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NORTHERN COLLEGE

Chair Kemp moved the meeting into the General Session at 1:35 p.m.

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NORTHERN COLLEGE

BOARDOFGOVERNORSMEETINGNO.417

GENERAL SESSION

Wednesday, March 11, 2015 1:30 p.m.

PRESENT:

Board :

  • G. Kemp (First Vice-Chair)

  • F. Gibbons (President)

  • J. Collins

  • S. Munroe

  • R. Foy

  • D. Nankervis

  • A. Adamo

  • B. Allan

  • C. LeClerc

  • M. Milinkovich

  • G. Pirie

  • D. Seary (joined at General Session)

Staff:

Regrets :

  • P. Fortier, Executive Assistant, Office of the President and Board of Governors
  • M. Baker, V.P., Finance, Administration & Aboriginal Services
  • A. Penner, V.P., Academic & Student Success
  • L. Berthiaume, Executive Director, Student Services, Institutional Research & Registrar
  • C. Heavens, Executive Director, Community, Business Development and Community Services
  • J. Huggins, Curriculum Integration Support Officer
  • D. Wyatt
  • M. Miller
  • R. Pineault
  • T. Rosko
  • A. Spacek

1. OPENING PROCEDURES

(a) CALL TO ORDER

Chair Kemp moved the meeting into the General Session at 1:35 p.m.

(b) CHAIR’S REMARKS

Chair Kemp welcomed everyone to the General Session of the meeting and proceeded to share a Traditional Territory Acknowledgement.

Haileybury Campus Boardroom Video and Teleconference

2. AGENDA

(a) MODIFICATIONS/ADDITIONS/DELETIONS

(b) ADOPTION

Moved by: S. Munroe Motion Seconded by: J. Collins 19-03-15 THAT the agenda for the Meeting No. 417 of the Board of Governors of Northern College of Applied Arts & Technology dated March 11, 2015 be adopted as presented. Carried

3. CONFLICT OF INTEREST - DECLARATIONS

The Chair called for disclosures of actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest. None were expressed.

4. PRESENTATION: VIRTUAL SURVEY 1 COURSE

President Gibbons invited Ms. Jennifer Huggins, Curriculum Integration Support Officer in the Distance Learning department to present our Virtual 1 Survey course, developed with Shared Online Course funding received from the Ministry in 2013-14. Ms. Huggins demonstrated the virtual learning environment developed in partnership with Loyalist College’s gaming department. This virtual course allows our students to experience a portion of their field school virtually. Students still attend a field school to learn other skills; however, surveying is one of the first skill sets students are required to master to move on. A lot of time is required to get familiar with the unit and by completing the virtual course, students’ awareness and capability with the total station is significantly improved. Another benefit to having developed the virtual course is that it is designed to support other technical programs. A second virtual survey course is also being developed.

Chair Kemp thanked Jennifer for her presentation. Materials are saved in the Board portal’s ‘presentations’ folder.

  1. STANDING ITEMS

(a) APPROVAL OF GENERAL SESSION MINUTES NO. 416

(Meeting Held January 13, 2015)

Moved by: B. Allan Motion Seconded by: D. Nankervis 20-03-15 THAT the minutes of Meeting No. 416 dated January 13, 2015 be adopted as presented. Carried

Motions from the Committee of the Whole minutes of Meeting No. 416, dated January 13, 2015 follow.

