also seen a sizeable increase (8.2%).

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Fall 2016: international students

Student financial support

According to just-released CAUBO/Statistics Canada data, the University of Regina is 3^rd highest of Canadian comprehensive universities in the percentage of tuition and fee revenue returned to students in the form of scholarships, bursaries, and prizes (all sources).

32% of tuition and fee revenue, or $23.2 million, was returned to students in 2014-15.

Student debt

In Winter 2015, over half (51%) of University of Regina graduating students reported having no education-related debt from their undergraduate studies. This percentage has changed little over time. It compares to 50% of graduating students nationally and 53% of those at comparable Canadian universities.

Including those reporting no graduating debt, the average debt among graduating University of Regina students is $14,085. This is 5.6% higher than the average debt of students nationally ($13,331) and 3.9% lower than students at comparable institutions ($14,663).

University of Regina students are therefore, on average, borrowing just over $14,000 to finance an educational investment that returns over $1 million during their working lives.

Nationally, average student debt has been in decline for more than a decade. At the University of Regina, average total educational debt of graduating students in 2015 was lower than their predecessors’ average debt in 2006.

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Tuesday 15 September 2016

Textbooks on reserve: update on URSU/Library/Deans' Council initiative

The 6 September edition of the Bulletin (see below) carried information on a new initiative designed to assist students with the rising costs of textbooks.

That initiative has now been officially launched, with contributions from numerous Faculties and units across campus. More than 130 texts are now on reserve, with another 90 on order. Details of the initiative are available here, and media coverage is available on the Leader-Post and CBC News websites.

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Identifying students in distress

At a recent Deans' Council meeting, Dr Kent Klippenstine of Student Affairs' Counselling Services unit made a presentation on identifying students in distress.

The Identifying Students in Distress handout accompanying that presentation is available and will be of interest to readers of the Bulletin.

Counselling Services is available at 4497. Anyone with immediate concerns about a student's health or safety should call Campus Security at 4999.

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What will lectures look like in 2030?

Writing in the 13 September edition of THES, Petra Hauptfeld-Göllner outlines five ways in which university teaching will change in the next decade and a half. Among them: the inverted classroom will become the norm rather than the exception, and large lecture sections will have become obsolete, replaced by mediated delivery in a variety of formats supplemented by study labs.

"University architecture in the future," she argues, "has to follow the needs of students, not vice versa".

Hauptfeld-Göllner's brief article is available here.

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Wednesday 7 September 2016

Special edition on recruitment and retention initiatives

The most recent DCB update on recruitment and retention can be found in the 21 June 2016 edition, available here.

Much work continues across campus on fulfilling the commitments made in our strategic plan to boost student retention and ensure that student recruitment is successful in an increasingly competitive market.

Below, readers will find brief updates from many campus units detailing their recruitment and retention efforts.

Student Affairs
Student Success Centre: Significant retention outcomes have occurred in the second year of the Academic Recovery Program (ARP) and the new Arts Transition Program (ATP).  In the 2015/16 academic year 154 students enrolled in ARP (95 in 2014/15) and 112 students registered in the ATP (new program).  The most recent semester saw retention rates of 63% in ARP and 64% in ATP.

The impact both in terms of student success and retention is huge.  The numbers above have resulted in the retention of an additional 135 students.

Aboriginal Student Centre (ASC): The Nitôncipâmin Omâ ("We are Here") Program is a cohort program that was introduced in the fall of 2010.  Aboriginal students new to the University of Regina enter the program and take six first year courses together as a cohort, while being supported by a Student Success Facilitator and other Student Affairs staff. Faculties across campus have shown their continued support for the program by allocating teaching assistants and/or graduate assistants to aid in the review of course contents with the Omâ participants on a weekly basis throughout the term to ensure that students are prepared for all course assignments and exams.

The first six cohorts, totalling 120 Omâ students, have done very well, with over 70% of students retained into their second year of degree study.

Co-operative Education & Internships: The Co-operative Education & Internship Program made 795 placements in 2015 and nearly $10 million in wages earned by students to contribute towards completion of a degree at the U of R.  In spite of the economic downturn, this number still reflects 94% of the placement rate obtained in 2014, which set a 46 year high of 847 placements. 2016 year-to-date: 755 placements.

Aboriginal Career Centre: Aboriginal students are able to access the Full Circle Summer Internship (FCSI) Program.  The program prepares Aboriginal students for entrance into the job market and in the transition from school to work.  Program participants also end up completing university with valuable work experience and a network of contacts.

