Senate Highlights – February 11, 2019

Following each meeting of the Dalhousie University Senate, Dal News highlights some of the presentations and decisions made.

Senate is the university’s senior academic governing body, with membership consisting of elected and appointed faculty and student representatives and senior academic administrators who serve ex officio. Senate is responsible for approving new programs; granting degrees/diplomas; managing the reviews of Faculties, centres and institutes; and setting academic regulations and the academic calendar.

Senate meets on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, from September through June. Learn more about Senate and its business at the Senate website.

Student Success Strategy

Susan Spence, Dal’s vice-provost of planning and analytics, highlighted the university’s work in creating an integrated student-success strategy that will allow for better planning and management of the entire student learning journey from admittance to graduation and beyond. The strategy is conceptualized in four hubs: access and admissions (pathway programs, marketing and recruitment, scholarships and bursaries); academic achievement (student education, retention, academic innovation, advising model); ambition and achievement (articulation of ambition, career advising, work-integrated learning, alumni relationships); and life-long learning with Dal (degree completion, future education with Dal).

Spence walked through some of the work done over the past 18 months on the strategy, which has given a much better understanding of the choices students make; how to better market to prospective students; and the need to be strategic in terms of financial aid and scholarship awards. It has also illuminated factors that influence retention, and examples of implementing student-centred support systems. “Most vital to student success is our academic programs. It’s what happens in our learning environments and what supports that in terms of teaching excellence,” she said. “Along the way, it’s about the student experience that they have, adding important components increasingly such as work-integrated learning and other student success supports."

University ranking

Spence also provided an update on Dal's approach to international university rankings. She said the university uses rankings as a lens through which excellence in higher education is defined and influenced and that rankings provide greater recognition of excellence for a world-class, research intensive university. With that in mind, she said the university undertook a detailed analysis of rankings from over five years of participation to identify factors in the rankings that could in fact be influenced and support that excellence and growth in the university. “Our objectives were to take a look at where we could affect the greatest change in rankings, considering both cost and effort, and most important to integrate any learnings that we receive on rankings that we apply those to specific priorities in terms of supporting our academic mission," she said.

While the analysis showed a decline in overall rank in recent years and a lag against peers in reputation surveys, it also showed that performance in quantitative areas of the Times Higher Education (one of the most prestigious rankings) scoring is comparable with Top 200 placed universities and other members of the U15 and that Dal is consistently noted as an "effective publisher." Using the information, Dal found nine factors that could influence placement, including four with the greatest potential to impact rankings — international collaborations (particularly papers authored with international collaborators from top 200 universities to deliver greater citation impact), number of PhD students at Dal, research productivity and research funding. Spence said Dal will look to integrate the analysis and findings into actions in support of key strategic priorities, including Dal’s current research and innovation strategy.

Steps to Make Diversity and Inclusion a Reality

Nursing professor Margot Latimer shared a video showcasing a course on cultural safety in Indigenous health. Dr. Latimer helped develop the course along with John R. Syliiboy, an Indigenous curriculum developer from Millbrook First Nation. The course was funded by Dal’s Academic Innovation Grant and offered to students in the Faculties of Dentistry, Health and Medicine and in partnership with the interprofessional health educators from each of those disciplines. It was created to help Dal address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action when it comes to meeting the needs of Indigenous peoples, including cultural competency training for all health-care professionals and a commitment that all medical and nursing schools in Canada require all students to take course dealing with health issues, history, the legacy of residential schools, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, treaties and Aboriginal rights and Indigenous teachings and practices.

The course itself was informed and led by Indigenous community members and scholars such as Amy Bombay from the School of Nursing. Understanding the true root causes of health and social inequities we see in Aboriginal communities today is the first step to addressing them, said Dr. Bombay in the video. A successful pilot of the course in 2018 that reached 269 students has paved the way for continued course development and plans to potentially expand it to other schools and departments.

On Track Program

Anne Forrestall, assistant vice provost of student affairs, updated Senators about the success of On Track — a suite of programs aimed at assisting students' transition in, through and out of first year and beyond. Focused on helping students identify and develop strengths, On Track is designed to help students make the most of their academic and co-curricular experiences. The award-winning programming, offered through Dal's Bissett Student Success Centre, follows the student life cycle with a series of tracks (Register on Track, Start on Track, Stay on Track, Career on Track and Back on Track) that cover topics of relevance to students in each different stage.

Forestall explained that 75.8 per cent of students enrolled in the program in 2018 achieved better grades after completing the program. She also noted the 85 per cent retention rate for those who completed as opposed to 69 per cent for those who were eligible but did not participate. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in particular, had a 91 per cent retention rate for participants compared to 62 per cent who didn’t participate. “I think the consideration is that if we know something is working, what is it we can do to maximize that," said Forestall.

Provost Report

Teri Balser, Dal's provost and vice-president academic, spoke to Senators about her first 100 days in the role. She said she has been attending events, forums, discussions and meetings around campus to get a "sense of what's on people's minds" and is entering the planning phase to help figure out ways she can help faculty, students, staff and programs be successful.

Dr. Balser also provided notes on a series of recent initiatives and news. She said the university has teamed up with the Dalhousie Student Union to join Presidents United — a coalition of 100 universities around the world working on a collective mission to end hunger and poverty and make food nutrition a priority on campuses. She noted the recent launch of the Belong Research Fellowship Awards, which were established to further support our strategic plan in terms of research and commitment to increasing diversity and gender equity. She said work has finished on a new academic leadership certificate to build internal leadership capacity. She also drew attention to a series of initiatives related to equity, diversity and inclusiveness (EDI) at Dal and said input from recent Dal budget forums was being considered as the university's Budget Advisory Committee prepares to deliver its recommendations.