Moved by: R. Foy Motion Seconded by: A. Spacek 01-01-15 THAT the Committee of the Whole Agenda No. 416 dated January 13, 2015 be adopted as presented. Carried Moved by: M. Milinkovich Motion Seconded by: B. Allan 02-01-15 THAT the Committee of the Whole Minutes No. 415 dated November 12, 2014 be approved as presented. AND THAT motions 90-11-14 to 96-11-14 be recorded in the General Session of the minutes. Carried Moved by: D. Nankervis Motion Seconded by: A. Adamo 03-01-15 THAT the Board of Governors receive the minutes of the Board Executive Committee meeting held October 29, 2014. Carried Moved by: R. Pineault Motion Seconded by: T. Rosko 04-01-15 THAT the Board move into the General Session, time noted at 1:11 p.m. Carried

(b) BUSINESS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

i. Strategic Enrolment Management Plan

V.P. Audrey Penner recognized the work of our Marketing department in producing a polished, final document. Dr. Penner indicated that since reporting on the plan in January, we are completing the process of taking SEM objectives and incorporating them into our 2015-16 business plan. The document has been posted to our intranet to be available to all staff and we are promoting the SEM plan internally through a variety of communication mechanisms. Chair Kemp encouraged Board members to review the document which gives an overview of our enrolment initiatives, as enrolment represents an important part of our fiscal well-being.

(c) FINANCE REPORT

V.P. Mike Baker presented the finance report for the period ended January 31, 2015. The yearend projection at the end of the period is a $127K deficit, a further deficit reduction of $170K. V.P. Baker explained measures we continue to take, with collaboration from all staff, to reduce deficit by March 31 st .

Governor Pirie extended congratulations to the President and staff for their diligence to address the fiscal situation and inquired about what conversations or strategies the college is undertaking to address what will be a continuing problem, given funding challenges. President Gibbons explained that the current funding formula was slightly adjusted in 2005. In recognition of the unique circumstances for small, northern and rural colleges, a Small, Northern and Rural Grant was introduced, and this grant has not since been increased. The Ministry’s commitment to review the funding formula will start with the university sector and the funding formula review for colleges will start after, in approximately 20 months’ time. The government will be reminded again that they need to consider the unique situation small, northern and rural colleges are in.

(d) REPORT ON COLLEGE INVESTMENTS

V.P. Baker presented the quarterly investment report for the period ended December 31 st , 2014. There were no questions.

6. NEW BUSINESS

(a) APPROVAL FOR BUDGET EXPENDITURES

President Gibbons indicated that as the college does not have an approved budget effective April 1 st , a motion is required to approve expenditures during the interim period.

Moved by: G. Pirie Motion Seconded by: S. Munroe 21-03-15

THAT the Board of Governors approve continued operating expenditures, in a fiscally responsible manner, from April 1, 2015 to May 5, 2015, not to exceed total expenditures of $10 million. Carried

(b) APPROVAL OF BOARD POLICIES

President Gibbons reviewed policy changes being recommended by the Board Policy Review Committee.

Moved by:

R. Foy

Motion

Seconded by:

J. Collins

22-03-15

THAT the Board of Governors approve the following policies, as presented:

B-17 Protocol for Naming Facilities

B-20 Board Attendance

C-4 President’s Contract

D-4 Program Advisory Committees

D-13 Insurance

D-14 Commitment to Quality

Carried

(c) 2015 GRADUATION AND AWARDS CEREMONIES

Chair Kemp invited the Board to review the schedule of graduations and awards ceremonies and to let Pierrette know which events they might attend, before April 30 th . It was noted that the Moosonee graduation has been rescheduled to May 26 th . Governor LeClerc will attend the Kirkland Lake graduation and Governor Seary will attend the Moosonee graduation.

(d) ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE MATERIALS JOINING INNOVATION CENTRE

President Gibbons informed the Board of the resignation of Mr. Evan Butler-Jones as CEO of MaJIC last November. Mr. Jeff Molyneaux, the new Executive Director for MaJIC, submitted the annual report for the Board’s review. We will invite Mr. Molyneaux to join the Board at its May meeting, and include a visit of the MaJIC facilities during the KL Campus tour, prior to the Board meeting. There were no questions on the report.