In 2016, the FCSI had 61 Aboriginal interns obtain career-related employment. In the program’s 11-year existence, the FCSI has had 606 Aboriginal interns obtain a paid career-related placement. These students have earned nearly $5 million. There has been roughly a 50/50 split between participants from the U of R and First Nations University.

Counselling Services: Counselling Services has recruited and hired a full-time psychologist whose primary role is to provide psycho-educational assessments in-house. Previously this service was offered via third party psychologists and billed back to the province.  The new structure allows us to serve all students, as under the previous agreement with SK Ministry of the Economy, only SK residents were eligible to receive these services.

It is anticipated that this approach will make a huge impact in terms of International and out-of–province students being provided learning accommodations in support of student retention.

Counselling Services has also received central funding to hire an additional psychologist in the 2016/17 budget.

Registrar’s Office: The Advisor/Degree Audit system will help with reporting to identify "at risk" students sooner than we are able to currently so that Faculties can be more proactive and help students get back on track.

Enrolment Services: Recruitment Ambassadors help create a memorable on-campus recruitment experience for prospective students and their parents. Initially, the focus of the Recruitment Ambassadors will be on campus tours and events but it is hoped to grow the program to be a social media and street team that the University can send to local high school events.

Grade 11 Event: Recruitment of prospective students is occurring in younger years. This is our first initiative to formally reach out to grade 11 students by having an event tailored to their needs. The event was a success with 125 attending the full day and evening event. Alumni Services supported the event with a pizza party and Cougar game in the evening.

Residence Services: Residence Services has eliminated the Commissionaires within the residence system. We have developed an internal student staffed Community Assistant Program. This provides 25 more student jobs on campus, allowing funds that previously went to an outside contractor to flow through to U of R undergraduate and graduate students.

We have grown the Living Learning Communities within Residence to double the engagement over the same time last year. We are also developing the ability for those students living off campus to become involved in the activities of the learning communities without having to necessarily live on campus, thus engaging more of our local students with on campus engagement.

UR International
Over the Spring/Summer semester, URI has continued to streamline admissions processes to be more efficient, effective, sustainable and personalized by: having more front line staff to efficiently address increasing volume of student enrolment inquiries on the front line; increased cross training between colleagues, which speeds up the admissions processing, and increases URI’s recruitment reach in more international locations; having the recruiters more involved in conversion in the summer, including processing applications from the Educational Consultants that they have cultivated.

URI has also worked hard to review and stay up to date on international admissions standards of various countries to ensure that we continue to accurately admit students to the University of Regina. This allows us to set a high standard of international admissions best practices at the University. Our recruiters are about to begin their fall mission in two of our top markets: China and India. In these markets, we will be attending a total of 18 education fairs, visiting 24 current and potential high schools, 27 educational consultancies, and 35 cities. Throughout the year, UR International will be also recruiting in Pakistan, Korea, Russia, the UK, Germany and Mexico.

International Student Retention: In co-ordination with other academic units, URI has successfully identified first year international students who are at risk and has fully implemented a procedure to assist these students by connecting them with the new Academic Advisors in the Student Success Centre. Jointly, our units will monitor these students to assist and support them during their time at the U of R.

UR International Student Services and Human Resources have been working together to develop a process to ensure that International Students are eligible to work on campus prior to being hired. UR International Student Services has put a process in place to provide International Students with a Verification of Academic Status for the Eligibility to Work on Campus. This certifies that the International Student is eligible to work on campus at that point in time.

We are expecting more than 600 new undergraduate, graduate and ESL international students to attend the Fall 2016 International Student Orientation. UR International – Student Services is also facilitating small orientation sessions throughout the semester with collaboration of student associations.

Due to the strong growth of U of R international students, new Canadian students and permanent resident & refugee students and to ensure continued high service standards offered; UR International – Student Services is currently looking to add another Regulated International Student Immigration Advisor (ICCRC) in Winter 2017.

Faculty of Arts
The first year of the Arts Transition Program (ATP) has, from all indications, been successful at ensuring that students who are transferring into Arts have the necessary skills to succeed.

Arts has continued an email and telephone outreach campaign to unregistered students. In June and July 3000 emails were sent to current students encouraging them to register. Arts personally called approximately 300 newly admitted students who had not yet registered to make sure that there were no obstacles to their registration.

