Senate Meeting Synopsis for June 5, 2023

The fifth Senate meeting of the 2022-23 session was held on June 5, 2023, and was chaired by President Charlotte Yates.

Dr. Stephen LeBlanc, Chair of the Senate Research Board, commenced the meeting with a territorial land acknowledgment.

Leadership Updates

The President, Dr. Charlotte Yates, offered oral remarks and began by encouraging participation in the upcoming convocation ceremonies and providing context for the University’s transformational goals.

President Yates highlighted that leadership is reflecting on input received at the recent University budget town hall, the importance of working together to determine the way forward and emphasized that strategic transformation must be about building on academic and research excellence while prioritizing students. The President spoke of continued advocacy efforts with governments to allow Universities to increase revenues to support students and research.

The President noted that over 900 people attended the Spring Social and official launch of Our Time, the University of Guelph Strategic Plan (2022-27) and acknowledged successful Strategic Plan sessions at the Ridgetown Campus and the University of Guelph-Humber.

President Yates concluded remarks by reminding Senators of the University’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity, commemorating that June is Pride Month and National Indigenous History Month and announcing a new visiting Chair in Indian Studies.

The President and the Provost & Vice-President (Academic), Dr. Gwen Chapman, led a strategic discussion on strategic transformation and the Budget Plan 2023-2028.

Provost Chapman provided a brief Leadership Update, first directing Senators to written material which included an update on enrolment intake pauses, Navitas and course section reductions. The Provost added that searches for t University Registrar and Chief Information Officer positions were well underway and that searches were being launched for the Dean of the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics and for the Vice-Provost, Student Affairs. Provost Chapman provided an enrolment update based on preliminary data from the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre.

The Vice-President (Research), Dr. Malcolm Campbell, provided a brief oral presentation on plans for providing updates on activities of the Office of Research in the future. Dr. Campbell indicated that town hall-style meetings would be delivered every two months to provide an opportunity for the Office of Research to share information and take questions back from the community. The first of these meetings will be held on June 22, 2023.

Key Business Items and Approvals
Other key items of business at the meeting included:

• Approval of 2023-24 Senate standing committee memberships
• Presentation of the nominee to fill the Member-At-Large to Chair the Senate Priorities and Planning Committee in 2023-24
• Approval of revised terms of reference for the Associate Diploma Program Committee
• Approval of Senate meeting dates for 2024-25
• Approval of changes incorporating more inclusive terminology in the Undergraduate Calendar
• Approval of revision to the Academic Accommodation of Religious Obligations regulation
• Approval of Course Outline regulations for all academic calendars
• Approval of the addition of Grade 21 Math (MHF4U) as an admission requirement for entry into the Bachelor of Arts majors in Economics and Mathematical Economics
• Approval of a new Bachelor of Creative Arts, Health and Wellness program
• Approval of a competitive admission process for B.Sc. students entering the Animal Biology major
• Approval of a major modification to the Math program including a change to degree nomenclature to Bachelor of Mathematics, the addition of areas of emphasis in Mathematics and Statistics, and change to admission requirements
• Approval of the deletion of the Certificate in Communication Process: Bridging Theory and Practice
• Approval of a major modification to the Master of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (MFARE)
• Approval of revisions to the Responsible Conduct of Research Policy and related Procedures
• Items presented for information: Presentation of the 2022-23 Senate Evaluation Survey results, update from the COU Academic Colleague, 2022-23 student award recipients, graduate and undergraduate curriculum changes, graduate faculty appointments, research-related committees annual reports, non-degree program approvals and changes and quality review reports.

More Information

The complete meeting agenda package is available on the University Secretariat’s Governance Portal and includes detailed information on the items listed above.  The official record of the meeting is the meeting minutes, which will be available following their approval at the next regularly scheduled Senate meeting.

Upcoming Senate Meeting

The next regular meeting of Senate is scheduled to take place on Monday, October 2, 2023.

Meetings are open to the public and visitors who wish to attend are invited to contact the University Secretariat at univec@uoguelph.ca