(e) PROGRAM APPROVAL: OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST ASSISTANT/ PHYSIOTHERAPIST ASSISTANT

Moved by: B. Allan Motion Seconded by: D. Nankervis 23-03-15 THAT the Board of Governors approve the Occupational Therapist Assistant/ Physiotherapist Assistant Ontario College Diploma program proposal for submission to the Credential Validation Service and to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Carried

(f) PRESENTATION OF GOOD GOVERNANCE CERTIFICATES

Governors who completed orientation and development sessions held in November 2014 are eligible to receive Good Governance Certificates from Colleges Ontario and the Colleges Employer Council. Chair Kemp extended congratulations on behalf of the Board and presented certificates to Debbie Nankervis, Sara Munroe, and Bill Allan; and acknowledged that Amanda Adamo, George Pirie, and Rachel Pineault are also receiving certificates and that these would be forwarded to them by mail.

7. ROUTINE ITEMS

(a) CORRESPONDENCE

No correspondence was received since our last meeting.

(b) NORTHERN COLLEGE ABORIGINAL COUNCIL ON EDUCATION

On behalf of Governor Miller, V.P. Baker reported on the NCACE meeting held January 30 th where the resignation of Elder Hattie Luke Maher was accepted with regret. The Council is discussing how it will fill this vacancy. Council received a variety of reports from Senior Management members and the college’s Aboriginal Student Advisors. A number of colleges and institutes across the country have become signatories to an Indigenous Education Protocol which encompasses the following seven basic tenets:

  • Commit to making indigenous education a priority.
  • Ensure governance structures recognize and respect Indigenous peoples.
  • Implement intellectual and cultural traditions of Indigenous peoples through curriculum and learning approaches relevant to learners and communities.
  • Support students and employees to increase understanding and reciprocity among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
  • Commit to increasing the number of Indigenous employees with ongoing appointments through the institution, including Indigenous senior administrators.
  • Establish Indigenous-centered holistic services and learning environments for earner success.
  • Build relationships and be accountable to Indigenous communities in support of selfdetermination through education, training and applied research.

Our college has already implemented many and is close to meeting all of these tenets. At its next meeting on April 10, NCACE will continue to discuss particulars for a signing ceremony to adopt the protocol. Ms. Johanne Carbonneau, professor and coordinator of the BScN program reported on very successful placement opportunities experienced this February by 10 students in Aboriginal communities along the Coast. Not only did students complete their clinical placements but they also enjoyed learning about various Aboriginal techniques and Aboriginal culture. Finally, the Council discussed representation from Matawa First Nation and revising the traditional territorial acknowledgement as there are different versions of the acknowledgement currently being used. The college’s annual Pow-Wow will be held April 11-12 at the Timmins Campus; its theme this year is Honouring the Red Road and there will be Grand Entries both on Saturday and Sunday.

(c) PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President’s Report is provided in the Board package. The President also shared the following updates.

Sexual Assault - Sexual Violence Policy

This issue has captured a lot of attention provincially and last Friday, the Premier announced a $41M investment by the government to undertake strategies to end sexual violence and harassment including a heightened media campaign to raise awareness; new curriculum for elementary and secondary schools; stronger workforce legislation; an enhanced prosecution model; the elimination of the 2-year statute of limitations on claims; and increased funding support for survivors of sexual violence. We had appropriate policies in place around sexual violence and harassment; however, a template was developed by Colleges Ontario and colleges have committed to the Premier to have their distinct policy finalized and posted by March 31 st .

Everest Private Career College

The failure and bankruptcy of Everest College has impacted about 2400 students who were within months or weeks of completing a program. A number of publicly funded colleges, including ourselves, have been in contact with MTCU’s Superintendent of Private Career Colleges, to offer our assistance. The ministry wants to collaborate to find a pathway for the Everest students to finish their program of study. Relative to the Everest campus in Sudbury, Cambrian College offers many of the programs cancelled at Everest. Assistance from us, if any, would be for Paramedic or Massage Therapy.