In 2015-16 the Faculty undertook a year-long planning process to outline a vision and priorities for the Faculty. Dean's Executive will be devoting this year's annual retreat exclusively to a discussion of the resulting report, choosing those initiatives that can have the greatest impact in helping the Faculty to stabilize and even reverse the trend to declining student enrolments.

Faculty of Business Administration
Business continues to promote the Hill Legacy Program, a key recruiting tool for the Hill School. New registrations have once again surpassed the previous year’s registrations, making this the third record-setting year for registrations.

Centre for Continuing Education
High School Accelerated sees high school students from across the province taking U of R courses. With the addition of ENGL 100/ENGL B30 dual credit in 2017 winter, CCE is expecting an increase in registrations this year.

The Public Relations Certificate and our Local Government Authority Certificate are each available entirely online now (as well as face to face). Online enrolments have grown strongly over the last year. Admin Level I and Level II certificates have grown strongly over the last year, due to targeted recruiting of international students. Overall, registration in credit certificate courses were up 21.7% last year, and enrolments are higher this year as well.

CCE has produced a new homepage design for website focusing on sharing student stories that represent Continuing Education unifying values (e.g., accessible University education and learning options for our communities). It has widened distribution of Fall Program Guide to reach more CCE prospective students including revamped ESL content focusing on immigrants, employers and homestay hosts.

This fall, ESL is working with URI to offer ESL for 43 students from Mexican Polytechnics. 19 students have been accepted Directly to AEAP 050 (the top ESL level) based on their IELTS, TOEFL or CAEL test scores. ESL submitted a proposal to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to provide language training for Permanent Residents in the evenings and Saturdays. The proposal is for up to 255 students at the Basic Literacy (Canada Language Benchmark Levels 1-4).

Faculty of Education
The Faculty of Education reports a year one to year two retention rate of 90.36%. The Faculty employs “intrusive advising” throughout the year. At the end of the semester advisors identify any students who might be struggling to maintain the necessary averages. They then work with the students to adjust their course selections, while still meeting degree and certification requirements, for the following semester to ensure a greater possibility of success.  As a result, this year Education is seeing a much lower attrition rate from year 1 to year 2.

The UR Educators Event will see a “welcome to the profession pinning ceremony” for all students newly admitted to Education on 29 September. And the Faculty is launching a new Masters of Indigenous Education program in collaboration with FNUniv in January 2017.

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
The Faculty is providing additional teaching assistants and tutorial support for threshold courses. It is paying closer attention to students' evaluations of threshold courses to see what can be done to improve course delivery and/or teaching methods, and is splitting large classes into two sections. Finally, it is offering additional sections in the Spring/Summer semester, so that students who fail in the Fall or Winter have a chance to pass these courses without waiting an entire year.

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research
FGSR's Professional and Academic Skills Program addresses two issues identified with graduate attrition. Students who are engaged professionally and socially are more likely to complete their graduate work. The program provides opportunities for students to advance their personal and professional goals while having the opportunity to meet and discuss item with peers. Both in person and online sessions are offered.

The Thesis Boot Camps provide another chance for social engagement as well as a support structure to thesis completion. Students are more likely to drop out the longer they remain in their program. The Thesis Boot Camp allows students to make real progress on their thesis and provide additional writing support.

FGSR has increased GRF and PhD funding in the last budget year by more than $500,000, and is developing new graduate co-operative programs with India, China, and Mexico.

Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
Admissions to JSGS are up 10% year over last. Total enrolments are 32% higher than Fall 2015.  Having an advisor solely concentrating on student success has made a clear difference.

In addition, JSGS increased number of seats available in courses by 22% this fall over. Even with the increase in seats, JSGS’s “vacancy rate” is only 5%.  This means that there are only 5% of seats presently available.  Fall 2015 showed 17% of the seats were vacant at the start of the semester (this was with fewer seats than available in Fall 2016). The increase in enrolments cannot be attributed solely to new admits, but a combination of new admits and better retention of students.

Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies
KHS reports record enrolments this fall. They have followed up with students who were accepted but not registered this spring and summer either via email, phone or both. KHS requires an hour long seminar for all students new to the Faculty. Transfer students may do this online. The seminar is delivered by the Associate Dean and introduces students to services at U of R, skills required to be successful, etc.

KHS identifies students struggling after midterms and refers them to early intervention. The Faculty also delivers supplemental instruction in two courses students struggle with: Anatomy and Biomechanics. Evidence from Anatomy experience suggests it is improving course averages.

