Eighth Report of the University and Academic Affairs
Coordinator
Busy Month!
Well, there's been a lot of action on the university affairs front
this month. Here's the low-down...
Equity Commissioner
Consitutional amendments for the creation of an Equity Commissioner
for the PGSS have been drafted and will make their debut at February
Council. If you're a councillor, please take the time to read them in
advance and let me know if you have any questions.
Academic Integrity
One of my motions to council this month is a society policy statement
on academic integrity. My goal is to involve the society in a higher
level of advocacy for maintaining the integrity of academic programs
at the university. We play an important role in this challenge
because we are both students and teachers. Expect to hear more from
me on this at Council.
Supervisor Evaluations
Last month I detailed the long saga of the supervisor evaluations
protocol. At long last it has been endorsed by APPC and will make an
appearance at Senate in the next few weeks.
Senate
Two big events at senate this month. First, the honorary degrees and
convocations committee recommended to senate that a candidate for an
honourary degree should require a two-thirds majority at senate. This
is a big change from the 7 dissenting votes indicated in the
university statues. In the future, it will not be as easy to turn
down a contentious candidate. The second big issue was Intellectual
Property...
Intellectual Property
The proposed IP policy made a senate appearance in January and will
revisit senate on January 31st. The outcome of the Jan 17 debate was
that there will likely be increased freedom for inventors. However,
the government has thrown its hat into the ring with a recommended
policy that gives much greater power to the university. I will keep
council apprised of the situation as it evolves.
Restructuring Graduate Faculty Council
Expect to see a report on the the restructuring of the faculty council
real soon now. While the details are under wraps, expect to see a
significantly smaller council with only nine student reps, including
two postdocs. The student reps will be appointed by PGSS Council on
the basis of two from each of the major funding domains-- MRC, NSERC,
and SSHRC, plus the UAAC ex-officio.
Dean's Honour List
Discussion of abandoning the DHL has yet to go to GFC Exec. Let
me know what you think about this idea.
Feedback
As always, I can be reached by email at academic@pgss.mcgill.ca.
Feel free to contact me with any and all of your feedback.
January Meetings
- January 3: Research Policy Committee (missed).
- January 5: Graduate Faculty Council.
- January 9: PGSS Executive.
- January 10: Committee on Student Affairs.
- January 10: Council.
- January 11: APPC
- January 16: Arts Faculty Council re Supervisor Evaluations
- January 16: Senate Caucus
- January 17: Supervisor Evaluations Workgroup
- January 17: Academic Issues Committee
- January 17: Senate
- January 18: CGSS
- January 22: Dean Crago and Gregg Blachford re CAPS services.
- January 23: Subcommittee on Academic Integrity
- January 23: Grad Studies Policy Committee
- January 23: Exec
- January 24: PGSS workgroup on FGSR Restructuring
- January 25: APPC
- January 25: Ad Hoc Constitution Committee
- January 26: FGSR Restructuring Task Force
- January 26: Selection Committee for a new VP Research
- Janaury 30: SSMU Pres Wojtek Baraniak re Student Services Budget
- January 30: OTT Cyclical Review grad rep Clare Benard
- January 31: CSA Advisory Cttee on Women Students' Issues
- January 31: Senate
Too many meetings! It's no wonder my hockey team lost three games this month. =-(
Robert Sim,
UAC