Partnership with Private Career Colleges

As mentioned during a previous Board meeting, Northern College had been conducting due diligence on partnering with a private career college in Scarborough. This particular college has now satisfied some of the requirements we were looking for and we are in the process of drafting an agreement with them to offer one of our programs, as early as May 2015, to international students. Also, a second career college has been introduced to us by Lambton college who also wants to partner with us in this initiative, to have non-competing programs offered by the career college located in Mississauga, to international students no sooner than January 2016. We have had two discussions with MTCU and have received their approval to proceed, as is required by the Minister’s Entrepreneurial Binding Policy Directive to disclose entrepreneurial activity, to satisfy the ministry we have mitigated risks, and to confirm that both institutions are licensed and are reputable. Final, signed agreements will be shared with the Board, as further evidence the college has done its due diligence.

New Strategic Plan

The President shared that we will be embarking on discussions about the process to develop a new strategic plan; our current strategic plan expires March 31, 2016. A range of options will be considered such as completing a full multi-year re-written plan; doing an environmental scan to assess whether there are changes significant enough to warrant rewriting a plan or refreshing the current strategic plan; or, to extend the current plan for one or two years. Another consideration will be whether we complete this work internally, or externally.

Nova Award Nomination

Northern College has been nominated for the DeBeers Aboriginal Partnership award. The NOVA Awards gala event hosted by the Timmins Chamber of Commerce will be held on April 16 th .

(d) EXECUTIVE TEAM REPORTS AND STRATEGIC PLAN PROGRESS

Executive Director Christine Heavens was pleased to report on additional progress being made on the Aboriginal Pathways project along coastal communities. Our staff has been working with First Nations students to market and promote postsecondary programs and we have been putting a major focus on entry-level programs such as General Arts and Science, Pre-Health and Pre-Technology to help students succeed.

Our staff met individually with students, shared information and helped them identify pathways towards their ultimate goal. Data gathered following the visits in Moosonee and Moose Factory already indicate increased interest from students in those communities for programs this fall, as follows: Pre-Health - 7 students; Pre-Technology - 7 students. Additionally, there is interest from 11 students in our Early Childhood Education program. This data will help drive and steer direction as to what programs we might offer at our Moosonee campus.

A second initiative where we continue to advance is to develop and implement a strategy to increase student-generated, positive feedback and content on Facebook and Twitter. Northern Training Division can now be found on Facebook and Ms. Heavens has linked this page to her Twitter account to highlight business opportunities as well. Ms. Heavens attended the recent Prospectors’ and Developers’ Association Conference in Toronto where she met with several potential partners and she is optimistic the discussions will lead to a number of training initiatives.

Executive Director Lynn Berthiaume reported on the initiative to develop an integrated applicant relationship cultivation strategy which also ties into Strategic Enrolment Management and our efforts to increase conversion rates (from applicant to registrant). This year, not long after students received their offer of admission, we followed up with a personalized email to each applicant where a designated staff at the campus introduced himself/herself to the student, invited the student to contact them should they have any questions, and offering to arrange a personalized tour of the campus they applied to. Feedback received to date has been great and students have been accepting our invitation for tours. In this way, we can start building a relationship with our students earlier on in the process. Lynn commended staff college-wide for their commitment and the quick turnaround on this project.

In terms of advancing Aboriginal Perspective initiatives by expanding Aboriginal youth camps at other campuses, we had a very successful initiative last week, hosting 30 grade 11 students from Attawapiskat, Kashechewan and Fort Albany. The students and 6 chaperons visited our campuses and had an opportunity to be exposed to a number of our programs. In Kirkland Lake, students learned about Environmental Technician, Nursing and Welding programs; in Haileybury, they learned about Instrumentation, Social Services Worker and Veterinary Sciences; while in Timmins, the focus was on Electrical, Heavy Equipment Techniques, Millwright, Pre-Service Firefighter and Social Service Worker as well. By providing the students with this exposure to our campuses and programs, we are confident we have helped them to make informed choices when they decide to apply to college. Grade 11 students were strategically targeted as they will be making their postsecondary choices next November.