La Cité universitaire
La Cité reports a partnership with the Faculty of Nursing on the Bilingual Nursing program and other projects slated to come on stream in 2018, as well as collaboration across campus to deliver a wide array of courses in French. Their thesis-based MA program is vibrant.

La Cité currently offers Certificate in French as a Second Language program that also serves as a stepping stone into majors. They have offered over 75 experiential activities during the past academic year (short trips in the community, invitations, study abroad, sociocultural programming, Co-op learning, etc.), as well as intensive, successful tutoring and other support services for all proficiency levels in French.

Collaboration with the Fransaskois community is essential to La Cité, as is enhanced visibility of La Cité in the community (local, national and international partnerships): editorial contributions, Société historique/Eau vive, organization of various community-related expert training workshops, non-credit continuing education programs, La Cité as a French language testing center recognized nationally, and more.

University Library
The University Library has partnered with the University of Regina Students' Union (URSU) to pilot textbook lending program. Initial funding from the Library and URSU has been supplemented with contributions from the Provost's Office, Faculties, the Graduate Students' Association, and support units across the university for a total of $45,750.

The parameters for purchase were developed by URSU; required textbooks over $100 will be purchased and put on reserve at the Library, with a guarantee of a minimum of $1000 worth of textbooks per faculty. A small contingency fund has also retained to ensure that needed textbooks that were not covered by the established parameters can be added to the collection at the request of students. The pilot will be evaluated throughout the fall session to determine reach, effectiveness and usage. This information will inform next steps for the pilot.

In partnership with the Faculty of Education, the University Library has funded a maker space in the Teaching Preparation Centre (TPC). The maker space includes a Sphero programmable robot, a Dot and Dash programmable robot, Raspberry Pi single board computer hard drivers, a Makey Makey circuit making kit and the Littlecodr coding card game. While housed in the TPC, the space is open to all students at the University of Regina. Library and TPC employees will work together to promote and support the maker space as a student innovation opportunity.

Faculty of Media, Art and Performance
Recent recruitment initiatives in Mexico City (two agreements signed in March) have resulted in more than a dozen new international students coming from those schools. The Faculty is at work on developing a qualifying year to ensure students come to MAP first. More than 15 billboards were up this summer advertising and promoting the Faculty’s new “brand,” as well as spots in Cineplex during films such as Star Trek.

Faculty of Nursing
Nursing has recruited approximately 25 LPNs into the second year of the SCBScN.  These are new students to the Faculty of Nursing and the University of Regina.  Through the LPN2RN initiative they fill seats vacated through attrition.  These students accelerate through the program and complete their degree in 24 months.

Faculty of Science
The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry is introducing new review seminars to assist students with weekly learning and with preparation for midterms and final examinations in CHEM 104 and 140, and BIOC 220. Specifically, CHEM 104 and 140 will have weekly one-hour face-to-face/on-line (Zoom) sessions, led by the course instructors.  These sessions will be recorded and uploaded to UR Courses for student use.  BIOC 220 will have a preparation seminar prior to the midterm exam.

The Department of Computer Science is expanding upon its tutorial offerings so that the most important programming stream courses (CS 110, 115, 210, 340) are now covered. Two of these courses, CS 110 and CS 340, are also required for Engineering (and other disciplines).

The Department of Mathematics & Statistics has created new laboratory/tutorial sections for several introductory courses (MATH 102, 103, 112; STAT 160) to give students more scheduled contact time with instructors and to provide more opportunities for students to get experience with problem solving in statistics and mathematics.  The Department of Mathematics & Statistics is offering PreCalculus Seminars during the evenings of Sep 14, 15, and 16. These seminars have been very useful in past years to new students to the UofR.

The staff at Science Student Services continue their strong work in student advising and aiding with the identification of students who are at academic risk.

Faculty of Social Work
The Faculty has hired additional term academic advisors in order to facilitate advising support that includes on-site advising in rural and northern areas.  

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Tuesday 6 September 2016

Move-in Day 2016

Under the leadership of John Smith, AVP Student Affairs, and Bettina Welsh, Director of Operations, Move-In Day 2016 was a great success. Ms Welsh notes that "the collaborative approach of the Orientation Committee is the foundation for the success of this event .... the student volunteers and Ambassadors were truly great."

Media coverage noted favourable comments from both students and parents regarding the smoothness of the operation. With College West residence rooms slated for renovation this year, approximately 1300 beds are available in the campus residence system. Of these, all but about 60 are now filled.

Our thanks to John Smith, Bettina Welsh, Naomi Deren, their teams, and the many dozens of staff and students who made Move-In Day 2016 a success.

