January 27, 2009 - Woodsworth College

Woodsworth College Council
Minutes
A meeting of the Woodsworth College Council took place on January 27, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. in the William and Phyllis Waters Lounge,
Woodsworth College Residence, 321 Bloor Street West, with the following members present:
Abiola Afuwape, Yvette Ali, Emma Ardal, Robert Austin, William Bateman, François Casas, Jack Chambers, Mary Choi, Maddie D’Agata,
Bernice Frieday, Margaret Hirst, Tasha Hodsdon, Susan Howson, Kerrie Huffman, Betty Lam Clarke, Joan London, Brock MacDonald, Liza
Nassim, Gholam H. Naweed, Athmika Punja, Frank Reid, Cheryl Shook, J. Berry Smith, Thomas Socknat, Cindy Song, Barbara Track, Erik
J. Wexler, Bill Wrigley
Regrets:
Janet Astington, Eric Beales, Navona Calarco, Carolyn Coté, Rosemary Gartner, Diane Luty, Bruno Magliocchetti, Jill Matus, Cheryl Misak,
Kathryn Morgan, David Naylor, Mariel O’Neill-Karch, J. Barbara Rose, Karel Swift, Sandy Welsh, Mariana Valverde
Absent:
James Bellefeuille, Terry Buckland, Yin Cheng, Stefan Etarsky, Farrah Hasan, Nhi Huynh, Ervinson Javier, Sean Kiefte, Juliana Navarrete,
Eniko Pittner, Hibbat Tariq, Fatima Yusuf
Frank Reid called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.
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Approval of the Agenda
The agenda was approved
Minutes of the previous meeting, November 25, 2008
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved as corrected.
Report of the Principal
Joe Desloges reported on the following:
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Appointment of Cheryl Misak as Provost of the University: The College is looking forward to working with her.
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Task force on Governance: as part of the Towards 2030 exercise, the president put out a memo stating that the task
force on governance will proceed to phase two. Relevant to the college is the recommendation to create the position of
a system wide provost and of campus provosts. This could mean more layers in the hierarchy, but it could also mean a
stronger voice for the east and west campuses. We will give updates as this progresses. It is important that Arts &
Science and the colleges have a strong voice on this issue. Any feed back will be welcomed.
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Centre for Criminology was formally reconstituted at the Faculty of Arts & Science. Looking forward to an even closer
working relationship. We will be working closely with the Centre on development issues.
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CIRHR is in process to broker a deal with the Faculty of Arts & Science to come under that umbrella as well. This is
good news as well for the college and its relationship with the CIRHR.
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Kruger Hall: The committee has been meeting and the project was approved by the Accommodations and Facilities
Directorate. The hall is in interim use and being well used by the students. The committee will now think about design
issues. The projected time line for completion of the project is September 2009.
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The Woodsworth College Comprehensive Space Planning Committee: This committee was constituted formally last
April. The committee has staff, faculty, student and alumni representation. It will look at college space issues as a whole
following the space planning, inventory and needs assessment exercises completed in the fall of 07. The committee is
moving to the planning phase and will look at the entire college foot print and is hoping to have all issues on the table this
spring. The committee terms of reference are posted on the web site.
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TYP: Very broad discussions have taken place to examine what the program does and what Woodsworth does in terms
of accessibility. These discussions were a precursor to TYP moving to another division like Arts & Science. Those
discussions continue. Nothing definitive has been decided and there will be more concrete discussions next month.
Woodsworth is at the table at these discussions for the important reason that it has a historical commitment to
accessibility within the faculty of Arts & Science with our ABP and now the Seneca Pilot Project.
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Economic Update: A deeply cautionary note was sent in January by the President on the impact of the economic
situation at the UofT. The Provost has indicated she would not use across-the-board cuts to approach the problem as
this was too “blunt” a tool. Rather, planning for containment measures will take place at the divisional level. At
Woodsworth our endowments have awarded 1.2-1.4 million dollars in student aid and our goal is to maintain this as
much as possible, at least in the short term, using our own resources. There will be zero payouts from the endowment in
09/10 so as to protect the principal and long term vision of the endowments. The payout is usually about $62M – about
4% - of the university operating budget. There will be a full update at the April Council meeting.
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Budget: We will have to be strategic in our budget planning exercise. In 08/09 there was a 2% base budget shortfall
which meant a 2% OTO cut which represents almost $110.000 for us. We may have to struggle one or two more years,
if the economic picture remains the same. No decisions have been made. We are part of the planning exercise and are
trying to minimize the effects. All divisions at the college are trying to maintain program quality and are being asked to
look at priorities.
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Achievement of students will be recognized at the annual awards dinner which will also be an opportunity to thank our
donors.
Report of the Registrar
The report of the Registrar is appended to these minutes.
Additional reports as follows:
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THE500: Yvette Ali reported on the review of the course completed last year by the Office of Teaching Advancement
which has resulted in the course being refreshed with higher expectations in place. We require students to have some
experience and some training in teaching in order to enroll in the course. The enrollment in the course is down by design
because we have changed the focus of the course. There was no course offered this fall but there will be a section
offered this summer.
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Appendix E: Bill Bateman reported that enrollment is up for WDW courses. There is currently a larger portion of second
year students enrolled in the programs therefore those courses have increased numbers.
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Appendix G. Yvette Ali reported on the Summer Abroad enrollments. Because of the economic situation expects that the
numbers will be down this summer with the exception of Hong Kong.
Questions:
Jack Chambers asked as to the reason for the drop in overall WDW admission numbers.
Answer: the strategy has been to not take in as many non-degree students as they have low priority on ROSI to get into
courses. It has been a policy of A&S to reduce theses numbers. As well, WDW took in 12.5% of applicant pool this year
and the p/t degree numbers are dropping and with ABP numbers down that will affect the roll-over.
Frank Reid asked if the drop in numbers had to do with the double cohort now moving out.
Answer: yes that would account for some of the drop in numbers.
Cheryl asked if there are any specific destinations that Yvette is worried about.
Yvette stated that there may be a concern about the newer programs such as Kenya and Shanghai
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 5:25 p.m.
Next meeting:
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
4:30 p.m.