Vice President Audrey Penner reported on our outreach plan to connect distance students with student support services. This has been very successful thanks to having created a structure implemented this year to connect with the students and touch base in terms of where they are at and identify what they need. This has allowed us to reclaim some students and have them come back and re-enter into another course or pick-up where they left off and move on. We also understand this initiative has had a positive impact on KPI satisfaction rates for distance learners.

Beta testing and hardware upgrades to supplement mobile learning has been completed. We are developing ‘Bring Your Own Device’ policies and preparing for the introduction of BYOD this fall.

V.P. Penner shared that we have been awarded an ONCAT research grant valued at $70K, our first social innovation research award. This is a partnership of eight colleges, including ourselves, to measure the cost of credit transfer for small colleges. Dr. Penner was very pleased to share that we were in competition with universities; our proposal received positive feedback and only 1 question from the panel.

Vice-President Mike Baker provided the following updates. In terms of developing programspecific multi-media marketing materials for international off-shore partners, the translated Chinese brochures were printed and received prior to the January 28 th expected due date and have now been shipped to our agent in China.

Revisions to our website are on schedule for launch in April. Testing of the new site will be completed throughout the month. The new site will allow us to meet our objective to better promote existing articulation agreements and pathways by providing a tab for each program, visible to all and thus easier to find. The current website lists all transfer agreements under the ‘Admission’ tab. Articulation agreements are promoted in our View Book as well as in individual marketing materials.

Finally, V.P. Baker attended the Great Moon Gathering held February 11-13, where more than 300 educators took part in interesting and valuable workshops and events. Mr. Baker looks forward to attending again next year.

President Gibbons concluded the reports with a brief update on the Haileybury residence, indicating all stories are now built and electrical work is being completed. Windows arrived today and are beginning to be installed. Masons are working on inside stairwells. The construction project is on schedule and we are delighted that students attending the April 11 th Open House event in Haileybury will be able to see that the facility is well on its way to being ready for this September.

(e) PROGRAM ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT

Moved by: R. Foy Motion Seconded by: C. LeClerc 24-03-15 THAT the Board of Governors approve the appointment of Mr. Benjamin Bisson to the Civil and Construction Engineering Technician program advisory committee, as presented. Carried

(f) ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE

As provided in the Board package. V.P. Audrey Penner added that the internal academic policy guiding program advisory committees has been revised and now reflects that a minimum of one meeting per year be held. Committees are welcome to hold more meetings as required but a minimum of three meetings per year is no longer mandatory. The change which becomes effective this September was made in consideration of the demands the frequent meetings are placing on committee members as well as on staff in terms of planning, coordination and attendance. Board members were happy to learn of this change.

(g) REPORTS FROM BOARD ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES

Governor Allan attended a recent NorTech Board roundtable for apprenticeship. The meeting was well attended by employers and agency representatives. Mr. Allan was impressed to learn about all kinds of support available from various sources not only for employers but for the apprentices as well.

Noted.

(i) BOARD OF GOVERNORS WORK PLAN

As provided in the Board package. The work plan provides an overview of the items that will be addressed at our next Board meeting.

(j) FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

Mr. Jeff Molyneaux, Executive Director at MaJIC will be invited to join the meeting and speak briefly about the centre.

(k) NEXT MEETING

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - Kirkland Lake Campus Boardroom

  • 2:00 p.m. Tour of Campus

3:00 p.m. Committee of the Whole

  • 3:30 p.m. General Session

8. INFORMATION REPORT

As provided in the Board package.

9. PROPOSED MOTIONS

As recorded in the minutes.

  1. ADJOURNMENT

Moved by: J. Collins Motion 25-03-15 THAT the meeting be adjourned. Carried

Time noted at 3:45 p.m.

P. Fortier, Executive Assistant to the Board

Source: https://www.northerncollege.ca/uploads/2025/07/BoardMeeting417.pdf