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Orientation today for new students

Update on URSU-Deans' Council textbook initiative; open textbooks

The 23 August edition of this Bulletin carried news of an initiative to assist students with the rising cost of textbooks. The initiative, under the joint leadership of Jermain McKenzie, president of URSU, and Brett Waytuck, University Librarian, will see common texts placed on reserve in the Archer Library for use by students.

To date, nearly $50,000 has been committed to the initiative by the University Library, URSU, the University's ten Faculties, the Provost's Office, Student Affairs, UR International, Human Resources, the Graduate Students' Association, and First Nations University.

Parameters for purchase of these texts were established by URSU. Required textbooks costing over $100 will be available on reserve at the Library, with a guarantee of a minimum of $1000 worth of textbooks for each Faculty. A small contingency fund has also be retained to ensure that needed textbooks can be added to the collection at the request of students. This pilot project will be evaluated throughout the Fall term to determine reach, effectiveness, and usage.

An update on this initiative, and on the complementary open textbook initiative being led by Bruce Walsh of the U of R Press, will be provided to Executive of Council at its September meeting.

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2016 President's Teaching and Learning Scholars

The Centre for Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the 2016 President's Teaching and Learning Scholars Program. The program is sponsored by President Vianne Timmons and administered through CTL. For the past several years, this initiative has helped academic staff members enhance their teaching techniques and their students' learning opportunities.

For information about the program, please click here.

For information about the application procedure, please click here.

Applicants are required to submit the Research Office's Funded Research Approval Form to ctl@uregina.ca and complete the research proposal via Qualtrics no later than Wednesday 5 October at 4:30 pm.

There will be three grant application workshops:

• 15 September    10 am - 11 am
• 16 September    3 pm - 4 pm
• 27 September    12 pm - 1 pm

To register for one of the PTLS application workshops, please click here. To schedule an appointment to discuss a research proposal, please contact ctl@uregina.ca.

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MIT's MOOC on ... philosophy?

Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Carl Straumsheim details an initiative at MIT to make available to learners all over the world an online course entitled Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge, and Consciousness.

MIT philosophy professor Caspar Hare describes teaching the online course to more than 90,000 learners as a "marvelous experience."

Straumsheim's article is available here.

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Tomorrow: special edition of the Bulletin on recruitment and retention efforts across campus

The most recent DCB update on recruitment and retention can be found in the 21 June 2016 edition, available here.

Much has taken place since then. A special edition of the Bulletin will be published tomorrow, Wednesday 7 September, detailing efforts across campus to fulfil our strategic commitment to boosting student retention, and to continue to recruit students to the University in the face of continuing declines in the Saskatchewan high school population. 

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Wednesday 31 August 2016

College Avenue Campus renewal: media attention and media mistake

The news that the City of Regina has approved the land transfer to the University for development adjacent to Darke Hall is another major step forward in the College Avenue Renewal project.

Information about this development is available here, and has been widely reported in local media.

A summary of recent developments in the project, including video of public consultations, is available here.

An Academica Top Ten news digest item this morning erroneously conflates the CAC news with City Council's approval of a prayer hall in a southeast Regina neighbourhood. The two projects are entirely separate, and share only the fact that they were both on the agenda of City Council Monday night.

Caveat lector.

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Access Copyright licence expires today

Today, 31 August, the University’s licence with Access Copyright expires. This means that the University and its federated colleges will no longer operate under a single licence that covers faculty and staff when making copies of works in Access Copyright’s repertoire.

A number of factors have influenced this decision, including amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act, Supreme Court of Canada decisions, Library licences, and the growing use of open access materials. This decision aligns the University with many sister institutions across Canada. The University continues to spend considerable funds compensating copyright holders through the purchase and licensing of resources available through the Library, purchasing transactional licences, and obtaining permissions as required.

Faculty and staff are reminded to review the Use of Copyrighted Materials Policy once a semester.  This policy outlines the responsibilities of those who make use of copyrighted materials.

All of us are responsible for ensuring that copyright protected works are used in compliance with copyright laws. The copyright service noted below -- developed in consultation with the University’s two copyright committees, and presented at Deans’ Council, Executive of Council, and Faculty and departmental meetings -- aims to assist faculty and staff members and the University in mitigating copyright related risks. Faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this service.

This service does not replace the need for faculty and staff members to be aware of and educated about the implications of copyright in their research, teaching, and other professional work. The University will continue to offer training, educational, and advisory services to faculty and staff members on copyright issues, including the copyright website.

As of September 1, 2016, the University will be relying on Library licensed electronic resources, fair dealing, other exceptions under the Copyright Act (Canada), open access and Creative Commons licensed materials, works in the public domain and transactional licenses when copying is necessary. The University has adopted a set of fair dealing guidelines to provide guidance to faculty and staff about the type of copying in non-profit educational institutions for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire or parody that likely will be considered fair use. The fair dealing guidelines allow instructors, professors and staff members to copy or communicate “short excerpts from a copyright-protected work” for each student enrolled in a class or a course. See http://www.uregina.ca/copyright/guidelines/index.html for the complete guidelines. If you wish to copy more than a short excerpt, you, or copyright service staff, will need to secure permission from the copyright holder before this material can be distributed.

To assist in the transition to a new copyright compliance environment, the Library will be expanding its range of copyright services beginning in the Fall 2016 semester.

Ares Reserves (Preferred Option)
A new tool, Ares Reserves, will be integrated into UR Courses in Fall 2016 for distributing and reviewing course readings. Copies of copyright-protected readings distributed in UR Courses will need to be reviewed using this service or the option described below. Instructions for using Ares Reserves are available here.

Reading List Service (Alternative Option)
Faculty can submit their reading lists or course materials to copyright@uregina.ca for review. The copyright status of course readings will be assessed, persistent links to available Library licensed resources created, and any needed transactional licenses acquired. This service also aims to lower costs to students by leveraging existing Library licensed resources.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in contact with the University’s Copyright Officers at copyright@uregina.ca as soon as possible. They will also be offering copyright workshops through the library throughout the month of August and September. Please watch for further announcements from the library.

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Eligibility of international students to work on campus

UR International and Human Resources have been working together to ensure that International Students are eligible to work on campus prior to being hired. Please share this information with individuals in your area who have responsibility for hiring students.

International students may work on campus if they are full-time students, have a valid study permit, and meet the eligibility criteria as defined by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).  The University of Regina has defined a full-time undergraduate student as one taking 9 or more credit hours in each of the Fall and Winter semesters.  Students may work full-time during the Spring/Summer semester but they must have been registered as full-time students in the previous and subsequent semesters.

The University of Regina has always been diligent in ensuring that our students have a valid study permit and meet the eligibility criteria to work before accepting on-campus employment.  The issue is that we have had some instances where, after hiring, the students may have dropped classes, resulting in a change to their full-time student status.  This puts the University and students at risk of non-compliance with IRCC policies.

UR International has put a process in place to provide international students with a Verification of Academic Status for the Eligibility to Work on Campus. This certifies that the international student is eligible to work on campus at that point in time. These forms are to be provided to the person doing the hiring prior to issuing a letter of offer.

Human Resources added a notification on the e-recruit system for all student postings which informs international students that they need to contact UR International for this form.

The form clearly puts the onus on the student to immediately notify their supervisor, Human Resources and UR International as soon as their status changes (i.e. movement from full-time to part-time student status).  When Human Resources receives this notification, we will immediately stop payroll for the student but the supervisor must also end the assignment of work.

The key change for Faculties and departments is that they now must ask international students for the Verification of Academic Status for the Eligibility to Work on Campus form prior to issuing them their letter of offer.  If the student cannot provide the form within a reasonable time frame (UR International has committed to responding to verification requests from International Students within 2 business days), Faculties and departments can rescind the verbal offer.

If you have any questions please contact HR Support at 585-4163 or hr.support@uregina.ca.

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Upgrades to courtyard near CL and LB buildings under way

Facilities Management is upgrading the courtyard to the northwest of the Academic Green, bordered by the Classroom, Lab, Library and RIC buildings. Work will be starting today, including the security fencing to maintain a safe environment for all.

During construction, the contractor will try to maintain the pedestrian travel out of the buildings. At times, however, they will need to divert pedestrians during construction. Please obey all signs directing movement.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Darrell Agopsowicz at darrell.agopsowicz@uregina.ca.

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Tuesday 23 August 2016

Health, safety, and emergency preparedness -- important information for all Bulletin readers

Attached you will find updated health, safety and emergency preparedness information sheets. The first is for academic staff, and the second is for students.

The main changes this year, applicable to both information sheets, are as follows:

1. Information is now included on how to obtain mental health support.
2. In light of the Norovirus outbreak last year, we have included hand hygiene/washing instructions.
   
3. Details on our UR Safe, UR Supported, and UR Strong sexual violence program have been added. 
   

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Tuesday 9 August 2016

Reminder: 30-minute copyright training sessions available 15-19 August

The Library is offering training sessions on copyright every day at 10:00 a.m. from 15-19 August. The half-hour sessions will be held on the 6th floor of the Archer Library in LY 610.

As communicated this spring, the University's licence with Access Copyright is expiring on 31 August. If you have been taking advantage of this licence, or have any questions about how this change might impact your teaching, please consider attending one of these sessions to get assistance in preparing for the fall semester.

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Thoughts about Syllabus Day

Writing in Vitae, Kevin Gannon of Grand View University examines the practice of beginning a semester with a 15-minute first class that consists of distributing the syllabus and little else. Gannon argues for a collaborative approach to the setting of expectations for a course. Such an approach, he says, "gives students a sense of ownership over our class meetings; they've gotten to help frame how learning occurs on a day-to-day basis, and they're more invested in the course as a result."

Gannon's article is available here.

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"Bogoff" degrees -- how life is changing in UK universities

Among Western countries over the last two generations, few have seen as much change in their university sectors as the United Kingdom. From the Thatcherite reforms of the 70s and 80s to the recent dramatic increases in tuition and now Brexit, UK universities have experienced a series of tectonic shifts in programming, staffing, and budgeting.

The latest? Some UK universities are offering two-for-one degrees (Bogoff = buy one, get one for free) whereby a new student signing up for an undergraduate degree is offered free tuition for a master's degree upon completion of the first. Other universities are offering various tuition discounts, including 10% off for spouses and siblings, as well as incentives such as soccer tickets.

The Guardian has a brief tongue-in-cheek exchange on this trend here.

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Readers respond: should there be a policy regarding make-up exams and quizzes?

Last week's Bulletin (see below) noted that the University has no policy covering students who are required to miss in-term exams because of varsity sports, academic conferences, and other valid reasons. We invited readers to respond with their thoughts. With the permission of the authors, here are the responses received to date:

From Stephen Cheng, Director, Centre for Teaching and Learning

When I have students missing the midterm in a small class (<40 students), I would usually allow them to write the exam earlier or later. In large classes, I would usually add the grading weight to the final exam. Thus, the accommodation depends on class size and other factors. Of course, there are other options to accommodate students. While departments, faculties and individual instructors might offer different options (including no options) to accommodate students, I would like to see university policy to provide some degree of consistency as well as flexibility.

Perhaps, the university policy would say that we are required to accommodate students for necessary absences. The policy will clearly define what are the necessary absences and the options of accommodations.

From Troni Grande, Head, Department of English:

Thank you for raising the important issue of whether the University should have a policy pertaining to students who must miss classes for valid reasons (varsity sports, academic conferences, and I would add medical procedures or illnesses). I am surprised that the University does not have a policy in place. I believe that every excused absence should entitle the student to make up exams or late assignments. But, since we increasingly have many students "on the go" for various reasons, it may be important to put supports in place for instructors who must accommodate these various needs. Perhaps they would fall under the umbrella of "Special Needs" and could be dealt with under those terms?

I will apprise the English Department faculty of this question, and see if we can get some discussion going, if not in August, when some are taking vacation, then certainly at our first English Department meeting in September.

From June LeDrew, Professor of Kinesiology and Health Studies:

I think instructors should make the call on whether they permit deferred mid-terms, assignments and quizzes. Usually a student knows in advance if they are going to miss an assignment and can discuss it with the instructor.

I provide the flexibility for students if the reason is sound and if arranged in advance. I don't want to be told I must do it across the board for all students with a cross-listing of all the activities that may be deemed excusable by the 5th floor (et. al.).

There you have it, my opinion on August 2nd.

From Larena Hoeber, Professor of Kinesiology and Health Studies:

Every year I have students who miss midterm exams for a variety of reasons. In many cases, they are athletes (university and non-university) who are scheduled to compete or travel when the midterm is scheduled. I also have students miss the exam for other reasons, including poor weather conditions, sickness / illness, death in the family, etc. For all students who miss the midterm exam, I move some or all of their marks to the final exam. For those who do not warn me that they are missing the exam, I only move a portion of their marks to the final exam.

Your question is whether we should have a consistent policy on missing exams / quizzes. I am in favour of a consistent policy but would like to see some flexibility in the procedures for dealing with the absences. While I do not permit make up exams (for many reasons), perhaps other faculty members prefer this option. I do not want to see a situation however where students are unduly penalized for legitimate, excused absences.

Readers' thoughts on this topic remain welcome. Please send them to provost@uregina.ca, indicating whether they may be included in a future edition of this Bulletin.

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Tuesday 2 August 2016

CTL opportunities for new faculty members

The Centre for Teaching and Learning is pleased to offer the New Faculty Teaching Workshop on Tuesday 30 August from 9 am to 4 pm in the Regina/Wascana Rooms (LY 107.32/107.33) on the first floor of the Archer Library. The one-day workshop will provide an overview of the procedures and policies regarding teaching at the University of Regina, effective teaching strategies, and preparing course syllabi. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

The New Faculty Teaching Workshop is open to all faculty, sessionals, and teaching staff on a first come first served basis. Priority will be given to those who have joined the University in the past three years. For more information and to register, please check out: http://www.uregina.ca/ctl/programs-services/new-faculty.html

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UR Leading: applications invited

With the recent success of the University of Regina's pilot programs in leadership development, URLeading, we are now able to offer our two URLeading programs annually.

The deadline for applications is 19 August. More information on the program including application form, FAQs, program schedule and names of past participants who are willing to answer questions about the programs can be found here. If you have questions, please send them to Sue Mitten at UR.Leading@uregina.ca.

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Necessary absences: should students required to miss classes be able to make up exams and quizzes?

Each year, a substantial number of students are required to miss in-term exams and quizzes because of varsity sports obligations, academic conferences, and other valid reasons.

Recently, a U of R varsity athlete participating in CIS championships and Olympic trials had to miss two in-term tests. The department offering the course does not allow for make-up exams, and the student therefore had to drop the course because he could not afford a failing grade on the two exams. Similarly, a group of students had to miss a quiz because they were attending a national competition. They were not permitted to write a make-up quiz.

Other departments and individual instructors do, however, offer students like these the opportunity to make up exams and quizzes missed for legitimate reasons such as varsity sports and academic conferences. Other options include writing the exams and quizzes early, or adding the grading weight to subsequent assignments or to the final exam.

At present, the University has no policy on this issue. Students are therefore not being treated consistently from department to department, or indeed from instructor to instructor. peyak aski kikawinaw calls for the development and implementation of retention strategies "that reflect current student needs." Retaining highly-motivated students such as those involved in high-level sporting competitions and academic endeavours would benefit not only the students but the institution as a whole.

Should there be a policy in place to ensure students receive consistent treatment? Please email your thoughts to provost@uregina.ca.

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Tuesday 26 July 2016

Visual Schedule Builder now live

Registrar Jim D'Arcy notes that the new Visual Schedule Builder software is now live. It will allow students much greater flexibility in searching, filtering, and building a course schedule that best suits their needs.

A tutorial video on VSB is available here, and the VSB itself is available here.

Training sessions are scheduled for Wednesday 3 August from 1:30 to 3:00 pm, and Thursday 11 August from 9:30 to 11:00 am.

Thanks to all in the Registrar's Office and Information Services who have worked to bring this project to fruition. It will contribute to further progress on our Strategic Plan goals for improved student retention.

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Open textbooks

Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Carl Straumsheim notes that "overall awareness of alternatives to traditional textbooks continues to lag."

Information about Open Texts at the U of R is available in the 6 October 2015 entry of the 2015-16 Deans' Council Bulletins, archived here. A further update on the University of Regina's Open Texts initiative is planned for Executive of Council this fall.

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"An endless game of chasing your tail": deferred maintenance and the construction of new campus buildings

Writing in The Atlantic, Jon Marcus provides a useful overview of the "paradox" of constructing new buildings on campus at a time when universities across the continent are struggling to find the funds to maintain their existing buildings, many of which date from 40, 50, or more years ago.

Marcus' article is available here.

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2016-17 Deans' Council meetings now scheduled

The schedule of meetings for Deans' Council in 2016-17 has been published here. The first meeting in the fall takes place on Wednesday 7 September.

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2017-18 Budget Update webpage launched; other budget information available online

With the 2016-17 fiscal year now under way, the University has begun work on the 2017-18 budget and has launched its 2017-18 Budget Update page, which is available here. It will be populated with documents, links, and videos of budget town halls as these become available. Together with previous Operations Forecasts, the 2017-18 OF is available here. The 2016-17 Budget Book, detailing allocations to all the University's operating units, is available here, and the annual comprehensive budget plans are available here.